Aleister Crowley

By Admin December 1, 2018 Uncategorized

ALEISTER CROWLEY

Born Edward Alexander Crowley; 12 October 1875 – 1 December 1947) was an English occultist, ceremonial magician, poet, painter, novelist, and mountaineer. He founded the religion of Thelema, identifying himself as the prophet entrusted with guiding humanity into the Æon of Horus in the early 20th century. He styled himself “the wickedest man alive”, and changed his name to where it would equal 666 in Gematria. He bragged about doing 150 child sacrifices a year.

He had so many Masonic degrees, he said that if he were to wear the jewelry they were required to wear from these, an elephant would creak under their weight

This serpent, satan, is not the enemy of Man,

but He who made Gods of our race, knowing Good and Evil;

He bade ‘Know Thyself!’ and taught Initiation.

He is ‘The Devil’ of The Book of Thoth (Hermes)

His EMBLEM is BAPHOMET the Androgyne

who is the hieroglyph of arcane perfection

…He is therefore Life, and Love.

But moreover his LETTER is עַיִן ʻayin,

THE EYE, so that he is Light;

His ZODIACAL IMAGE is Capricornus,

that leaping GOAT whose attribute is Liberty.

MAGICK BOOK 4 (by Aleiester Crowley)

EMBLEM : BAPHOMET

LETTER: THE EYE

IMAGE : CAPRICORN

David Bowie

“my overriding interest was in

Kabala and Crowleyism.

That whole dark rather fearsome

never-world of

the wrong side of the brain”

~Bowie

QUICKSAND (by David Bowie) (Bashan where Hermon is located = “sandy”)

“I’m closer to the Golden Dawn

Immersed in Crowley’s uniform, Of imagery

I’m living in a silent film, Portraying Himmler’s

sacred realm, Of dream reality…

I’m torn between the light and dark, where others see their targets, divine symmetry, should I kiss the vipers fang?

link

When Aleister Crowley was living in New York, doing various magickal experiments in a place on West 9th, he did what’s called the Amalantrah Working. It’s theorized this process created a deliberate channel in ephemeral cosmic influences so that extra-dimensional entities could enter our universe. In short, he likely created a portal for what we know as gray aliens to come visit us.

Eventually Crowley made contact with an entity known as Lam and drew its portrait, and damn if it doesn’t look like the pictures we see of Grays now. (Incidentally, “lam” is the mantra linked to the root chakra, which is associated with survival.) This was around 1917. While there are possibly ancient accounts of extra-terrestrial visitations in other parts of the world, this was one of the first-known Grays to have popped into Western consciousness, although Crowley didn’t explicitly say this.

The moment in time may have seemed marginal, one esoteric religion battling another, but ever since Crowley’s Amalantrah Working lots of people in the US started reporting visitations, or “abductions,” with creatures that looked very similar to Lam. Tomorrow, Saturday, January 21, Brian Butler performs his Union of Opposites Ritual, combining light and sound to create a collective out-of-body experience. Along with his team he’ll execute an occult rite inspired by Crowley’s Ritual of the Mark of the Beast. If you’re in the audience, you’re a participant. This happens from 5 to 6 PM at Ruskin Theatre at the Santa Monica Airport in as part of the Art Los Angeles Contemporary Fair.

Aleister Crowley, on his name change.^[20]

For many years I had loathed being called Alick, partly because of the unpleasant sound and sight of the word, partly because it was the name by which my mother called me. Edward did not seem to suit me and the diminutives Ted or Ned were even less appropriate. Alexander was too long and Sandy suggested tow hair and freckles. I had read in some book or other that the most favourable name for becoming famous was one consisting of a dactyl followed by a spondee, as at the end of a hexameter: like Jeremy Taylor. Aleister Crowley fulfilled these conditions and Aleister is the Gaelic form of Alexander. To adopt it would satisfy my romantic ideals.

Cambridge University: 1895–1898[edit]

Having adopted the name of Aleister over Edward, in October 1895 Crowley began a three-year course at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he was entered for the Moral Science Tripos studying philosophy. With approval from his personal tutor, he changed to English literature, which was not then part of the curriculum offered.^[15] Crowley spent much of his time at university engaged in his pastimes, becoming president of the chess club and practising the game for two hours a day; he briefly considered a professional career as a chess player.^[16] Crowley also embraced his love of literature and poetry, particularly the works of Richard Francis Burton and Percy Bysshe Shelley.^[17] Many of his own poems appeared in student publications such as The Granta, Cambridge Magazine, and Cantab.^[18] He continued his mountaineering, going on holiday to the Alps to climb every year from 1894 to 1898, often with his friend Oscar Eckenstein, and in 1897 he made the first ascent of the Mönch without a guide. These feats led to his recognition in the Alpine mountaineering community.^[19]

Crowley had his first significant mystical experience while on holiday in Stockholm in December 1896.^[21] Several biographers, including Lawrence Sutin, Richard Kaczynski, and Tobias Churton, believed that this was the result of Crowley’s first same-sex sexual experience, which enabled him to recognise his bisexuality.^[22] At Cambridge, Crowley maintained a vigorous sex life with women—largely with female prostitutes, from one of whom he caught syphilis—but eventually he took part in same-sex activities, despite their illegality.^[23] In October 1897, Crowley met Herbert Charles Pollitt, president of the Cambridge University Footlights Dramatic Club, and the two entered into a relationship. They broke apart because Pollitt did not share Crowley’s increasing interest in Western esotericism, a break-up that Crowley would regret for many years.^[24]

In 1897, Crowley travelled to Saint Petersburg in Russia, later claiming that he was trying to learn Russian as he was considering a future diplomatic career there.^[25] Biographers Richard Spence and Tobias Churton suggested that Crowley had done so as an intelligence agent under the employ of the British secret service, speculating that he had been enlisted while at Cambridge.^[26]

In October 1897, a brief illness triggered considerations of mortality and “the futility of all human endeavour”, and Crowley abandoned all thoughts of a diplomatic career in favour of pursuing an interest in the occult.^[27] In March 1898, he obtained A.E. Waite‘s The Book of Black Magic and of Pacts (1898), and then Karl von Eckartshausen‘s The Cloud Upon the Sanctuary (1896), furthering his occult interests.^[28] In 1898 Crowley privately published 100 copies of his poem Aceldama: A Place to Bury Strangers In, but it was not a particular success.^[29] That same year he published a string of other poems, including White Stains, a Decadent collection of erotic poetry that was printed abroad lest its publication be prohibited by the British authorities.^[30] In July 1898, he left Cambridge, not having taken any degree at all despite a “first class” showing in his 1897 exams and consistent “second class honours” results before that.^[31]

The Golden Dawn: 1898–99[edit]

In August 1898, Crowley was in Zermatt, Switzerland, where he met the chemist Julian L. Baker, and the two began discussing their common interest in alchemy.^[32] Back in London, Baker introduced Crowley to George Cecil Jones, Baker’s brother in-law, and a fellow member of the occult society known as the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, which had been founded in 1888.^[33] Crowley was initiated into the Outer Order of the Golden Dawn on 18 November 1898 by the group’s leader, Samuel Liddell MacGregor Mathers. The ceremony took place in the Golden Dawn’s Isis-Urania Temple held at London’s Mark Masons Hall, where Crowley took the magical motto and name “Frater Perdurabo”, which he interpreted as “I shall endure to the end”.^[34]Biographers Richard Spence and Tobias Churton have suggested that Crowley joined the Order under the command of the British secret services to monitor the activities of Mathers, who was known to be a Carlist.^[35]

