Aleister Crowley

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One of the Gnostic Saints listed in Liber XV, The Gnostic Mass

Aleister Crowley (Oct. 12, 1875-Dec. 1, 1947) — however one judges him — was a fascinating man who lived an amazing life. He is best known as being an infamous occultist and the scribe of The Book of the Law, which introduced Thelema to the world. Crowley was an influential member in several occult organizations, including the Golden Dawn, the A.'.A.'., and Ordo Templi Orientis. He was a prolific writer and poet, a world traveler, mountaineer, chess master, artist, yogi, social provocateur, drug addict and sexual libertine. The press loved to demonize him and dubbed Crowley “The wickedest man in the world.”

 {{saint}}
-'''Aleister Crowley''' (Oct. 12, 1876-Dec. 1, 1947) — however one judges him — was a fascinating man who lived an amazing life. He is best known as being an infamous [[occult]]ist and the scribe of [[The Book of the Law]], which introduced [[Thelema]] to the world. Crowley was an influential member in several occult organizations, including the [[Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn|Golden Dawn]], the [[A.'.A.'.]], and [[Ordo Templi Orientis]]. He was a prolific writer and poet, a world traveller, mountaineer, chess master, artist, yogi, social provocateur, and sexual libertine. The press loved to demonize him and dubbed Crowley “The wickedest man in the world.”
+'''Aleister Crowley''' (Oct. 12, 1875-Dec. 1, [[1947]]) — however one judges him — was a fascinating man who lived an amazing life. He is best known as being an infamous [[occult]]ist and the scribe of [[The Book of the Law]], which introduced [[Thelema]] to the world. Crowley was an influential member in several occult organizations, including the [[Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn|Golden Dawn]], the [[A.'.A.'.]], and [[Ordo Templi Orientis]]. He was a prolific writer and poet, a world traveler, mountaineer, chess master, artist, yogi, social provocateur, drug addict and sexual libertine. The press loved to demonize him and dubbed Crowley “The wickedest man in the world.”
-[[Image:Crowley2.jpg|right|frame|Edward Alexander "Aleister" Crowley]]
 ==A brief summary of major events==
-'''Edward Alexander Crowley''' was born in Leamington Spa, Warwickshire on October 12, 1875. His parents were members of the [[Plymouth Brethren]], an extremely devout Christian sect. It was in this Christain childhood that he came to refer to himself as [[The Beast]] [[666]]. He was also fortunate to be heir to a small brewing fortune, which he largely used for travel and publishing his works over his lifetime.
+'''Edward Alexander Crowley''' was born in Leamington Spa, Warwickshire on October 12, 1875. His parents were members of the [[Plymouth Brethren]], an extremely devout Christian sect. It was in this Christian childhood that he came to refer to himself as [[The Beast]] [[666]]. He was also fortunate to be heir to a small brewing fortune, which he largely used for travel and publishing his works over his lifetime.
 He entered Trinity College at Cambridge in 1895, and left just before finishing his degree. He was initiated into the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn in 1898. The next year he purchased [[Boleskine|Boleskine House]] at Loch Ness in order to perform the ritual known as the [[Abramelin|Abra-Melin Operation]].
 {{93}}
-In 1900 Crowley travels to Mexico where he is initiated as a 33° [[Freemasonry|Mason]].
+In 1900 Crowley traveled to Mexico where he was initiated as a 33° [[Freemasonry|Mason]].
-In 1902 he begins the practice of [[yoga]] in Caylon with [[Allen Bennett]], an associate from the Golden Dawn. He returns to Boleskine in 1903 and marries [[Edith Rose Kelly]], the sister of the painter, Sir Gerald Kelly. On their honeymoon, they visit Cairo, Egypt in 1904. It is here that he comes to write [[The Book of the Law]] on April 8, 9, and 10.
