ABSTRACT
In this chapter I will discuss some acquaintances of Crowley’s that seem to be of particular interest for the subject of the present study. I will focus particularly on persons who had a more or less enduring connection with Crowley, and, most importantly, who were involved in one way or another in the politics of their times. In almost all cases, these persons associated with Crowley because they were attracted to the world of the occult and found his personality fascinating. is combination of the occult and the political recalls the denition of “illuminated politics” given by James Webb in his two seminal works, e Occult Underground and e Occult Establishment.1 According to Webb, this type of thought emerges “when occult ideas are found tangled up with political and social projects”.2 In this chapter I will examine some “illuminated” characters who had connections to Crowley, leaving for Chapter 4 a more detailed analysis of the most interesting one among them: Fernando Pessoa.
