Aleister Crowley in America

by Tobias Churton

  PHILADELPHIA: CITY OF BROTHERLY LOVE

  Despite impressing those who witnessed invocations of Hermes at his makeshift temple (we don’t know if he acquired a full team of eight participants),9 the long series of thrice-daily invocations ceased with Crowley’s departure for Philadelphia after March 10. In his Confessions he said that his week’s trip there was to see for himself the “great” evangelist Billy Sunday (1862–1935). Stories abounded of the wonders wrought by Billy’s Bible-literalist rhetoric, and Crowley wished to see for himself what all the fuss was about. In January, for example, a reported fifty thousand had stormed Billy’s Philadelphia “tabernacle,” causing a riot of injury and dam-age when the crowd realized there was no room for them inside.

  According to Gerald Yorke, Crowley’s essay “Billy Sunday” appeared in Viereck’s more up-market magazine the International in October.

  Crowley found the “common Bible-banger of the first class” in a wooden tabernacle; 15,000 were on their way out, and 15,000 more had amassed to go in. Crowley left the crowd, had lunch, then came back when the queue had gone. He then observed the star in full flight on the subject of Naaman the leper. Having experienced many “revivals” in his child-hood, he noted how “it is not the preacher, but the crowd that makes the hysteria.” He’d seen his own father, preacher Edward Crowley, get more “conversions” with less effort and not a word in the papers.

  “Billy Sunday is three parts yellow journal fake,” Crowley concluded, putting Sunday’s success to the fact that you couldn’t get a drink in Philadelphia between Saturday and Monday, and (Billy) Sunday, who supported prohibition, was the only excitement in town, other than to get drunk privately. And Sunday’s magic? Billy moved like the baseball player he was—acting out his words with physical movements—and told jokes in the manner of the taproom to salt up the usual message. Women were instructed to draw their knees together. “The gates of hell are closed,” intoned Billy, getting a laugh, and more cash for the cause, whatever it was.

  John D. Rockefeller recognized that Billy could reach the masses like no ordinary established pastor and so make America righteous, sober-dry, and hardworking, the workers’ souls safe in the arms of the Lord, the dollars and cents in the bank. Billy preached to an estimated hundred million people during his long career. You would think that sufficient to save the world good and proper.

  In 1915 in Philadelphia alone, 41,724 “trail hitters” came forward to be personally saved by Jesus Christ through the call, and handshake, of media star Billy Sunday.10 They were called trail hitters because they hit the “saw-dust trail.” They had gone forward, swept into the collective dream. The tabernacles Sunday preached in were strewn with sawdust to absorb dust and who knows what else and could be swept out after so many sessions, leaving the halls sweet-smelling, for the aroma of men’s and women’s and children’s bodies crammed together must have been something else. It’s odd that Crowley did not mention that in his article.

  With the basic realization of failure as regards his extensive Hermes invocations, one gets a sense of Crowley looking for something to grab hold of, a compass or anchor, especially as the pressure of his voluntary position hit home, as it must have done, daily, with constant references in his sex-magick record to failed business ventures, broken promises, and “pole-axing” of plans and expectations. Perhaps he had gone to Philadelphia looking for something deep down that his father had dispensed in his childhood: the security of absolute salvation and sealed conviction. Crowley’s paternal family members were mostly Quakers, and Philadelphia was the “Quaker City,” full of God-fearing moneymakers. He worked very hard; was he missing something? His great magical caducaeus to rule New York had proved a bit of a wet stick, while Billy Sunday packed them in. Crowley, to give him credit, went to see and to listen. He was not convinced; he recognized too clearly the contrived performance, and a fundamental insincerity in much of the interest. Crowley knew how easy it was to form a cult with “a gallon of gas” and “to cry a crusade with Deus Vult,” and give ’em what-they-want, those “empty-headed Athenians.”11 He knew there was spiritual dynamite hidden away in teaching attributed to Jesus, but doubted whether Billy had really got to the nub of it. Crowley would give the matter a great deal of high-octane thought the following year, but for the time being, where might the sinner seek his true path?

