A Hackney Disciple of the Beast 666: A History in Letters
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/pome.v18i1.22349Keywords:
A∴A∴, Aleister Crowley, Anthroposophy, Argenteum Astrum, Neville Foreman, New Thought, Ordo Templi Orientis, O.T.O., sex magic, TheosophAbstract
Studies of Aleister Crowley’s followers have tended to focus on unconventional or bohemian figures. This article examines a different type of person—Neville Foreman, an insurance clerk and family man who lived in the unfashionable Clapton district of Hackney, East London. Several years’ correspondence between Foreman and Crowley sheds light on the profile of a Crowley acolyte from a more conventional background. Whilst Foreman was no bohemian, this lower-middle class office clerk was nonetheless an esoteric seeker. Dissatisfied with his previous explorations in New Thought, Theosophy and Anthroposophy, Foreman arrived at Crowley and Thelema hoping for spiritual guidance and personal development, and also seeking some resolution to his sexual difficulties.References
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Ankh-f-n-Khonsu [Aleister Crowley]. The World Teacher to the Theosophical Society. Tunis: privately printed, 1924.
M. C., Fellow of the Theosophical Society [Mabel Collins] Light on the Path: A Treatise Written for the Personal Use of Those Who Are Ignorant of the Eastern Wisdom, and Who Desire to Enter Within Its Influence. London: George Redway, 1888.
Crowley, Aleister. “Aha!” Equinox 1, no.3 (1910): 9-54.
——. Book Four [Parts I & II]. New York: Weiser, 1980.
——. The Confessions of Aleister Crowley: an Autohagiography. Edited by John Symonds and Kenneth Grant. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1969.
——. Diary of a Drug Fiend. London: Sphere, 1972 [1922].
——. “Energized Enthusiasm.” Equinox 1, no.9 (1913): 17-46.
——. To Man. Tunis: privately printed, 1924.
Crowley, Aleister, and Sturges, Mary d’Este Book Four. Part I: Meditation. London: Wieland, c. 1911.
Crowley, Aleister and Curwen, David. Brother Curwen, Brother Crowley: a Correspondence. Edited by Henrik Bogdan and Tony Matthews. York Beach, Me: Teitan Press, 2010.
Edinburgh, Frator H. I. [Aleister Crowley]. Madame Tussaud-Besant. Tunis: privately printed, 1925.
Hall, Lesley A. Hidden Anxieties: Male Sexuality, 1900–1950. Cambridge: Polity Press, 1991.
Kaczynski, Richard. Perdurabo: the life of Aleister Crowley, Berkeley: North Atlantic Books, 2010.
Pasi, Marco. Aleister Crowley and the Temptation of Politics, Durham: Acumen, 2014.
——. “Varieties of Magical Experience: Aleister Crowley’s Views on Occult Practice.” In Aleister Crowley and Western Esotericism, edited by Henrik Bogdan and Martin P. Starr, 53–87. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007.
Postle, Martin. “Naked Civil Servants: The Professional Life Model In British Art And Society.” In Model and Supermodel: The Artists’ Model in British Art and Culture, edited by Jane Desmarais, Martin Postle, and William Vaughan, 9-25. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2006.
Richmond, Keith, ed. The Progradior Correspondence: Letters by Aleister Crowley, Frank Bennett, C.S. Jones, and Others. York Beach, Me.: Teitan Press, 2009.
Snuffin, Michael Osiris. “Liber 36, The Star Sapphire: Ritual by Aleister Crowley, Analysis by Michael Osiris Snuffin 2003.” Accessed: 7 April, 2015. http://hermetic.com/osiris/analysisstarsapphire.htm.
Somerville, H. “The War Anxiety Neurotic of the Present Day: A Clinical Sketch.” Journal of Mental Science 69 (April 1923): 171–80. http://dx.doi.org/10.1192/bjp.69.285.170.
Yogi Ramacharaka [William Walker Atkinson]. Hatha Yoga or the Yogi Philosophy of Physical Well-Being (With Numerous Exercises, Etc.). Chicago: Yogi Publication Society, c. 1904.
——. The Hindu-Yogi Science of Breath. Chicago: Yogi Publication Society, c. 1905.
Published
2016-08-09
Issue
Section
Articles
How to Cite
Josiffe, C. (2016). A Hackney Disciple of the Beast 666: A History in Letters. Pomegranate, 18(1), 5-30. https://doi.org/10.1558/pome.v18i1.22349
