What the devil...?: Aleister Crowley

Hedge fund manager linked to Satanism shock! It is an arresting headline, and I think I can make it work, courtesy of Jonathan Allum, of KBC Financial Products, and his regular e-mail. Patrick Degorce, former French naval officer and the co-founder, along with Christopher Hohn, of The Children’s Investment Fund, has just re-emerged with his new hedge fund Theleme Partners. Degorce famously wrote the letter to ABN Amro that thrust the bank into the arms of Royal Bank of Scotland. Allum has been mulling over the name of his new vehicle. It is generally reckoned to refer to the Abbey of Theleme in Gargantua, by the 16th-century writer Rabelais, a utopia where the only rule was “Fay Ce Voudras”, or “Do What You Will”. This was taken up by the 18th-century rake and alleged Satanist Sir Francis Dashwood, and thence by Aleister Crowley, a genuine Satanist and nasty piece of work, who founded the Abbey of Thelema (sic) in Sicily where his adherents did, indeed, do pretty much what they wanted until Mussolini kicked them out in 1923. “Which has, I am sure, nothing to do with Mr Degorce’s hedge fund”, Allum writes hurriedly.

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/columnists/article6901749.ece?openComment=true