Obscene and Lewd Poetry, Often About His “Scarlett Women”
Crowley was raised in a very devout Christian household. His family was unique in their faith. They were far more conservative than many other Christians of that era, preferring to adhere to very literal interpretations of the Bible. This particular sect of the Christian faith was almost pathologically anti-pleasure. Crowley did not initially defy his parent’s will, instead it appeared as if Crowley was very devout and especially attached to his father. Crowley would often accompany his father along the countryside as his father gave his own unique sermons to all that would listen. Unfortunately, his father passed away when Crowley was only eleven. This was a huge turning point for Crowley, as it was the beginning of his intense desire to be contrary to all he was taught. Hell bent on blasphemous behaviours, it is around this time Crowley developed his compulsive desire for sex. He developed a hatred for his mother, and his first “blasphemous” act was to have sexual intercourse with the family maid on his mother’s bed.
When Crowley reached his late teens, he was expelled from his school. He had caught gonorrhea from a prostitute, and the school could not tolerate such uncivil behavior from its students. Once Crowley reached Cambridge University, he found the university life to be much more forgiving and far more freeing. It is during this time Crowley developed a love for poetry. Not just any poetry. Crowley would go on to produce some of the most graphic, hedonistic, and lewd poetry ever written. Although university life did allow him to live his libertine lifestyle a little more freely, in reality, the poetry he wrote was so obscene, he would have actually been jailed in England had he published his works in Britain under his real name. Instead, he published his poetry under a different name and in other countries.
His first publication was White Stains, and contained every sexual taboo and vice, ranging from bestiality to necrophilia. The following is an excerpt from a poem in White Stains, “A Ballad of Passive Pedastry”:
“Boys tempt my lips to wanton use,
And show their tongues, and smile awry,
And wonder why I should refuse
To feel their buttocks on the sly,
And kiss their genitals, and cry:
‘Ah! Ganymede, grant me one night!’
This is the one sweet mystery:
A strong man’s love is my delight!”
Many of Crowley’s poems centered around his “Scarlett Women” or “Whore of Babylon”. These were lovers Crowley took that he felt embodied the feminine essence and sexuality of goddesses. One such poem, “Leah Sublime”, is a 666 word dedication his his lover Leah Hersig. Supposedly, Crowley even encouraged Hersig to have sex with a goat, though this attempt was met with failure.
