Gary Val Tenuta's Page

My debut novel, The Ezekiel Code, now available on Kindle as well as paperback:

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The cover of my current work-in-progress:

To say that Aleister Crowley (1875 - 1947) was an unusual man would be to grossly understate the case. During his lifetime the British press once labeled him "The Wickedest Man In The World". His own mother even called him The Beast, a reference to the AntiChrist as described in the Bible's book of Revelation. Indeed, he counted the number 666 among his favorites. As a practioner of the Dark Arts (or MAGICK, as it called by initiates of the Craft) he was a master.

Notorious for his use of narcotics, his heterosexual, bisexual, and homosexual escapades (more often than not as part of his magickal rituals) and for his lengthy, critical, and insightful writings on the nature of ritual magick, Aleister Crowley became arguably the most important figure in all of modern-day occultism.

Our tale, however, begins not with the life of Aleister Crowley but with his death.

Crowley died financially broke and heroine addicted, at the age of 72 on December 1, 1947 in the comfort of a large estate called Netherwood on the southern coast of England. In accordance with his wishes, his body was cremated. Now, ordinarily that would be the end of it. But nothing in the life - or, apparently, even in the death - of Aleister Crowley was ordinary. Here is what is said to have happened:

The cinerary urn containing Crowley's ashes was sent to a man named Karl Germer in New Jersey. Germer was a wealthy German living in America. He and Crowley had been members of the Ordo Templi Orientis (OTO), an occult organization with links to the Order of the Rosicrucians. Germer became one of Crowley's most dedicated followers. And, since Crowley had a talent for squandering away whatever money he managed to scrape together, Germer provided him with a livable income for many years.

When Germer received Crowley's cinerary urn he buried it on his property, in a garden, under a tall pine tree. Some time later he decided to move from his home in New Jersey to sunny California. He planned to take Crowley's ashes with him and rebury them in Malibu. That plan, however, met its own strange fate and spawned a mystery that has remained unsolved... until now.

­­­­­ Excerpt from the Introduction to Ash: Return of the Beast, an occult mystery crime thriller by Gary Val Tenuta.

The novel is in progress and should be available in 2010.
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The novelization of the above factual information will carry the reader through a series of the most curious (and sometimes unsettling) events spanning the years from Crowley's death ­ and subsequent cremation ­ in 1947, to the 90s and the coming of age (and eventual stardom) of a heavy-metal rocker named Rodney Duckworth, and onward to the present day where Brian Kane, a gritty, street-worn Seattle police lieutenant, reluctantly teams up with Rowena Ravenwood, an attractive (and oddly talented) FBI Special Agent, to figure out why good, God-fearing preachers in their fair city are keeling over like flies. And what are those strange symbols tatooed on the deceased bodies of these happless victims?

It has been said that truth is often stranger than fiction ­ which is why, dear reader, as you wind your way through the twists and turns of this diabolical tale you may find yourself wondering just where the truth ends and the fiction begins.

The twists of fate, I dare say, are the strangest twists of all.

Ash: Return of the Beast

By Gary Val Tenuta

Coming... 2010

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