+In 1902 he began the practice of [[yoga]] in Ceylon with [[Allan Bennett]], an associate from the Golden Dawn. He returned to Boleskine in 1903 and married [[Edith Rose Kelly]], the sister of the painter Sir Gerald Kelly. On their honeymoon, they visited Cairo, Egypt in 1904. It is here that he came to write [[The Book of the Law]] on April 8, 9, and 10.
-In 1907 Crowley founds the Order he calls the [[A.'.A.'.]] Two years later, he diverces Rose and travels to the Sahara Desert with poet [[Victor Neuberg]], where they perform a series of rituals that results in the book ''[[The Vision and the Voice]]''.
+In 1907 Crowley founded the Order he called the [[A.'.A.'.]] Two years later, he divorced Rose and traveled to the Sahara Desert with poet [[Victor Neuberg]], where they performed a series of rituals that resulted in the book ''[[The Vision and the Voice]]''.
-In 1913 Crowley is initiated into [[Ordo Templi Orientis]] by [[Theodor Reuss]]. The following year Crowley is advanced to the X° and becomes head of O.T.O. in Great Brittain and Ireland. That same year, while on a  trip to Moscow, he writes the [[Liber XV|Gnostic Mass]].
+In 1913 Crowley was initiated into [[Ordo Templi Orientis]] by [[Theodor Reuss]]. The following year Crowley was advanced to the X° and became head of O.T.O. in Great Britain and Ireland. That same year, while on a trip to Moscow, he wrote the [[Liber XV|Gnostic Mass]].
-With the beginning of WWI, Crowley retires to America in 1914, where he begins editing the publication ''The International''. He returns to Europe in 1919. The next year he founds the [[Abbey of Thelema]] in Cefalú, Sicily—an experimental commune based on the principles of Thelema, and inspired by the works of [[Rabelais]]—and were expelled from Italy by Mussolini in 1923. During his time at Cefalú, in 1922, Crowley proclaims himself Outer Head of the Order of O.T.O.
+With the beginning of WWI, Crowley retired to America in 1914, where he began editing the publication ''The International''. He returned to Europe in 1919. The next year he founded the [[Abbey of Thelema]] in Cefalú, Sicily -- an experimental commune based on the principles of Thelema and inspired by the works of [[Rabelais]].  He was expelled from Italy by Mussolini in 1923. During his time at Cefalú, in 1922, Crowley proclaimed himself Outer Head of the Order of O.T.O.
-In 1929 Crowley takes his second wife, [[Maria de Miramar]] — a native of Nicaragua — although she eventually succumbed to mental delusions and died in an institution three decades later.
+In 1929 Crowley took his second wife, [[Maria de Miramar]] — a native of Nicaragua — although she eventually succumbed to mental delusions and died in an institution three decades later.
-By 1935, based on his lifelong self-publishing efforts, and a lost libel suit, Crowley had lost his personal fortune and settled into bankruptcy. For the next decade he kept himself afloat through publishing and occasional help from associates and students. His final years were characterized by poor health and heroin addiction alongside a continued zeal for promulgating Thelema. In 1945, he retired to [[Netherwood]], a boarding house in Hastings, England. On December 1, 1947, at the age of 71 and with his son [[Ataturk Crowley|Ataturk]] by his bed, Aleister Crowley good-spiritedly and quietly celebrated his [[The Feast for Death|Greater Feast]]. His ashes were later buried next to a tree in Hampton, New Jersey on the property of [[Karl Germer]] (Crowley’s successor to OHO).
+By 1935, largely because of his lifelong self-publishing efforts and a lost libel suit, Crowley had lost his personal fortune and settled into bankruptcy. For the next decade he kept himself afloat through publishing and occasional help from associates and students. His final years were characterized by poor health and heroin addiction alongside a continued zeal for promulgating Thelema. In 1945, he retired to [[Netherwood]], a boarding house in Hastings, England. On December 1, 1947, at the age of 71, and with his son [[Ataturk Crowley|Ataturk]] by his bed, Aleister Crowley good-spiritedly and quietly celebrated his [[The Feast for Death|Greater Feast]]. His ashes were later buried next to a tree in Hampton, New Jersey on the property of [[Karl Germer]] (Crowley’s successor to OHO).
