British writer and magician, born in Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, C England. He became interested in the occult while an undergraduate at Cambridge, and was initiated into the occult society of the Golden Dawn (1898). He travelled widely, settling for some years in Sicily with a group of disciples at the Abbey of Thelema, near Cefalù. Rumours of drugs, orgies, and magical ceremonies led to his expulsion from Italy. Back in England, he co-founded the order of the Silver Star (1906) based on the mystical Law of Thelema that he developed. He liked to be known as the great beast and the wickedest man alive - and certainly many who associated with him died tragically.
| Aleister Crowley | |
|---|---|
| Born |
12 October 1875 Royal Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, England |
| Died |
1 December 1947 Hastings, England |
| Thelema Portal |
Aleister Crowley, born Edward Alexander Crowley, (12 October 1875 – 1 December 1947;
Crowley himself claimed to be a Freemason, but the legitimacy of his claims have been disputed. Crowley was also an influential member in several occult organizations, including the Golden Dawn, the A∴A∴ (Argenteum Astrum), and Ordo Templi Orientis (O.T.O.).
Crowley gained much notoriety during his lifetime, and was famously dubbed "The Wickedest Man In the World."
Early years
Edward Alexander Crowley was born at 36 Clarendon Square in Royal Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, England, between 11:00pm and midnight on 12 October 1875.
His father, Edward Crowley, once maintained a lucrative family brewery business and was retired when Aleister Crowley was born. As a child, his constant rebellious behaviour displeased his devout mother to such an extent she would chastise him by calling him "The Beast" (from the Book of Revelation), an epithet that Crowley would later happily adopt for himself.
In December of 1896, following an event that he describes in veiled terms, Crowley decided to pursue a path in occultism and mysticism. Biographer Sutin describes the pivotal New Year's event as a homo-erotic experience (Crowley's first) that brought him what he considered "an encounter with an immanent deity". A few months later, in October, a brief illness triggered considerations of mortality and "the futility of all human endeavor", or at least of the diplomatic career that Crowley had previously considered.
A year later, he published his first book of poetry (Aceldama), and left Cambridge, only to meet Julian L. Regarding homosexuality, Crowley most definitely practiced sexual magick rituals with both men and women, but some claim that all of his romantic relationships were with females. They claim that the power of these rituals lay in their 'tabooness', and that Crowley expressed personal distaste for 'recreational' homosexuality. But biographer Sutin recounts Crowley's relationship with, and lasting feelings for, Herbert Charles Pollitt, whom he met while at Cambridge in 1897. Pollitt did not share his partner's mystical leanings, and Crowley had this to say about ending their relationship:
I told him frankly that I had given my life to religion and that he did not fit into the scheme. The arrest, conviction and imprisonment of Oscar Wilde took place in Crowley's first year at Cambridge. In the autobiographical preface to Crowley's drama The World's Tragedy, he included a section on "Sodomy" where he openly admitted his bisexuality and praised sex between men. However, someone removed these two pages from all copies of the book except those Crowley gave to close friends.
Later, in a January 1929 letter, he writes
There have been about four men in my life that I could say I have loved...Call me a bugger if you like, but I don't feel the same way about women.
While that claim about women conflicts with other statements and actions of Crowley's, it accurately describes his relationships with Pollitt and various uneducated women during his college years.
The Golden Dawn
Involved as a young adult in the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, he first studied mysticism with and made enemies of William Butler Yeats and Arthur Edward Waite. Like many in occult circles of the time, Crowley voiced the view that Waite was a pretentious boor through searing critiques of Waite's writings and editorials of other authors' writings.
His friend and former Golden Dawn associate, Allan Bennett, introduced him to the ideas of Buddhism, while Samuel Liddell MacGregor Mathers, acting leader of the Golden Dawn organization, acted as his early mentor in western magick but would later become his enemy. Several decades after Crowley's participation in the Golden Dawn, Mathers claimed copyright protection over a particular ritual and sued Crowley for infringement after Crowley's public display of the ritual. While the public trial continued, both Mathers and Crowley claimed to call forth armies of demons and angels to fight on behalf of their summoner.
In a book of fiction, entitled Moonchild, Crowley later portrayed Mathers as the primary villain, including him as a character named SRMD, using the abbreviation of Mathers' magical name.
While he did not officially break with Mathers until 1904, Crowley lost faith in this teacher's abilities soon after the 1900 schism in the Golden Dawn (if not before). Later that year, Crowley travelled to Mexico and continued his magical studies in isolation. Crowley's writings suggest that he discovered the word Abrahadabra during this time.
In October of 1901, after practicing Raja Yoga for some time, he said he had reached a state he called dhyana — one of many states of unification in thoughts that are described in Magick (Liber ABA) (See Crowley on egolessness).
