There’s a professional video biography of Aleister Crowley available in 5 parts on YouTube – here. Despite a few attempts at balance, it strongly emphasizes the most shocking and depraved aspects of Crowley’s life and works. Unfortunately (or fortunately) there’s nothing about tarot in the film.
To get the other side, and perhaps erring on the side of sweetness, try this commentary featuring Lon Milo DuQuette – here.
Check out these art exhibits featuring the art of Aleister Crowley and Frieda Harris – here.
Frieda Harris’ alternate versions and sketches for the Thoth deck can be seen here. Harris’ use of Synthetic Projective Geometry and friendship with Olive Whicher is here. A bio of what little is known about Frieda Harris is here. (Note: Harris spent her most of her last years in India.)
A collection of the letters between Crowley and Harris regarding the creation of the Thoth deck are available here.
A feature film on Crowley written by musician Bruce Dickinson is scheduled to open this month. In this supernatural occult thriller, the spirit of Crowley possesses a modern Cambridge professor (Simon Callow). I don’t know if there is any tarot in it. See the trailer (which I’ve heard is better than the movie):
Added: the official website – here.
Hear Bruce Dickinson talk about making the film here.
Read a review of the film by Ivor Davies here (warning: spoilers): “This is the crux of the problem that this film has – just what would someone possessed by the late Aleister Crowley do all day long? ‘Sex and murder’ unfortunately is this film’s disturbing answer.”
An interesting article on how Crowley has been fictionalized in literature can be found here.
2 comments
Comments feed for this article
May 9, 2008 at 4:09 am
Melanie
Hi Mary 🙂
Thank you for such an interesting blog.
I was looking to but the Toth deck yesterday but seemed to shy away from it for some reason. As an early learner of Tarot I initially wanted to learn using the more traditional deck – Rider-Waite and I have been doing so at the moment.
But, as your blog says, the use of symbolism is extremely important in awakening within us our inner knowledge and, to a degree, the higher knowledge and (in my belief) tapping into the universal conscious. For me I have found the Rider-Wate deck a little difficult to relate to in this respect.
However, the toss up came yesterday between the Toth and the Druid Craft Tarot. For me it was an easy decision and the Druid deck just called me. I am so glad I got this deck. As someone who’s beliefs tend to have an affinity with the Pagan tradition, the cards just leap out at me and, to an extent, the imagery and symbolisms inherent in the cards speak to me in a way that I can relate to. I feel that, even just from looking at the cards, I have found something that I can work with just as I do with my Runes.
So, I was interested to read this blog today as symbolism and its’ uses in a subjective way is something I have been developing for a while, namely with the Runes and also with Dreamworking. And, hopefully, with the tarot.
Blessed be
Melanie
🙂
May 9, 2008 at 4:34 am
marygreer
Melanie – I find that a good understanding of symbols allows you to work with anything – trash you pick up on the street, dreams, life-events, and different kinds of divinatory systems. I love how everything can speak to us. I, too, really like the Druid Craft Tarot.