Friends, I need to tell you about a magical battle. A showdown between two powerful experts in the occult arts. The combatants both

identified as magicians but they were not to be confused with purveyors of stage

illusions or masters of sleight of hand. These magicians practiced real magic. This was a magic drawn from ancient systems of

mystical knowledge. They were not entertainers peddling amusing tricks. Each man was a scholar with deep

knowledge of the arcane who had honed his magical will through hours of meditation

and solemn ceremonies.

These men truly believed that they could bend the laws of nature,

summon powerful spirits, and imbue objects with magical properties.

Now, you might assume that this earnest magical battle must have taken place in the far distant past.

Surely these magicians were ancient or medieval fellows,

living in a time in a place when a belief in magic was far more common. But you would be wrong about that. This particular

battle took place right at the dawn of the 20th century in the year 1900.

The magical combatants were none other than the celebrated Irish poet

William Butler Yates and the infamous occultist Alistair Crowley, the man eventually dubbed

The Wickedest Man in the World by English newspapers.

Both men were members of a secret society. newspapers. been founded in London in 1888 and was dedicated to the study of

occult knowledge and the development of so-called practical magic.

W.B. Yates had been an early initiate into this magical society.

He had risen through the ranks and by 1900 was one of the elite few who claimed membership

to the exclusive Second Order of adepts, a designation only conferred on the most skilled and learned magicians.

The younger Alistair Crowley, was a relative newcomer to the society, but in just a few

years he had managed to move through the various magical ranks of the society's first order with remarkable speed.

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