 ==Occultism==
 ===Prophet of Thelema===
+Perhaps Crowley's most significant contribution was bringing [[Thelema]] into the world with the [[Reception of Liber Legis|reception]] of [[The Book of the Law]] on April 8, 9, and 10, 1904. The writing occurred in Cairo, Egypt, where Crowley and his new wife, [[Rose Crowley|Rose]] were honeymooning. On March 16, Crowley had attempted a ritual to show his wife elemental beings called [[Sylphs]]. Although she didn't see them, she apparently did begin to channel a series message to Crowley over the next few days regarding [[Horus]] and "a child." Crowley is highly skeptical and questions the veracity of the message, finally becoming satisfied when Rose pointed out Horus to him on a funerary tablet in the Bulaq Museum (labeled "Stele [[666]]" and eventually becoming known as the [[Stele of Revealing]]). These events culminate in the actual three days of writing, each of which took place at noon in a chamber of their flat which was used as a temple. (See: [[Reception of Liber Legis]])
+Initially, Crowley rejected this document. He writes of himself in ''Magick'' (p.444):
+::[Crowley], to whom this revelation was made with so many signs and wonders, was himself unconvinced. He struggled against it for years. Not until the completion of His own initiation at the end of I909 did he understand how perfectly he was bound to carry out this work. Again and again He turned away from it, took it up for a few days or hours, then laid it aside. He even attempted to destroy its value, to nullify the result.
+And
+::I have fought this Book and fled it; I have defiled it and I have suffered for its sake.
+Yet, after his acceptance of Liber Legis, Crowley was a tireless advocate of its teachings (as he interpreted them) and labored for the rest of his life to promulgate the Law of Thelema. He founded the [[A.'.A.'.]] in 1907 and he adapted the initiations rituals of [[Ordo Templi Orientis]], both of which were  largely based on the principles of Thelema. He wrote countless letters, essays, and epistles regarding Thelema, including [http://www.scarletwoman.org/docs/docs_message.html The Message of the Master Therion], [http://www.scarletwoman.org/docs/docs_lege.html De Lege Libellum], and [http://www.scarletwoman.org/docs/docs_liberty.html The Law of Liberty]; and he wrote [[The Gnostic Mass]]  in 1911 based on Liber AL as well.
+Crowley was convinced of the objective truth of Liber Legis, and that its speaker, [[Aiwass]], was both his [[Holy Guardian Angel]] and in possession of knowledge completely unavailable to Crowley. He writes in ''Magick:'' "Man has no such fact recorded, by proof established in surety beyond cavil of critic, as this Book, to witness the existence of and Intelligence praeterhuman and articulate, purposefully interfering in the philosophy, religion, ethics, economics and politics of the Planet." This knowledge, as Crowley understood it, represented the formula of an entire age of mankind, which he referred to as the [[Aeon of Horus]], the Word of which is [[Thelema]], which had been ushered in by himself as its prophet.
+Thelemites today hold a wide spectrum of beliefs regarding Crowley's status as prophet. Some view Crowley as he did himself—the literal messenger of a new spiritual Law for mankind. Others believe that "Aiwass" was simply an unconscious (or even fraudulent pseudonym) of Crowley, and that the merit of the Book rests solely on its content without need for objective verification. Yet others disregard Crowley altogether. However, it is reasonable to say that Crowley still plays a very large role in the understanding of Thelema, and his words are constantly used to promulgate its doctrines today.
