The Dark Side of the Sun: The Great Beast, Monstrosity and Solar Narratives

From Mega Therion, to The Great Beast 666 and even Little Sunshine, Aleister Crowley, the renowned occultist from the turn of the twentieth century, went by many names (and many more than those mentioned). Still to this day often hailed by some as ‘The Wickedest Man in the World’, he was among many things, a self-styled solar myth. All manner of deities have been accused of being ‘moral monsters’ and perhaps it is no surprise that making one’s personal goal the embodiment of solar mythos, Crowley’s life story itself is analogous of the problem of evil. The will to power has often been a philosophy courted by those attracted to the dark and chthonic aspects of the divine. However, as diametrically opposed to the chthonic as the sun appears to be, the sun is in truth dual, with its own dark side. It is the giver of life and light, but equally, can bring suffering, pain and even death. The sun is, by its very nature, amoral, so if every man and every woman truly is a star, perhaps the search for transcendence could make monsters of us all.