I have to confess to never having read a biography of Aleister Crowley. I’ve known of him since I was a teenager, however, since you can’t read very much about esoteric stuff without running into his name once in a while. Crowley was famous for starting the religion called Thelema, revitalizing interest in magick (the additional “k” was to distinguish it from stage magic), and for generally being a bad boy. In fact, he declared himself the “wickedest man on earth” and liked to be called “the Beast” and loved the number 666. It was the latter point that caught ...