  Judging from the Fatherland’s contents, Crowley wasn’t getting anywhere with his desire to undermine its rational approach to propaganda. On March 17, Münsterberg’s article “How Fears and Prejudices Alter People’s Views” argued with sweet reason that Allied whipping up of fears regarding alleged evils perpetrated by Germans was simply a psychological ploy that one could get out of by recognizing the psychological nature of the appeal to fear. He was saying that the views of people hostile to Germany were not truly their own; they had been “got at,” and a bit of German rationalism and solid science could restore sanity. Germans were ahead of the game and doing right in the cause of civilization. Crowley stated after the war that he tried to get at Münsterberg himself through the psycho-logical avenue of agreeing with Münsterberg while pushing him that bit further so that changes of position appeared to Münsterberg as the workings of his own brilliance. Such a turn was not yet in evidence.

  Crowley decided to focus his own inner life on the getting of “Wisdom.” Inspired by the Bible’s second book of Chronicles 1:7–13, where Solomon wisely chose wisdom to govern aright and was rewarded in turn by God with all that, female companionship, and riches too, Crowley performed sex magick with Lea Dewey, Opus XLI for “Wisdom.” He doubtless recalled that in the Greek Septuagint version of Hebrew scripture the Hebrew hokmah (wisdom) was translated by the Greek word sophia (feminine) and interpreted by Jewish philosopher Philo of Alexandria (a contemporary of Jesus) as equivalent to the Stoic logos (the “Word,” masculine), and the Logos-Lord of Crowley’s life was transmittable erotically. Again, the Bible pointed the way. The Song of Songs, or Song of Solomon, celebrated the physical love of the king and his lover as a joyous sacrament of logos and believing community. As Blake had shown, the vagina was only the “gate of hell”—as Billy Sunday would have it—to the filthyminded profane who brought their hell with them, unenlightened to the glories of Divine Wisdom, the helpful whore of the books of Proverbs and “Wisdom of Solomon.”12

  Crowley had been “bushed” before the operation with Lea, but after an hour and three quarters of magick, “fatigue fell suddenly on the Alchemist.” He’d been working for a full eighteen hours on the astrological treatise for the Evangeline Adams book project, with an unnamed “artificial stimulant” to assist the good work. He was still at it in August—the treatise, that is.13 As for the stimulus, it was probably cocaine. A fragment of narrative from the period titled “In Search with Doris Gomez for Cocaine in New York” is revealing about little-known aspects of New York at the time. Where did you purchase cocaine in New York after the 1914 Harrison Narcotic Act began to be enforced in 1915? Fearless Crowley and streetwise Doris were on the case.

  Not slightest idea where to go except general feeling that negroes would be best chance, and she with a very just apprehension of manhood decided to try first of all to go outside a negro church at end of service, pick out the most respectable looking of the elders and put it straight to him. I am not quite sure whether it spoils the story or not, but the first cast landed a perfectly good trout.

  After receiving directions, the dealer transpired to be a lift boy in an apartment block.

  “There ain’t but 15 floors in this joint”—that meant a dozen decks [of cocaine] would cost $15. Your informant having quoted nine dollars as the price, you would say you’d made a mistake and wanted the 9th floor. The boy would reply that the gate was out of order but he would land you at the 12th and you could walk down, meaning you could have it for 12 dollars.14

  Despite this outing, Crowley’s main quest at the time was for wisdom. It’s unlikely that cocaine helped there, whereas th
e sexual magick undertaken for wisdom’s blessings proved positive. Crowley found himself more tactful; things seemed to be going better. He even wrote a play around this time called The Savior, on the theme of the folly and false expectations of people expecting a messianic solution through politics or obvious world events. Three years later, the play had trouble passing legal scrutiny as it was considered dangerously analogous to contemporary Washington politics! The legal protest showed “how dire a reign of terror had been established by the megalomaniac in the White House and his brutal and thick-headed bravo, Burleson,”*94 as Crowley described the postmaster general.15

  Crowley’s intuition that he attend to wisdom was intensified after a joyous cunnilingual opus on March 31 initiated a month of regular operations with Doris Gomez. “I am getting very strongly the feeling that Solomon was right magically as well as merely tactful; that one ought to concentrate on the grade, and let health, wealth, and happiness follow if they will.”16 The grade was that of Magus: he with the “Word” to initiate a new aeon in spiritual consciousness.

