The Wickedest Man in the World
Aleister Crowley has earned many names—the Beast, Baphomet, The Wickedest Man in the World—and embraced all of them. This week we explore Victorian ritual magic, occult societies, and the modern culture wars.
Researched, written, and produced by Corinne Wieben, with the voice talents of Gregg Adams and Randy Wylde and original music by Purple Planet.
Music
Purple Planet - Ethereal Eternity
Purple Planet - Cobwebbed
Frédéric Chopin - Waltz in C sharp minor, Op. 64 no. 2 - performed by Olga Gurevich
Purple Planet - Deep Space Exploration
Purple Planet - Daybreak
Purple Planet - Sense of Loss
Purple Planet - Shadowlands
Sources
Primary
Aleister Crowley Collection at the Harry Ransom Center.
Crowley, Aleister. The Confessions of Aleister Crowley: An Autohagiography. New York: Bantam Books, 1971.
Secondary
Booth, Martin. A Magick Life: The Biography of Aleister Crowley. London: Coronet Books, 2000.
Brown, J. F. “Aleister Crowley's ‘Rites of Eleusis.’” The Drama Review 22. No. 2 (Jun., 1978): 3-2
Butler, Alison. Victorian Occultism and the Making of Modern Magic: Invoking Tradition. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011.
Josephson-Storm, Jason. The Myth of Disenchantment: Magic, Modernity, and the Birth of the Human Sciences. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2017.
Kaczynski, Richard. Perdurabo: The Life of Aleister Crowley. Berkeley, California: North Atlantic Books, 2010.
Owen, Alex. “The Sorcerer and His Apprentice: Aleister Crowley and the Magical Exploration of Edwardian Subjectivity.” Journal of British Studies 36. No. 1 (Jan., 1997): 99-133.
Sutin, Lawrence. Do What Thou Wilt: A Life of Aleister Crowley. New York: St. Martins Press, 2000.
Urban, Hugh B. “The Beast with Two Backs: Aleister Crowley, Sex Magic and the Exhaustion of Modernity.” Nova Religio: The Journal of Alternative and Emergent Religions 7. No. 3 (March 2004): 7-25.