Crowley moved into his own luxury flat at 67–69 Chancery Lane and soon invited a senior Golden Dawn member, Allan Bennett, to live with him as his personal magical tutor. Bennett taught Crowley more about ceremonial magic and the ritual use of drugs, and together they performed the rituals of the Goetia,^[36] until Bennett left for South Asia to study Buddhism.^[37] In November 1899, Crowley purchased Boleskine House in Foyers on the shore of Loch Ness in Scotland. He developed a love of Scottish culture, describing himself as the “Laird of Boleskine”, and took to wearing traditional highland dress, even during visits to London.^[38] He continued writing poetry, publishing Jezebel and Other Tragic Poems, Tales of Archais, Songs of the Spirit, Appeal to the American Republic, and Jephthah in 1898–99; most gained mixed reviews from literary critics, although Jephthah was considered a particular critical success.^[39]

Mexico, India, Paris, and marriage: 1900–1903[edit]

In 1900, Crowley travelled to Mexico via the United States, settling in Mexico City and taking a local woman as his mistress. Developing a love of the country, he continued experimenting with ceremonial magic, working with John Dee‘s Enochian invocations. He later claimed to have been initiated into Freemasonry while there, and he wrote a play based on Richard Wagner‘s Tannhäuser as well as a series of poems, published as Oracles (1905). Eckenstein joined him later that year, and together they climbed several mountains, including Iztaccihuatl, Popocatepetl, and Colima, the latter of which they had to abandon owing to a volcanic eruption.^[46] Spence has suggested that the purpose of the trip might have been to explore Mexican oil prospects for British intelligence.^[47] Leaving Mexico, Crowley headed to San Francisco before sailing for Hawaii aboard the Nippon Maru. On the ship he had a brief affair with a married woman named Mary Alice Rogers; saying he had fallen in love with her, he wrote a series of poems about the romance, published as Alice: An Adultery (1903).^[48]

Developing Thelema[edit]

Egypt and The Book of the Law: 1904[edit]

Had! The manifestation of Nuit.
The unveiling of the company of heaven.
Every man and woman is a star.
Every number is infinite; there is no difference.
Help me, o warrior lord of Thebes, in my unveiling before the Children of men!

The opening lines of The Book of the Law.

In February 1904, Crowley and Rose arrived in Cairo. Claiming to be a prince and princess, they rented an apartment in which Crowley set up a temple room and began invoking ancient Egyptian deities, while studying Islamic mysticism and Arabic.^[55] According to Crowley’s later account, Rose regularly became delirious and informed him “they are waiting for you.” On 18 March, she explained that “they” were the god Horus, and on 20 March proclaimed that “the Equinox of the Gods has come”. She led him to a nearby museum, where she showed him a seventh-century BCE mortuary stele known as the Stele of Ankh-ef-en-Khonsu; Crowley thought it important that the exhibit’s number was 666, the Number of the Beast in Christian belief, and in later years termed the artefact the “Stele of Revealing.“^[56]

According to Crowley’s later statements, on 8 April he heard a disembodied voice that claimed to be that of Aiwass, the messenger of Horus, or Hoor-Paar-Kraat. Crowley said that he wrote down everything the voice told him over the course of the next three days, and titled it Liber L vel Legis or The Book of the Law.^[57]The book proclaimed that humanity was entering a new Aeon, and that Crowley would serve as its prophet. It stated that a supreme moral law was to be introduced in this Aeon, “Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law,” and that people should learn to live in tune with their Will. This book, and the philosophy that it espoused, became the cornerstone of Crowley’s religion, Thelema.^[58] Crowley said that at the time he had been unsure what to do with The Book of the Law. Often resenting it, he said that he ignored the instructions which the text commanded him to perform, which included taking the Stele of Revealing from the museum, fortifying his own island, and translating the book into all the world’s languages. According to his account, he instead sent typescripts of the work to several occultists he knew, putting the manuscript away and ignoring it.^[59]

Kanchenjunga and China: 1905–06[edit]

Returning to Boleskine, Crowley came to believe that Mathers had begun using magic against him, and the relationship between the two broke down.^[60] On 28 July 1905, Rose gave birth to Crowley’s first child, a daughter named Lilith, with Crowley writing the pornographic Snowdrops From a Curate’s Garden to entertain his recuperating wife.^[61] He also founded a publishing company through which to publish his poetry, naming it the Society for the Propagation of Religious Truth in parody of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge. Among its first publications were Crowley’s Collected Works, edited by Ivor Back.^[62] His poetry often received strong reviews (either positive or negative), but never sold well. In an attempt to gain more publicity, he issued a reward of £100 for the best essay on his work. The winner of this was J. F. C. Fuller, a British Army officer and military historian, whose essay, The Star in the West(1907), heralded Crowley’s poetry as some of the greatest ever written.^[63]

Kanchenjunga, as seen from Darjeeling

Crowley decided to climb Kanchenjunga in the Himalayas of Nepal, widely recognised as the world’s most treacherous mountain. Assembling a team consisting of Jacot-Guillarmod, Charles Adolphe Reymond, Alexis Pache, and Alcesti C. Rigo de Righi, the expedition was marred by much argument between Crowley and the others, who thought that he was reckless. They eventually mutinied against Crowley’s control, with the other climbers heading back down the mountain as nightfall approached despite Crowley’s warnings that it was too dangerous. Subsequently, Pache and several porters were killed in an accident, something for which Crowley was widely blamed by the mountaineering community.^[64]

Spending time in Moharbhanj, where he took part in big-game hunting and wrote the homoerotic work The Scented Garden, Crowley met up with Rose and Lilith in Calcutta before being forced to leave India after shooting dead a native man who tried to mug him.^[65] Briefly visiting Bennett in Burma, Crowley and his family decided to tour Southern China, hiring porters and a nanny for the purpose.^[66] Spence has suggested that this trip to China was orchestrated as part of a British intelligence scheme to monitor the region’s opium trade.^[67] Crowley smoked opium throughout the journey, which took the family from Tengyueh through to Yungchang, Tali, Yunnanfu, and then Hanoi. On the way he spent much time on spiritual and magical work, reciting the “Bornless Ritual”, an invocation to his Holy Guardian Angel, on a daily basis.^[68]

While Rose and Lilith returned to Europe, Crowley headed to Shanghai to meet old friend Elaine Simpson, who was fascinated by The Book of the Law; together they performed rituals in an attempt to contact Aiwass. Crowley then sailed to Japan and Canada, before continuing to New York City, where he unsuccessfully solicited support for a second expedition up Kanchenjunga.^[69] Upon arrival in Britain, Crowley learned that his daughter Lilith had died of typhoid in Rangoon, something he later blamed on Rose’s increasing alcoholism. Under emotional distress, his health began to suffer, and he underwent a series of surgical operations.^[70] He began short-lived romances with actress Vera “Lola” Neville (née Snepp)^[71] and author Ada Leverson,^[72] while Rose gave birth to Crowley’s second daughter, Lola Zaza, in February 1907.^[73]

The A∴A∴ and the Holy Books of Thelema: 1907–1909[edit]

With his old mentor George Cecil Jones, Crowley continued performing the Abramelin rituals at the Ashdown Park Hotel in Coulsdon, Surrey. Crowley claimed that in doing so he attained samadhi, or union with Godhead, thereby marking a turning point in his life.^[74] Making heavy use of hashish during these rituals, he wrote an essay on “The Psychology of Hashish” (1909) in which he championed the drug as an aid to mysticism.^[75] He also claimed to have been contacted once again by Aiwass in late October and November 1907, adding that Aiwass dictated two further texts to him, “Liber VII” and “Liber Cordis Cincti Serpente”, both of which were later classified in the corpus of The Holy Books of Thelema.^[76] Crowley wrote down more Thelemic Holy Books during the last two months of the year, including “Liber LXVI”, “Liber Arcanorum”, “Liber Porta Lucis, Sub Figura X”, “Liber Tau”, “Liber Trigrammaton” and “Liber DCCCXIII vel Ararita”, which he again claimed to have received from a preternatural source.^[77] Crowley stated that in June 1909, when the manuscript of The Book of the Law was rediscovered at Boleskine, he developed the opinion that Thelema represented objective truth.^[78]