  That same day, the Fatherland’s cover story announced Revolution in India, alleging the jewel in the British Empire’s crown was set to explode in revolt. It was German policy to assist activists in this regard, as it was to stir rebels against Britain in Ireland or elsewhere. And “else-where” included America.

  On April 3, blond-haired, blue-eyed German agent Captain Franz Rintelen von Kleist arrived in New York as Swiss-born “Emil Victor Gasche.” As such you can find him in Ellis Island Passenger Records to this day. The entry states that Gasche came from Berlin via Bergen, Norway, where he boarded the Kristianiafjord on March 25, giving his occupation as “merchant” and his destination New York’s Waldorf-Astoria. Dispatched by Abteilung IIIb (German military intelligence) Gasche took money from Dr. Heinrich Albert’s treasury.17 Albert’s accounts included a dummy armaments firm, as well as the Fatherland. The armaments firm would be revealed in New York’s Evening World exposure of Albert in August. Von Kleist employed front organization “Labor’s National Peace Council” to recruit radicals to instigate strikes and to force an arms embargo, activities that underline Germany’s big propaganda task was to do everything possible to keep the United States strictly neutral. As we shall see, Gasche’s fuse was short.

  Fig. 15.2. Franz von Rintelen, German spy and saboteur

  While the Fatherland waxed in outrage and indignance at Britain and America, working itself toward a crescendo, Crowley experienced a new inner calm, thanks in part to Doris’s accommodating demeanor. On April 8, having been—for Wisdom’s sake—in “the hand of the mistress, whose cunt I had loved with my mouth” at past three in the morning, Crowley observed as a result, “Certainly I have been acting sensibly (for the first time in my life) ever since.” He had been seated in siddhasana—that is, the adept’s famous yogic posture—for the three-hour operation. “The orgasm was splendid; the Elixir abundant and full of Prana.” He was trying to do things right, coming to see through a series of operations for inspiration and business success (the latter vain) that “where two parties are concerned, their passion is the most important feature in making the Elixir viable. The mental control merely directs this into the desired channels.”18

  THE LUSITANIA

  MISLEADING SHIPPING STATISTICS—a headline dominating page 4 of the May 5 edition of Fatherland attempted to highlight “how England tries to cover up her losses by Submarines.” This would not necessarily go down well with noncommitted readers as it simply emphasized how much death and destruction German submarines caused. Crowley may have had a hand in the thinking behind this one. He claimed to have subjected German propagandists to his “reading of American psychology,” which indicated that Americans would be cowed by ruthless strength determinedly and pitilessly expressed. The Germans concerned apparently respected Crowley’s intellect where the mind’s inner workings were concerned. He had a way with crisp rationalizations that appeared logical and superior, and which gave his advice trajectory and accuracy. The German weakness, Crowley surmised, was excessive pride in their intellects. They had to be recht at all times. In Crowley’s postwar, unpublished (at the time) apologia “The Last Straw” he claimed that he got his point about “American psychology” over to von Bernstorff, Münsterberg, von Papen, Boy-Ed, and other parties to the point of influencing a recommendation to Berlin concerning the validity of an act or acts of unequivocal force to shake Wilson into strict neutrality with public quiescence. The “hostility” involved in America’s permitting shipping of arms and ammunition to the Allies from American ports was now a principal rapid-fire theme of the Fatherland, whose tone had become noticeably fiercer.

  Sitting in his office at 17 Battery Place, a short cab ride from the Fatherland offices at 1123 Broadway, director of the Booth Steamship Company Mr. Paul Crompton, having decided to return to Great Britain, booked tickets through the Booth Line office for himself; wife, Gladys; four sons; two daughters; and children’s governess, twenty-eight-year-old Dorothy Ditman Allen of Frankford, Philadelphia.

  Departure date: May 1, 1915.

  Fig. 15.3. Dorothy Ditman Allen, victim of the Lusitania atrocity (1915 passport photo)

  The ship: RMS Lusitania, known affectionately as the “Lucy.”

