October 8, 2009

Aleister Crowley’s model of a modern major-general

We might not be seeing much of this in the beleaguered British Army in Afghanistan, but one hallmark of this world-famous fighting force has always been its ability to draw in and synthesize a unique range of talents. What other country (or empire or Crown) would take a young rebel commander in a far-off land and eventually make him one of its own field marshals? (If you don’t recognize the reference, I’ll hint that this distinguished–if now largely forgotten–person was one of the world’s best-known public figures c. 1945, and that he also coined the terms “holism” and “holistic”.)

Another such figure was Kermit Roosevelt MC, son of US President Teddy Roosevelt–a naturalized British subject who served an officer in both world wars (including as a subaltern in the Middlesex Regiment). Though a fearless explorer, author, entrepreneur, decorated holder of the King’s Commission and Harvard man (who clearly inherited his father’s energy level), sadly he did not ultimately survive his battle with clinical depression and alcoholism.

Then there is the story of “Stuffy” Dowding — Air Chief Marshal Lord Dowding, Commander of RAF Fighter Command during its “finest hour”. With the trauma of the premature death of his wife, the young widower and father threw himself into his work in shaping up the resource-strapped air force during the 1930s. Perhaps as a form of escapism, he also embraced vegetarianism, theosophy, spiritualism, and English folklore — even joining the Fairy Investigation Society and the Ghost Club. He was quoted on record as saying, “fairies are essential to the growth of plants and the welfare of the animal kingdom”. Happily, none of this fringe stuff got in the way of his pioneering work in the area of integrated air defence, or his quiet, steadfast manner during the darkest of days in 1940 when London was being blitzed to pieces. (I seem to recall my late father saying that he had shaken hands with the air marshal when he was a teenage Polish air force cadet in England.)

Last but not least is the career of Major-General J.F.C. “Boney” Fuller (photo at left above), early prophet of mechanized warfare, author, painter and all-around oddball. Angered by what he regarded as government inaction on military technology, he joined Oswald Mosley’s British Union of Fascists in retirement–becoming a board member, and even attending Hitler’s 50th birthday party in Berlin as an official guest. Unlike the relatively innocent eccentricities of Dowding, Fuller’s gravitational pull seemed relatively dark and sulphurous, despite his intelligence and foresight. He also became a friend and collaborator of the self-proclaimed “wickedest man in the world”–Aleister Crowley. A competent artist, Fuller painted several rather creepy pieces for Crowley’s Temple of the Argenteum Astrum, including “The Portal of the Abyss”. (I didn’t find any shareable image files, but you can peek at them here.) One might spare a prayer for the repose of their souls, in the hope that Fuller (and even Crowley) ultimately chose to turn back from the abyss.