Mystics | Aleister Crowley: The Wickedest Man In The World | 3
5/5/202651 min
What happens when you raise a child telling him he's the Beast — and he decides to prove you right? Could a man
who genuinely repelled everyone around him have quietly shaped the culture we live in today? And, is the world of
sex, drugs, and rock and roll actually the legacy of a repressed Victorian occultist with a god complex?
Peter and Afua descend into the dark, theatrical, and genuinely troubling life of Aleister Crowley: English occultist,
self-declared Great Beast 666, and the man who may have done more than anyone to wire transgression, desire, and
spiritual hunger into the DNA of modern culture.
0:00 The wickedest man in the world — and why he owned it
6:00 The Exclusive Brethren: the suffocating sect that made Crowley inevitable
10:00 Cambridge, cigars, and erotic poetry: the beast is unleashed
15:00 Golden Dawn and the occult underground of Victorian London
20:00 Mountaineering, meditation, and the spiritual pick-and-mix
24:00 Cairo, 666, and the Book of the Law
26:00 Rose Kelly: the woman without whom none of it happens
33:00 The Abbey of Thelema and a scandal that shocks even the tabloids
38:00 How Crowley became the Beatles' and Led Zeppelin's spirit animal
42:00 Jack Parsons: the rocket scientist who performed Crowley rituals by night
44:00 Was Crowley a feminist? (Afua has thoughts)
48:00 The stain that runs through modern culture straight back to him
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Explore more from Peter and Afua — essays, sources, and ideas:
Substack: peterfrankopan.substack.com | afuahirsch.substack.com
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Stay connected with Legacy:
Instagram: @originallegacypodcast
TikTok: @legacy_productions
Explore more from Peter and Afua — essays, sources, and ideas: Substack: peterfrankopan.substack.com | afuahirsch.substack.com
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Transcript preview
First 90 secondsSpeaker 10:00
All right, ladies.
Speaker 20:00
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Afua Hirsch· Host0:14
Today we're talking about a man who actively cultivated the absolute worst reputation possible. The British tabloids of the 1920s officially dubbed him the wickedest man in the world, and he owned it. He called himself The Great Beast 666.
Peter Frankopan· Host0:37
Afua, we said we're gonna do mystics, and, uh, you know, I, I, I, I'm not a huge fan of this guy. [laughs] We're talking about the English occultist, poet, mountaineer, and relentless provocateur and self-publicist Aleister Crowley. The last time we did Helena Blavatsky, which was a fantastic introduction to the blueprint of the new age, of the ways in which its Eastern spiritualism got worked into Western narratives. But Aleister Crowley gives us something much darker, theatrical, about the sex, drugs, and rock and roll version of the occult. I'm not as enthused reading about this guy, talking about this guy as I was about lovely Helena, but, um- Don't put- Tell us about him ...
Afua Hirsch· Host1:19
our listeners off, Peter, and Helena was problematic, too.
Peter Frankopan· Host1:21
She was very problematic- [laughs] ... but she was Russian, so she got bonus points for that.
Afua Hirsch· Host1:25
You're just biased. You're biased. [laughs] Aleister Crowley does have something in common