Aleister Crowley, a gnostic poet, painter, writer, and magician, arrived in Berlin in 1930 as a prophet of his syncretic religion "Thelema." He sought to be among the leaders of art and thought, and Berlin, the liberated future-gazing metropolis, wanted him. Crowley lived in Berlin until his hurried departure on June 22, 1932, as Hitler was rapidly rising to power and the black curtain of intolerance came down upon the city. In this biographical history, Churton presents "the Beast" in all his ambiguous and terrifying glory, at a blazing, seminal moment in the history of the world.