num_pages: 18
description: This paper was PRELIMINARY RESEARCH for my M.A. Thesis, 'The Cactus and the Beast', which investigates the role of peyote in the life and work of Aleister Crowley. As such, it contains a number of minor factual errors which have since been corrected in 'The Cactus and the Beast', which examines a much wider range of evidence and analyses Crowley's relationship with peyote in considerably more detail. In particular, 'The Cactus and the Beast' contains an argument that peyote was a crucial contributing factor in the development of Thelema, which this shorter paper merely hints at but does not investigate deeply. Therefore the content of this shorter and more limited paper should NOT be taken as definitive and should instead be seen as a (somewhat flawed) introduction to the topic.ABSTRACT: A short paper outlining Aleister Crowley's use of the Parke-Davis extract of peyote for magical purposes from 1907 to 1918. Written for the 'Occult Trajectories' module of the Masters in Western Esotericism at the University of Amsterdam (2014-2015).
language: English
title: Aleister Crowley's magical use of Anhalonium Lewinii
publisher: self-published