Aleister Crowley and the Mormons

Aleister Crowley — occultist, Thelema founder, Ordo Templi Orientis (OTO) leader, and alleged “wickedest man in the world” — had nice things to say about Mormons. Befitting his eclectic approach to esoterica and the occult, Crowley saw a kindred spirit in Joseph Smith, possibly due to the latter’s equally syncretic mixing of folk magic with Christianity.

Crowley’s writings include two references to Joseph Smith described by Italian sociologist Massimo Introvigne’s excellent article “The Beast and the Prophet.” In Crowley’s autobiography, he argues that:

…we should found society upon a caste of 'men of the earth,' sons of the soil, sturdy, sensual, stubborn and stupid, not emasculated by ethical or intellectual education, but guided in their evolution by the intelligent governing classes towards an ideal of pure animal perfection.

Crowley provides examples of this type of man, including among them Joseph Smith. The other reference comes from Crowley’s novel Moonchild.

In this novel Crowley describes a magical war between good and evil magicians, with his various friends and enemies appearing as barely disguised characters. Eventually, this magical conflict spills into the real world, with the two sides joining the Entente and Central powers during World War I. Of course, the novel contains lots of trippy mystical experiences. In one, the character Lisa sees:

All gave way to a most enigmatic figure. It was an insignificant face and form; but the attributions of him filled all heaven. In his sphere was primarily a mist which Iliel instinctively recognized as malarious; and she got an impression, rather than a vision, of an immense muddy river rushing through swamps. And then she saw that from this man's brain issued phantoms like pigeons. They were neither Red Indians nor Israelites, yet they had something of each in their bearing. And these poured like smoke from the head of this little man. In his hand was a book, and he held it over his head. And the book itself was guarded by an angelic figure whose face was extraordinarily stern and unbeautiful, but who scattered with wide hands the wealth of life, children, and corn, and gold. And behind all these things was a great multitude; and about them were the symbolic forms of exile and death and every persecution, and the hideous laughter of triumphant enemies. All this seemed to weigh heavily upon the little man that had created it; Iliel [Lisa la Giuffria] thought that it was seeking incarnation for the sake of its forgetfulness. Yet the light in his eyes was so pure and noble and magnetic that it might have been that he saw in a new birth the chance to repair his error.

In a footnote, Crowley explains that the book is the Book of Mormon, the people who were neither “Red Indians nor Israelites” were the Nephites, and the little man was Joseph Smith.

Crowley’s interest in Mormonism expanded beyond references in his books; he maintained a personal connection to the faith through his correspondence with Matthew McBlain Thomson. Thomson had joined both Mormonism and Freemasonry in his native Scotland before immigrating to Idaho in the late 19th century. There, he joined a Masonic lodge but was kicked out when the members found out he was Mormon. The church’s secretive temple ceremonies are loosely based on Masonic rites, and as such the Idaho brothers accused him of practicing their ceremonies outside the official sanction of a lodge. Smarting from his excommunication, Thomson moved to Utah, formed his own independent lodge, and joined a smattering of occult organizations, including OTO. Thomson and Crowley maintained a correspondence, with Crowley later noting that he received a “shower of diplomas, from Bucharest to Salt Lake City." Thomson ended up being convicted of mail fraud later in life after mailing out Masonic diplomas claiming that his lodge brothers were the only true practitioners of the Scottish Rite. Thomson declared the conviction anti-Mormon persecution, naturally.

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While Crowley admired Joseph Smith, another OTO member, William C. Conway, directly mixed Mormonism with occultic magic. Conway was born in the mid-19th century, and it’s not clear to me when he joined OTO. Once he did, Conway quickly rose through the ranks of the California OTO scene, a group that eventually included Jack Parsons and L. Ron Hubbard. Much like other magical systems — or religions influenced by them like Mormonism or Scientology — OTO has levels for initiates to achieve, called degrees. Conway made it to the XI° — a very high order — in 1945. To achieve the XI° one had to experience (to quote):

1. Isolation in the anus where it is considered unable to interact with anything at all or

2. Interaction with excrement and small amounts of blood, mucus, and of course the mucus membranes that lead directly into the blood supply

In other words: have anal sex. Conway did this, earning the new name “Tau Lucifer II.” The source I found for this (link above) is confused about how Conway could have earned the XI° seeing as “he was not himself homosexual.” Oh, the lack of imagination.

Conway, before joining OTO, was a Mormon and had been ordained to the Melchizedek priesthood within the church, even serving as a bishop. After OTO, it seems like he needed more than both religions could offer and mixed them together into a new faith: the Perfected Church of Jesus Christ of Immaculate Latter-day Saints, headquartered at Redondo Beach. 

Mixing and matching, Conway accepted Joseph Smith as a prophet, instituted polygamy, and taught reincarnation. Conway said he had the Urim and Thummim, the magical stones Joseph Smith supposedly used to translate the Book of Mormon, and declared that through personal righteousness women would no longer menstruate. He spelled this out in “An Open Letter to the General Authorities of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints of Salt Lake City, Utah, United States of America, and to All Presidents, Bishops of Wards and Presidents of Branches of the Pioneers”

Conway had a deep connection to the Book of Mormon. In the 50s he traveled down to Mexico and convinced a Zapotec tribe that he was a prophet, after which he began teaching that he was Moroni reincarnated. He also claimed visitation from Joseph Smith and another Book of Mormon character named Mulek. According to the Book of Mormon, Mulek was the surviving son of Zedekiah, king of Judah. When Jerusalem fell to Babylon, Mulek escaped the city and sailed across the sea to the Americas, echoing the journey of Nephi and his people. Conway claimed that Mulek appeared to him and declared that the gathering place for the saints in the Last Days was not Missouri, as mainline Mormons believe, but Los Angeles. He died at the ripe old age of 104.

While Conway saw a positive correspondence between OTO and Mormonism, another Mormon schismatic, William “Bill” Schnoebelen, went the other direction. Schnoebelen had been ordained as a gnostic bishop and years later, in 1980, converted to Mormonism. In the intervening years Schnoebelen met either Conway or followers of Conway who explained to him the connections between Mormonism and the occult. While this didn’t seem to bother him when he converted, by 1984 Schnoebelen had sat on these thoughts and concluded that Conway was right, but that the connection was bad. 

Schnoebelen promptly left the Mormon church and began writing book after book attacking the church (and really any other group that wasn’t evangelical Christian,) accusing it of everything from Satanic rituals and clandestine Masonry to Wiccan influence and vampirism. According to the Tanners, Schnoebelen was quite the catch for the church:

Furthermore, his "testimony" as to the truthfulness of the LDS Church was published by Bookcraft, a company which prints books by the General Authorities of the church and other Mormon writers. As unbelievable as it may seem, it is still being sold at the church's Deseret Bookstore.

Forty years later, they seem to have gotten wiser, because I can’t find “Romancing Death: A True Story of Vampirism, Death, the Occult and Deliverance” on the website.