"Is Detroit heaven?" Aleister Crowley asked his field organizer, Charles Stansfeld Jones. It certainly seemed so at the time: Bookman Albert W. Ryerson was selling Crowley's books and publishing the latest installment of "The Equinox." Several prominent masons were interested in establishing the Lakes Region of Ordo Templi Orientis. Jones was in high demand teaching classes on magick and Thelema.

But things turned suddenly sour. When slow sales dragged the Universal Book Stores into bankruptcy, the activities of the O.T.O. were luridly thrust onto the front pages of the daily news. "The Equinox" was declared obscene and all copies impounded. The O.T.O. love cult was blamed for everything from broken homes and Hollywood's wild parties to the mysterious murder of film director William Desmond Taylor.

This little-known chapter of Thelemic history is chronicled in the latest installment of "Blue Equinox Journal," featuring an original historical essay by Aleister Crowley biographer Richard Kaczynski; over 40 previously unpublished letters from Crowley and his circle; 25 newspaper article transcripts documenting what was later called the "mess in the press"; and much more.