For starters, if you don’t know who Crowley was (no, not the Supernatural dude), he was a 1900s occultist who coined a portion of what modern witchcraft uses today, such as the word “magick” which he, although did not ‘invent’, popularised. (you’ll learn why I denounce that term and try to educate people who use it in a second). He was, in a nutshell, everything modern society hates. Racist, antisemitic, sexist, you name it and Crowley was it.
Crowley wrote several books about the occult, some of them having slightly useful information and still are referenced today, but his occult books are not what I intend to talk about. Little known to most, Crowley wrote an essay entitled “The Jewish Problem”, that title is enough of a disgrace, but what is actually IN the writing is atrocious, which I will be going over in a second. In other writing, he refers to Jewish people as “parasites”, “a barbarous race”, talks about how Jewish people are their bad stereotypes, among other things. This article does a wonderful job of compiling some of his worst quotes and explaining how racist he really is, as well as explaining some of the undertones of the quotes.
“Christians and other troglodytes — but most especially the parasites of man, the Jews (The New Comment on Liber AL, III:11)“
“the Jews were an entirely barbarous race, incapable of any spiritual pursuit. (preface to 777, printed in The Equinox, Vol. 1, No. 8)”
“A similar case is presented by the Jew, who really does only too often possess the bad qualities for which he is disliked (Confessions, chapter 54)“
“But in America, the Christian elements have been removed so that wealthy Jews may reach the summit of masonry. (Confessions, chapter 72)“
“It has been said that every nation has the government which it deserves. I would add, the type of Jew which it deserves. (Confessions, chapter 61)“
“the Jews are a critically important factor in the social and economic problems of the day (Confessions, chapter 75)“
Anyway, he also used to throw slurs at his Jewish friend Victor Neuburg and admitted to being interested in fascism multiple times.
As for quotes from The Jewish Problem:
“Israel has corrupted the world, whether by conquest, by conversion, or by conspiracy. The Jew has eaten his way into everything.”
“The Jew, living so long on sufferance, by subterfuge, servility, and self-effacement, has taught his tricks to the whole world.“
And many, many, many more.
Some of his comments on other groups of people:
About Chinese people: “One cannot fraternize with the Chinese of the lower classes; one must treat them with absolute contempt and callousness“ / “The Chinese does not respect the white man as the Indian does — for his possession of high moral qualities.“
About Mexican people: “Neither the coyotes nor the turkey-buzzards will touch a dead Mexican. His flesh has been too thoroughly impregnated with chillies and other pungent condiments.”
About black people: “Where Islam and Christianity meet in open competition, as in some parts of Africa, it is found that only the lowest type of Negro, such as is accustomed to arrange matters with conscience by hanging a rag on a piece of stick, accepts Christianity”
About Indian people: “I am not fond of Benaglis at the best and he as the worst specimen of his race I have ever seen. He was fat and oily, with small piglike treacherous eyes.”
Crowley also heavily used the term “black magic” in reference to the “dark art” types of witchcraft, this term is now considered racist by a good portion of the community. Not to mention he was also a regular user of the N slur! I’m talking hard-R.
He was also heavily misogynistic and sexist, as if the dude wasn’t enough of a crapshoot. Here is a list of all the gross, sexist things he’s said!
I never much liked the usage of magic with a K to start with, but I’ve been learning more and more about AC as time has passed, I’ve started denouncing it entirely and educating people about it’s connections to him as best as I can, most people have no idea how awful he is. It’s scary to think that someone so despicable is still heavily referenced and worshiped in the Occult community, so I wanted to finally make this post. I am asked a lot about it and why I hate the term “magick” so much, now you all know. I hope you will consider using the terms witchcraft, or even just magic rather than adding the K at the end, because we all know what the K stands for now, and who it represents. This is not even the beginning of how awful he was, there is so much more that can be dug up. I encourage you to do it, research him and understand how absolutely terrible he was. Please.
Thank you for coming to my TED Talk.
Special thanks to @alistaires