Crowley’s inheritance was running out.^[79] Trying to earn money, he was hired by George Montagu Bennett, the Earl of Tankerville, to help protect him from witchcraft; recognising Bennett’s paranoia as being based in his cocaine addiction, Crowley took him on holiday to France and Morocco to recuperate.^[80] In 1907, he also began taking in paying students, whom he instructed in occult and magical practice.^[81] Victor Neuburg, whom Crowley met in February 1907, became his sexual partner and closest disciple; in 1908 the pair toured northern Spain before heading to Tangier, Morocco.^[82] The following year Neuburg stayed at Boleskine, where he and Crowley engaged in sadomasochism.^[83] Crowley continued to write prolifically, producing such works of poetry as Ambergris, Clouds Without Water, and Konx Om Pax,^[84] as well as his first attempt at an autobiography, The World’s Tragedy.^[85] Recognising the popularity of short horror stories, Crowley wrote his own, some of which were published,^[86] and he also published several articles in Vanity Fair, a magazine edited by his friend Frank Harris.^[87] He also wrote Liber 777, a book of magical and Qabalistic correspondences that borrowed from Mathers and Bennett.^[88]

The opening lines of Liber VII (1907), the first of the Holy Books of Thelema to be revealed to Crowley after The Book of the Law.^[89]

Into my loneliness comes—
The sound of a flute in dim groves that haunt the uttermost hills.
Even from the brave river they reach to the edge of the wilderness.
And I behold Pan.

In November 1907, Crowley and Jones decided to found an occult order to act as a successor to the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, being aided in doing so by Fuller. The result was the A∴A∴. The group’s headquarters and temple were situated at 124 Victoria Street in central London, and their rites borrowed much from those of the Golden Dawn, but with an added Thelemic basis.^[90] Its earliest members included solicitor Richard Noel Warren, artist Austin Osman Spare, Horace Sheridan-Bickers, author George Raffalovich, Francis Henry Everard Joseph Feilding, engineer Herbert Edward Inman, Kenneth Ward, and Charles Stansfeld Jones.^[91] In March 1909, Crowley began production of a biannual periodical titled The Equinox. He billed this periodical, which was to become the “Official Organ” of the A∴A∴, as “The Review of Scientific Illuminism”.^[92]

Crowley had become increasingly frustrated with Rose’s alcoholism, and in November 1909 he divorced her on the grounds of his own adultery. Lola was entrusted to Rose’s care; the couple remained friends and Rose continued to live at Boleskine. Her alcoholism worsened, and as a result she was institutionalised in September 1911.^[93]

Algeria and the Rites of Eleusis: 1909–1911[edit]

In November 1909, Crowley and Neuburg travelled to Algeria, touring the desert from El Arba to Aumale, Bou Saâda, and then Dā’leh Addin, with Crowley reciting the Quran on a daily basis. During the trip he invoked the thirty aethyrs of Enochian magic, with Neuburg recording the results, later published in The Equinox as The Vision and the Voice. Following a mountaintop sex magic ritual, Crowley also performed an invocation to the demon Choronzon involving blood sacrifice, considering the results to be a watershed in his magical career.^[94] Returning to London in January 1910, Crowley found that Mathers was suing him for publishing Golden Dawn secrets in The Equinox; the court found in favour of Crowley. The case was widely reported in the press, with Crowley gaining wider fame.^[95] Crowley enjoyed this, and played up to the sensationalist stereotype of being a Satanist and advocate of human sacrifice, despite being neither.^[96]

The publicity attracted new members to the A∴A∴, among them Frank Bennett, James Bayley, Herbert Close, and James Windram.^[97] The Australian violinist Leila Waddell soon became Crowley’s lover.^[98] Deciding to expand his teachings to a wider audience, Crowley developed the Rites of Artemis, a public performance of magic and symbolism featuring A∴A∴ members personifying various deities. It was first performed at the A∴A∴ headquarters, with attendees given a fruit punch containing peyote to enhance their experience. Various members of the press attended, and reported largely positively on it. In October and November 1910, Crowley decided to stage something similar, the Rites of Eleusis, at Caxton Hall, Westminster; this time press reviews were mixed.^[99] Crowley came under particular criticism from West de Wend Fenton, editor of The Looking Glass newspaper, who called him “one of the most blasphemous and cold-blooded villains of modern times”.^[100] Fenton’s articles suggested that Crowley and Jones were involved in homosexual activity; Crowley did not mind, but Jones unsuccessfully sued for libel.^[101] Fuller broke off his friendship and involvement with Crowley over the scandal,^[102] and Crowley and Neuburg returned to Algeria for further magical workings.^[103]

The Equinox continued publishing, and various books of literature and poetry were also published under its imprint, like Crowley’s Ambergris, The Winged Beetle, and The Scented Garden, as well as Neuburg’s The Triumph of Pan and Ethel Archer’s The Whirlpool.^[104] In 1911, Crowley and Waddell holidayed in Montigny-sur-Loing, where he wrote prolifically, producing poems, short stories, plays, and 19 works on magic and mysticism, including the two final Holy Books of Thelema.^[105] In Paris, he met Mary Desti, who became his next “Scarlet Woman”, with the two undertaking magical workings in St. Moritz; Crowley believed that one of the Secret Chiefs, Ab-ul-Diz, was speaking through her.^[106] Based on Desti’s statements when in trance, Crowley wrote the two-volume Book 4 (1912–13) and at the time developed the spelling “magick” in reference to the paranormal phenomenon as a means of distinguishing it from the stage magic of illusionists.^[107]

Ordo Templi Orientis and the Paris Working: 1912–1914[edit]

Crowley in ceremonial garb, 1912

In early 1912, Crowley published The Book of Lies, a work of mysticism that biographer Lawrence Sutin described as “his greatest success in merging his talents as poet, scholar, and magus”.^[108] The German occultist Theodor Reuss later accused him of publishing some of the secrets of his own occult order, the Ordo Templi Orientis (O.T.O.), within The Book. Crowley convinced Reuss that the similarities were coincidental, and the two became friends. Reuss appointed Crowley as head of the O.T.O’s British branch, the Mysteria Mystica Maxima (MMM), and at a ceremony in Berlin Crowley adopted the magical name of Baphomet and was proclaimed “X° Supreme Rex and Sovereign Grand Master General of Ireland, Iona, and all the Britons“.

^[109] With Reuss’ permission, Crowley set about advertising the MMM and re-writing many O.T.O. rituals, which were then based largely on Freemasonry; his incorporation of Thelemite elements proved controversial in the group. Fascinated by the O.T.O’s emphasis on sex magic, Crowley devised a magical working based on anal sex and incorporated it into the syllabus for those O.T.O. members who had been initiated into the eleventh degree.^[110]

In March 1913 Crowley acted as producer for The Ragged Ragtime Girls, a group of female violinists led by Waddell, as they performed at London’s Old Tivoli theatre. They subsequently performed in Moscow for six weeks, where Crowley had a sadomasochistic relationship with the Hungarian Anny Ringler.^[111] In Moscow, Crowley continued to write plays and poetry, including “Hymn to Pan“, and the Gnostic Mass, a Thelemic ritual that became a key part of O.T.O. liturgy.^[112] Churton suggested that Crowley had travelled to Moscow on the orders of British intelligence to spy on revolutionary elements in the city.^[113] In January 1914 Crowley and Neuburg settled into an apartment in Paris, where the former was involved in the controversy surrounding Jacob Epstein‘s new monument to Oscar Wilde.^[114] Together Crowley and Neuburg performed the six-week “Paris Working”, a period of intense ritual involving strong drug use in which they invoked the gods Mercury and Jupiter. As part of the ritual, the couple performed acts of sex magic together, at times being joined by journalist Walter Duranty. Inspired by the results of the Working, Crowley wrote Liber Agapé, a treatise on sex magic.^[115] Following the Paris Working, Neuburg began to distance himself from Crowley, resulting in an argument in which Crowley cursed him.^[116]

