Varieties of Magical Experience: Aleister Crowley’s Views on Occult Practice
Magic, Ritual, and Witchcraft December 1, 2011 Marco Pasi
Aleister Crowley's effort to reinterpret occult practices through a naturalistic and psychological lens conflicted with his self-conception as the founder of a new religion. Examining his views on spiritualist phenomena, yoga, and magic reveals that Crowley saw his life as a continuous arc of spiritual development. Although he absorbed the influence of authors like William James and Henry Maudsley to modernize traditional occult interpretations, he stopped short of fully naturalizing or psychologizing magic.