  On May 1, shortly after midday, she left her berth at New York harbor’s Pier 54 to begin the week’s voyage. You can see the Lusitania’s departure on YouTube. The Crompton family organized their accommodation on D-Deck; Dorothy and eight-month-old Peter Crompton shared first-class bedroom D62.

  Six days out of New York, passing the Old Head of Kinsale some 12 miles off the southern Irish coast, RMS Lusitania was torpedoed and sunk by German submarine U-20. The entire Crompton family perished. The body of young governess Dorothy Allen of Philadelphia was never recovered. She was five feet tall, with blue eyes, brown hair, stub nose, and freckles.*95 This was the largest family loss of the Lusitania atrocity.19 The lives of 1,198 people were lost. A great many of the victims happened to be American citizens.

  The German embassy was satisfied that it was “covered”; passengers had been adequately warned. The following notice had been printed (after most people had purchased tickets) in fifty U.S. newspapers, including papers in New York.

  NOTICE!

  Travellers intending to embark on the Atlantic voyage are reminded that a state of war exists between Germany and her allies and Great Britain and her allies; that the zone of war includes the waters adjacent to the British Isles; that, in accordance with formal notice given by the Imperial German Government, vessels flying the flag of Great Britain, or any of her allies, are liable to destruction in those waters and that travellers sailing in the war zone on the ships of Great Britain or her allies do so at their own risk.

  IMPERIAL GERMAN EMBASSY

  Washington, D.C., 22 April 1915

  On May 19, the Fatherland puts in its five cents worth with an editorial confidently headed WHY THE LUSITANIA WAS SUNK: “Last week we predicted the fate that has overtaken the Lusitania. The Fatherland did not reach the newsstands till Saturday, but the editorial in question was written several days before publication. . . . Every large passenger ship bound for England is practically a swimming arsenal, carrying vast quantities of ammunition and explosives of every description.”

  The editorial argued that it was ammunition allegedly carried by the ship that precipitated greater loss of life. It was the Allies’ fault. “We should indict the officials of the Cunard Line for murder.” This last line is so hideously outrageous that one is inclined to believe Crowley’s claim that such absurdities were of his prompting, designed to disgust any sane American reader, to turn them against Germany with the outraged senses aimed at one thought: Government must do something.

  Page 9 of the same issue featured a short article, headed THE BRITISH LOBSTER. Anonymous, it has a ring of Crowley’s deliberate madness about it. “Make a clean job of it, Johnny Bull. Put King George’s head on the block. Isn’t he o
ne of the Hanoverian Germans who have always lorded it over the British race?” The piece pointed out that attacks in England on Germans only demonstrated how many Germans took leading roles in England. In the wake of the Lusitania’s sinking, the article was, to say the least, extremely childish, and thus conforms to Crowley’s claim of trying where possible to make German propaganda miss its mark and rebound on its proponents.

  While Crowley filled his few spare moments in late May with curious homosexual encounters in a Turkish bath and a magical hand job from Marie Low, a “young rather pretty negress of the prostitute class”—all for “Wisdom”—the May 26 issue of the Fatherland fulminated in a full-page ad declaring that “German-Americans” were not convinced that the United States was properly neutral, and “they” demanded immediate action.

  Four days later, in the wee small hours, Crowley (Basileos = Greek for “king”) was voluntarily buggered by a “stranger” (Xenos) called “Finch,” whom Crowley would become briefly obsessed with. Crowley remarked that as was common to such operations, concentration was interfered with “by anxiety,” presumably to do with the chosen (or merely convenient) locus amandi. Sometimes it is difficult to read such entries with the seriousness with which they seem intended. “Wisdom” was, anyhow, its Object, and Crowley added later that insofar as wisdom was the path to assuming the grade of Magus, then he was prepared to attribute “the dinner of 10 June” to the act’s magical virtue, for that dinner, he wrote in Rex de Arte Magia, “begins the active part of my Initiation to the Grade of Magus AA” Indeed, the dinner of June 10, 1915, would mark a very special encounter.