United States: 1914–1919[edit]

By 1914 Crowley was living a hand-to-mouth existence, relying largely on donations from A∴A∴ members and dues payments made to O.T.O.^[117] In May he transferred ownership of Boleskine House to the MMM for financial reasons,^[118] and in July he went mountaineering in the Swiss Alps. During this time the First World War broke out.^[119] After recuperating from a bout of phlebitis, Crowley set sail for the United States aboard the RMS Lusitania in October 1914.^[120] Arriving in New York City, he moved into a hotel and began earning money writing for the American edition of Vanity Fairand undertaking freelance work for the famed astrologer Evangeline Adams.^[121] In the city, he continued experimenting with sex magic, through the use of masturbation, female prostitutes, and male clients of a Turkish bathhouse; all of these encounters were documented in his diaries.^[122]

May Morn, one of Crowley’s paintings from his time in the US. He explained it thus: “The painting represents the dawning of the day following a witches’ celebration as described in Faust. The witch is hanged, as she deserves, and the satyr looks out from behind a tree.”^[123]

Professing to be of Irish ancestry and a supporter of Irish independence from Great Britain, Crowley began to espouse support for Germany in their war against Britain. He became involved in New York’s pro-German movement, and in January 1915 German spy George Sylvester Viereck employed him as a writer for his propagandist paper, The Fatherland, which was dedicated to keeping the US neutral in the conflict.

^[124] In later years, detractors denounced Crowley as a traitor to Britain for this action.^[125] In reality, Crowley was a double agent, working for the British intelligence services to infiltrate and undermine Germany’s operation in New York. Many of his articles in The Fatherland were hyperbolic, for instance comparing Wilhelm II to Jesus Christ; in July 1915 he orchestrated a publicity stunt – reported on by The New York Times – in which he declared independence for Ireland in front of the Statue of Liberty; the real intention was to make the German lobby appear ridiculous in the eyes of the American public.^[126] It has been argued that he encouraged the German Navy to destroy the Lusitania, informing them that it would ensure the US stayed out of the war, while in reality hoping that it would bring the US into the war on Britain’s side.^[127]

Crowley entered into a relationship with Jeanne Robert Foster, with whom he toured the West Coast. In Vancouver, headquarters of the North American O.T.O., he met with Charles Stansfeld Jones and Wilfred Talbot Smith to discuss the propagation of Thelema on the continent. In Detroit he experimented with Peyote at Parke-Davis, then visited Seattle, San Francisco, Santa Cruz, Los Angeles, San Diego, Tijuana, and the Grand Canyon, before returning to New York.^[128] There he befriended Ananda Coomaraswamy and his wife Alice Richardson; Crowley and Richardson performed sex magic in April 1916, following which she became pregnant and then miscarried.^[129] Later that year he took a “magical retirement” to a cabin by Lake Pasquaney owned by Evangeline Adams. There, he made heavy use of drugs and undertook a ritual after which he proclaimed himself “Master Therion”. He also wrote several short stories based on J.G. Frazer‘s The Golden Bough and a work of literary criticism, The Gospel According to Bernard Shaw.^[130]

In December he moved to New Orleans, his favourite US city, before spending February 1917 with evangelical Christian relatives in Titusville, Florida.^[131]Returning to New York City, he moved in with artist and A∴A∴ member Leon Engers Kennedy in May, learning of his mother’s death.^[132] After the collapse of The Fatherland, Crowley continued his association with Viereck, who appointed him contributing editor of arts journal The International. Crowley used it to promote Thelema, but it soon ceased publication.^[133] He then moved to the studio apartment of Roddie Minor, who became his partner and Scarlet Woman. Through their rituals, which Crowley called “The Amalantrah Workings”, he believed that they were contacted by a preternatural entity named Lam. The relationship soon ended.^[134]

In 1918, Crowley went on a magical retreat in the wilderness of Esopus Island on the Hudson River. Here, he began a translation of the Tao Te Ching, painted Thelemic slogans on the riverside cliffs, and – he later claimed – experienced past life memories of being Ge Xuan, Pope Alexander VI, Alessandro Cagliostro, and Eliphas Levi.^[135] Back in New York City, he moved to Greenwich Village, where he took Leah Hirsig as his lover and next Scarlet Woman.^[136] He took up painting as a hobby, exhibiting his work at the Greenwich Village Liberal Club and attracting the attention of the New York Evening World.^[137] With the financial assistance of sympathetic Freemasons, Crowley revived The Equinox with the first issue of volume III, known as The Blue Equinox.^[138] He spent mid-1919 on a climbing holiday in Montauk before returning to London in December.^[139]

Abbey of Thelema: 1920–1923[edit]

Now destitute and back in London, Crowley came under attack from the tabloid John Bull, which labelled him traitorous “scum” for his work with the German war effort; several friends aware of his intelligence work urged him to sue, but he decided not to.^[140] When he was suffering from asthma, a doctor prescribed him heroin, to which he soon became addicted.^[141] In January 1920, he moved to Paris, renting a house in Fontainebleau with Leah Hirsig; they were soon joined in a ménage à trois by Ninette Shumway, and also (in living arrangement) by Leah’s newborn daughter Anne “Poupée” Leah.^[142] Crowley had ideas of forming a community of Thelemites, which he called the Abbey of Thelema after the Abbaye de Thélème in François Rabelais‘ satire Gargantua and Pantagruel. After consulting the I Ching, he chose Cefalù (on Sicily, Italy) as a location, and after arriving there, began renting the old Villa Santa Barbara as his Abbey on 2 April.^[143]

The dilapidated Abbey of Thelemain 2017

Moving to the commune with Hirsig, Shumway, and their children Hansi, Howard, and Poupée, Crowley described the scenario as “perfectly happy … my idea of heaven.“^[144] They wore robes, and performed rituals to the sun god Ra at set times during the day, also occasionally performing the Gnostic Mass; the rest of the day they were left to follow their own interests.^[145] Undertaking widespread correspondences, Crowley continued to paint, wrote a commentary on The Book of the Law, and revised the third part of Book 4.^[146] He offered a libertine education for the children, allowing them to play all day and witness acts of sex magic.^[147] He occasionally travelled to Palermo to visit rent boys and buy supplies, including drugs; his heroin addiction came to dominate his life, and cocaine began to erode his nasal cavity.^[148] There was no cleaning rota, and wild dogs and cats wandered throughout the building, which soon became unsanitary.^[149] Poupée died in October 1920, and Ninette gave birth to a daughter, Astarte Lulu Panthea, soon afterwards.^[150]

New followers continued to arrive at the Abbey to be taught by Crowley. Among them was film star Jane Wolfe, who arrived in July 1920, where she was initiated into the A∴A∴ and became Crowley’s secretary.^[151] Another was Cecil Frederick Russell, who often argued with Crowley, disliking the same-sex sexual magic that he was required to perform, and left after a year.^[152] More conducive was the Australian Thelemite Frank Bennett, who also spent several months at the Abbey.^[153] In February 1922, Crowley returned to Paris for a retreat in an unsuccessful attempt to kick his heroin addiction.^[154] He then went to London in search of money, where he published articles in The English Review criticising the Dangerous Drugs Act 1920 and wrote a novel, Diary of a Drug Fiend, completed in July. On publication, it received mixed reviews; he was lambasted by the Sunday Express, which called for its burning and used its influence to prevent further reprints.^[155]

