I was born in Royal Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, England, between 11:00pm and 12 midnight on 12 October 1875.
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 childhood; however, after my father's death, my mother's efforts at indoctrinating me in the Christian faith only served to provoke my scepticism. As a child, young my constant rebellious behaviour 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 my own philosophical system, Scientific Illuminism — 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 also appeals to scientific and philosophical scepticism. My undergraduate studies in chemistry at Trinity College, Cambridge helped forge the scientific scepticism that later culminated in the many-volumed and unparalleled occult publication, The Equinox.
Following the death of my father, I turned to a form of Satanism in grief. However, within a few years I abandoned this for atheism and hedonism— I began to behave like a normal, healthy human being! During the year 1897, I slowly came to view earthly pursuits as useless and began my lifelong exploration of esoteric matters. A number of events contributed to this change.
I learned to play chess at the age of six and first competed on the Eastbourne College chess team (where I was taking classes in 1892). I showed immediate competence, beating the adult champion in town and even editing a chess column for the local newspaper, the Eastbourne Gazette, which I often used to criticise the Eastbourne team. I later joined the university chess club at Cambridge, where I beat the president in my freshman year and practised two hours a day towards becoming a champion. My one serious worldly ambition had been to become the champion of the world at chess!
I entered Trinity College at Cambridge in 1895, and left just before finishing my degree. I was initiated into the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn in 1898. The next year I purchased Boleskine House at Loch Ness in order to perform the ritual known as the Abra-Melin Operation.
While 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.
I received the Master Mason 3° in France by the Anglo-Saxon Lodge No. 343.
In 1900, I traveled to Mexico where I was initiated as a 33° Scottish Rite by Don Jesus Medina. I also received the 33° and the 90°/95° Rite of Memphis/Misraim of the Cerneau Scottish Rite from John Yarker.
My friend and former Golden Dawn associate Allan Bennett introduced me to the ideas of Buddhism and yoga in Ceylon, 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 that fucking twat 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 my misguided guide's abilities soon after the 1900 schism in the Golden Dawn. Later that year, I travelled to Mexico and continued my magical studies in isolation. I discovered the word Abrahadabra during this time.
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In October of 1901, after practising Raja Yoga for some time, I reached a state he called dhyana — one of many states of unification in thoughts that are described in my MAGICK Book IV. In 1902 I wrote 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 his 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.
In the summer of 1902, Oscar Eckenstein and I undertook the first attempt to scale Chogo Ri in Pakistan. During this trip, I won a world record for my hardships on the Baltoro Glacier, sixty-eight straight days of glacial life.
In 1903 I married Edith Rose Kelly, the sister of the painter Sir Gerald Kelly.
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 because 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 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 wrote down. 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 me, his chosen scribe, the prince-priest the Beast!
Portions of the book are in a numerical cipher impossible to decode. Don't even fucking try!
In May 1905, I was approached by Dr Jules Jacot-Guillarmod to accompany me on the first expedition to Kanchenjunga in Nepal, the third largest mountain in the world. Guillarmod was left to organize the personnel while I left to get things ready in Darjeeling. On July 31 Guillarmod joined me in Darjeeling, bringing with him two countrymen, Charles-Adolphe Reymond and Alexis Pache. Meanwhile, I had recruited a local man, Alcesti C. Rigo de Righi, to act as Transport Manager. Our team left Darjeeling on August 8, 1905, and used the Singalila Ridge approach to Kangchenjunga. At Chabanjong we ran into the rear of the 135 coolies who had been sent ahead on July 24 and July 25, who were carrying food rations for the team. The expedition suffered four fatalities and retreated after reaching about 25,000 feet. I hiked back with a full stomach. Haha.
In 1913 I was initiated into Ordo Templi Orientis by Theodor Reuss. The following year I was advanced to the X° and became head of O.T.O. in Great Britain and Ireland. That same year, while on a trip to Moscow, I wrote the Gnostic Mass.
I am perplexed!
I retired to America in 1914, where I began editing the publication The International. I returned to Europe in 1919. The next year I founded the Abbey of Thelema in Cefalú, Sicily -- an experimental commune based on the principles of Thelema and inspired by the works of Rabelais where I acted as the Outer Head of the Ordo Templi Orientis worldwide. I was expelled from Italy by Mussolini in 1923.
In 1929 I married, Maria de Miramar.
I am the greatest living poet.
Sometimes I hate myself.
I like the smell of shit, semen and blood.
I am the wickedest man in the Universe.
No, definitely no! or Not Yet!
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.
I reign over ye.
I will endure til the end.
By the force of truth, I, while living, have conquered the Universe!
