History of the Occult

The occult course is led by a striking gentleman of thirty or forty years with a neatly trimmed mustache and beard. He also-- perhaps unfortunately-- bears the moniker Alexander Crowley, very similar to that of one -Aleister Crowley,- who was declared "The Wickedest Man In the World" in a 1923 article by John Bull for his alleged "corruption of children" amidst his infamous occult activities. It has been written that Crowley (the old one, 1875-1947) engaged in all manners of sexual deviance, was a notorious **** user, and claimed himself a prophet for the Egyption god Horus.

"Of course, he claimed himself quite a lot of things indeed," states Professor Crowley (the one in front of me now). "A communer of spirits, a wielder of so-called 'sex magick...'" The professor curls his fingers for effect.

The final slide clicks off the projector screen and the lights go back on.

"Next time we'll go a little more in depth about Aleister Crowley and also introduce you to other infamous occultists of the day," he announces, "See you all Wednesday. Oh, and before I forget; I've left a list of literary references by the door should any of you like to do a little independent research. You might want to start now, in fact; there will be a paper due in fifth week."

I start to leave, but Rose says she'll be just a minute, and skips down the auditorium to talk one-on-one with the professor. I wait for her outside, and am a little surprised to see her emerge minutes later with several booklets in addition to the references.

"What's all that?"

"Dr Crowley gave me some extra reference material to look through," she explains, desperately cramming her new loot into her backpack. "This is so cool!"

"You sound almost like you believe that stuff," I tell her, "As if anyone could commune with spirits and devils and use 'sex magick'-- whatever that is?"

Rose just laughs aloud and calls me silly. "No...no, of course not! I just think...it's cool..."

I don't suppose I should be so surprised. Now that I think of it, she does have a lot of horror movies on her shelf. It's all in good fun, I guess.

"That was your last class today, right?" I ask, "Let's go home?"

"Er...actually, I'd really like to go to the library and...check some of these references out...?"

I give her a look. And -her- look is positively embarrassed...or guilty.

"I'm kind of hungry, actually..." I mutter.

"Oh pleeeease!" she cries, "I promise it won't take that long!"