Subsequently, a young Thelemite named Raoul Loveday moved to the Abbey with his wife Betty May; while Loveday was devoted to Crowley, May detested him and life at the commune. She later said that Loveday was made to drink the blood of a sacrificed cat, and that they were required to cut themselves with razors every time they used the pronoun “I”. Loveday drank from a local polluted stream, soon developing a liver infection resulting in his death in February 1923. Returning to London, May told her story to the press.^[156] John Bull proclaimed Crowley “the wickedest man in the world” and “a man we’d like to hang”, and although Crowley deemed many of their accusations against him to be slanderous, he was unable to afford the legal fees to sue them. As a result, John Bull continued its attack, with its stories being repeated in newspapers throughout Europe and in North America.^[157] The Fascist government of Benito Mussolini learned of Crowley’s activities and in April 1923 he was given a deportation notice forcing him to leave Italy; without him, the Abbey closed.^[158]

Tunisia, Paris, and London: 1923–1929[edit]

Crowley and Hirsig went to Tunis, where, dogged by continuing poor health, he unsuccessfully tried again to give up heroin,^[159] and began writing what he termed his “autohagiography“, The Confessions of Aleister Crowley.^[160] They were joined in Tunis by the Thelemite Norman Mudd, who became Crowley’s public relations consultant.^[161] Employing a local boy, Mohammad ben Brahim, as his servant, Crowley went with him on a retreat to Nefta, where they performed sex magic together.^[162] In January 1924, Crowley travelled to Nice, France, where he met with Frank Harris, underwent a series of nasal operations,^[163] and visited the Institute for the Harmonious Development of Man and had a positive opinion of its founder, George Gurdjieff.^[164] Destitute, he took on a wealthy student, Alexander Zu Zolar,^[165] before taking on another American follower, Dorothy Olsen. Crowley took Olsen back to Tunisia for a magical retreat in Nefta, where he also wrote To Man (1924), a declaration of his own status as a prophet entrusted with bringing Thelema to humanity.^[166] After spending the winter in Paris, in early 1925 Crowley and Olsen returned to Tunis, where he wrote The Heart of the Master (1938) as an account of a vision he experienced in a trance.^[167] In March Olsen became pregnant, and Hirsig was called to take care of her; she miscarried, following which Crowley took Olsen back to France. Hirsig later distanced herself from Crowley, who then denounced her.^[168]

According to Crowley, Reuss had named him head of the O.T.O. upon his death, but this was challenged by a leader of the German O.T.O., Heinrich Tränker. Tränker called the Hohenleuben Conference in Thuringia, Germany, which Crowley attended. There, prominent members like Karl Germer and Martha Küntzel championed Crowley’s leadership, but other key figures like Albin Grau, Oskar Hopfer, and Henri Birven backed Tränker by opposing it, resulting in a split in the O.T.O.^[169] Moving to Paris, where he broke with Olsen in 1926, Crowley went through a large number of lovers over the following years, with whom he experimented in sex magic.^[170] Throughout, he was dogged by poor health, largely caused by his heroin and cocaine addictions.^[171] In 1928, Crowley was introduced to young Englishman Israel Regardie, who embraced Thelema and became Crowley’s secretary for the next three years.^[172] That year, Crowley also met Gerald Yorke, who began organising Crowley’s finances but never became a Thelemite.^[173] He also befriended Thomas Driberg; Driberg did not accept Thelema either.^{[17 4]} It was here that Crowley also published one of his most significant works, Magick in Theory and Practice, which received little attention at the time.^[175]

In December 1928 Crowley met the Nicaraguan Maria Teresa Sanchez.^[176] Crowley was deported from France by the authorities, who disliked his reputation and feared that he was a German agent.^[177] So that she could join him in Britain, Crowley married Sanchez in August 1929.^[178] Now based in London, Mandrake Press agreed to publish his autobiography in a limited edition six-volume set, also publishing his novel Moonchild and book of short stories The Stratagem. Mandrake went into liquidation in November 1930, before the entirety of Crowley’s Confessions could be published.^[179] Mandrake’s owner P.R. Stephenson meanwhile wrote The Legend of Aleister Crowley, an analysis of the media coverage surrounding him.^[180]

Berlin and London: 1930–1938[edit]

In April 1930, Crowley moved to Berlin, where he took Hanni Jaegar as his magical partner; the relationship was troubled.^[181] In September he went to Lisbon in Portugal to meet the poet Fernando Pessoa. There, he decided to fake his own death, doing so with Pessoa’s help at the Boca do Inferno rock formation.^[182] He then returned to Berlin, where he reappeared three weeks later at the opening of his art exhibition at the Gallery Neumann-Nierendorf. Crowley’s paintings fitted with the fashion for German Expressionism; few of them sold, but the press reports were largely favourable.^[183] In August 1931, he took Bertha Busch as his new lover; they had a violent relationship, and often physically assaulted one another.^[184] He continued to have affairs with both men and women while in the city,^[185] and met with famous people like Aldous Huxley and Alfred Adler.^[186] After befriending him, in January 1932 he took the communist Gerald Hamilton as a lodger, through whom he was introduced to many figures within the Berlin far left; it is possible that he was operating as a spy for British intelligence at this time, monitoring the communist movement.^[187]

Crowley left Busch and returned to London,^[190] where he took Pearl Brooksmith as his new Scarlet Woman.^[191] Undergoing further nasal surgery, it was here in 1932 that he was invited to be guest of honour at Foyles‘ Literary Luncheon, also being invited by Harry Price to speak at the National Laboratory of Psychical Research.^[192] In need of money, he launched a series of court cases against people whom he believed had libelled him, some of which proved successful. He gained much publicity for his lawsuit against Constable and Co for publishing Nina Hamnett‘s Laughing Torso (1932) – a book he thought libelled him – but lost the case.^[193] The court case added to Crowley’s financial problems, and in February 1935 he was declared bankrupt. During the hearing, it was revealed that Crowley had been spending three times his income for several years.^[194]

Crowley developed a friendship with Deidre Patricia Doherty; she offered to bear his child, who was born in May 1937. Named Randall Gair, Crowley nicknamed him Aleister Atatürk.^[195] Crowley continued to socialise with friends, holding curry parties in which he cooked particularly spicy food for them.^[196] In 1936, he published his first book in six years, The Equinox of the Gods, which contained a facsimile of The Book of the Law and was considered to be volume III, number 3, of The Equinox periodical. The work sold well, resulting in a second print run.^[197] In 1937 he gave a series of public lectures on yoga in Soho.^[198] Crowley was now living largely off contributions supplied by the O.T.O.’s Agape Lodge in California, led by rocket scientist John Whiteside “Jack” Parsons.^[199] Crowley was intrigued by the rise of Nazism in Germany, and influenced by his friend Martha Küntzel believed that Adolf Hitler might convert to Thelema; when the Nazis abolished the German O.T.O. and imprisoned Germer, who fled to the US, Crowley then lambasted Hitler as a black magician.^[200]

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 (Crowley) who describes himself to you as the greatest living poet.

~Justice Swift, in Crowley’s libel case.^[188]^[189]

Second World War and death: 1939–1947[edit]

Crowley specified that Grady McMurtry succeed his chosen successor as Head of O.T.O., Karl Germer.

