GALLERY

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Martha Küntzel: (1857-1942) was a German author who also translated writings of occult interest, including many of Crowley’s. She became an admirer of Crowley’s and, as a devout Thelemite, played an important role in the spread of Thelema in Germany.

By trait, Küntzel was a piano teacher, but in her later years she became increasingly interested in the occult sciences and joined the Theosophical Society, where she studied the works of Franz Hartmann and Helena Blavatsky. She later contributed to the journal Theosophische Kultur, the successor to Heinrich Tränker’s Theosophischer Zentralbuchhandlung.

Küntzel met Crowley in June of 1925 at the Weida Conference. She was immediately impressed by Crowley and became an adherent of Thelema.  Approximately one year later, at the age of 74, Küntzel joined the A∴A∴—taking the magical motto Ich Will Es (abbreviated I.W.E.), which means “I will it”.  Ten years later, she was recognized as a Magister Templi.

Küntzel was also a member of the Nazi Party and allegedly sent Hitler a copy of her own translation of Liber AL with her commentary attached.  For a time she considered Crowley as the mystical world leader and Hitler as the temporal one.

She wrote to Crowley:

“You are completely right. I cannot think politically. I never cared for politics except during the time of Hitler’s rising […]. I became a fervent admirer of his and will remain so until my end. I believed that his thoughts were in accord with the law of Thelema….”

However, Küntzel would ultimately become disillusioned with the Führer after he banned all masonic and magical orders from Germany.

Francis King wrote that Küntzel explained the line “Sacrifice cattle, little and big: after a child” from Liber AL (III.12) as meaning the sacrifice of oneself spiritually. She added, “The intelligence and innocence of the male child are the perfect understanding of the Magician, his one aim, without lust of the result. And Male he must be, because what is sacrificed is not the material blood, but the creative power”.[1]

She maintained a regular correspondence with Crowley until 1941.

According to her student Friedrich Lekve, Küntzel died on December 8, 1942 in a retirement home for former teachers in Bad Blankenburg , where she had been living since 1937.

[1] Francis King, Sexuality, Magic and Perversion. Citadel Press, 1971. (p. 89)

Küntzel’s Published Works:

1. Die Gedanken als Schöpfer unseres Schicksals.^[1]Thoughts As Creators Of Our Destiny Theosophischer Kultur-Verlag, Leipzig 1923. New edition is available (and one can even find it on eBay): Graz 2013, ISBN 978-3-902881-44-1.
2. Die Erziehung des Kindes^[2]The Education Of A Child. Theosophischer Kultur-Verlag, Leipzig 1925.

Küntzel’s Translated Works:

1. Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, Aleister Crowley: Liber LXXI. Die Stimme der Stille. Die beiden Pfade. Die sieben Tore. Mit einem Kommentar von Meister Therion. Thelema-Verlags-Gesellschaft, Leipzig 1928.
2. Aleister Crowley: Buch 4. Thelema-Verlags-Gesellschaft, Leipzig 1927. 2 Bde. Teil 1: Mystik. Teil 2: Magick. Psychosophische Gesellschaft, Zürich 1964.
3. Aleister Crowley: Kurze einführende Aufsätze. Thelema-Verlags-Gesellschaft, Leipzig 1927.
4. Aleister Crowley: Berashith = Berašit. Thelema-Verlags-Gesellschaft, Leipzig 1928.
5. Aleister Crowley: Die Botschaft des Meisters Therion. Übersetzt von Karl Germer und Martha Küntzel. Thelema-Verlags-Gesellschaft, Leipzig 1928. Enthält: Liber 837: Das Gesetz der Freiheit. Liber 150: De lege libellum. Die Methode von Thelema von Gérard Aumont.
6. Aleister Crowley: Die wache Welt. Eine Geschichte für kleine Kinder und Säuglinge. Mit erklärenden Rand-Bemerkungen in Hebräisch und Latein, zum Gebrauch der Weisen unde Verständigen. Thelema-Verlags-Gesellschaft, Leipzig 1928.
7. Aleister Crowley: Wissenschaft und Buddhismus. Thelema-Verlags-Gesellschaft, Leipzig 1928.
8. Gérard Aumont: Die drei Schulen der Magie. Genossenschaft Psychosophia, Zürich 1956.
9. Aleister Crowley: Harpokrates – Annahme d. Gottform. Psychosophische Gesellschaft in d. Schweiz, Stein AR 1956.
10. Aleister Crowley: Liber Aleph vel CXI. Das Buch von Weisheit und Narrheit; in Form einer Epistel von 666 dem großen wilden Tier an seinen Sohn 777. Ansata, München 2003, ISBN 3-7787-7243-0.

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