Amado Crowley (1930–2010) was an English occult writer and magician who claimed to be the secret illegitimate son of occultist and mystic Aleister Crowley. During a period of over thirty years, from the early 1970s through 2000s, he self-published several books and some audiotapes.[1]
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Amado Crowley initially announced himself to the occult world via his adopted name, Amado Crowley, in 1971, when he was past the age of forty, through a statement sent to the publishers of the encyclopedia on the subject, Man, Myth & Magic.[2] However it would later be inferred from his 1991 book, The Secrets of Aleister Crowley, that his name was registered at birth as Andrew Standish.[1] [3] [4]
Like Aleister Crowley, Amado used and taught a syncretic mix of Western magical techniques along with Eastern methods including meditation and yoga. However, he maintained that the cornerstone of Aleister's religion of Thelema, The Book of the Law, was a fraud and that The Book of Desolation, a purported text given to him by Aleister, which has remained unpublished, is the only true Crowleyan holy writ.[5]
Crowley's biographers have found no documentary evidence regarding Amado's claim of descent from Aleister Crowley, and the claim is universally dismissed as bogus by Crowley scholars. Gerald Suster wrote:
"Amado claims in his book that Aleister taught him between the ages of 7 and 14: i.e.1937–1944. If so, why isn't there a single mention of this vital matter in Crowley's Diaries? There he records matters as trivial as the breaking of a tooth or the quality of his dinner: but he does not see fit to record meetings with an initiation of a son destined to be his successor."[6]
In 2010, the year of Amado Crowley's 80th birthday, an announcement appeared on his website at the end of May stating that he had died earlier that year.[7] Although some postings generalised that he died in France, official confirmation of the dates and circumstances of his death, as well as birth, remains unverified.