About Me
I was born with the name Edward Alexander Crowley in Leamington, Warwickshire, England, between 11:00pm and 12 midnight on 12 October 1875. I am therefore a Libran with Pisces moon and Leo rising.
My father, Edward Crowley, once maintained a lucrative family brewery business and was retired at the time of my birth. My mother, Emily Bertha Bishop, drew roots from a Devon and Somerset family.
I grew up in a staunch Plymouth Brethren household. My father, after retiring from his daily duties as a brewer, took up the practice of preaching at a fanatical pace. Daily Bible studies and private tutoring were mainstays in my young childhood; however, my parents' efforts at indoctrinating their son in the Christian faith only served to provoke my skepticism. As a child, my constant rebellious behavior displeased my devout mother to such an extent she would chastize me by calling me "The Beast" (from the Book of Revelation), an epithet that I would later happily adopt for myself. I objected to the labelling of what I saw as life's most worthwhile and enjoyable activities as "sinful."
In response, I created his own philosophical system, Occult Sciences — a synthesis of various Eastern mystical systems (including Hinduism, Buddhism, Tantra, the predecessor to Western sex magick, Zoroastrianism and the many systems of Yoga) fused with the Western occult sciences of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn and the many reformed rituals of Freemasonry I later reformulated within the Ordo Templi Orientis (O.T.O). This system is founded in scientific skepticism. My undergraduate studies in chemistry at Trinity College, Cambridge helped forge the scientific skepticism that later culminated in the many-volumed and unparalleled occult publication, The Equinox.
Involved as a young adult in the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, I first studied mysticism with and made enemies of William Butler Yeats and Arthur Edward Waite. Like many in occult circles of the time, I voiced the view that Waite was a pretentious bore, through searing critiques of Waite's writings and editorials of other authors' writings.
My friend and former Golden Dawn associate Allan Bennett introduced me to the ideas of Buddhism, while Samuel Liddell MacGregor Mathers, acting leader of the Golden Dawn organization, acted as my early mentor in western magick but would later become my enemy. Several decades after my participation in the Golden Dawn, Mathers claimed copyright protection over a particular ritual and sued me for infringement after my public display of the ritual. In a book of fiction entitled Moonchild, I portrayed Mathers as the primary villain, including him as a character named SRMD, using the abbreviation of Mathers' magical name. Arthur Edward Waite also appeared in Moonchild as a villain named Arthwaite, while Bennett appeared in Moonchild as the main character's wise mentor, Simon Iff.
While I did not officially break with Mathers until 1904, I lost faith in this teacher's abilities soon after the schism in the Golden Dawn (if not before). In 1900, I traveled to Mexico and continued my magical studies in isolation. My writings tell about how I discovered the word Abrahadabra during this time.
In October of 1901, after practising Raja Yoga for some time, I had reached a state called dhyana — one of many states of unification in thoughts that are described succinctly and vividly in MAGICK Book IV. 1902 saw me writing the essay Berashith (the first word of Genesis), in which I gave meditation (or restraint of the mind to a single object) as the means of attaining my goal. The essay describes ceremonial magic as a means of training the will, and of constantly directing one's thoughts to a given object through ritual. In my 1903 essay, Science and Buddhism, I urged an empirical approach to Buddhist teachings.
A mystical experience in 1904 while on vacation in Cairo, Egypt, led to my founding of the religious philosophy known as Thelema. My wife Rose started to behave in an odd way, and this led me to think that some entity had made contact with her. At her instructions, I performed an invocation of the Egyptian god Horus on March 20 with great success. The god told me that a new magical Aeon had begun, and that I would serve as its prophet. Rose continued to give information, telling me in detailed terms to await a further revelation. On 8 April and for the following two days at exactly noon I heard a voice, dictating the words of the text, Liber AL vel Legis, or The Book of the Law, which I transcribed. The voice claimed to be that of Aiwass (or Aiwaz "the minister of Hoor-paar-kraat," or Horus, the god of force and fire, child of Isis and Osiris) and self-appointed conquering lord of the New Aeon, announced through his chosen scribe "the prince-priest the Beast."
Portions of the book are in numerical cipher, which I have the inability to decode. 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 (me), 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 has me warning everyone not to discuss the writing amongst fellow critics, for fear that a dogmatic position would arise. While I 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 me to fully accept the writing of the Book of the Law and follow its doctrine. Only after countless attempts to test its writings did I come to embrace them as the official doctrine of the New Aeon of Horus. The remainder of my professional and personal careers were spent expanding the new frontiers of scientific illuminism.
I have always been a frequent target of attacks in the tabloid press, which label him "The Wickedest Man in the World" to my amusement. At one point, I was expelled from Italy after having established a sort of commune, the organization of which was based on my personal philosophies, the Abbey of Thelema, at Cefalu, Sicily.
In 1934 I was declared bankrupt after losing a court case in which I sued the artist Nina Hamnett for calling me 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 thought that I knew of every conceivable form of wickedness. I thought that everything which was vicious and bad had been produced at one time or another before me. I have learnt in this case that we can always learn something more if we live long enough. I have never heard such dreadful, horrible, blasphemous and abominable stuff as that which has been produced by the man (me) who describes himself to you as the greatest living poet."
HERE ARE SOME LINKS THAT YOU MIGHT LIKE:
Aleister Crowley Home Page
Aleister Crowley Foundation Home
Aleister Crowley Books
Tarot Cards
