I enjoy reading about Aleister Crowley‘s exploits as much as the next guy. He climbed mountains, did a boat-load of drugs, penetrated his way through more people than your average Victorian  lothario, and claimed to eat people.

What rarely gets a nod, however, is his massive impact on modern occultism. Uncle Al introduced more esoteric concepts – that many use on a daily basis – than any other living occultist in the Western hemisphere, and is partially responsible for bringing Buddhism into the popular lexicon.

I can live with this though, The man courted scandal, so it’s his own fault in many ways.

What I can’t live with are abusive tracky-bottom-wearing oddballs who do abhorrent acts in his name, muddying his already delicate reputation, and making it more stigmatising for us poor wand-wavers. From the Daiy Fail:

The leader of a Satanic sex cult is facing a lengthy jail sentence after being found guilty of multiple counts of rape and child abuse.

Colin Batley, 48, exercised absolute control over his sect in a seaside cul-de-sac – abusing and exploiting helpless children as ‘sex toys’ for more than a decade.

He was found guilty yesterday of 35 sex offences against children and young adults. Yet social services were alerted to Batley’s child abuse in 2002 – and took no action.

One helpless girl was ‘initiated’ when she was just 11 and threatened with death by ‘cult assassins’ if she did not comply. At least two of his young victims gave birth as a result of the ‘systematic and prolonged abuse’.

Yesterday at Swansea Crown Court, Marling, 42, and Elaine Batley, 47, were found guilty of five counts including sexual activity and indecency towards children.

He and his wife had been dabbling with the occult ever since they were married 30 years ago and were obsessed with Aleister Crowley, the most notorious Satanist of the 20th century, the self-styled ‘Great Beast’.

One of Crowley’s publications, the Book of the Law, includes the passage: ‘Let all chaste women be despised. Sex with anyone is not just permissible but to be encouraged.’ And this: ‘Some of the most passionate and permanent attachments have begun with rape. Rome was founded thereon.’

Apart from anything else, the Book of the Law provided justification for the couple’s own ‘open marriage’.

I dunno, you open the gates of hell in the middle of a desert, threaten William Butler Yeates a few times, and all of a sudden a bunch of ugly middle aged woman, and a gun-weilding Cat Weazel turn all bat-shit crazy and start abusing children.

This is 2011 right?

Ken Eakins

(Via: Daily Mail)

About the Author

Ken Eakins is a filmmaker and weird stuff enthusiast from the South of England.

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