Gerald Suster (1951-2001)

‘Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law’

Gerald Suster, died in his home on Saturday the 3rd February. Gerald was very proud
of his status as a professional writer. It was a niche he had carved out for himself
after the media destroyed his earlier career as a schoolteacher. Erudite and totally
committed to the great work, he was also a maverick with an alarming propensity for
self-destruction. As a callow eighteen-year-old he corresponded with Israel
Regardie, turning up unannounced at the great magi’s Californian home. He was to
become Regardie’s student of all things Golden Dawn, eventually writing his
teacher’s biography. Gerald wrote several further magical monographs, including a
study of the tarot and a biography of the other great influence on his life, Aleister
Crowley. As a novelist he was no mean scribbler, producing half a dozen mid range
occult thrillers. As Alan Dale, he wrote, no doubt assisted by his wife Michaela, a
dozen 1890s erotic romps.

He was a feature at many a magical conference where he mercilessly wound up the

speakers with his acerbic wit and incisive questions. I remember Gerald bursting onto
the stage at the 1988 Golden Dawn centennial conference, saying he’d come to
reclaim the event ‘on behalf of the living’. No magical order could hold such a
personality for long and with some success he gathered his own devoted group of
initiates under the banner of the Company of Heaven. How can I end this but as
Gerald himself invariably ended any utterance that meant anything to him, ‘Love is
the law’ ‘Love under will’ - Mogg