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4 - The Mouth of Hell

Marco Pasi
Affiliation:
University of Amsterdam
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Summary

His attempts to apply the law of Thelema in politics and economics etc. were childish.

(Gerald Yorke, in a letter to Henri Birven, referring to Aleister Crowley)

Every time he had to concretize his political thought, he did so in a childish and vague form.

(João Gaspar Simões, Vida e Obra de Fernando Pessoa, referring to Fernando Pessoa)

Fernando Pessoa's political mysticism

In this chapter I will examine one of the most mysterious and enigmatic episodes in Crowley's life: his journey to Portugal to meet with Fernando Pessoa (1888–1935). Why is this episode and more generally Crowley's relationship with Pessoa so significant? To begin with, there is the interest that Pessoa's personality holds for anyone investigating connections between politics and esotericism during the first half of the twentieth century. Unfortunately, Pessoa's political and esoteric works are not yet available in English. Most of Pessoa's esoteric writings are fragmentary in nature, and most remained unpublished for a long time after his death.

Fernando Pessoa is considered today as one of the great authors of modern times. He was an author whom critics discovered only little by little, and it is hardly surprising that for many decades, the exceptional quality of his poetic work outshone his other writings, such as those dedicated to political and esoteric matters. Pessoa published only a very small part of his writings during his life, mainly in journals with limited circulation.

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Publisher: Acumen Publishing
Print publication year: 2013

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  • The Mouth of Hell
  • Marco Pasi, University of Amsterdam
  • Book: Aleister Crowley and the Temptation of Politics
  • Online publication: 05 March 2014
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  • The Mouth of Hell
  • Marco Pasi, University of Amsterdam
  • Book: Aleister Crowley and the Temptation of Politics
  • Online publication: 05 March 2014
Available formats
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Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • The Mouth of Hell
  • Marco Pasi, University of Amsterdam
  • Book: Aleister Crowley and the Temptation of Politics
  • Online publication: 05 March 2014
Available formats
×