 ===Mystic & yogi===
 For a complete listing of Crowley's Libers, see [[Works of Aleister Crowley (Libers)]]
+===Fiction===
+Many of his fiction works, such as the "Simon Iff" detective stories and ''Moonchild'' have not received significant notice outside of occult circles. However his work ''Diary Of A Drug Fiend'', while fictional, reflects his views about his own addictions to heroin and cocaine.
 ===Poetry===
 ==Other aspects==
-[[Image:Crowley_painting.jpg|right|frame|"Femme Dangereuse—Alice Appleton" (1935-1936)]]
 ===Artist===
 ====Quotes====
-::"The average man cannot believe that an artist may be as serious and highminded an observer of life as the professed man of science." —''Confessions'', p.138
+*"The average man cannot believe that an artist may be as serious and highminded an observer of life as the professed man of science." —''Confessions'', p.138
-::"It is at least the case that I have no use for artists who have lost touch with tradition and see nature secondhand. I think I have kept my head pretty square on my shoulders in the turmoil of the recent revolutions. I find myself able to distinguish between the artist whose eccentricities and heresies interpret his individual peculiarities and the self-advertising quack who tries to be original by outdoing the most outrageous heresiarch of the moment."—''Confessions'', p.584
+*"It is at least the case that I have no use for artists who have lost touch with tradition and see nature secondhand. I think I have kept my head pretty square on my shoulders in the turmoil of the recent revolutions. I find myself able to distinguish between the artist whose eccentricities and heresies interpret his individual peculiarities and the self-advertising quack who tries to be original by outdoing the most outrageous heresiarch of the moment."—''Confessions'', p.584
-::" "Las Meninas" [by Goya] is worshipped in a room consecrated solely to itself, and I spent more of my mornings in that room and let it soak in. I decided then, and might concur still had I not learnt the absurdity of trying to ascribe an order to things which are each unique and absolute, that "Las Meninas" is the greatest picture in the world. It certainly taught me to know the one thing that I care to learn about painting: that the subject of a picture is merely an excuse for arranging forms and colours in such a way as to express the inmost self of the artist." —''Confessions'', p.585
+*" "Las Meninas" [by Goya] is worshiped in a room consecrated solely to itself, and I spent more of my mornings in that room and let it soak in. I decided then, and might concur still had I not learnt the absurdity of trying to ascribe an order to things which are each unique and absolute, that "Las Meninas" is the greatest picture in the world. It certainly taught me to know the one thing that I care to learn about painting: that the subject of a picture is merely an excuse for arranging forms and colours in such a way as to express the inmost self of the artist." —''Confessions'', p.585
 ===Mountaineer===
 ::But I had hardly entered the room where the masters were playing when I was seized with what may justly be described as a mystical experience. I seemed to be looking on at the tournament from outside myself. I saw the masters—one, shabby, snuffy and blear-eyed; another, in badly fitting would-be respectable shoddy; a third, a mere parody of humanity, and so on for the rest. These were the people to whose ranks I was seeking admission. "There, but for the grace of God, goes Aleister Crowley," I exclaimed to myself with disgust, and there and then I registered a vow never to play another serious game of chess. I perceived with praeternatural lucidity that I had not alighted on this planet with the object of playing chess. (''Confessions,'' Ch.16).
+Crowley wrote some brief notes of guidance on the playing chess and gave them, together with a "pocket chess set", to Grady McMurtry. Following the latter's death they were given by the OTO to one of Crowley's grandsons, a son of Aleister Ataturk.
