Do What Thou Wilt: A Life of Aleister Crowley

by Lawrence Sutin

Book Overview

Aleister Crowley was a blustery coward, an arrogant, misogynistic racist with fascist leanings, and a callous user, as often threatened by his sexuality as he claimed to be liberated by it. But he was... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0312252439
• ISBN13: 9780312252434
• Release Date: September 2000
• Publisher: St. Martin's Press
• Length: 483 Pages
• Weight: 1.80 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.4" x 6.6" x 9.6"

Customer Reviews

Phenomenal biography of a very tricky subject

If you've never read ANYTHING about Crowley (I hadn't), this is the place to start. This biography leaves out no detail, no matter how small. This book puts Crowley under a microscope with unstinting clarity that is completely balanced - the biographer gives Crowley credit where credit is due but never tries to whitewash the mess that the man made of his life (and of other's lives). Crowley's innovations are not easy ones to understand, and his impact is complex. Mr. Sutin gets it just right. If you're the type of person who wants a biography that draws the big picture by supplying all the minute details (journal entries, letters, receipts, financial records, decorating schemes, sexual partners, travel plans, etc), this is the Crowley book for you. Really, my only complaint is that there weren't more photos. However, for all I know, there are few existing photos, given the time in which Crowley lived. This book inspired me to read more by and about Crowley, which is the best praise a biography can be given.

A real life look at the Prophet of the new aeon.

Sutin has written the best biography of Aleister Crowley ever written. That being said, don't expect a glowing, praise filled, "Uncle Al is a God" type biography. You won't get it and it's a good thing you won't because AC was nothing like that. Sutin approaches Crowley's life as a biographer, not a follower. That's what makes the book so good. Crowley's life was one long mess, mostly of his own making, and Sutin doesn't leave out a thing. After reading "Do What Thou Wilt" you will find yourself questioning everything you ever thought you knew about Aleister Crowley. However, you will also recognize the genius of the man, his wit, his wisdom, and penny-anti carnival shyster antics that made him both the scourge of the Victorian era, and the broken down, drug addicted, lonely old man in Post WWII England.Crowley had moments of Divine inspiration and moments of madness. Unfortunately, Crowley often couldn't tell the difference between the two.

Enthralling Perspective of the life of Aleister Crowley

This is an Enthralling Perspective of the life of Aleister Crowley.... "the rest of the story." "Do What Thou Wilt" fills-in numerous gaps in Crowley's own writings and maintains an open perspective until the last few chapters. This is good balancing material to add to a Crowley research library.Throughout most of the book, the author seems to have an (almost) non-judgmental perspective--giving us a "here's the facts" biography. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and could not put it down. It was very nice to read-about all the things Crowley sort-of Glossed-over in his own works. Also, I found it interesting that the author began the book with a list of Crowley's accomplishments that would have been well-recognized, if not for his "Beastly" reputation and eccentric (self-destructive / self-defeating) behavior. The author had access to a wealth of information, including access to individuals in the O.T.O.I felt that the author maintained his mostly non-judgmental view until the last few chapters--when it becomes evident that the author had pretty-much written Crowley off as a "Dirty Old Man"--a sad case of Self-deception and a delusory drug addict.However, unlike most of the biographical material I have read about Crowley, this book tries very hard to show the positive achievements of "The Beast" as well as the more scandalous aspects of the man. Yet, it is very difficult to perceive Crowley in a positive light, when the Misogynistic (wife-beating) scenarios are brought to light--which, if true, obviously makes Crowley a criminal worthy of little respect.Over-all, the book is quite impressive and it seems to give a more-or-less positive outlook on Crowley's life, although it does tend to dispel illusions of Crowley's grandeur and "Prophet" status. However, this book also leaves one with the impression that Crowley did, in fact, follow the "Do What Thou Wilt" philosophy to the utmost.... The man never had to work an honest day's labor, yet always had enough money or duped enough people into taking care of him, and he *Always* had plenty of sex, women, men, etc. to keep himself "happy" in that department.I was a bit disappointed that this author doesn't really cover the Occult aspects of Crowley's life very well....he mostly seems to concentrate on Crowley's disreputable behavior, abusive relationships, and the more Tabloid aspects of his life....and seems to gloss-over the details of the writing of "The Equinox" (a 5 year project, skimmed-over in this biography) --I would have enjoyed a detailed break-down of the formation of that work and the people involved. The author sort-of skips-over Crowley's connections with Blavatsky, with minor references.Although this is an amazing, and well-written, biography of Crowley, one is left with the impression: "So....when did he do Occult stuff ?" (the Occult workings almost seem mere footnotes). This book details his "Book of The Law" workings and the related occult workings, but one gets the impress

After Fifty Years of Waiting, a Fair Assessment of Aleister

How many people imagined, I wonder, huddled together in the dismal damp of the British crematorium in which Aleister Crowley's bodily remains were cremated, that the significance of Aleister Crowley's literary and spiritual legacy would still be being debated more than half a century after his death in 1947? He died, bankrupt, disreputable, ostracized and virtually friendless, a prematurely aged asthmatic heroin addict. The lesser of his spiritual organizations, the Ordo Templi Orientis, fell apart after his death (his major organization, the A.'.A.'., had fallen apart decades earlier). Since John Symonds, Crowley's literary executor, tried to complete the job of the tabloids by completing vilifying his subject in a series of brilliantly researched but abjectly bigoted revised biographies, culminating in the now hard to find *King of the Shadow Realms," we have been waiting for a biography which actually does what a biography is supposed to do: understand its subject. Our wait has not been in vain. Lawrence Sutin's biography, *Do What Thou Wilt*, somewhat tediously titled, perhaps, is nevertheless an accurate, insightful, and well-researched expose of a complex and brilliant man whose contribution to the contemporary counterculture cannot be underestimated. Only Sutin's account rivals the meticulous factual research of John Symonds, but, unlike Symonds, Sutin looks at both sides of Aleister Crowley, and actually seeks to communicate, so far as possible in a biographical rather than an intellectual study, the meaning of Crowley's message without ignoring or understating the complexities of the man himself. Whereas John Symonds pompously declares that Aleister Crowley was merely a psychotic, thus begging the question of why he has written so profusely about him and published several editions of his most important works, Sutin takes his subject seriously and in the process provides numerous original insights and new factual information concerning Crowley's life which makes *Do What Thou Wilt* an invaluable addition to the Crowley legacy.

A First!

If you are looking for a book to reinforce your beliefs about Crowley as a Beast or as a Saint, don't read this book. This is the first apparently unbiased biography of Crowley. Yet the author has done extensive and exhaustive research, examining Crowley as a man who had an enormous impact on modern culture, like it or not. It shows the heroic and superhuman side of Crowley as well as the depraved and self-hating side, even-handedly, without exaggeration or sensationalism. The book is beautifully written in general.This is a mainstream biography, and I feel it will open the gate to further discovery and analysis by mainstream culture. It is remarkable that such a man as Crowley until now had no biography which was ever filed in the biography section.