1904 and after
He said that a mystical experience in 1904, while on vacation in Cairo, Egypt, led to his founding of the religious philosophy known as Thelema. According to Crowley, the god told him that a new magical Aeon had begun, and that Crowley would serve as its prophet. Rose continued to give information, telling Crowley in detailed terms to await a further revelation. On 8 April and for the following two days at exactly noon he heard a voice, dictating the words of the text, Liber AL vel Legis, or The Book of the Law, which Crowley wrote down. (For citations, see main article The Book of the Law.)
Portions of the book are in numerical cipher, which Crowley claimed the inability to decode (Setian Michael Aquino later claimed to be able to decode them). Thelemic dogma (to the extent that Thelema has dogma) explains this by pointing to a warning within the Book of the Law — the speaker supposedly warned that the scribe, Ankh-af-na-khonsu (Aleister Crowley), was never to attempt to decode the ciphers, for to do so would end only in folly. The later-written The Law is For All sees Crowley warning everyone not to discuss the writing amongst fellow critics, for fear that a dogmatic position would arise. While he declared a "new Equinox of the Gods" in early 1904, supposedly passing on the revelation of March 20 to the occult community, it took years for Crowley to fully accept the writing of the Book of the Law and follow its doctrine.
Rose and Aleister had a daughter, whom Crowley named Nuit Ma Ahathoor Hecate Sappho Jezebel Lilith Crowley, in July of 1904. This child died in 1906, during the two and a half months when Crowley had left her with Rose (after a family trip through China). They had another daughter, Lola Zaza, in the summer of that year, and Crowley devised a special ritual of thanksgiving for her birth. The events of that year gave the Abramelin book a central role in Crowley's system.
Crowley was notorious in his lifetime — a frequent target of attacks in the tabloid press, which labelled him "The Wickedest Man in the World" to his evident amusement.
Argenteum Astrum and Ordo Templi Orientis
In 1907, Crowley's interest took off once again, with two important events.
According to Crowley, in 1912, Theodor Reuss had called on him to address accusations of publishing O.T.O. secrets, which Crowley dismissed, for having never attained the grade in which these secrets were given (9th degree). Reuss opened up the Book of Lies and showed Crowley the passage.
The Abbey of Thelema
Crowley, along with Leah Hirsig, founded the Abbey of Thelema in Cefalù, Sicily in 1920. This idealistic utopia was to be the model of Crowley's commune, while also being a type of magical school, giving it the designation "Collegium ad Spiritum Sanctum", The College of the Holy Spirit. The general programme was in line with the A∴A∴ course of training, and included daily adorations to the sun, a study of Crowley's writings, regular yogic and ritual practices (which were to be recorded), as well as general domestic labor.
After the Abbey
In 1934, Crowley was declared bankrupt after losing a court case in which he sued the artist Nina Hamnett for calling him a black magician in her 1932 book, Laughing Torso. In addressing the jury, Mr Justice Swift said:
"I have been over forty years engaged in the administration of the law in one capacity or another. I have never heard such dreadful, horrible, blasphemous and abominable stuff as that which has been produced by the man (Crowley) who describes himself to you as the greatest living poet."
During World War II, Ian Fleming and others proposed a disinformation plot in which Crowley would have helped an MI5 agent supply Nazi official Rudolph Hess with faked horoscopes.
Death
Aleister Crowley died of a respiratory infection in a Hastings boarding house on December 1, 1947, at the age of 72.
Biographer Lawrence Sutin passes on various stories about Crowley's death and last words. According to John Symonds, a Mr Rowe witnessed Crowley's death along with a nurse, and reported his last words as, "Sometimes I hate myself." Patricia "Deirdre" MacAlpine, the mother of Crowley's son, Ataturk, denied all this and reports a sudden gust of wind and peal of thunder at the (otherwise quiet) moment of his death. According to MacAlpine, Crowley remained bedridden for the last few days of his life, but was in light spirits and conversational.
Thelema
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Thelema WikiProject Thelema Category:Thelema |
| Core topics |
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The Book of the Law |
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Thelemic mysticism |
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Works of Crowley |
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A∴A∴ · OTO · EGC |
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Nuit · Hadit |
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Stele of Revealing |
The religious or mystical system which Crowley founded, into which most of his writings fall, he named Thelema.
The second precept of Thelema is "Love is the law, love under will" — and Crowley's meaning of "Love" is as complex as that of "Will". It is frequently sexual: Crowley's system, like elements of the Golden Dawn before him, sees the dichotomy and tension between the male and female as fundamental to existence, and sexual "magick" and metaphor form a significant part of Thelemic ritual. However, Love is also discussed as the Union of Opposites, which Crowley thought was the key to enlightenment.
Chess
Crowley maintained that he learned chess from books by the age of six, and first competed on the Eastbourne College chess team (where he was taking classes in 1892).