When the Second World War broke out, Crowley wrote to the Naval Intelligence Division offering his services, but they declined. He associated with a variety of figures in Britain’s intelligence community at the time, including Dennis Wheatley, Roald Dahl, Ian Fleming, and Maxwell Knight,^[201] and claimed to have been behind the “V for Victory” sign first used by the BBC; this has never been proven.^[202] In 1940, his asthma worsened, and with his German-produced medication unavailable, he returned to using heroin, once again becoming addicted.^[203] As the Blitz hit London, Crowley relocated to Torquay, where he was briefly hospitalised with asthma, and entertained himself with visits to the local chess club.^[204] Tiring of Torquay, he returned to London, where he was visited by American Thelemite Grady McMurtry, to whom Crowley awarded the title of “Hymenaeus Alpha”.^[205] He stipulated that though Germer would be his immediate successor, McMurty should succeed Germer as head of the O.T.O. after the latter’s death.^[206] With O.T.O. initiate Lady Frieda Harris, Crowley developed plans to produce a tarot card set, designed by him and painted by Harris. Accompanying this was a book, published in a limited edition as The Book of Thoth by Chiswick Press in 1944.^[207] To aid the war effort, he wrote a proclamation on the rights of humanity, Liber Oz, and a poem for the liberation of France, Le Gauloise.^[208] Crowley’s final publication during his lifetime was a book of poetry, Olla: An Anthology of Sixty Years of Song.^[209] Another of his projects, Aleister Explains Everything, was posthumously published as Magick Without Tears.^[210]

In April 1944 Crowley briefly moved to Aston Clinton in Buckinghamshire,^[211] where he was visited by the poet Nancy Cunard,^[212] before relocating to Hastings in Sussex, where he took up residence at the Netherwood boarding house.^[211] He took a young man named Kenneth Grant as his secretary, paying him in magical teaching rather than wages.^[213] He was also introduced to John Symonds, whom he appointed to be his literary executor; Symonds thought little of Crowley, later publishing negative biographies of him.^[214] Corresponding with the illusionist Arnold Crowther, it was through him that Crowley was introduced to Gerald Gardner, the future founder of Gardnerian Wicca. They became friends, with Crowley authorising Gardner to revive Britain’s ailing O.T.O.^[215] Another visitor was Eliza Marian Butler, who interviewed Crowley for her book The Myth of the Magus.^[216] Other friends and family also spent time with him, among them Doherty and Crowley’s son Aleister Atatürk.^[217] On 1 December 1947, Crowley died at Netherwood of chronic bronchitis aggravated by pleurisy and myocardial degeneration, aged 72.^[218] His funeral was held at a Brighton crematorium on 5 December; about a dozen people attended, and Louis Wilkinson read excerpts from the Gnostic Mass, The Book of the Law, and “Hymn to Pan”. The funeral generated press controversy, and was labelled a Black Mass by the tabloids. Crowley’s ashes were sent to Karl Germer in the US, who buried them in his garden in Hampton, New Jersey.^[219]

Beliefs and thought[edit]

Main article: Thelema

Aleister Crowley’s rendition of the Unicursal Hexagram, the symbol of Thelema

Crowley’s belief system, Thelema, has been described by scholars as a religion,^[220] and more specifically as both a new religious movement,^[221] and as a “magico-religious doctrine”.^[222] It has also been characterised as a form of esotericism and modern Paganism.^[223] Although holding The Book of the Law—which was composed in 1904—as its central text, Thelema took shape as a complete system in the years after 1904.^[224]

In his autobiography, Crowley claimed that his purpose in life had been to “bring oriental wisdom to Europe and to restore paganism in a purer form”, although what he meant by “paganism” was unclear.^[225] Crowley’s thought was not always cohesive, and was influenced by a variety of sources, ranging from eastern religious movements and practices like Hindu yoga and Buddhism, scientific naturalism, and various currents within Western esotericism, among them ceremonial magic, alchemy, astrology, Rosicrucianism, Kabbalah, and the Tarot.^[226] He was steeped in the esoteric teachings he had learned from the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, although pushed further with his own interpretations and strategies than the Golden Dawn had done.^[227]Crowley incorporated concepts and terminology from South Asian religious traditions like yoga and Tantra into his Thelemic system, believing that there was a fundamental underlying resemblance between Western and Eastern spiritual systems.^[228] The historian Alex Owen noted that Crowley adhered to the “modus operandi” of the Decadent movement throughout his life.^[229]

Crowley believed that the twentieth century marked humanity’s entry to the Aeon of Horus, a new era in which humans would take increasing control of their destiny. He believed that this Aeon follows on from the Aeon of Osiris, in which paternalistic religions like Christianity, Islam, and Buddhism dominated the world, and that this in turn had followed the Aeon of Isis, which had been maternalistic and dominated by goddess worship.^[230] He believed that Thelema was the proper religion of the Aeon of Horus,^[224] and also deemed himself to be the prophet of this new Aeon.^[231] Thelema revolves around the idea that human beings each have their own True Will that they should discover and pursue, and that this exists in harmony with the Cosmic Will that pervades the universe.^[232] Crowley referred to this process of searching and discovery of one’s True Will to be “the Great Work” or the attaining of the “knowledge and conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel”.^[233] His favoured method of doing so was through the performance of the Abramelin operation, a ceremonial magic ritual obtained from a 17th-century grimoire.^[234] The moral code of “Do What Thou Wilt” is believed by Thelemites to be the religion’s ethical law, although the historian of religion Marco Pasi noted that this was not anarchistic or libertarian in structure, as Crowley saw individuals as part of a wider societal organism.^[235]

Magick and theology[edit]

Crowley believed in the objective existence of magic, which he chose to spell “Magick”, an older archaic spelling of the word.^[236] He provided various different definitions of this term over his career.^[237] In his book Magick in Theory and Practice, Crowley defined Magick as “the Science and Art of causing change to occur in conformity with Will”.^[238] He also told his disciple Karl Germer that “Magick is getting into communication with individuals who exist on a higher plane than ours. Mysticism is the raising of oneself to their level.”^[239] Crowley saw Magick as a third way between religion and science, giving The Equinox the subtitle of The Method of Science; the Aim of Religion.^[240] Within that journal he expressed positive sentiments toward science and the scientific method,^[241] and urged magicians to keep detailed records of their magical experiments, “The more scientific the record is, the better.”^[242] His understanding of magic was also influenced by the work of the anthropologist James Frazer, in particular the view that magic was a precursor to science in a cultural evolutionary framework.^[243]Unlike Frazer, however, Crowley did not see magic as a survival from the past that required eradication, but rather he believed that magic had to be adapted to suit the new age of science.^[241] In Crowley’s alternative schema, old systems of magic had to decline (per Frazer’s framework) so that science and magic could synthesize into magick, which would simultaneously accept the existence of the supernatural and an experimental method.^[244] Crowley deliberately adopted an exceptionally broad definition of magick that included almost all forms of technology as magick, adopting an instrumentalist interpretation of magic, science, and technology.^[245]

Sexuality played an important role in Crowley’s ideas about magick and his practice of it,^[247] and has been described as being central to Thelema.^[248] He outlined three forms of sex magick—the autoerotic, homosexual, and heterosexual—and argued that such acts could be used to focus the magician’s will onto a specific goal such as financial gain or personal creative success.^[249]For Crowley, sex was treated as a sacrament, with the consumption of sexual fluids interpreted as a Eucharist.^[250] This was often manifested as the Cakes of Light, a biscuit containing either menstrual blood or a mixture of semen and vaginal fluids.^[251] The Gnostic Mass is the central religious ceremony within Thelema.^[252]

Crowley’s theological beliefs were not clear. The historian Ronald Hutton noted that some of Crowley’s writings could be used to argue that he was an atheist,^[237] while some support the idea that he was a polytheist,^[246] and others would bolster the idea that he was a mystical monotheist.^[253] On the basis of the teachings in The Book of the Law, Crowley described a pantheon of three deities taken from the ancient Egyptian pantheon: Nuit, Hadit, and Ra-Hoor-Khuit.^[225] In 1928, he made the claim that all “true” deities were “derived” from this trinity.^[225] Jason Josephson-Storm has argued that Crowley built on 19th-century attempts to link early Christianity to Paganism, such as Frazer’s Golden Bough, to synthesize Christian theology and Neopaganism while remaining critical of institutional and traditional Christianity.^[254]

