Reviewing an article on
http://www.holygrail-church.fsnet.co.uk, a web site which isn't afraid to twist
the truth into a lie in the service of God, we find the following:
On 12 February 2001 Henry Bibby (alias Edward Crowley) was
sentenced to life imprisonment at the Old Bailey for carrying out a Crowleyite ritual of
child sacrifice on an innocent twelve-year-old victim. He was obsessed with the Satanist
and changed his name to “Edward Crowley” in 1998. He had stabbed the boy, Diego
Pineiro-Villar, over thirty times in Covent Garden, London, on 8 May 2000. Police found
a holdall that Bibby had kept with him. It contained a small number of legal documents
about his change of name, and a chilling sketch that police believe was drawn a few weeks
before the attack. Entitled Delendus Est Pineiro, which roughly translates as “destroy
Pineiro,” the pencil diagram makes references to child sacrifice, black magic and Greek
mythology. The symbols relate to quotations from Crowley’s works. There are a
number of references to child sacrifice. The most notorious came from Aleister Crowley’s
Magick in Theory and Practice. It reads: “For the highest spiritual working one must
accordingly choose that victim which contains the greatest and purest force. A male child
of perfect innocence and high intelligence is the most satisfactory and suitable
victim.”
The above for those not familiar with the name Henry Bibby, not to be confused with the basketball coach by the same name. As for the rest, it is, as is the entire web site, like so many other sites created by "good Christians" who find no evil in hatefully twisting the truth and simply lying to serve their "God of love". "Crowleyite" is a derogatory term to demean Thelemites, which Bibby obviously was not. Crowley was not a "Satanist", for he did not even believe in the existence of Satan. And as for the "number of references to child sacrifice" in Crowley's works, I can only think of ONE, but of course one is a number, I suppose. That reference is the one quoted in the above paragraph. To quote from what has already been written in Satanic Panic, Part VIII:
As usual the footnote is conveniently ignored entirely -- the footnote which appears in every edition of the book* and reads as follows:
"... 'It is the sacrifice of oneself spiritually. And the intelligence and innocence of that male child are the perfect understanding of the Magician, his one aim, without lust of result. And male he must be, because what he sacrifices is not the material blood, but his creative power.' ..."
Quite clearly Crowley was not advocating literal child sacrifice, but instead he was speaking symbolically in the text and with tongue tucked firmly in cheek for he makes it clear to any intelligent individual that it is not blood that is spilled but semen and he is not talking about human sacrifice but sacred "sex magick". Yet, as usual, these holier-than-thou blasphemers, perverters of the teachings of Jesus, the worst examples of Christianity gone bad, insist upon desecrating the truth in a most depraved and immoral manner -- consistantly lying to "prove" that they are the only religion on the face of the earth in possession of the truth.
What never ceases to amaze me is how supposedly intelligent individuals claiming to be "fair minded" "good Christians" will eagerly accept the destructive behavior of the occasional lunatic inspired by a complete and willing misinterpretation of an esoteric or non-Christian philosophy to spread hatred and bigotry, claiming that all who adhere to these philosophies are insane and destructive. While at the same time they completely ignore all of the criminals inspired by the Judao-Christian Bible guilty of mass genocide and "hate crimes" of all kinds; people who torture, kill, steal and oppress others in the name of God or Jesus. These sick individuals, justifying their horrendous crimes with the Bible, are far more numerous than the relatively few sick individuals inspired by a misunderstanding of esoteric philosophy. If we are to condemn Aleister Crowley and Thelema and indeed everyone interested in and dedicated to the so-called "occult" because of the actions of a relative few who, most often, never have been legitimate members of "occult" groups, then should we not also condemn Jesus and the Bible for the more numerous and more horrible acts of the many lunatics throughout history who were legitimately baptised Christian or otherwise recognized as followers of one or the other Christian sect? The common Christian attitude that condemns all innocent students of the esoteric because of the actions of a few lunatics, while ignoring the many lunatics who commit their crimes in the name of the Judao-Christian God or Jesus, and, in fact, even condone bigotry and hatred, supposedly sactioned by the Bible, is indeed hypocritical and irrational to the point of insanity.
*Note: I have, however, found typescripts of Magick in Theory and Practice prepared by the Caliphate pseudo-o.t.o., supposedly based upon the Castle Books edition which has the footnote, without that all important footnote. (Jealously guarding the so-called "secret" of "Sex Magick"?) So once again we see that the gang contributes more to the problems facing Thelema in society than to the solutions to those problems, further misrepresenting Aleister Crowley and his Work.