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Who was Aleister Crowley? -

Aleister Crowley, born Edward Alexander Crowley on October 12, 1875, is one of the most famous and influential occultists of the early 20th century.

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Born with a silver spoon -

Crowley was born in Royal Leamington Spa, England, and found himself in a world of wealth and fundamental Christianity. Crowley was left with a substantial inheritance after his father died of cancer when the young Crowley was only 11.

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Christian Crowley -

Both of Crowley's parents were part of a fundamentalist evangelical sect known as the Plymouth Brethren. Crowley Sr. made fierce attempts to indoctrinate Crowley Jr. and even sent the boy to a religious boarding school, but Christian ideals wouldn't stick to Crowley for long.

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Losing his religion -

Crowley became increasingly resistant to his family's faith during his teenage years and became a menace inside and outside of school. When he wasn't arguing with his religious teachers, he was out smoking, experimenting with drugs, and contracting gonorrhea.

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Beast 666 -

This behavior led to his now-widowed mother referring to her son as "the beast" or even "beast 666." The effect this had on young Crowley is up for speculation, but later in life he had a strong preference for being referred to as the "Great Beast."

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Crowley's first spiritual experiences -

It was during a trip to Stockholm, Sweden, that Crowley first recognized his spiritual aspirations, claiming to have had powerful visions in the Nordic countries. Many biographers speculate his newfound passion for the occult and the spiritual was spurred by his first intimate interaction with another man, allowing him to embrace his bisexuality for the first time.

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Edward becomes Aleister -

After returning from Sweden, it was clear to Crowley what his new life's path was, and he changed his name accordingly. Edward became Aleister because he felt the structure of a three-syllable first name and two-syllable last name was the most beautiful syllabic structure a name could have.

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The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn -

As Crowley grew older and more interested in the occult, he was permitted into the notorious Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, a shadowy occult group that counted among its members legendary figures such as Bram Stoker and W.B. Yeats.

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Crowley versus the world -

Unfortunately, Crowley's rambunctious streak proved to last well into adulthood. Despite learning formative lessons about magic and alchemy, Crowley's uninhibited lifestyle and affinity for unconventional sex and drugs led to him being ostracized by the rest of the group.

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Crowley in love -

After being kicked out of the Golden Dawn, Crowley traveled extensively and eventually found himself in Paris, where he befriended French painter Gerard Kelly. As a favor to Kelly and his sister, Rose, Crowley married Rose simply to save her from an arranged marriage. Shortly afterwards, however, Crowley realized he had in fact fallen deeply in love with Rose.

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A prolific writer -

Since his school years, Crowley wrote prolifically and impulsively. Between his poetry, his erotica, his novels, and his dozens of works on the occult and self-declared prophecies, Crowley published almost 70 works in his lifetime.

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Crowley the prophet -

Shortly after their marriage in 1903, the Crowleys moved to Cairo, Egypt, to study the ancient religions and magicians of the civilization. According to Aleister Crowley, Rose would frequently fall into fits of revelation, and would tell him that "they" were waiting for him.

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Crowley the prophet -

Finally, on March 20, 1904, Rose led him to an ancient Egyptian stele known as the Stele of Ankh-ef-en-Khonsu (pictured). Rose told him "the Equinox of the Gods has come," and about two weeks later, on April 8, Crowley claimed to have been visited by a messenger of Horus.

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'The Book of the Law' -

Aiwass, the name of the messenger supplied by Crowley, spoke to him for three days, and for three days Crowley scribbled madly to write down every word that was revealed to him. At the end of the experience, Crowley named the work 'The Book of Law,' and was graced with the knowledge that the world was entering a new "aeon," the "Aeon of Horus," and Crowley was meant to serve as the prophet.

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Thelema -

After these events in Cairo, Crowley's new religion, called Thelema, was born. During the new Aeon of Horus that humanity was entering, it was said a new, universal law of truth would be introduced, and it was up to Crowley to spread the word. This law, written by Crowley as "do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law," essentially encouraged people to come in touch with their own pure Will, and follow it with dedication.