Both during his life and after it, Crowley has been widely described as a Satanist, usually by detractors. Crowley stated he did not consider himself a Satanist, nor did he worship Satan, as he did not accept the Christian world view in which Satan was believed to exist.^[255] He nevertheless used Satanic imagery, for instance by describing himself as “the Beast 666” and referring to the Whore of Babylon in his work, while in later life he sent “Antichristmas cards” to his friends.^[256] In his writings, Crowley occasionally identified Aiwass as Satan and designated him as “Our Lord God the Devil” at one occasion.^[257] The scholar of religion Gordan Djurdjevic stated that Crowley “was emphatically not” a Satanist, “if for no other reason than simply because he did not identify himself as such”.^[258] Crowley nevertheless expressed anti-Christian sentiment, stating that he hated Christianity “as Socialists hate soap”,^[253] an animosity likely stemming from his experiences among the Plymouth Brethren.^[256] He was also accused of advocating human sacrifice, largely because of a passage in Book 4 in which he stated that “A male child of perfect innocence and high intelligence is the most satisfactory victim” and added that he had sacrificed about 150 every year. This was a tongue-in-cheek reference to ejaculation, something not realised by his critics, thus reflecting their own “ignorance and prejudice” toward Crowley.^[259]

“To [Crowley] the greatest aim of the magician was to merge with a higher power connected to the wellsprings of the universe, but he did not trouble himself too much to define that power consistently; sometimes it was God, sometimes the One, sometimes a goddess, and sometimes one’s own Holy Guardian Angel or higher self. In the last analysis he was content for the nature of divinity to remain a mystery. As a result he wrote at times like an atheist, at times like a monotheist, and at others like a polytheist.”

The historian Ronald Hutton^[246]

Political views[edit]

Crowley enjoyed being outrageous and flouting conventional morality,^[265] with John Symonds noting that he “was in revolt against the moral and religious values of his time”.^[266] Crowley’s political thought was studied by academic Marco Pasi, who noted that for Crowley, socio-political concerns were subordinate to metaphysical and spiritual ones.^[226] He was neither on the political left nor right but perhaps best categorised as a “conservative revolutionary” despite not being affiliated with the German-based conservative revolutionary movement.^[267] Pasi described Crowley’s affinity to the extreme ideologies of Nazism and Marxism–Leninism, which aimed to violently overturn society: “What Crowley liked about Nazism and communism, or at least what made him curious about them, was the anti-Christian position and the revolutionary and socially subversive implications of these two movements. In their subversive powers, he saw the possibility of an annihilation of old religious traditions, and the creation of a void that Thelema, subsequently, would be able to fill.”^[268] Crowley described democracy as an “imbecile and nauseating cult of weakness”,^[269] and commented that The Book of the Law proclaimed that “there is the master and there is the slave; the noble and the serf; the ‘lone wolf’ and the herd”.^[235] In this attitude he was influenced by the work of Friedrich Nietzsche and by Social Darwinism.^[270] Although he had contempt for most of the British aristocracy, he regarded himself as an aristocrat and styled himself as Laird Boleskine,^[271] once describing his ideology as “aristocratic communism”.^[272]

1896

1st mystical experience

1898

wrote WHITE STAINS, a collection of erotic poetry

1898-99

Initiated in the HERMETIC ORDER OF THE GOLDEN DAWN in the Golden Dawn’s Isis-Urania Temple held at London’s Mark Masons Hall,

A senior Golden Dawn member, Allan Bennett, became his personal magical tutor.

Bennett taught Crowley more about ceremonial magic and the ritual use of drugs, and together they performed the rituals of the GOETIA,[36] until Bennett left for South Asia to study Buddhism.

Goetiaor Goëtia is a practice that includes the conjuration of demons, specifically the ones summoned by the Biblical figure, King Solomon. The use of the term in English largely derives from the 17th-century grimoire Lesser Key of Solomon, which features an Ars Goetia as its first section. It contains descriptions of the evocation, or “calling out”, of 72 demons, famously edited by Aleister Crowley in 1904 as The Book of the Goetia of Solomon the King.

Goetic Theurgy, another practice described in the Lesser Key of Solomon, is similar to the book’s description of Goetia, but is used to invoke aerial spirits. During the Renaissance, goëtia was sometimes contrasted with magia, as “evil magic” vs. “good magic” or “natural magic”,^[4] or sometimes with theurgy Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa, in his Three Books of Occult Philosophy, writes “Now the parts of ceremonial magic are goetia and theurgia. Goetia is unfortunate, by the commerces of unclean spirits made up of the rites of wicked curiosities, unawful charms, and deprecations, and is abandoned and execrated by all laws.”^[6]

In November 1899, Crowley purchased Boleskine House in Foyers on the shore of Loch Ness in Scotland.

He continued writing poetry, publishing Jezebel and Other Tragic Poems, Tales of Archais, Songs of the Spirit, Appeal to the American Republic,and Jephthah

1900-1903

Crowley travelled to Mexico via the United States, settling in Mexico Cityand taking a local woman as his mistress. Developing a love of the country, he continued experimenting with ceremonial magic, working with John Dee‘s Enochian invocations.

Ceremonial magic (ritual magic, high magic or learned magic^[1]) encompasses a wide variety of long, elaborate, and complex rituals of magic. The works included are characterized by ceremony and a myriad of necessary accessories to aid the practitioner. It can be seen as an extension of ritual magic, and in most cases synonymous with it. Popularized by the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, it draws on such schools of philosophical and occult thought as Hermetic Qabalah, Enochian magic, Thelema, and the magic of various grimoires. Ceremonial magic is part of Hermeticism and Western esotericism.

James Sanford in his 1569 translation of Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa‘s 1526 De incertitudine et vanitate scientiarum has “The partes of ceremoniall Magicke be Geocie, and Theurgie”. For Agrippa, ceremonial magic was in opposition to natural magic. While he had his misgivings about natural magic, which included astrology, alchemy, and also what we would today consider fields of natural science, such as botany, he was nevertheless prepared to accept it as “the highest peak of natural philosophy”. Ceremonial magic, on the other hand, which included all sorts of communication with spirits, including necromancy and witchcraft, he denounced in its entirety as impious disobedience towards God.^[2]

Ceremonial magic is also a significant feature of Wicca, a Neo-Pagan religion which is thought to be the continuation of ancient British paganism. It is claimed by Gerald Gardner in ‘The Meaning of Witchcraft’ that Wicca adopted ceremonial magic first in the Anglo-Saxon period and again in the 19th century. This history has been disputed but, due to the fact that the religion has been passed down strictly as an oral tradition because witchcraft was illegal in the United Kingdom, it is impossible to prove otherwise.

Among the many organizations which practice forms of ceremonial magic aside from the Golden Dawn are the A∴A∴, Ordo Templi Orientis, and the Builders of the Adytum.

Enochian magic is a system of ceremonial magic based on the evocation and commanding of various spirits. It is based on the 16th-century writings of Dr. John Dee and Edward Kelley, who claimed that their information, including the revealed Enochian language, was delivered to them directly by various angels. Dee’s journals contained the Enochian script, and the tables of correspondences that accompany it. Dee and Kelley believed their visions gave them access to secrets contained within the Book of Enoch.

The two pillars of modern Enochian Magick, as outlined in Liber Chanokh are the Elemental Watchtowers (including the Tablet of Union) and the “World” of the 30 Aethyrs. The Aethyrs are the “heavens” or Aires of the system. Starting with the 30th Aethyr and working to the first, the magician explores only as far as his level of initiation will permit.

The essence of the Enochian system depends on the utilisation of Eighteen Calls or Keys in the Enochian language (a series of rhetorical exhortations which function as evocations), and a Nineteenth key known as the Call or Key of the 30 Aethyrs. The calls are used to enter the various Aethyrs, in visionary states. The Aethyrs are conceived of as forming a map of the entire universe in the form of concentric rings which expand outward from the innermost to the outermost Aethyr.

He later claimed to have been initiated into Freemasonry while there,

wrote ORACLES, a series of love poems that was published in 1905 and Alice: An Adultery (1903)

1904

In February 1904, Claiming to be a prince and princess, they rented an apartment in Cairo, where Crowley set up a temple room and began invoking ancient Egyptian deities, while studying Islamic mysticism and Arabic.

