From Jennifer Emick,
Your Guide to Alternative Religions.
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Sadly, Carrie is not the only person who thought to educate me with quotations. Reader Alan writes, apparently in response to out Aleister Crowley FAQ:

"I must say I was suprised to see such a Pro-Crowley article from About.com. It is very obvious that Aleister Crowley wasn't misunderstood for what he stood for-right! His writings tell us verbatim who he was, his experiences and writings show us who he was and what he preached. "{Jennifer: indeed they do, which is why I am surprised to see one claiming such promoting a website filled with misinformation, half-truth, and outright prevarication, when those very same writings are available for free and can easily be consulted.}

MAGICK in Theory and Practice, by The Master Therion (Aleister Crowley):

"But the bloody sacrifice, though more dangerous, is more efficacious; and for nearly all purposes human sacrifice is the best. The animal should therefore be killed within the Circle, or the Triangle, as the case may be, so that its energy cannot escape. An animal should be selected whose nature accords with that of the ceremony--thus, by sacrifcing a female lamb one would not obtain any appreciate quantity of the fierce energy useful to a Magician who was invoking Mars. In such acase a ram would be more suitable. And this ram should be virgin--the whole potential of its original total energy should not have been diminished in any way. For the highest spiritual working one must accordingly choose that victim which contains the greatest and purest force. A male child of perfect innocence and high intelligence is the most satisfactory and suitable victim."

The Book of the Law, by Aleister Crowley: With my Hawk's head I peck at the eyes of Jesus as he hangs upon the cross......

There is no law beyond Do what thou wilt.

Here is the full article & webpage showing these quotes if you are interested:

http://www.the7thfire.com/new_world_order/Freemasonry/aliester_crowley_33_degree_Mason_knew_about_human_sacrifice.htm

I like how Bob Dylan put it: ..."it may be the Devil, or it even may be the Lord, but you're gonna have to serve somebody"...

We can't serve all! This is not tolerance, this is laziness! Whether we even decide to choose or not, we are still serving somebody..."

What irritates me most about this one is that the article he saw but seems not to have read actually debunks this staple of Masonic-trashing websites- the devil worshipping, child sacrificing, evil Freemason Aleister Crowley. My response to Alan:

Hi Alan. I'll say this: when you cherry-pick quotations out of context, you can make just about anything out of a book. If you were to actually read the book, or even the chapter this is taken from, he's describing the religious/spiritual impetus behind animal sacrifice, a very longstanding religious tradition. The remarks about children were addressed at length in the article you're writing to me about- and had nothing whatsoever to do with actual human sacrifice, as should have been apparent by reading it. One could even discover that by reading the book itself, as it is explained by Crowley himself in the footnotes on the same page of every published edition.

The laziness here is not mine, I assure you.

Further, your quotes from the book of the law are taken out of context and out of sequence, and you quote the law of Thelema without its corollary of any of the usual accompanying exegesis. I gather I'm supposed to read it and experience some sort of "aha" moment, but being very well versed in Crowley's philosophical and moral outlook, that trick does not work on me. (For quite the same reason that a quote from Psalms 137 would not lead me to conclude that the Judeo-Christian tradition espouses human sacrifice.) The same entry that puts to bed the sacrifice myth also deals with the notion of "do what thou wilt," which as a doctrine explicitly forbids murder.

*To those who attempt to prove various conspiratorial points using quotes collected from the internet, I'll say this: you'll have more luck if you stick to folks who don't actually own the books. (It also helps to crack one or two open and check and see what's written there!)

Further, arguing with quotes is intellectually lazy, a great shining sign you carry that says, "I was too busy too spend any time looking into this, but because it was enough for me, I expect you to take it at face value in leu of the argument I am far too importantly busy to make." This method all but guarantees that you'll be ridiculed, and that the only people who do accept your claims at face value are people who aren't terribly interested in the truth to begin with.