Comments | peristera: Someone who has "The Great Beast" by John Symonds . . .

peristera

Someone who has "The Great Beast" by John Symonds . . .

Mar 15, 2006 10:45

I need this quote checked against the text and a page number ( Read more... )

Comments 5

mc156 March 15 2006, 08:36:27 UTC

Do you know which version this is supposedly in? John rewrote and revised (adding and subtracting portions) every time the book was published...

peristera March 15 2006, 08:38:07 UTC

No I don't. If you have a copy of the work (any version) I need a steamy quote about the serpent's kiss - whether it matches this quote exactly or not.

mc156 March 15 2006, 09:31:41 UTC

Well, he usually did not bite women on the neck, but on the wrist. If you're looking specifically for sensationalism, try the yellow press about him. However, there are also these two references to one occassion of bestowing the kiss...

A Magick Life, A Biography of Aleister Crowley by Martin Booth (London: Hodder and Stoughton 200) On pg. 434 it mentions Crowley's meeting with Nancy Cunard "whom he was said to have interrupted in mid-conversation with a request that he be permitted to give her a Serpent's Kiss. She acquiesced, whereupon Crowley bit her on the wrist. Later, she claimed the bite had given her blood poisoning."

The Private World of St. John Terrapin by Chapman Pincher (London: Sidgwick & Jackson 1982), pg. 165 mentions St. John Terrapin witnessing Crowley giving Cunard the Serpent's Kiss. He states, "I saw him on one occassion seize the arm of a lady companion - the heiress Nancy Cunard, with whom he was friendly - and bite her wrist, drawing blood and a cry of pain."

peristera March 15 2006, 11:20:41 UTC

I actually have Cunard's own account of that incident. I am looking for Symonds' account in particular as the source of the sensationalism.

(The comment has been removed)

peristera March 30 2006, 16:06:53 UTC

I found it quoted on a website and attributed to The Great Beast, John Symonds. I don't have a copy of the book.