Perdurabo - The Life Of Aleister Crowley

Perdurabo - The Life of Aleister Crowley by acclaimed author Dr Richard Kaczynski Interviewed By Ian Broadmore for The Gentleman Medium Podcast Ian & Richard discuss AC and L Ron Hubbard founder of Scientology, H Spencer Lewis founder of Amorc, Martinism, Papus, Gerald Gardner founder of modern Witchcraft and much more!.. Perdurabo traces Aleister Crowley’s remarkable journey from his birth as the only son of a wealthy lay preacher to his death in a boarding house as the world’s foremost authority on Magick. Along the way, he rebels against his conservative religious upbringing; befriends famous artists, writers, and philosophers (and becomes a poet himself); is attacked for his practice of “the black arts”; and teaches that science and Magick can work together. A tireless magician, prophet, poet, and adventurer, Crowley has inspired generations of social and spiritual truth-seekers and has shaped modern popular culture through his philosophy of “Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law,” making him one of the most colourful and fascinating characters of the twentieth century. Taking an even-handed and accessible approach to an extremely controversial figure, author Richard Kaczynski draws from his extensive academic and personal expertise with the subject matter, including over twenty years of research, to present Crowley’s story in a way that is unmatched by any other biographer. An illuminating and memorable biography of the man who inspired the counterculture and influenced generations of artists, punks, wiccans, and other denizens of the demimonde. Richard Kaczynski’s Perdurabo: The Life of Aleister Crowley is a meticulously researched biography of a person whose reputation has been distorted by a long-perpetuated tradition of slanders, rumours, and misinformation. In this revised version of a book that has already achieved the status of a classic, Crowley emerges as a complex, controversial, troubled, and even tragic figure, which is to be expected of somebody who has consistently and with a gusto challenged contemporary conventions and prejudices. What Kaczynski makes clear, however, is that the driving force behind Crowley’s life and thought is not a sinister perversion of a ‘Satanist’ – a gross but still common misconception – but an attempt to live in accordance with the religious and philosophical tenets of Thelema, of which Crowley believed himself to be the Prophet. The book also provides a wealth of material related to Crowley’s very wide and typically artistic and bohemian social circle. Crowley will probably remain a controversial figure for many, but the readers of Perdurabo will be in a position to assess his life and work based on evidence, and Kaczynski should be congratulated for providing it in abundance.” —Gordan Djurdjevic, Sessional Lecturer, Simon Fraser University, and author of Masters of Magical Powers: The Nāth Yogis in the Light of Esoteric Notions