+===Freemason===
+====List of Crowley’s Masonic degrees====
+*33° of the Scottish Rite in Mexico From Don Jesus Medina.
+“Don Jesus Medina, a descendant of the great duke of Armada fame, and one of the highest chiefs of Scottish Rite free-masonry.  My cabbalistic knowledge being already profound by current standards, he thought me worthy of the highest initiation in his power to confer; special powers were obtained in view of my limited sojourn, and I was pushed rapidly through and admitted to the thirty-third and last degree before I left the country.” - The Confessions of Aleister Crowley (1969), pp. 202-203.
+*3° In France by the Anglo-Saxon Lodge No. 343, a Lodge chartered in 1899 by the Grande Loge de France, a body unrecognised by the United Grand Lodge of England, on 29 June 1904.
+*33° of the irregular 'Cerneau' Scottish Rite From John Yarker
+*90°/95° of the Rite of Memphis/Misraim. From John Yarker.
+But as it turns out, The Grand Lodge Of England the official body of Freemasonry did not recognize any of the above bodies as being true Freemasonry. Thus Crowley never was an “official” Freemason and when he understood this he started to change the O.T.O. rituals to remove the Masonic content.
+“Crowley quickly realized that the post-Yarker era meant change. He was not rebellious by reflex, at least where old British institutions were concerned. He undoubtedly believed O.T.O. had authority from Yarker to work the Ancient and Primitive Rite's equivalent to the Craft degrees in England, but once made aware of the issue of regularity when having his own French Masonic credentials declined, he was not defiant and on his own made changes to the O.T.O. to avoid conflict. He inserted notices into the last number of The Equinox to the effect that the O.T.O. did not infringe upon the just privileges of the Grand Lodge of England.
+During WWI Crowley worked slightly revised English Craft rituals in America, but despite the absence of a central Grand Lodge, he met with objections from masonic authorities. He then rewrote the O.T.O. rituals for I° - III° so that they no longer resembled Craft masonry degrees in language, theme or intent.” - Frater Superior [[Hymenaeus Beta]] The Magical Link Vol. IX No. 1
 ==A counter culture icon==
-==Name change, magical mottos, and pseudonyms==
+==Name change, magical mottoes, and pseudonyms==
 ===Name change===
 Crowley was born Edward Alexander Crowley, and was nicknamed "Aleck" by his mother. In ''Confessions'' (p.139-140), he explains his adoption of "Aleister":
-::For many years I had loathed being called Alick, partly because of the unpleasant sound and sight of the word, partly because it was the name by which my mother called me. Edward did not seem to suit me and the diminutives Ted or Ned were even less appropriate. Alexander was too long and Sandy suggested tow hair and freckles. I had read in some book or other that the most favourable name for becoming famous was one consisting of a dactyl followed by a spondee, as at the end of a hexameter: like "Jeremy Taylor". Aleister Crowley fulfilled these conditions and Aleister is the Gaelic form of Alexander. To adopt it would satisfy my romantic ideals. The atrocious spelling A-L-E-I-S-T-E-R was suggested as the correct form by Cousin Gregor, who ought to have known better. In any case, A-L-A-I-S-D-A-I-R makes a very bad dactyl. For these reasons I saddled myself with my present nom-de-guerre—I can't say that I feel sure that I facilitated the process of becoming famous. I should doubtless have done so, whatever name I had chosen.
