Having written much about Aleister Crowley and his influence upon pop-occulture I will herein continue considering personages who have looked to the to mega therion / the great beast for inspiration. Find our previous articles on Crowley here—which range from L. Ron Hubbard’s Scientology to Damien Echols (of the West Memphis Three-WM3 murders infamy) and much, much more.
RUSSELL BRAND
“We’d been talking about the creation of his tabloid-fueled rocker-sex-god persona, and Brand is clearly comfortable with neither the ‘creation’ nor the ‘persona.’ ‘Well, it seems obvious, if not at the time,’ he says, ‘that to turn myself into a character—incredibly theatrical and rock-and-roll and languid and sexualized—was to emphasize areas where I was confident, to draw the eye from the obvious deficit of a man only just getting over being a junkie. I’m very confident in the physical manifestation of a rocker. And there are aphorisms I still deem tight: The carnal self is the true self. In that barbaric, marauding period of promiscuity, there was a type of Aleister Crowley ‘Do what thou wilt’ as the sum of the law. That voice you use when you come? I was using it to perform. Not some distant, attic-dwelling emotion brought out occasionally, like a front room you never use except when the vicar visits. I was in there ******* all the time.” (Ivan Solotaroff, “Will the Real Russell Brand Please Stand Up?,” Details Magazine, April 2011 AD)
Aleister Crowley, signing as Baphomet, “The Tank,” The Equinox III:
“When you have proved that God is merely a name for the sex instinct, it appears to me not far to the perception that the sex instinct is God.”
GRANT MORRISON
He is a comic book author and preaches that Aleister Crowley’s magickal system actually works. The issue, of course, is not whether or not it “works” but whether it is appropriate to participate in it. From the Andrew Williams interview:
“Comics writer Grant Morrison speaks to Metro about experimenting with voodoo, being visited by aliens and teaching magic to Robbie Williams…
I started doing magic and occult stuff, and found it actually works – go out and do it yourself and you’ll see…The best thing to do is get one of those spell books and try something. The material is available in every bookshop and online. The material is available in every bookshop and online.” (Paolo Baroni, “Tutti Pazzi Per Crowley [Something about Crowley],” Centro Sangiorgio, December 27, 2013 AD)
Grant Morrison became possessed whilst practicing tantric sex magick in India: