Gerald Suster (2 August 1951 – 3 February 2001) was a British revisionist historian,

occult The occult () is a category of esoteric or supernatural beliefs and practices which generally fall outside the scope of organized religion and science, encompassing phenomena involving a 'hidden' or 'secret' agency, such as magic and mysti ...

writer, and novelist. He was best known for his biographies of

Aleister Crowley Aleister Crowley ( ; born Edward Alexander Crowley; 12 October 1875 – 1 December 1947) was an English occultist, ceremonial magician, poet, novelist, mountaineer, and painter. He founded the religion of Thelema, identifying himself as the pr ...

(''The Legacy of the Beast'') and

Israel Regardie Francis Israel Regardie (; né Regudy; November 17, 1907 – March 10, 1985) was an English and American occultist, ceremonial magician, and writer who spent much of his life in the United States. He wrote fifteen books on the subject of occultis ...

(''Crowley's Apprentice'').

Family life

Suster was born 2 August 1951 in

Hampstead Hampstead () is an area in London, England, which lies northwest of Charing Cross, located mainly in the London Borough of Camden, with a small part in the London Borough of Barnet. It borders Highgate and Golders Green to the north, Belsiz ...

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

, and was educated at

Highgate School Highgate School, formally Sir Roger Cholmeley's School at Highgate, is a co-educational, fee-charging, private day school, founded in 1565 in Highgate, London, England. It educates over 1,400 pupils in three sections – Highgate Pre-Preparato ...

and

Trinity Hall, Cambridge Trinity Hall (formally The College or Hall of the Holy Trinity in the University of Cambridge, colloquially "Tit Hall" ) is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1350, it is th ...

. Suster's father, Ilya Suster, an entrepreneur in the egg products industry, was born Ilya Shusterovich in

Harbin Harbin, ; zh, , s=哈尔滨, t=哈爾濱, p=Hā'ěrbīn; IPA: . is the capital of Heilongjiang, China. It is the largest city of Heilongjiang, as well as being the city with the second-largest urban area, urban population (after Shenyang, Lia ...

Manchuria Manchuria is a historical region in northeast Asia encompassing the entirety of present-day northeast China and parts of the modern-day Russian Far East south of the Uda (Khabarovsk Krai), Uda River and the Tukuringra-Dzhagdy Ranges. The exact ...

on 17 October 1914, grew up in

Hamburg Hamburg (, ; ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg,. is the List of cities in Germany by population, second-largest city in Germany after Berlin and List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, 7th-lar ...

, Germany, and emigrated with his family to the United Kingdom in 1938. Gerald Suster was married twice, in 1975 to Ann Nash (marriage dissolved) and in 1992 to Michaela Antonina Duncan (1948–2001).

Occult activities

While working in California Gerald Suster met

and

Gerald Yorke Major Gerald Joseph Yorke (10 December 1901 – 29 April 1983) was an English soldier and writer. He was a Reuters correspondent while in China for two years in the 1930s, and wrote a book ''China Changes'' (1936). Life Gerald Joseph Yorke was b ...

, two of the few remaining occultists who had studied directly under Aleister Crowley. Suster made great progress in

A∴A∴ The A∴A∴ ( ) is a magical organization established in 1907 by Aleister Crowley, a Western esotericist. Its members are dedicated to the advancement of humanity by perfection of the individual on every plane through a graded series of univ ...

, and became a well-known figure in the London occult and pagan scenes. He prefaced every speech & comment with the words: "Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law"; the immediate source of the utterance is the Book of the Law. In 1989 he became a tutor at Boarzell Tutorial College in Sussex; however his teaching career came to an abrupt end when he was featured in an exposé of his occult activities in the ''

News of the World The ''News of the World'' was a weekly national "Tabloid journalism#Red tops, red top" Tabloid (newspaper format), tabloid newspaper published every Sunday in the United Kingdom from 1843 to 2011. It was at one time the world's highest-selling ...

'' newspaper on 16 April 1989. Suster sued the paper for libel, citing extensive damage to his livelihood arising from the article and various lies by the reporter Chris Blythe.

News International News Corp UK & Ireland Limited (trading as News UK, formerly News International and NI Group) is a List of newspapers in the United Kingdom, British newspaper publisher, and a wholly owned subsidiary of the American mass media Conglomerate (c ...

paid £10,000 into court; Suster accepted the offer and got £80,000 of costs from them. After the case, Gerald Suster & his new wife went on honeymoon to Madrid. On their return, he focused on being a full-time author, producing books of biography, occultism, and erotica. He called his new occupation "my most productive period of creative writing". Suster died on 3 February 2001 in London. The Suster family buried the body in the ground of the local Anglican church. The Central London Pagan Scene held a goetic memorial for him in the upper room of The Princess Louise in Holborn, one of Suster's long-time haunts.

Bibliography

Fiction

*''The Devil's Maze'' (1979) *''The Elect'' (1980) *''The Scar'' (1981) *''The Offering'' (1982) *''The Block'' (1983) *''Stryker'' (1984) *''The Force'' (1984) *''The Handyman'' (1985) *''The God Game'' (1986) *''The Labyrinth of Satan'' (1997)

Non-fiction

*''Hitler and the Age of Horus'' (1981; in the United States as: ''Hitler: The Occult Messiah'') *''John Dee: Essential Readings'' (1986) *''Hitler: Black Magician'' (1987) *''The Legacy of the Beast: The Life, Work, and Influence of Aleister Crowley'' (1988) *''Crowley's Apprentice: The Life and Ideas of Israel Regardie'' (1989) *''Champions of the Ring: The Lives and Times of Boxing's Heavyweight Heroes'' (1992) *''Lightning Strikes: The Lives and Times of Boxing's Lightweight Heroes'' (1994) *''The Truth About the Tarot: A Manual of Practice and Theory'' (1996) *''The Generals: The Best and Worst Military Commanders'' (1997) *''The Hell-Fire Friars: Sex, Politics & Religion'' (2000)

References

External links

Fantastic fiction: Gerald Suster
*Mortimer, George T

{{DEFAULTSORT:Suster, Gerald 1951 births 2001 deaths People educated at Highgate School Alumni of Trinity Hall, Cambridge English occult writers English male novelists 20th-century English novelists 20th-century English historians 20th-century English male writers English male non-fiction writers