He later joined the university chess club at Cambridge, where, he says, he beat the president in his freshman year and practised two hours a day towards becoming a champion — "My one serious worldly ambition had been to become the champion of the world at chess".
However, he explained that he gave up his chess aspirations in 1897 at the age of 22, 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. "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.
Mountaineering
Crowley was obsessed with mountain climbing.
In March of 1902, Oscar Eckenstein and Crowley undertook the first attempt to scale Chogo Ri (known in the west as K2), located in Pakistan, and Eckenstein had set out to teach Crowley about the techniques of climbing. Guillarmod was left to organize the personnel while Crowley left to get things ready in Darjeeling. Meanwhile, Crowley had recruited a local man, Alcesti C. The trek was led by Aleister Crowley, but four members of that party were killed in an avalanche. Some claims say they reached around 21,300 feet before turning back, however Crowley's autobiography claims they reached about 25,000 feet.
Crowley was sometimes famously scathing about other climbers, in particular Glynne Jones, whom he considered a risk-taking self-publicist, and his 'two photographers' (George and Ashley Abraham).
Science, magick, and sexuality
Crowley claimed to use a scientific method to study what people at the time called spiritual experiences, making "The Method of Science, the Aim of Religion" the catchphrase of his magazine The Equinox.
Crowley's magical and initiatory system has amongst its innermost reaches a set of teachings on sex magick. In this, Crowley was inspired by Paschal Beverly Randolph, an American Abolitionist, Spiritualist medium, and author of the mid-19th century, who wrote (in Eulis!, 1874) of using the "nuptive moment" (orgasm) as the time to make a "prayer" for events to occur.
Crowley often introduced new terminology for spiritual and magical practices and theory. (These symbols derive from the cabala of Crowley's book 777.) Robert Anton Wilson records a similar course of self-experimentation, but says he used a less drastic form of what Skinner later (writing after Crowley) called "negative reinforcement"[...]I bit my thumb, hard, at each slip.
Ouija board
Little is published regarding Crowley's advocacy of the Ouija Board.
Jane Wolfe, who lived with Crowley at his infamous Abbey of Cefalu, also used the Ouija board. Crowley also discussed the Ouija board with another of his students, and the most ardent of them, Frater Achad (Charles Stansfeld Jones): it is frequently mentioned in their unpublished letters. In one letter Crowley told Jones: "Your Ouija board experiment is rather fun. Their discourse culminated in a letter, dated February 21, 1919, in which Crowley tells Jones, "Re: Ouija Board. I hope to let you have the material in the course of a week." In March, Crowley wrote to Achard to inform him, "I'll think up another name for Ouija." But their business venture never came to fruition and Crowley's new design, along with his name for the board, has not survived.
Charles Stansfeld Jones wrote a book called 'Crystal Vision through Crystal Gazing, in which he notes that in relationship to skrying (also spelled scrying) "the case of the Ouija Board applies equally to the Crystal."
Crowley has stated, of the Ouija Board, that, "Their is, however, a good way of using this instrument to get what you want, and that is to perform the whole operation in a consecrated circle, so that undesirable aliens cannot interfere with it. A few simple instructions are all that is necessary, and I shall be pleased to give these, free of charge, to any one who cares to apply."
Writings
Crowley was a highly prolific writer, not only on the topic of Thelema and magick, but on philosophy, politics, and culture.
Within the subject of occultism Crowley wrote widely, penning commentaries on magick, the Tarot, Yoga, the Kabbalah, astrology, and numerous other subjects. Like the Golden Dawn mystics before him, Crowley evidently sought to comprehend the entire human religious and mystical experience in a single philosophy.
Some of his most influential books include:
The Book of the Law Magick (Book 4) The Book of Lies The Vision and the Voice 777 and other Qabalistic writings The Confessions of Aleister Crowley Magick Without Tears Little Essays Toward Truth The Goetia: The Lesser Key of Solomon the KingHe also edited and produced a series of publications in book form called The Equinox (subtitled "The Review of Scientific Illuminism"), which served as the voice of his magical order, the A∴A∴. Although the entire set is influential and remains one of the definitive works on occultism, some of the more notable issues include:
III:1 "The Blue Equinox" (largely regarding the structure of OTO) III:3, The Equinox of the Gods (covering the events leading up to the writing of Liber Legis) III:4, Eight Lectures on Yoga III:5, The Book of Thoth (a full treatise on his Thoth Tarot) III:6, Liber Aleph (An extended and elaborate commentary on Liber Legis in the form of short letters) III:9, The Holy Books of Thelema (the "received" works of Crowley)Crowley also wrote fiction and plays, most of which have not received significant notice outside of occult circles. Some of his fictional/theatrical works include:
Diary of a Drug Fiend Moonchild The Rites of Eleusis The Ship The Testament of Magdalen BlairCrowley also had a peculiar sense of humour, which he often utilized as a teaching instrument.
