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Aleister Crowley (1875 - 1947)
Crowley's studies into the occult and ceremonial magic eventually led him to alchemist George Cecil Jones, who assisted him in joining the Order of the Golden Dawn, a fraternal magical order, in 1898. He quickly became friends with one of its higher-ranking members, Allan Bennette, and shared a flat with him for a time, where they maintained their own magic temple. Crowley claimed that one night the temple was ransacked by invisible entities, and that a house he owned on Loch Ness had become haunted with shadowy spirits who drove the caretaker insane. He would later claim these were agents sent by his rivals within the order. Crowley developed much contempt for the order as a whole, and for individual members whose personalities clashed with his. This came to a head when the order became aware of his sexual activities with other men and boys, and refused him intitiation to the rank of Adeptus Minor. In 1900 Crowley left the order and began travelling the world, continuing his studies on his own. In 1902, Crowley met and married Rose Kelly, a mentally unstable woman who he believed possessed considerable psychic ability. Arriving in Egypt, they toured the Cairo Museum, stopping in front of a statue of the Egyptian god Horus and noting the exhibit number, 666, the number of the Beast of Revelation Crowley's mother had often accused him of being. Later, while camping out at the Pyramids, Crowley attempted to invoke the angels of the air through Rose. According to Crowley, a spirit channeled through Rose stated that he was to be the prophet of the next stage in humanity's evolution, the herald of a "New Aeon." Seeking further guidance Crowley performed a ritual designed to invoke one's Holy Guardian Angel, and came in contact with a spirit named Aiwass, who dictated to him a text known as The Book of the Law, a manifesto of the new epoch Crowley was to inaugurate. The Law mentioned was the simple dictum, "Do what Thou wilt," a phrase which also occurs in Rabelais's Gargantua, which was probably Crowley's true source. In contrast to the moral strictures of the late Victorian age, Crowley advocated a new moral code based on individual freedom, egoism, self-indulgence, and free love. The Book of the Law was published, followed by other texts allegedly obtained from Aiwass, and Crowley began to promote both his new doctrine and himself. He even referred to himself as "the Beast 666," though he was not a Satan-worshipper. Rather, he recognized his philosophy of egoism and indulgence to be in oppositin to the Christian doctrines of self-denial and abstinence, and thus that he was Anti-Christ in the more general use of the term. Crowley divorced Rose, who was by now insane, in 1910, and rented a house in London where he and his small band of followers performed public rituals and gave lectures on magic and religion. Crowley was attacked by former mentor MacGregor Mathers for using material in his rituals and books taken from the Order of the Golden Dawn and by Theodor Ruess for using aspects of sex magic taken from rituals of his own group, Ordo Templi Orientis. Crowley often responded to these by attacking members of both orders in his books and essays, and also by conducting rituals by which he allegedly conjured and sent spirits to bedevil them. Crowley later incorporated elements of Egyptian magic into his rituals, and to use Enochian, a language used by the Elizabethan magician John Dee and allegedly the language spoken by the angels. During World War I, after some of his writings were interpreted as being pro-German and public outrage at his real and alleged antics continued to grow, Crowley fled England for America, where he continued to lecture and promote his systems of philosophy and magic. In 1919, he arrived in Sicily, where he rented a small house which he dubbed "the Abbey of Thelema," the central locale of Rabelais's satirical work. As in that tale, the lintel over the door bore the words of the Law, "Do what thou wilt." Here Crowley and his followers conducted daily rituals, which now included invocations of "Babalon," the Whore of Babylon in Revelation. He also expanded his use of sex magic, and also to experiment with altered states of consciousness, using alcohol, hashish, opium, and absinthe, though he became a drug addict only after taking heroin which was prescribed to him for bronchial asthma. Self-promoter that he was, Crowley was a firm believer in the dictum that there is no such thing as bad publicity and so coyly would neither confirm nor deny many of the rumors being circulated about activities at the Abbey, which included charges of sex orgies, S&M, animal sacrifices, bestiality, pederastry, and even the sacrifice of an infant. After one of his disciples became ill and died under mysterious circumstances, gossip about the activities at Thelema reached the ears of Mussolini, who requested that Crowley and his group leave the country. Crowley settled initially in Tunis, where he wrote and published collections of poetry, including the provocatively titled White Stains, then later moved to Paris, until French officials kicked him out as well. A return to London proved equally unsuccessful, where publishers refused his autobiography and his lectures and paintings were banned. His fortune gone, Crowley spent the last years of his life depending on his followers. He died at Netherwood in Hastings, England. Over fifty years after his death, Crowley remains a controversial figure, and his admirers and detractors are both legion. As Martin Grief notes in his Gay Book of Days, "either you consider him nuts, bonkers, loony, albiet brilliant, fascinating, and maybe even a bit of a con-man - or you're completely in his thrall." Crowleyans and Thelemites continue to practice his religion and rituals to this day, and are among the first to point out that the more sinister claims about him were made by people who had axes to grind. Even those who denounce him as a charlatan are likely to say the same. Whatever people may think of him, Crowley's influence on the world cannot be denied. "Do what thou wilt," modified with the condition "if it harm none," has become the moral code invoked by members of the Wiccan religion, and seems only one of many elements borrowed from Crowley by Gerald Gardner when he constructed the rituals and precepts of the modern witch cult. Crowley coined the phrase "New Aeon," which is simply a variation of the term "New Age" used to describe that eclectic spiritual movement. Gay film-maker Kenneth Anger, a follower of Crowley, became friends in the 1960s with Anton LaVey, and undoubtedly influenced the formation of some of the rituals and principles of the Church of Satan, including the use of Enochian. Another Crowley disciple, rocket scientist Jack Parsons, was for a time acquainted with (and swindled by) a recent Navy discharge by the name of L. Ron Hubbard, who seems to have incorporated some of Crowley's egoist theories in his controversial doctrine of Scientology. Crowley's experiments with mind-altering substances anticipated the advent of LSD guru Timothy Leary, which may partly explain the resurgence of Crowley's popularity in the 1960s, and his inclusion with the numerous figures depicted on the cover of the Beatle's Sgt. Pepper's album. Most importantly, Crowley's challenge of traditional moraes did play a role in the changes in attitude about society and sex which eventually led to the gay rights movement. Aleister Crowley - The Great Beast Speaks Lucky Mojo Aleister Crowley Texts Archive
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