+::For many years I had loathed being called Alick, partly because of the unpleasant sound and sight of the word, partly because it was the name by which my mother called me. Edward did not seem to suit me and the diminutives Ted or Ned were even less appropriate. Alexander was too long and Sandy suggested tow hair and freckles. I had read in some book or other that the most favorable name for becoming famous was one consisting of a dactyl followed by a spondee, as at the end of a hexameter: like "Jeremy Taylor". Aleister Crowley fulfilled these conditions and Aleister is the Gaelic form of Alexander. To adopt it would satisfy my romantic ideals. The atrocious spelling A-L-E-I-S-T-E-R was suggested as the correct form by Cousin Gregor, who ought to have known better. In any case, A-L-A-I-S-D-A-I-R makes a very bad dactyl. For these reasons I saddled myself with my present nom-de-guerre—I can't say that I feel sure that I facilitated the process of becoming famous. I should doubtless have done so, whatever name I had chosen.
-===Magical mottos===
+===Magical mottoes===
-*Frater Perdurabo ("I will endure unto the end")—Neophyte
+*'''[[Perdurabo]]''' ("I will endure til the end")—Neophyte
-*Parzival —Adeptus Minor
+*'''[[Parzival]]''' —Adeptus Minor
-*Ol Sonuf Vaoresaji ("I reign over ye")—Adeptus Major
+*'''Ol Sonuf Vaoresaji''' ("I reign over ye")—Adeptus Major
-*Ou Mh (O.M.—" No, definitely no! or Not Yet!")—Adeptus Exemptus
+*'''Ou Mh''' (O.M.—" No, definitely no! or Not Yet!")—Adeptus Exemptus
-*Vi Veri Vniversum Vivus Vici (V.V.V.V.V.—"By the force of truth, I, while living, have conquered the Universe")—Magister Templi
+*'''Vi Veri Vniversum Vivus Vici''' (V.V.V.V.V.—"By the force of truth, I, while living, have conquered the Universe")—Magister Templi
-*To Mega Therion ("The Great Beast")—Magus
+*'''[[To Mega Therion]]''' ("The Great Beast")—Magus
-*Baphomet as the X° in [[Ordo templi Orientis|O.T.O.]]
+*'''[[Baphomet]]''' as the X° in [[Ordo Templi Orientis|O.T.O.]]
-*[[The Beast]] [[666]]
+*'''[[The Beast]] [[666]]'''
-*[[Ankh-af-na-Khonsu]]
+*'''[[Ankh-af-na-khonsu|Ankh-af-na-Khonsu]]'''
-* Khaled Khan
+* '''Khaled Khan'''
 === Pseudonyms and aliases===
 ==See also==
+*[[Thelema]]
 *[[Works of Aleister Crowley]]
+*[[The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn]]
+*[[Ordo Templi Orientis]]
+*[[A.'.A.'.]]
+*[[Magick]]
+*[[The Gnostic Mass]]
+*[[Reception of Liber Legis]]
-==Links of interest==
+==External links==
 *[http://www.abrasax.net/timeline.htm A Crowley Timeline]
 *[http://www.lashtal.com/nuke Contemporary media accounts and photographic portraits]
 *[http://www.hrc.utexas.edu/research/fa/crowley.aleister.html The Aleister Crowley Collection] at the Harry Ransom Center, U.T., in Austin, TX
 *[http://www.redflame93.com/DeskReference.html Red Flame Desk Reference]—A complete catalog of Crowley's published works
+*[http://www.lashtal.com/nuke/modules.php?op=modload&name=Downloads&file=index&req=viewdownload&cid=3 Collection of chess columns written by Crowley]
+* [http://www.aleistercrowleysociety.com/gallery/thumbnails.php?album=11 Gallery of Crowley's artwork]
+* [http://ac2012.com/ AC2012 political art / parody to elect Aleister Crowley in 2012]
 ==References==
 *Sutin, Lawrence. (2002). ''Do What Thou Wilt : A Life of Aleister Crowley.'' New York : St. Martin's Griffin.
 *Crowley, Aleister. (1974). ''Equinox of the Gods.'' New York, NY : Gordon Press.
-Hymenaeus Beta. (1998). "Good Show". ''The Magical Link.'' New Series #2, Spring-Fall 1998.
+*____. (1979). The Confessions of Aleister Crowley. London;Boston : Routledge & Kegan Pa
+*Hymenaeus Beta. (1998). "Good Show". ''The Magical Link.'' New Series #2, Spring-Fall 1998.
 [[Category:Aleister Crowley]] [[Category:Thelema]] [[Category:Past Masters]] [[Category:A.'.A.'.]] [[Category:Golden Dawn]] [[Category:Ordo Templi Orientis]] [[Category:The Gnostic Saints]]

Aleister Crowley

Current revision

A brief summary of major events

Occultism

Prophet of Thelema

Mystic & yogi

Golden Dawn, A.'.A.'. and O.T.O.

Family

Author

Books

Libers

Fiction

Poetry

Other aspects

Artist

Quotes

Mountaineer

Chess enthusiast

Freemason

List of Crowley’s Masonic degrees

A counter culture icon

Name change, magical mottoes, and pseudonyms

Name change

Magical mottoes

Pseudonyms and aliases

See also

External links

References