Few
people understand that one of the most notorious individuals in British
history may have contributed to the lineage of our current president.
Aleister Crowley, a.k.a., "The Great Beast 666" -- the infamous practitioner
of "sex magick" whose motto was "Do What Thou Wilt" -- came to know a great
many remarkable people, including the maternal grandmother of George W.
Bush. "Know," in this case, may be taken in the Biblical sense. Evidence
points to the disturbing possibility that he was the true father of Barbara
Bush, the former First Lady and mother to George W. Bush.
The story may seem difficult to believe at first, until one learns more
about the social inter-relations that tied together these unlikely parties.
Specifically, we must focus on a fascinating woman named Pauline Pierce,
born Pauline Robinson -- whose third child was named Barbara.
Most sources divulge little about this woman. We learn more about her
husband Marvin Pierce, the president of the McCall Corporation, which
published
McCall's magazine and
Redbook. He married Pauline, a
beautiful young socialite, in 1919. Their first child, Martha, was born the
next year; the second, James, was born in 1921. At this time, Aleister
Crowley inhabited what must have seemed a very different world, as he
embarked upon the great communal experiment of the Abbey of Thelema in
Italy.
Pauline,
however, had a hidden side -- what we might call (without intending any
judgment or insult) a
wild side. We
get a whiff of it from this
Wikipedia entry:
W magazine once described her as "beautiful, fabulous, critical, and
meddling" and "a former beauty from Ohio with extravagant tastes"...
Rumors that Pauline had an affair with Dwight D. Eisenhower have never
been verified... Still, gossip tabloids from the '40s often associated
her with prominent men in politics and film.
I have not yet been able to acquire independent confirmation of the
Eisenhower liaison, although I personally see no reason to doubt that it
existed. However, we may well have reason to believe that she began her
"experimental" period before the 1940s.
A
sixth-level initiate within the OTO (the Ordo Templi Orientis, the mystical
society that Crowely came to head in the 1920s) first set me down this
research path by revealing that Pauline Robinson had befriended an woman
named Nellie O'Hara, an American adventuress who, at some point during her
European travels, met the famed writer Frank Harris. Despite his advancing
years, Harris still maintained a reputation for sexual excess that rivaled
Crowley's. During this period (1919-1927), Nellie and Frank Harris lived as
man and wife, although they could not actually wed because Harris' second
wife was still alive and would not grant a divorce.
Harris and Crowley were good friends. Not only that: At this time, and not
for the last time, Crowley was very much the proverbial "friend in need."
During the Abbey period, a Crowley follower had accidentally died during a
magickal ceremony. The incident created a firestorm of unwanted publicity
(the sensationalist British press labeled Crowley "The Wickedest Man in the
World"), which prompted Mussolini's government to expel Crowley and his
followers from Italian soil. By 1924, he lived in poverty in France, where
Frank Harris kindly took him under his roof. This arrangement inevitably
brought Crowley into contact with Nellie.
Crowley's diaries, to which I have been given access, clearly indicate that
he depended on Harris for financial assistance:
January 3rd 1924 - "No luck about cash yet: but F.H. promises 500 fr
to-morrow - so that I can bolt to Paris. One step onward to the
Establishment of the Law of Thelema.
The money soon ran out, and AC (as his associates called him) soon had to
ask his friend for further assistance. At this time, Harris was writing his
multi-volume "erotic autobiography,"
My
Life and Loves; he also purchased a newspaper,
The Evening Telegram. But he lacked
the resources and management skills to make the enterprise a success, and
soon found himself in a financial position no better than Crowley's.
Despite his parlous economic circumstances, Crowley focused his attention on
sex magick. Not many years previously, he and a follower named Jeanne Foster
(a.k.a. Soror Hilarion) had conducted a sex-magickal rite designed to give
birth to a child destined to carry on Crowley's work. I have not been able
to determine whether he conducted similar experiments with Nellie, although
given the polyamorous proclivities of all the parties involved, one should
not discount the possibility.
