Love him or hate him; loathe him or worship him. Regardless of your feelings about The Wickedest Man In The World, there is no denying the influence that Edward Alexander Crowley, better known as Aleister Crowley, had on the occult world.  Today many neo-magickal practitioners that come through more new age traditions find themselves a little put off by the stories of Crowley and his escapades at the Abbey of Thelema a bit disturbing; sadly the tales of sex and drugs from the Abbey and the covens that Crowley worked with at the time cause many people to turn their backs on this important occult figure.

Aleister Crowley was born Edward Alexander Crowley on October 12, 1875in Leamington Spa, Warwickshire.  Crowley’s parents were devout Christians of the Plymouth Brethren.  His parent were so strict that he was not allowed to have friends who’s family were not of the Brethren as well.  His father was a trained engineer but owned shares in a lucrative family brewing business and retired early allowing him to work as a preacher.  Crowley was very close to his father but never cared for his mother.  When his father died in 1887 his mother tried to keep instilling Christian values in young Crowley but he rejected everything and grew to dislike her further.  His behavior distressed her so much that she likened him to “the Great Beast” of the Book of Revelations.  Crowley was so amused by the label that he later used it to describe himself and became one of the way that the world would him.

 

While attending Trinity College in Cambridge where he studied poetry, Crowley became interested in the occult.  After reading and corresponding with Arthur Edward Waite, Crowley became determined to become a member of the Great White Brotherhood (The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn).  Crowley would later meet Samuel Liddell MacGregor Mathers and would join the London Lodge of the Hermetic Order with  his college roommate Allan Bennett who was also interested in the occult, on November 18, 1898.  Crowley left college without earning his degree. 

 

Crowley developed an ever growing rivalry with Mathers and claims were made that the two engaged in magickal warfare with each other trying to out-do the other in the demons and angels that they could conjure and send to the other.  Mathers was in Paris and was having problems with the London Lodge and Crowley was unsuccessful in getting initiation into the next grade.  Mathers enlisted Crowley’s help; he gave Crowley the initiation he requested and then Mathers send Crowley to the Lodge to attempt to gain control of it.  His attempts failed and eventually both Crowley and Mathers were both kicked out of the Order.  Long after the London Order fell apart Mathers made a failed attempt to get a legal injunction against Crowley over copyright infringement of several ritual pieces, one in particular that Crowley performed in public, as well as for having published them in his poetry magazine “The Equinox”.  

 

In 1900 Crowley traveled to Mexico and was initiated as a Mason.  In 1903 he married his wife Rose Edith Kelly.  While on their honeymoon in Cairo, Crowley attempted to perform a ritual to show Rose the Sylphs.  While he deemed the ritual unsuccessful Rose went into a trance and began giving him messages regarding the God Horus.  Crowley took her to the Bulaq Museum and asked her to point out Horus to him which she did on a funerary tablet that also happened to be labeled with the number 666, a number he’d identified with since childhood and being called “The Great Beast”.  Over the next three days, from April 8, 9 and 10 of 1904, Crowley remained in his temple writing down messages that he said were dictated to him by a shadowy figure called Aiwass (who he believed was the Holy Guardian of Horus).  These writings became the The Book of the Law, the central text of the magickal and philosophical practice of Thelema, which Crowley founded on these writings.  In 1906 along with George Cecil Jones Crowley founded the order the A.’.A.’.  Crowley and Rose divorced in 1909.  Crowley would marry again in 1929 and had a series of mistresses whom he called “Scarlet Women” which he came to be well known for.  Crowley had a total of 5 children in his lifetime.

 

In 1912 Crowley joined the Ordo Templi Orientis and was initiated by Theodor Reuss.  In 1922 Crowley became head of the O.T.O.  In 1920 Crowley moved to Sicily and established the Abbey of Thelema in Cefalu.  The Abbey was a sort of magickal commune that Crowley was using to teach his ideas of Thelema teaching yoga, magick, self-analysis and helping people find their true will.  Crowley as very free sexually and often considered himself a bisexual.  Rumors spread in Cefalu of orgies, black masses and drug activity taking place at the Abbey.  In 1923 Mussolini kicked Crowley out of Italy and the press dubbed him “The Wickedest Man in the World”.  Crowley went to France and later employed Israel Regardie as his secretary.  Crowley ended his working relationship with Regardie after losing all his money and going bankrupt in his attempt to sue an artist, Nina Hamnett, for libel after she supposed told people that he was practicing black magick.

 

Crowley was introduced to Gerald Gardner by mutual friend Arnold Crowther in 1946.  Gardner and Crowley exchanged ideas over the next year and Gardner visited Crowley a few times, however Crowley was very ill towards the end of his life living in a retirement hotel and taking heavy amounts of medication.  Crowley died from a respiratory infection on December 1, 1947.   He left instructions that he be cremated, that his “Hymn to Pan” be read from the pulpit at his funeral and that his ashes be sent to his followers in America. In his lifetime he would write a number of books, inspire many future occult Orders and leave behind a number of odd and often misunderstood accounts of his life, beliefs and practices. 

 

It’s interesting to think and wonder what it is that Crowley would think where he alive today to see the vast expanse that the Craft and the occult covers today.  Either way, wherever he is celebrating his 134^th birthday, he’s doing it in a grande, debauched style.  I can’t image he’d want it any other way.

 

Come and celebrate Uncle Al’s birthday by reading “Magick in Theory and Practice” online where “Hymn to Pan” opens the work.