Elizabeth M. Butler’s Followers (2)

Elizabeth M. Butler

Born

in Lancashire, The United Kingdom

December 13, 1901

Died

January 01, 1959

Genre

Nonfiction

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Eliza Marian Butler was born in Lancashire England in 1885. She was a professor at Cambridge University. Her most famous books were The Myth of the Magus (1) & Ritual Magic. (2) She briefly cites the Great Beast, Aleister Edward Crowley. In her first book she casually mentioned him simply as "the amanuensis of Aiwaz." (3) She does not give any indication that she ever actually met or personally knew him. However, Butler did know Crowley & often used the name "Old Crow" when discussing him in her 1959 autobiography Paper Boats (4) which contains priceless stories which no biography on Crowley, to date, has ever bothered to review. She admits that she "cavalierly treated" him in her books & claims, "I have been blamed for this; but somehow, Eliza Marian Butler was born in Lancashire England in 1885. She was a professor at Cambridge University. Her most famous books were The Myth of the Magus (1) & Ritual Magic. (2) She briefly cites the Great Beast, Aleister Edward Crowley. In her first book she casually mentioned him simply as "the amanuensis of Aiwaz." (3) She does not give any indication that she ever actually met or personally knew him. However, Butler did know Crowley & often used the name "Old Crow" when discussing him in her 1959 autobiography Paper Boats (4) which contains priceless stories which no biography on Crowley, to date, has ever bothered to review. She admits that she "cavalierly treated" him in her books & claims, "I have been blamed for this; but somehow, one way & another, I could not take him seriously." (5)
How did the two first meet? Well, it all began with her desire to visit Hastings & interview Crowley on the subject of magic while she was writing her first book, The Myth of the Magus. A friend who openly admired Old Crow gave her Crowley's address so that she could write him a letter. Crowley briefly mentions these letters in his diaries as "Chit from Prof Butler." (6) After corresponding she finally decided "to go down to Hastings & see what I could learn." (7)
On January 1st 1946, Butler found herself setting off from London by train to the Beast's lair at Netherwood. Upon arriving at Crowley's boarding house, a "small dark man, announcing himself as the manager, greeted me in the hall; & as we were exchanging banalities a seedy figure in light tweed knickerbockers materialised on the stairs & a grating voice was heard to utter: 'Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law'." Butler claims that her direct response to Crowley's statement was an unspoken comment which immediately ran through her mind: "In that case...I'm for the next train back"-but somehow she decided to stay. (8)
Her initial reaction to Crowley was that "he was more repulsive than I had expected, & his voice was the ugliest thing about him: thin, fretful, scratchy-a pedantic voice & a pretentious manner." (9) Unfortunately Crowley didn't give her time to get a second impression due to the fact that he quickly ran back upstairs to get an injection of heroin for his asthma.
Later they shared lunch together with Crowley discussing at length numerous theories regarding magick & "quoting grandiloquently from his own works." (10) While this was going on she states that "I began by detesting, loathing & abominating Old Crow, not so much on ethical as on aesthetic grounds." (11) After all the stories, rumors & horrendous things that Crowley had supposedly done throughout his life this woman simply didn't like his appearance! She describes Crowley as having "thick eye-glasses, a perpetual tear in the corner of one eye & a flattish yellow face." (12) During the meal she began to wonder what kind of pressure had been brought upon the management of such a nice, clean, cheerful little place as Netherwood which would have persuaded them to allow Crowley to establish residency there. His occult rambling attracted much attention in the commonplace British dining room, to the point of discomfort for Butler who watched several guests leave, wishing she could follow them.
Still, she stuck to her interview & after lunch she "followed the magus & the brandy-bottle up to his room." (13) As to Crowley's apartment, Butler states it had a feeling of "squalor, airlessness & indefinable atmosphere of pollution...it would need a Kafka to describe it." However, she later admitted she learned quite a lot from Crowley. All in all, Butler conducted four interviews that day from noon until 9:30pm with small breaks in between for Crowley to inject himself with heroin & for herself to clear her head & stiffen her morale.
At one point he tried to convince her that he was an instrument of Higher Beings & in order to prove this, he offered to make himself invisible on the spot! In some ...more

Combine Editions
Elizabeth M. Butler’s books

Average rating: 3.91 · 4,517 ratings · 433 reviews · 15 distinct works

	Ritual Magic 3.67 avg rating — 46 ratings — published 1949 — 14 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Myth of the Magus 3.68 avg rating — 38 ratings — published 1948 — 19 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Tyranny of Greece over Germany: A Study of the influence exercised by Greek art and poetry over the great German writers of the 18th, 19th and 20th Centuries. 3.63 avg rating — 19 ratings — published 1935 — 6 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Fortunes of Faust 3.63 avg rating — 8 ratings — published 1952 — 11 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Goethe and Byron it was amazing 5.00 avg rating — 1 rating — published 1974 — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Daylight in a Dream liked it 3.00 avg rating — 1 rating — published 1951	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Some Ancient Magical Texts did not like it 1.00 avg rating — 1 rating	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Heinrich Heine: A Biography 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings — published 1970 — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Rainer Maria Rilke 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings — published 1973 — 7 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Direct Method in German Poetry: An Inaugural Lecture Delivered on January 25th 1946 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings — published 2013 — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars