29.11

Jude 12—Clouds without Water

Aleister Crowley (1875–1947) was a British aficionado of the occult who founded the religion of Thelema and identified himself as the prophet who would lead humanity into the aeon of Horus. He in said to have been influential on Anton LeVey’s conception of satanism and on L. Ron Hubbard’s development of Scientology.

In 1910 Crowley published a book of poems titled Clouds without Water, and in case people would not notice the allusion to Jude 12, he printed Jude 12–13 (from the KJV) as an inscription on the first page:

Clouds they are without water; carried about of winds; trees whose fruit withereth, without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots; raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame; wandering stars, to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever.

Apparently, Crowley chose this title and inscription in an attempt to goad or mock the pious who regarded him as the sort of false teacher about whom Jude had wanted to warn his readers.