Occultist Aleister Crowley expelled from France...
Item # 726341
April 17, 1929
THE NEW YORK TIMES, April 17, 1929
* English occultist Aleister Crowley
* "The Wickedest Man in the World"
* Practiced the religion of "Thelema"
* "Black Magik" - "The Beast 666"
* Expulsion from the country of France
Page 17 has a somewhat discrete but exetremely rare report re. Aleister Crowley with a one column heading: "Paris To Expel A. Crowley" with subhead: "Order Against 'Black Majic Authority' Becomes Effective Today" (see images)
Aleister Crowley was the inspiration of a famous Ozzy Osbourne song titled: "Mr. Crowley"
I suspect this to be an extremely rare item because there was really no reason to save it at the time.
Also on the same page is a report on Babe Ruth getting married to Claire Hodgson on this very day.
Complete with all 56 pages, light toning at the margins, a little spine wear, generally in nice condition.
Background: In April 1929, the French government officially terminated Aleister Crowley’s five-year residency in Paris by issuing a refus de séjour, a formal expulsion order that granted the occultist a mere 24 hours to vacate the country. This move was the culmination of a mounting moral and political panic; Crowley had already been branded "The Wickedest Man in the World" by the British press, and his 1923 expulsion from Mussolini’s Italy for the death of a student at the Abbey of Thelema had made him a pariah across Europe. While the official justification remained vague—often cited under the broad umbrella of being an "undesirable alien"—the reality was a blend of his notorious reputation for heroin addiction, his allegedly "subversive" Thelemic rituals, and lingering, albeit unproven, suspicions that he had acted as a German agent during the Great War. Despite being bedridden with severe asthma at the time, Crowley was forced to relocate to England, leaving behind his circle of bohemian intellectuals and the French "lost generation." The event effectively marked the end of his attempt to establish a permanent continental base for his magical order, forcing him into a period of nomadic instability and financial decline in London, even as he published his magnum opus, Magick in Theory and Practice, that same year.
* English occultist Aleister Crowley
* "The Wickedest Man in the World"
* Practiced the religion of "Thelema"
* "Black Magik" - "The Beast 666"
* Expulsion from the country of France
Page 17 has a somewhat discrete but exetremely rare report re. Aleister Crowley with a one column heading: "Paris To Expel A. Crowley" with subhead: "Order Against 'Black Majic Authority' Becomes Effective Today" (see images)
Aleister Crowley was the inspiration of a famous Ozzy Osbourne song titled: "Mr. Crowley"
I suspect this to be an extremely rare item because there was really no reason to save it at the time.
Also on the same page is a report on Babe Ruth getting married to Claire Hodgson on this very day.
Complete with all 56 pages, light toning at the margins, a little spine wear, generally in nice condition.
Background: In April 1929, the French government officially terminated Aleister Crowley’s five-year residency in Paris by issuing a refus de séjour, a formal expulsion order that granted the occultist a mere 24 hours to vacate the country. This move was the culmination of a mounting moral and political panic; Crowley had already been branded "The Wickedest Man in the World" by the British press, and his 1923 expulsion from Mussolini’s Italy for the death of a student at the Abbey of Thelema had made him a pariah across Europe. While the official justification remained vague—often cited under the broad umbrella of being an "undesirable alien"—the reality was a blend of his notorious reputation for heroin addiction, his allegedly "subversive" Thelemic rituals, and lingering, albeit unproven, suspicions that he had acted as a German agent during the Great War. Despite being bedridden with severe asthma at the time, Crowley was forced to relocate to England, leaving behind his circle of bohemian intellectuals and the French "lost generation." The event effectively marked the end of his attempt to establish a permanent continental base for his magical order, forcing him into a period of nomadic instability and financial decline in London, even as he published his magnum opus, Magick in Theory and Practice, that same year.
Category: The 20th Century
