Gary Lachman is the author of twenty-one books on topics ranging from the evolution of consciousness to literary suicides, popular culture and the history of the occult. He has written a rock and roll memoir of the 1970s, biographies of Aleister Crowley, Rudolf Steiner, C. G. Jung, Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, Emanuel Swedenborg, P. D. Ouspensky, and Colin Wilson, histories of Hermeticism and the Western Inner Tradition, studies in existentialism and the philosophy of consciousness, and about the influence of esotericism on politics and society.
Here he explains how, at the age of 11 following the death of his father, Aleister Crowley decided to turn toward a path of darkness. He rebelled against his rigid upbringing in the Plymouth Brethren community. This wide-ranging discussion focuses on Crowley’s activities with the Order of the Golden Dawn and his later involvement with sexual magick and the O.T.O.; his writings on the philosophy, psychology, and ritual details of magick; and also his impact on rock and roll, film, literature, and contemporary esoteric culture.
(Recorded on February 6, 2018)
Published on February 9, 2019