I agree with you about the generalized Gardnerized 'wicca' movement that grew in Crowly's wake. Sometimes I imagine all of that as a sort of inside practical joke.
I also agree with you on the concepts of 'power' and 'control' over elements that most of us haven't the remotest clue just how primordial they are.
We're blessed now with the gift of learned hindsight.
Think of the set and setting he existed in at that time and what he had to work with that was readily available to him.
Yes, some of us have had the blessings of deeper genetic ties to the underpinnings of what was far later bastardized into the publicized Abrahamic system of corrupted western thought for the masses - but he wasn't - and still warped the timeline, for better and worse, for a century after, and by the force of his Will alone, as fucked as it was.
He brought the 'greys' in, for one example.
Lessons ready to learn brought by those who dared before us I say.
WE have so much more at our fingertips now, including the gifts of hindsight.
There's lots of werk to do, I imagine.
Personally I think Gardner did more harm than good in the long run imo. The rest of your post I agree with completely
Any time someone tried to link me to the Gardner cult, or the Crowley line of magic, I got a real uneasy feeling.
To the point that one of my friends insisted that we go down to the Hate and Ashbery Streets of San Francisco,
there was a couple of shops they wanted to visit. Okay, no problem. Except, when we walked into one shop, my
'shields' when up (that is the closest word I can use to describe it).
I walked around looking at the different books, while my friends went to get what they had decided on.
Except one of the managers walked over to me and stopped about three feet away. Talk about a
'Flare in my Shields'... whatever he was into was giving me a major headache. He looked and me and said very
straightforwardly... "We don't allow your kind in our store."
I asked him what he meant by that... he said that they do not allow White Witches in their store. He said that
I was setting off half the crystals in the store and he would appreciate it if I would wait outside.
He took two steps forward and my internal 'Witchy Alarm' when off big time. I quickly left.
I found out later that the basement of the shop was where they held a lot of 'Crowley Masses'.
I have never gone back to that area since.
