Aleister Crowley
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Categories: Aleister Crowley | Thelema | Past Masters | A.'.A.'. | Golden Dawn | Ordo Templi Orientis | The Gnostic Saints
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One of the Gnostic Saints listed in Liber XV, The Gnostic Mass
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 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 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.”
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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.
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 House at Loch Ness in order to perform the ritual known as the Abra-Melin Operation.
In 1900 Crowley travels to Mexico where he is initiated as a 33° 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 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 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 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.
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.
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 by his bed, Aleister Crowley good-spiritedly and quietly celebrated his 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
Mystic & yogi
Golden Dawn, A.'.A.'. and O.T.O.
Family
Crowley's father was Edward Crowley (d. March 5, 1887)—a wealthy retired brewer (Crowley Ale) and lay preacher of the Plymouth Brethren sect—and his mother was Emily Bertha Bishop. Edward's parents were Edward and Mary Sparrow (married 1823) who also had Jonathan (m. Agnes Pope), Mary, and Sarah.
On the death of his father, Crowley was sent to live with his mother's brother, Tom Bishop, who was by all accounts a bully.
His father Edward Crowley was a retired brewer--a lucrative family business. His mother, Emily Bertha Bishop draws roots from a Devon and Somerset family. Aleister grew up in a staunch Plymouth Brethren household. His father after retiring from his daily duties as a brewer took up the practice of preaching at a fanatical pace.
Crowley had five children in his life: Daughters Poupée (Feb. 1920 - April 1920), Astarte (b. 1920), Nuit (1904-1906), Lola Zaza (b.1906), and son Ataturk (b.1938).
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.
Author
Crowley was an incredibly prolific writer, having left behind dozens of books, hundreds of essays, a host of rituals and ceremonies, and a countless number of personal letters and daily journal entries. He wrote poems, short stories, magazine articles, novels, criticism, plays, and more.
Books
Some of his best known books are:
- The Book of the Law
- Magick, Book 4
- The Book of Lies
- The Vision and the Voice
- 777 and Other Qabalistic Writings
- Confessions of Aleister Crowley
- The Equinox (a series of publications in book format)
- Magick Without Tears
For a more complete listing of published books, see Works of Aleister Crowley (Books)
Libers
Most of Crowley's most influential work was in the form of "Libers" (lit. "books"), which were usually shorter items consisting of core teachings, methodologies, practices, or Thelemic scripture. All the libers are given a number in the Greek numbering system, and those that are part of the A.'.A.'. curriculum are assigned a "class" as follows:
- Class [A] consists of books of which may be changed not so much as the style of a letter: that is, they represent the utterance of an Adept entirely beyond the criticism of even the Visible Head of the Organization.
- Class [B] consists of books or essays which are the result of ordinary scholarship, enlightened and earnest.
- Class [C] consists of matter which is to be regarded rather as suggestive than anything else.
- Class [D] consists of the Official Rituals and Instructions.
- Class [E] consists of manifestos, broadsides, epistles and other public statements. Some publications are composite, and pertain to more than one class.
Many of his Libers appeared in published books, especially editions of The Equinox and The Holy Books of Thelema, although some Libers are books in their own right (such as Magick, which is Liber 4).
For a complete listing of Crowley's Libers, see Works of Aleister Crowley (Libers)
Poetry
Crowley was also a prolific poet.
For more on Crowley's poetry, see Works of Aleister Crowley (Poetry)
Other aspects
Artist
Mountaineer
Crowley was an accomplished mountain climber is his time, and is still mentioned in mountaineering literature (although silly rumors and his reputation in the yellow press are often mentioned). He owed his ability to Oscar Eckenstein, who was not only a highly skilled climber, but also had a great interest in Eastern philosophy (which had a distinct influence on Crowley).
Crowley made some significant climbs, including a 1902 attempt on Chogo Ri (or K2), the second tallest peak in the world. On that climb, the expedition achieved a record: "the greatest number of days spent on a glacier—65 days on the Baltoro" (Equinox of the Gods Ch.1). He also had the record for "the greatest pace uphill over 16,000 feet—4,000 feet in 1 hour 23 minutes on Iztaccihuatl in 1900" (Ibid).
Crowley is also known for his 1905 attempt (and failure) on Kanchenjunga in the Himalayas—a peak that would not be successfully ascended until 1955. On the upward climb, a porter fell to his death in the process of leaving the expedition. More porters accused Crowley of beating them, and a general mutiny began among them and the other core climbers (namely Guillarmod and de Righi), based on Crowley's route (which was later vouched as a good one in 1954), his supposed ill-treatment of the porters, and the bad feelings between him and several of the climbers. Guillarmod took charge, leading the bulk of the men back down. On that descent, a porter's stumble triggered an avalanche that buried four men under ten feet of snow. It took three days of digging to recover their bodies. Crowley, remaining in the higher camp, did not respond to the cries for help when the avalanche began, a fact which later demonized him in mountaineering circles.
Chess enthusiast
Crowley learned to play chess at the age of six and first competed on the Eastbourne College chess team (where he was taking classes in 1892). He showed immediate competence, besting the adult champion in town and even editing a chess column for the local newspaper, the Eastbourne Gazette (Sutin, p.33), which he often used to criticize the Eastbourne team. He later joined the university chess club at Cambridge, where he beat the president in his freshman year and practiced two hours a day towards becoming a champion—"My one serious worldly ambition had been to become the champion of the world at chess" (Confessions, p.193).
However, he gave up his chess aspirations in 1897 when attending a chess conference in Berlin:
- 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).
A counter culture icon
Magical mottos and pseudonyms
Magical mottos
- Frater Perdurabo ("I will endure unto the end")—Neophyte
- Parzival —Adeptus Minor
- Ol Sonuf Vaoresaji ("I reign over ye")—Adeptus Major
- 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
- To Mega Therion ("The Great Beast")—Magus
- Baphomet as the X° in O.T.O.
- The Beast 666
- Ankh-af-na-Khonsu
- Khaled Khan
Pseudonyms and aliases
This is but a short list of his dozens of aliases he used for many magazine and newspaper articles:
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See also
Links of interest
- A Crowley Timeline (http://www.abrasax.net/timeline.htm)
- Contemporary media accounts and photographic portraits (http://www.lashtal.com/nuke)
- The 93 Current (http://www.93current.de/crowley.shtml)—many links for Crowley resources
- The Aleister Crowley Collection (http://www.hrc.utexas.edu/research/fa/crowley.aleister.html) at the Harry Ransom Center, U.T., in Austin, TX
- Red Flame Desk Reference (http://www.redflame93.com/DeskReference.html)—A complete catalog of Crowley's published works
References
- O.T.O. (2005). Aleister Crowley (http://oto-usa.org/crowley.html)
- Red Flame. (2005). Aleister Crowley Desk Reference (http://www.redflame93.com/DeskReference.html)
- 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.
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