Diary of a Drug Fiend (1922) (ISBN 0-87728-146-7), was Aleister Crowley's first published novel. The text's copyright is owned by the mystical organization Crowley once lead, the Ordo Templi Orientis[1]. The story is widely thought to be based upon Crowley's own drug experiences, despite being written as a fiction. This seems almost conclusively confirmed by Crowley's Preface statement to the novel: "This is a true story. It has been rewritten only so far as was necessary to conceal personalities" Crowley's own excessive drug usage and personal struggle with addiction, particularly heroin, is well documented. Crowley made a study of drugs and their effects upon the body and mind, experimenting widely himself. Many of his conclusions are present within this novel. The story follows Peter Pendragon and Unlimited Lou,a couple passionately in love, as they fall head-first into a drugs binge across Europe. The novel however, is more than just the telling of a drug-trip. Diary of a Drug Fiend encapsulates much of Crowley's core philosophy concerning 'Thelema' or 'Will' The main protagonists find themselves desperate after their drug supply diminishes. The particulars of their desperate addiction and cravings are documented in realistic detail. The pair however, are saved from destruction by an adept Magician named King Lamus (perhaps an idealised self-portrait by Crowley). This mysterious and charismatic figure frees Pendragon and Lou from their addictions through the use of Magickal techniques, aimed at mastering the True Will and releasing the individual from indiscipline, destructive self-impulses and craving. Aleister Crowley, born Edward Alexander Crowley (12 October 1875 – 1 December 1947) was an occultist, mystic, hedonist and sexual revolutionary. ... Ordo Templi Orientis (O.T.O.) (Order of the Temple of the East, or the Order of Oriental Templars) is an international fraternal and religious organization. ... The Three Graces, here in a painting by Sandro Botticelli, were the goddesses of charm, beauty, nature, human creativity and fertility in Greek mythology. ... Heroin or diacetylmorphine (INN) is a semi-synthetic opioid. ... Europe is conventionally considered one of the seven continents of Earth which, in this case, is more a cultural and political distinction than a physiographic one, leading to some dispute as to Europes actual borders. ... Thelema is the English transliteration of the Ancient Greek noun θέλημα: will, from the verb ἐθέλω: to will, wish, purpose. ...

Diary of a Drug Fiend is also reportedly the earliest known reference to the goings on at the Abbey of Thelema in Sicily. [2] The Abbey of Thelema was a temple founded by Aleister Crowley in a rented villa at Cefalu, Sicily in 1920. ... Sicily (Sicilia in Italian and Sicilian) is an autonomous region of Italy and the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, with an area of 25,700 sq. ...

External links

• Google Books listing
• Amazon.com listing
• Library of Congress online catalog