Crowley just turned 150! Congratulations, you great beast! To celebrate, here’s Bill Heidrick’s excellent epistemology of Crowley sources: ”Before going further, an important point needs to be made. Thelema is not Crowley. Crowley is not Thelema. Some of our readers may have a sole interest in the purely literary side of Crowley’s writings, but many share the Thelemic Religion. For the latter, some of what follows may seem to be skirt blasphemy. I offer the following contention: Whatever is sacred in Liber AL specifically or in Thelema generally is independent of Crowley the man. The earlier influences on Crowley, or earlier appearances of the same words and ideas elsewhere, are not in any way relevant to the sacredness of the text. Why was Crowley chosen to be the prophet of Thelema? A simple answer – he was prepared. Crowley was prepared by exposure to the words, ideas and language necessary to receive Liber AL, just as were the prophets of past time prepared to...