Crowley was also a published, if minor, poet. Three pieces by Crowley, "The Quest ", "The Neophyte ", and "The Rose and the Cross ", appear in the 1917 collection The Oxford Book of English Mystical Verse. Crowley's unusual sense of humour is on display in White Stains , an 1898 collection of pornographic verse pretended to be "the literary remains of George Archibald Bishop, a neuropath of the Second Empire;" the volume is prefaced with a notice that says that " The Editor hopes that Mental Pathologists, for whose eyes alone this treatise is destined, will spare no precaution to prevent it falling into other hands."
The Greek scholar Dionysios Psilopoulos has written on Crowley as a poet (Ph.D., Edinburgh).
Controversy
Drugs
Crowley was a habitual drug user and also maintained a meticulous record of his drug-induced experiences with laudanum, opium, cocaine, hashish, alcohol, ether, and heroin. Allan Bennett, Crowley's mentor, was said to have "instructed Crowley in the magical use of drugs." While in Paris during the 1920s, Crowley also experimented with psychedelic substances, specifically Anhalonium Lewinii, an obsolete scientific name for the mescaline-bearing cactus peyote. In October of 1930, Crowley dined with Aldous Huxley in Berlin, and to this day rumours persist that he introduced Huxley to peyote on that occasion.
Crowley first developed a drug addiction after a London doctor prescribed heroin for his asthma and bronchitis.
Racism
Biographer Lawrence Sutin stated that "blatant bigotry is a persistent minor element in Crowley's writings." The book's introduction calls Crowley "a spoiled scion of a wealthy Victorian family who embodied many of the worst John Bull racial and social prejudices of his upper-class contemporaries," Sutin also writes, "Crowley embodied the contradiction that writhed within many Western intellectuals of the time: deeply held racist viewpoints courtesy of their culture, coupled with a fascination with people of color."
Crowley defended the use of violence against the Chinese, specifically the lower classes.
Crowley, according to his biographer, Lawrence Sutin, used racial epithets to bully his Jewish homosexual lover Victor Neuburg: "Crowley leveled numerous brutal verbal attacks on Neuburg's family and Jewish ancestry...".
Crowley's published expressions of anti-Semitism were disturbing enough to later editors of his works that one of them, Israel Regardie, attempted to suppress them. In 777 and Other Qabalistic Writings of Aleister Crowley (Samuel Weiser, 1975), Regardie, a Jew, explained his complete excision of Crowley's anti-Semitic commentary on the Kabbalah in the 6th unnumbered page of his editorial introduction:
"I am ... omitting Crowley's Preface to the book.
What Regardie had removed was Crowley's "Preface to Sepher Sephiroth", originally published in Equinox 1:8. Written in 1911, at the same time that Menahem Mendel Beilis was accused of ritual cannibalism in Kiev, Russia, it contained a clear statement of Crowley's belief in the blood libel against the Jews:
"Human sacrifices are today still practised by the Jews of Eastern Europe, as is set forth at length by the late Sir Richard Burton in the MS.
After defending the then-current anti-Semitic pogroms in Kishinev Russia, on the grounds that the deaths of thousands of Jews was a rational response to what he saw as the danger of Jewish ritual cannibalism, Crowley rhetorically asked how a system of value such as Qabala could come from "an entirely barbarous race, devoid of any spiritual pursuit."
Crowley repeated his claim that Jews in Eastern Europe practice ritual child-murder in at least one later work as well, namely the section on mysticism in Book Four or Magick.
Crowley studied and promoted the mystical and magical teachings of some of the same ethnic groups he attacked, in particular Indian yoga, Jewish Kabbalah and goetia, and the Chinese I Ching. Also, in Confessions Chapter 86, as well as a private diary which Lawrence Sutin quotes in Do What Thou Wilt chapter 7, Crowley recorded a memory of a "past life" as the Chinese Taoist writer Ko Hsuan. In another remembered life, Crowley said, he took part in a "Council of Masters" that included many from Asia.
Sexism
Biographer Lawrence Sutin stated that Crowley "largely accepted the notion, implicitly embodied in Victorian sexology, of women as secondary social beings in terms of intellect and sensibility."
Crowley stated that women, except "a few rare individuals," care most about having children and will conspire against their husbands if they lack children to whom to devote themselves.
Nevertheless, when he sought what he called the supreme magical-mystical attainment, Crowley asked Leah Hirsig to direct his ordeals, marking the first time since the schism in the Golden Dawn that another person verifiably took charge of his initiation.
Crowley in popular culture
Crowley has been mentioned in many popular culture mediums, including popular music, books, film, and television.
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