Aleister Crowley
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Categories: The Gnostic Saints
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Aleister Crowley (1876-1947)—however one judges him—was a facinating 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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1 Modern Classics Still in Print, distilled from the Equinox |
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 succomed 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).
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).
Occultism
Prophet of Thelema
Mystic & yogi
Golden Dawn, A:.A:. and O.T.O.
Artist
Author
Poetry
- The Winged Beetle
Modern Classics Still in Print, distilled from the Equinox
- Magick in Theory and Practice
- Eight Lectures on Yoga (or Yoga for yellowbellies, today it would be called Yoga for Dummies)
- Magick Without Tears
- Tao Teh Ching - a Thelemic Translation
- The Book of Wisdom and Folly or Liber Aleph
- The Book of Thoth
Fiction
Some critics regard AC fiction as unimpressive, others as more pure gold from a reliable genius.
- Moonchild
- The diary of a drug fiend
- Simon Iff (short stories)
- The Strategem and others (short stories)
Literary Journalism
- The Fatherland
- The English Review
Poet
Painter
Other aspects
Mountaineer
Chess player
A counter culture icon
Magical Mottos and other names used by Crowley
- Frater Perdurabo ("I will last through") - Neophyte - 18 Nov 1898.
- Ol Sonuf Vaoresaji ("I reign over ye") - Adeptus Major - April 1904.
- Oy Mh (" ")- Adeptus Exemptus - 1909.
- Vi Veri Vniversum Vivus Vici ("By the force of truth, I, while living, have conquered
the Universe") - Magister Templi - 3 Dec 1910
- To Mega Therion - Magus - Oct 12 1915
- Baphomet as the Xth Degree OTO OHO
Links of interest
- A Crowley Timeline (http://www.abrasax.net/timeline.htm)
- Contemporary media accounts and photographic portrats (http://www.lashtal.com/nuke)
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