Nellie's friend Pauline no doubt scandalized her social circle by traveling
to France on her own and leaving two very young children in the care of
nursemaids. However, her correspondence with her friend -- whose life in
France with a famous literary figure must have seemed quite glamorous -- can
only have inspired a sense of wanderlust. Her husband, increasingly bound to
his duties with the McCall Corporation, did not share this spirit of
adventure.
Thus it was that four individuals came together: Frank Harris, Nellie
O'Hara, Pauline Pierce, and Aleister Crowley. Anyone who has studied
Crowley's life will understand that what happened next was, in a sense,
inevitable.
Crowley's diaries for this period record the initials "PVN," a cryptic
reference to his favorite sexual position, which some of his partners found
distasteful. (The letters derive from the Latin for "By way of the Infernal
Entrance.") This is a common annotation in the records of Crowley's magical
practices. We also find the strange initials "ECL." After researching the
matter for some time, I have come to the conclusion that this is a reference
to the practice known as "Eroto-Comotose Lucidity."
Before proceeding, I should emphasize that the year 1924 has a special
significance in the Crowley chronology. At this time, he is said to have
undergone the "supreme ordeal" connected with his attainment of the Grade of
Ipsissimus, the highest magickal achievement within his order. The exact
nature of this ordeal remains mysterious. I believe that an important clue
can be found in his description of the rite of Eroto-Comotose Lucidity:
The Candidate is made ready for the Ordeal by general athletic training,
and by feasting. On the appointed day he is attended by one or more
chosen and experienced attendants whose duty is (a) to exhaust him
sexually by every known means (b) to rouse him sexually by every known
means. Every device and artifice of the courtesan is to be employed, and
every stimulant known to the physician. Nor should the attendants reck
of danger, but hunt down ruthlessly their appointed prey.
Finally the Candidate will into a sleep of utter exhaustion, resembling
coma, and it is now that delicacy and skill must be exquisite. Let him
be roused from this sleep by stimulation of a definitely and exclusively
sexual type. Yet if convenient, music wisely regulated will assist.
The attendants will watch with assiduity for signs of waking; and the
moment these occur, all stimulation must cease instantly, and the
Candidate be allowed to fall again into sleep; but no sooner has this
happened than the former practice is resumed. This alteration is to
continue indefinitely until the Candidate is in a state which is neither
sleep nor waking, and in which his Spirit, set free by perfect
exhaustion of the body, and yet prevented from entering the City of
Sleep, communes with the Most High and the Most Holy Lord God of its
being, maker of heaven and earth.
The Ordeal terminates by failure---the occurrence of sleep invincible---
or by success, in which ultimate waking is followed by a final
performance of the sexual act. The Initiate may then be allowed to
sleep, or the practice may be renewed and persisted in until death ends
all. The most favourable death is that occurring during the orgasm, and
is called Mors Justi.
As it is written: Let me die the death of the Righteous, and let my last
end be like his!
If he did undergo this "ordeal" in 1924, then we must presume that his key
associates of that time -- including Nellie and Pauline -- functioned as his
assistants.
Pauline returned to America in early October of 1924. On June 8, 1925, she
gave birth to a girl named Barbara. Barbara Pierce married George H.W. Bush,
who eventually became the 41st President of the United States.
But who was Barbara's father? The chronology indicates that it could have
been Crowley, but it could just as easily have been Marvin Pierce. The truth
regarding Crowlean sexual rituals is disclosed only to the highest initiates
of the OTO, in a document misleadingly titled "Emblems and Modes of Use."
Is
Aleister Crowley the father of Barbara Bush? Even she may not know for
certain; indeed, I have no way of knowing whether she has ever been told
that this possibility exists. However, more than one person has noted the
resemblance -- and this resemblance is not just physical. Many will recall
the former First Lady's haughty and thoughtless remarks in the aftermath of
the Katrina disaster. Those "in the know" were reminded of Aleister
Crowley's similar reaction to the loss of life which occurred during the
ascent of Kangchanjunga, an expedition he commanded: "This is precisely the
sort of thing with which I have no sympathy whatsoever."
I leave the matter for the reader to decide.