Aleister Crowley

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Aleister Crowley

Aleister Crowley was a controversial social figure and writer who lived from 12 October 1875 to 1 December 1947. He is famous for his occult writings, particularly "The Book of the Law", which is the principle text of Thelema. He was a prominent member of and contributor to the secret societies Ordo Templi Orientis and Golden Dawn.

He revered in being branded:

"The wickedest man in the world".

He has had many interests and achieved a lot things in his life he was a mountain climber, poet, painter, astrologer, drug experimenter, he became a chess master and was asocial critic.

1 History
2 The Golden Dawn
3 Publications
4 See Also
5 External Links

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History

Aleister Crowley was born Edward Alexander Crowley in Royal Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, England in 1875. Edward Crowley who was his father ran a successful brewery business before he was born, not a lot is known about his mother Emily Bertha Bishop. Both of his parents were members of an extreme wing of the Protestant sect known as the Exclusive Brethren. Growing up Aleister was subjected to his father’s fanatical views and was preached to vigorously on a daily basis with daily bible studies and private tutoring. After his fathers death his mother attempted to continue with the teachings but this only served to provoke Aleister's skepticism. As a child his mother always referred to him as "The Beast" when his rebellious behavior started to displease his devout mother.

Crowley attended Trinity College, Cambridge in 1895 and his original studies were reading Moral Sciences (philosophy, psychology, and economics), but he decided that this was not for him and changed to studying English literature, which was not then a part of the curriculum offered. He was at the collage for 3 years that were considered happy ones due in part to a large inheritance that was left to him by his father when he died. Throughout this period he is said to have had a vigorous sex life, which was largely conducted with prostitutes and girls he picked up at local pubs and cigar shops, but extending into homosexual activities in which he played a passive role.

In the December of 1896 Crowley started to peruse occultism and mysticism. He began to read various books by many alchemists and mystics, and books on magic. In 1989 saw his first publication of poetry called Aceldama, this is when he decided to leave Cambridge. He later met a man named Julian L. Baker to was to introduce him to Samuel Liddell MacGregor Mathers and the Golden Dawn.

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The Golden Dawn

This Order was run led by S.L. MacGregor Mathers which taught magick, qabalah, alchemy, tarot, astrology, and other hermetic subjects, It had many notable members including A.E. Waite, Dion Fortune, and W.B. Yeats. Its influence on development of modern western occultism was profound.

In November 1898,Crowely was initiated into the order as a Neophyte 0° = 0° in the outer order of the Golden Dawn. He took the motto Perdurabo that means 'I will endure to the end', and was to be known as Frater Perdurabo. Around a month after his initiation he a Zelator then quickly after that he rose up another two grades in the order. He finally achieved the rank of Philosiphus, which stood on the brink of the second order. He was soon seen to be a practicing magician in the eyes of the Golden Dawn.

Crowley had been denied the initiation into the second order, to the grade of 5°=6° by those running the second order, which did not please him he traveled to meet with Samuel Mathers and demanded that he perform the initiation. Mathers agreed on the condition that Crowley swears an oath of allegiance to him, and that Crowley would recognize him as head of the order. Crowley agreed and he became an Adeptus Minor of the Order of the Rosæ Rubæ ET Auræ Crucis. However when he traveled to the London headquarters of the second Order he was denied access to the degree rituals as they did not recognize him as an Adeptus Minor since the ritual was performed by Mathers alone.

In his time as a young adult in the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn Crowley had studied mysticism with William Butler Yeats and Arthur Edward Waiteb who were later to become his enemies. Crowley insulted these to men through various critiques of Waite's writings and editorials of other authors' writings. Crowley later began learning the ideas of Buddhism being taught by an associate in the Golden Dawn Allan Bennett.

Samuel Liddell MacGregor Mathers, who taught him western magick and was the chief of the Order, was later considered an enemy of Crowley when Mathers sued when Crowley tried to publish the Golden Dawn rituals in his magazine the Equinox. The resulting public trial had Crowley and Mathers claiming that they had called forth armies of demons and angels to fight on behalf of their summoner. They both carried complex Seal of Solomon amulets and talismans.

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