The Cecil Mysteries and Other Crowley Musings
http://visupview.blogspot.com/2019/12/the-cecil-mysteries-and-other-crowley.html
Making my second appearance on Auticulture this year with the great Jasun Horsley. This was an incredibly fun chat that covered a host of topics. A few subjects have become fairly common around these parts over the past few weeks –the Association of Former Intelligence Officers (AFIO) and the participants in the bizarre Las Vegas chapter, including Peter Levenda, Richard Doty, Colonel John Alexander, and Colonel Michael Aquino; To the Stars Academy; Kenneth Grant and the Typhonian tradition; the mysterious Sovereign Order of Saint John and Christian Identity "theology"; Jeffrey Epstein and neo-reaction.
However, about midway through we engaged in a discussion of Aleister Crowley and some of his more curious affiliates. I was quite pleased with this section as I felt this may provide a bit of a novel context to Crowley. I haven't written on Crowley much on this blog over the years in no small part because I didn't feel like I had much to add on the topic that many others haven't already said better. But after doing a little research on the Great Beast prior to this chat with fresh eyes, I began making some very curious connections, especially as it relates to the mysterious Cecil family.
. . .
The Cecil Family
The Cecil family has been one of the most powerful and influential in British society for nearly five hundred years. The man who turned it into a generations spanning dynasty is William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley. Cecil was one of the most powerful figures within the court of Elizabeth I, serving twice as as her secretary of state, Lord Privy Seal, and Lord High Treasurer. What's more, while Francis Walsingham tends to get the credit as Elizabeth's spymaster (and the de facto founder of MI6), he ultimately worked for Cecil.. Upon Walsingham's death, Cecil firmly took over much of the Elizabethan spy networks. Naturally, Cecil also had an interest in the mystical. He bestowed patronage upon alchemy and corresponded with John Dee, among other things.
The tradition of espionage was carried on by William's younger son from his second marriage, the hunchbacked Robert Cecil, 1st Earl of Salisbury. Robert inherited his father's spy network, and became intelligence chief of King James I. There has been much suspicion over the years concerning the role he played in the Gunpowder Plot.
It is the descendants of Robert –the Salisbury line –that he remained a preeminent power in England for centuries. In The Anglo-American Establishment, the always controversial Carroll Quigley described the family's influence as "all-pervasive in British life since 1886" (pg. 15). Per Quigley, the family's continual influence was due to three factors: (a) a triple-front penetration of politics, journalism, and education; (b) the recruitment of men of ability and linking them to the Cecil family via marriage, titles, and positions of power; and (c) Cecils and their allies being in positions that are shielded as much as possible from the public gaze.
Some of the leading families that have intermarried with the Cecils include the Grosvenors (Dukes of Westminster), the Balfours, Palmers (the Earls of Selborne), and the Cavendishs (who hold multiple titles). These families, along with other associated allies, formed what Quigley dubbed the "Cecil Bloc," though it may be more apt to say these families comprised the historic aristocracy that has ruled England for centuries. The Grosvenors and especially the Cavendishs have wielded tremendous power for any number of years as well.