Aleister Crowley Quotes
This serpent, SATAN, is not the enemy of Man, but He who made Gods of our race, knowing Good and Evil; He bade 'Know Thyself!' and taught Initiation.
Crowley, Aleister. Magick in Theory and Practice. Lecram Press, 1929, p. 295.
The Spanish had brought the potato back from the New world in the 16th century. However, Europeans did not change their food customs easily and the potato was not a major food. The fact that it was always in the dirt did not give an aura of cleanliness. The exact theology of the Church causing such opposition to the potato may have been the fact that eating the clean green leaves would sicken humans and sometimes kill them. Another theory was brought on by the Little Ice Age which caused the usual grain crops to fail. The cold weather was clearly a punishment by God for man’s sins. However, the potato would survive the very cold winters when God wanted the people’s crops to fail. Therefore, the Devil must be protecting the potato and thwarting Gods will. Hence, it was the Devil’s plant. The Little Ice Age was so extreme that there was almost no food available for the winter and starvation—the wrath of God—was rampant. People in desperation turned to the Devil’s plant and it saved millions of lives. Shortly, in countries like Ireland, the potato became the major source of food and nutrition, despite the church. However, after a while the prelates were starving also, and decided that the potato might not be the Devil’s plant after all. The king of France would publicly eat potatoes to get his people to plant and eat the new crop which had saved Germany and other parts of Europe.
Aleister Crowley was an English occultist, ceremonial magician, poet, painter, novelist, and mountaineer. He founded the religion of Thelema, identifying himself as the prophet entrusted with guiding humanity into the Æon of Horus in the early 20th century. A prolific writer, he published widely over the course of his life.
