A Disturbing Mix of Religion and Politics: Aleister Crowley’s The Savior

In 1914, Aleister Crowley moved to Manhattan, where he remained throughout the duration of World War I. While living in New York, Crowley made the acquaintance of George Sylvester Viereck, the editor of a periodical entitled The International. The International published poetry, drama, literature, articles on mysticism, social and political commentary, and reviews of books and performances. Viereck was a champion of alternative views that did not align with conservative or traditional viewpoints, as his decision to hire Crowley as a contributing editor at The International makes clear. Crowley identified himself as the prophet of a new spiritual system called Thelema, the central tenet of which is “Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.” He was an iconoclastic occultist who had already caused a stir with reporters and moral critics in England by the time he migrated to the United States. When Crowley arrived in the U.S. on November 1, 1914, he was interviewed by Henry Hall, a reporter from the New York World Magazine. Hall noted in an article that Crowley “seems to breed rumors” and that those he met cast him in a variety of different roles. According to some Crowley was “a poet of rare delicacy”; to others he was “the high priest of Beelzebub.” Still others thought of Crowley as “a theatrical producer” and a “designer of strange costumes.”¹ Crowley’s written works and ritual performances, which often challenged Christian ideals, were shocking to many of his contemporaries.

One of the decisions that Crowley made while working as a contributing editor at The International was to publish his unproduced play, The Savior, in the March 1918 issue, which was dedicated entirely to drama. The primary characters in the play are the elders of the town council of the City of Blabre. The play begins with these civic leaders facing the possible destruction of Blabre at the hands of a ruthless horde known as the Gnogues. The Gnogues have earned an infamous reputation by completely annihilating the inhabitants of all the other cities they have assaulted. Rumors suggest that the king of the Gnogues is not human, but rather a demonic creature. Inexplicably present with these elders is a jester, who, as is so often the case in dramatic literature, is the wisest person in the room. The jester mocks the elders for waiting for divine intervention and for not taking a more practical approach to their situation, such as strengthening the defenses of the city. Taking no heed of the jester’s advice, the elders passively pray as destruction draws nearer and nearer.

Written in 1915, The Savior could justifiably be viewed as a response to World War I. At various points during the war, the Central Powers claimed several startling victories in the Eastern and Western fronts. The victories in the Western front revealed the strength and resolve of the Central Powers, since the harrowing trench warfare that was used there tended to offer advantage to defending forces. The victories of the Central Powers were owed in no small part to the use of deadly new technologies of warfare. On March 3, 1918, the young Bolshevik government of Soviet Russia accepted the terms offered by the Central Powers in the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk. The Savior, with its depictions of governmental leaders waiting to hear the disadvantageous terms of peace offered by an enemy with an apparently unstoppable drive for destruction, would likely have invoked this and other aspects of the war for many readers.

Although Crowley did at times write political commentary, he spent more time writing scathing criticisms of what he considered restrictive forms of fundamentalist Christianity. It is not difficult to comprehend why he developed his lifelong animosity toward Christianity. When Crowley was twelve, his father, Edward Crowley, died of tongue cancer. In Crowley’s opinion, his father’s death was avoidable and rooted in his blind adherence to an extreme form of Christianity. Edward was part of a fundamentalist denomination known as the Plymouth Brethren. Edward’s faith drove him to seek “the Lord’s will...