ELMER CROWLEY by Tom Bradley

ELMER CROWLEY:
a katabasic nekyia

coming soon from Mandrake of Oxford…

After making careful preparations to ensure himself a proper reincarnation, the dying Aleister Crowley flubs one syllable of the magickal incantation…and comes back as Elmer Fudd.

The Great Beast never manages to figure out where he is. His Elmer Fudd senses don’t seem to work well, so he sees everything a bit cock-eyed. Bugs Bunny is a strange gray presence with a couple of penile protuberances rising from its head. Daffy Duck is a horrendously irritating black entity. 

Crowley tries to interpret his experience in terms of the Egyptian and Tibetan Books of the Dead, plus the Greek Eleusinian mysteries, the Theravada school, etc. Madame Blavatsky keeps rearing her disapproving head.

There are two orgy scenes, one in the cartoon world, and a parallel one in Pasadena of 1910. These are full of unspeakable depravity and monstrosity, taken from Crowley’s own horror fiction, plus cute little Tweety Pie, who plays the part of Baubo, the headless Greek comedienne-demoness.

Crowley faces this bizarre and terrifying predicament with all the aplomb, humor and astonishing courage that he displayed throughout his occult life.

Illustrated by the alchemical artist and occultist, Davd Aronson.

“The real point of reading Bradley, aside from his illumination of the ridiculous and grotesque world around us, is the rolling cadence of his pitch-perfect writing.”

–Danse Macabre