The Silver Star Associates Present:
CROWLEY NIGHT
In 2001, a group of friends in Brighton including Ulysses Black, Adrian Dobbie and Peter Grey (of Scarlet Imprint) hosted a night dedicated to the counter-culture and magician Aleister Crowley, at the enigmatic Hanbury Ballrooms in Brighton's Kemptown Village. In staging this event, the individuals, identifying themselves as the Silver Star Associates, collaborated with established counter-culture event organiser 'Occulture', with whom friendships and further collaborations still continue in one form or another.
The night itself featured talks by different individuals including Julian Vayne, visual material, Kenneth Anger film and the first public performance of the Hymn to Pan by Ulysses Black.
In publicising the event, we designed a series of 6 monochromatic flyers, upon the reverse of which was one of two different 'newspaper front pages' announcing the event. A text free teaser poster of Crowley peeping up from the bottom of the poster, was liberally posted months in advance, before a clearer poster with details emerged.
The event was well received, with presences by Brighton's various corners of the occult 'scene', from Thelemic, OTO, Chaos, to Pagan, to more obscure cults, to the plain curious and the frankly nuts.
The event was capped by notable occurrences including members of 'Amado Crowley's dubious organisation standing up and leaving in protest, only to come straight back in to hear the last part of the Hymn to Pan. Another interesting incident related to the Voodoo work one of the Silver Star Associates had been engaged with at the time, with emphasis on assisting putting on the night. During the post event clear-up a sheet of paper was found bearing an automatic scribble that clearly depicted gravestones and numerous shadow, figures in top hats and skull and crossbones. This was an immediate and unmistakable sign of recognition by the particular family of Voodoo Loa invited to attend.
It was a fascinating evening and all participants learnt a great deal. It might be considered a formative moment in our various magical careers.
As part of the promotional material for the event we produced 7 different double sided flyers with an idea of producing material people might want to keep and put on their wall. As of 2014 we still know people that have these images adorning the walls of their homes. We also produced a small pamphlet with excerpts from Crowley on the subjects Sex, Drugs and Enlightenment, which we each signed and given to the public as they as they entered.