Do What Thou Wilt

An exploration into the life and works of Aleister Crowley: modern mystic, occultist, poet, mountaineer, and bisexual adventurer—“Without question the best and most even-handed treatment of the subject to date” (The Seattle Times).

“A fascinating, easily readable narrative about one of the most interesting cultural phenomena of the late Victorian period.” —Library Journal

Born in 1875, Aleister Crowley reached maturity in the boarding schools and brothels of Victorian England. The aspiring poet and pampered wastrel quickly gravitated toward the occult. Obsessed with reconciling his quest for spiritual perfection with his secular hedonism—Crowley developed his own school of mysticism. Devotees of Magick, as Crowley called it, embraced the imagination and glorified the will. In practice, Crowley explored his spiritual yearnings through drug-saturated vision quests and rampant sexual adventurism, but at other times he embraced Eastern philosophies and sought enlightenment on ascetic sojourns into the wilderness.

This controversial individual has inspired passionate—but seldom fair—assessments from historians. Sutin’s excellent biography treats Crowley as a cultural phenomenon, and not simply a sorcerer or charlatan. Do What Thou Wilt is a fascinating, even-handed study of how one man devoted his life to the subversion of the dominant moral and religious values of his time.

“The definitive biography . . . Sutin’s work will remain a benchmark against which all future biographies of Aleister Crowley will be measured.” —James Wasserman, author of Art & Symbols of the Occult and The Militia of Heaven

“This scholarship is impeccable. . . . Sutin presents a convincing portrait of Crowley as a product of his times, without apologizing for the unsavory aspects of his character.” —The Washington Post

“A balanced, thoughtful work . . . Diligently extracting the facts from a morass of exaggeration and myth, Sutin’s perceptive study restores this controversial and important figure to his proper place in the history of modern spirituality.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)