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The A∴A∴ -

Some time later, Crowley founded his own occult organization, known simply as the A∴A∴. The origin of these letters is a point of contention amongst scholars, but the most popular theory is that they stand for Argentium Astrum, which is Latin for "Silver Star." The A∴A∴ worked very similarly to the Golden Dawn and other secret societies, but with a focus on Thelemic values.

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The horrifying habits of Aleister Crowley -

By the time Thelema and the A∴A∴ were founded, Crowley was already a notorious figure in the occult community, but his new religion turned him into a legendary figure. Apart from his inexplicable magnetism, his unorthodox and morally ambiguous (or sometimes simply evil) habits and practices made him a fascinating figure to both occultists and laypeople.

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An obsession with bodily fluids -

A notorious libertine, Crowley also saw bodily fluids as holy substances. The Thelemic equivalent of the Catholic eucharist, called Cakes of Light, were prepared using blood or semen.

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Copious drug use -

From his school days up through the end of his life, Crowley was an avid proponent and user of drugs of all kinds. Heroin and hashish were frequently used to aid in spiritual epiphanies and astral traveling.

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A protector against witchcraft -

By the time Crowley founded Thelema, the massive inheritance he had received as a child, and had been living off of for decades, finally began to run out. While he waited for his religion to catch on, Crowley hired himself out to a paranoid earl who was convinced his mother was using witchcraft against him.

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A less-than-successful alpinist -

Crowley developed a penchant for mountain climbing as a young man, but was followed by disaster on nearly ever climb he attempted. Around 1905, for example, he put together a crew of friends and fellow alpinists to conquer Kanchenjunga in the Himalayas. After pushing his team too hard, Crowley was blamed for the deaths of one of his friends and several Nepali porters.

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He faked his own death -

In 1930, while spending time in Portugal with friend and poet Fernando Pessoa (pictured), the pair decided to fake Crowley's death, simply to see how the world would react. After leaving a fake note by a cliff outside of Lisbon, Crowley slinked away to Spain to enjoy the show while Pessoa ensured the press thought the suicide was real.

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A member of the British secret service -

Despite his countercultural and at times shocking lifestyle, Crowley was also in fact very devoted to his country and served England in numerous ways.

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A spy in America -

During World War I, Crowley went undercover in the United States as an Irish nationalist in order to weed out any groups or individuals who were against England.

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A honeypot in Britain -

Some have even speculated that, during the Second World War, Ian Fleming, the famous James Bond author who was also a commander in England's Intelligence Office, attempted to recruit Crowley in the hopes of luring a high-ranking German occultist, Rudolf Hess (pictured), to England for interrogation.

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The Abbey of Thelema -

In one of his many ploys to make money after his inheritance ran out, Crowley established a commune in Italy known as the Abbey of Thelema. The commune was short-lived, however, after a child died there due to its unsanitary conditions, and one member returned to England with horror stories of forced self-mutilation and drinking cat's blood.

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Crowley the murderer? -

Death seemed to follow Crowley everywhere he went. Many speculated that he was intentionally responsible for the deaths of his climbing partners in Nepal and possibly participated in human sacrifices.

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A pope in a past life -

After experimenting with past-life regression while studying ancient Taoist texts, Crowley had the epiphany that this was not his first time on earth. After his experience, he claimed that he had also been the notoriously promiscuous Renaissance-era Pope Alexander VI.

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The Rites of Artemis and Eleusis -

To garner attention and membership into his new religion, Crowley staged two sets of public incantations in London in 1910. The first, known as the Rites of Artemis, were performed in front of an audience that had been spiked with hallucinogenic peyote cactus. The second, the Rites of Eleusis, were performed in Westminster, and the heinous acts of heresy in front of a sober audience caused huge amounts of controversy.

Sources: (Ranker) (The Guardian) (National Trust)

See also: Looking at the mysterious world of alchemy

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