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Moonchild: A Dream Analysis By Fra. O.L.L. | |
Page 5 
One has but to know that his mother gave him the nick-name of "The Beast" as a biblical reference in a fundamentalist home to have some idea who is represented by the character of Cremers and how that has constellated itself into his personality to hold the Devouring Mother archetype.This line of interpretation of the novel as dream artifact leaves us again with an image of Crowley as a man who is a Mother-dominated Puer, unable to break free of the effects of his father's early death and his mother's survival. Because of this he spends his life in pursuit of the relationship to the True Will or Conversation with the Holy Guardian Angle or in Jungian terms the Relativeization of Ego to the Self. The novel at this time tells us that he has not accomplished this, and suggests a fairly poor prognosis for this occurring since there is nothing that mediates the opposites of personality (Cyril an Douglas) save death. In fact, he is still trying to kill the evil in himself so that his mother will love him and accept him into heaven rather than damning him to hell. There are, of course, other possible interpretations of this novel/dream. However, for the sake of my readers I'll not digress further. Still, a two more issues must be considered to bring this paper to a close. The first revolves around why these images would arise at this time in A.C.'s life? We are told, as mentioned above, that he is having the experience of Tiphereth, the experience of beauty and harmony of all things. But at this time he is an ex-patriot from his own country and his own armed forces won't accept him as a member. Moreover, he has taken the position as publisher of a propaganda publication, which is rabidly in favor of the German Cause. He is waiting for his mother country to call him back and is communicating his experience of again being not good enough by acting out through the medium of the publication. Clearly, there are primitive defenses at work here. Splitting and projection and projective identification are all clear in the above situation. But during the middle of this time he has the experience of unitive beauty. Well, of course he does! His ego needs to reconstitute itself against this great narcissistic wound. Furthermore, Tiphereth is one of the areas of his last wounding, since it is where he was denied access to the inner mysteries by the English adepts. And only through applying directly to Mathers/Douglas was he allowed initiation. Although I'm not sure, I believe it was the last G.D. initiation that Crowley received at the hands of anybody but himself. So while exiled from his mother country's love, he proves that he was worthy of being let into the greater mysteries of adulthood by pointing to his quintessential experience of the Adeptus Minor grade. Clearly, this experience is compensatory. During this time he chooses to write a book about bringing a different order of being into the world, but does he choose Chesed or Geburah? No, rather he moves right back down the middle pillar to Yesod. The nature of the story is not one about unifying beauty, it is one of division and murder. It is one of splitting, abandonment and death, and the greater soul born out of this conflict is exiled to America in the hands of a woman who might as well be the witch from Hansel and Gretal. One is left to conjecture that this may be exactly how this cast-off son of Mother England is feeling while in America. This is the actual situation of his unconscious, which must be compensated for by the experience of everyday things as beauty. This is a sad, hurting man who has not resolved his mother conflict. Although he is brilliant, he will never live up to his potential because he is always answering to an unsatisfiable mother within. This forces him to split off his evil and destroy it rather than accept it and love it. And this leaves him an embittered man who finds slights where none are offered and attacks ferociously those who are closest to him. Our second question is what does this mean to us that Crowley, like us, was a human and may have had mother issues? Is it possible that this flawed tool could have brought through a worthy set of principles upon which to live? And the reason is found in, of all places, the Bible. For we are told here that it is the stone that is rejected that becomes the corner stone. Again and again it is the common --even the pathological -- that the divine uses as a messenger. Perhaps this is because we need to know that unlike religious dogma, the divine is not interested in perfection. Or maybe it is because the cast off and hurting will listen to the voice from the dark corner. Again it's possible that the divine wants us to see that we in all of our pathology may still reach for these principles. Whatever the purpose, the pattern out of world mythology -- including the Judaeo-Christian -- is that we should look to society's ne'er-do-wells for prophesy and enlightenment. And by this yardstick, who better than old uncle Al. "Do what thou wilt, shall be the whole of the Law."
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