Like Dumbledore and Voldemort in the Ministry of Magic, WB Yeats and Aleister Crowley engaged in a magical duel that ended less than magically when Yeats kicked Crowley down a flight of stairs.
I don’t think I can love this story more. At the Battle of Blythe Road, Yeats and Crowley – two members of a a secret order called the Hermetic Students of the Golden Dawn – battled after Yeats concluded that Crowley should be ejected from the group. Refusing to accept his ouster, Crowley schemed to wrest control of the group away from Yeats and his friends. Crowley entered their hall, dressed to the infernal nines and shouting curses. Yeats and two other magicians stood their ground until Crowley neared, then kicked him down the stairs.
BTW, do you know who else were members of the Golden Dawn? Bram Stoker and Algernon Blackwood, for two.
This should definitely be a novel. If Crowley and Yeats don’t grab you, what other literary and historical figures can you picture in a magical duel? Who else were members of the Hermetic Students of the Golden Dawn? What else did the sect get up to? What happens next?
