Sunday, March 17, 2013

A sighting of Aleister Crowley

I remember seeing Aleister Crowley walking in Hampstead in the mid 1940s. He was pointed out to me by another boy called John Bunting.Crowley was staying with his father the writer and anthologist Daniel George (Bunting) in East Heath Road where it meets Whitestone Lane, an area now infested by oligarchs. As I recall he had a beard and was wearing a kilt and possibly carrying a sword stick with an entwined silver snake. I have heard of him wearing a kilt but seldom a beard and he is not known to have associated with Daniel George but I am certain it was him.



 Later I met the writer and film maker Lance Sieveking who also knew Crowley. He told me that in the 1930s the Great Beast had involved him in marketing a scent he had concocted from musk and various spices and animal products. The idea was that a man wearing this scent could not fail with women. It appeared to have the opposite effect however and was a financial failure. [Contributed by a Jot associate, now in his 80s. Many thanks! ]

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