Lam and the idealized potrait of Crowley

The image of Lam as drawn by Crowley in 1918. The forehead contains some interesting patterns in the shading.


"The Portrait of Lam is an unusual drawing which made its closed circuit debut as the frontispiece to Liber 71being Crowley’s commentary on The Voice of the Silence by Theosophy founder Madame Blavatsky which was published in Vol. III No 1 of The Equinox. The inscription on the Lam frontispiece was titled, ”The Way” and further said:

LAM in the Tibetan word for Way or Path, and LAMA is He who Goeth, the specific title of the Gods and Egypt, the Treader of the Path, in Buddhistic phraseology. Its numerical value is 71, the number of this book.

The portrait was then made more public by its later inclusion in Crowley’s Dead Souls exhibition that was held in Greenwich Village, New York of the same year. Interestingly, many who see the Lam portrait often compare it to what has become known as a “Grey,” being the term used to refer to a specific species of alien often found and referred to by Ufologists. Greys are said to be extraterrestrial beings who have a small mouth and chin, an egg shaped head with a large cranium, and oversized blackened almond shaped eyes. They are also said to be of a short stature and grey in color hence their name. The Greys are the most common and recognizable alien depiction found in the media today." - as featured in Episode #26 - Gods and Aliens


The image of Lam is similar in appearance to the idealized self portrait Crowley did (shown below) which became the frontispiece to the confessions of Aleister Crowley edited by John Symonds and Kenneth Grant.