According to Crowley’s later account, Rose regularly became delirious and informed him “they are waiting for you.”

On 18 March, she explained that “they” were the god Horus,

on 20 March proclaimed that “the Equinox of the Gods has come”.

She led him to a nearby museum, where she showed him a seventh-century BCE mortuary stele known as the Stele of Ankh-ef-en-Khonsu;

Crowley thought it important that the exhibit’s number was 666, the Number of the Beast in Christian belief, and in later years termed the artefact the “Stele of Revealing.

According to Crowley’s later statements, on 8 April he heard a disembodied voice that claimed to be that of AIWASS, the messenger of Horus, or Hoor-Paar-Kraat.

Crowley said that he wrote down everything the voice told him over the course of the next three days, and titled it Liber L vel Legis or THE BOOK OF THE LAW ‘

The book proclaimed that humanity was entering a new Aeon, and that Crowley would serve as its prophet.

It stated that a supreme moral law was to be introduced in this Aeon, “Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law,” and that people should learn to live in tune with their Will.

This book, and the philosophy that it espoused, became the cornerstone of Crowley’s religion, THELEMA.

1905-06

On 28 July 1905, Rose gave birth to Crowley’s first child, a daughter named Lilith, with Crowley writing the pornographic Snowdrops From a Curate’s Garden to entertain his recuperating wife.[61]

He also founded a publishing company through which to publish his poetry, naming it the “Society for the Propagation of Religious Truth” in parody of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge

Crowley decided to climb Kanchenjunga in the Himalayas of Nepal, widely recognised as the world’s most treacherous mountain.

While Rose and Lilith returned to Europe, Crowley headed to Shanghai to meet old friend Elaine Simpson, who was fascinated by THE BOOK OF THE LAW; together they performed rituals in an attempt to contact AIWASS

1907-09

With his old mentor George Cecil Jones, Crowley continued performing THE ABRAMELIN RITUALS at the Ashdown Park Hotel in Coulsdon, Surrey.

The Sacred Magic of Abramelin the Mage^[8] is considered both a theurgic and goetic book of magic, mostly used in a religious context. Contrary to the other Goetia Grimoires, this book does not denote the evocation of demons to do one’s bidding or involuntary handiwork, but describes how one might summon these infernal forces, solely for the purpose of excommunicating them from the life of the Magus.^[9] This book was considered a system that led the aspirant closer to the goal of henosis, or spiritual reunion with God. Describing how to summon the dukes of Hell, even Lucifer, for the purpose of resisting the temptation of their vices, and binding their influence in the aspirant’s life.

This book describes a system of holy magic through an eighteen-month purification, then after the conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel, one would summon the four Great Kings of Hell (Lucifer, Leviathan, Satan, Belial), and make them sign an oath.

This Oath (after gaining the power of the supernal realm), would grant the Adept power over the Infernal Realm and aid the Adept in discovering the “True and Sacred Wisdom” in the form of magic squares.

Crowley claimed that in doing so he attained samadhi, or union with Godhead, thereby marking a turning point in his life.

Making heavy use of hashish during these rituals, he wrote an essay on “The Psychology of Hashish” (1909) in which he championed the drug as an aid to mysticism.

He also claimed to have been contacted once again by AIWASS in late October and November 1907, adding that AIWASS dictated two further texts to him, “Liber VII” and “Liber Cordis Cincti Serpente”, both of which were later classified in the corpus of The Holy Books of Thelema.

The opening lines of LIBER VII (1907),

Into my loneliness comes—
The sound of a flute in dim groves that haunt the uttermost hills.
Even from the brave river they reach to the edge of the wilderness.
And I behold Pan.

Crowley wrote down more Thelemic Holy Books during the last two months of the year, including

“Liber LXVI”,

“Liber Arcanorum”,

“Liber Porta Lucis, Sub Figura X”,

“Liber Tau”,

“Liber Trigrammaton”

“Liber DCCCXIII vel Ararita”, which he again claimed to have received from a preternatural source,

Crowley stated that in June 1909, when the manuscript of THE BOOK OF THE LAW was rediscovered at Boleskine, he developed the opinion that THELEMA represented objective truth.

Crowley continued to write prolifically, producing such works of poetry as Ambergris, Clouds Without Water, and Konx Om Pax,^[84]

Recognising the popularity of short horror stories, Crowley wrote his own, some of which were published, and he also published several articles in Vanity Fair, a magazine edited by his friend Frank Harris.

He also wrote LIBER 777, a book of magical and Qabalistic correspondences that borrowed from Mathers and Bennett.^[88]

In November 1907, Crowley and Jones decided to found an occult order to act as a successor to the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, being aided in doing so by Fuller.

The result was the A∴A∴. The group’s headquarters and temple were situated at 124 Victoria Street in central London, and their rites borrowed much from those of the Golden Dawn, but with an added Thelemic basis.

The A∴A∴ is a spiritual organization described in 1907 by occultist Aleister Crowley. Its members are dedicated to the advancement of humanity by perfection of the individual on every plane through a graded series of universal initiations. Its initiations are syncretic, unifying the essence of Theravada Buddhism with Vedantic yoga and ceremonial magic. The A∴A∴ applies what it describes as mystical and magical methods of spiritual attainment under the structure of the Qabalistic Tree of Life, and aims to research, practise, and teach “scientific illuminism”.

English Angel and Abyss^[20] Angel and Abyss Eshelman explains this as an ‘affectionate’ meaning for the Order’s name. It refers to the work of the initiate in working with the Holy Guardian Angel and with the work of aspiring to cross the Abyss of the Qabalistic Tree of Life ^[21]

English Atlantean Adepts^[22] Atlantean Adepts as suggested by L. Sprague de Camp

In March 1909, Crowley began production of a biannual periodical titled The Equinox. He billed this periodical, which was to become the “Official Organ” of the A∴A∴, as “The Review of Scientific Illuminism”

In November 1909, Crowley and Neuburg travelled to Algeria, touring the desert from El Arba to Aumale, Bou Saâda, and then Dā’leh Addin, with Crowley reciting the Quran on a daily basis.

During the trip he invoked the thirty aethyrs of Enochian magic, with Neuburg recording the results, later published in The Equinox as The Vision and the Voice.

Following a mountaintop sex magic ritual, Crowley also performed an invocation to the demon Choronzon involving blood sacrifice, considering the results to be a watershed in his magical career

Deciding to expand his teachings to a wider audience, Crowley developed THE RITES OF ARTEMIS, a public performance of magic and symbolism featuring A∴A∴ members personifying various deities. It was first performed at the A∴A∴ headquarters, with attendees given a fruit punch containing peyote to enhance their experience

1910-11

November 1910, Crowley decided to stage something similar, the Rites of Eleusis, at Caxton Hall, Westminster; this time press reviews were mixed.^[99] Crowley came under particular criticism from West de Wend Fenton, editor of The Looking Glass newspaper, who called him “one of the most blasphemous and cold-blooded villains of modern times”

Crowley and Neuburg returned to Algeria for further magical workings.

THE EQUINOX continued publishing, and various books of literature and poetry were also published under its imprint, like Crowley’s Ambergris, The Winged Beetle, and The Scented Garden, as well as Neuburg’s The Triumph of Pan and Ethel Archer’s The Whirlpool.^[104]

In 1911, Crowley and Waddell holidayed in Montigny-sur-Loing, where he wrote prolifically, producing poems, short stories, plays, and 19 works on magic and mysticism, including the two final Holy Books of Thelema.

In Paris, he met Mary Desti, who became his next “Scarlet Woman”, with the two undertaking magical workings in St. Moritz; Crowley believed that one of the Secret Chiefs, Ab-ul-Diz, was speaking through her

Based on Desti’s statements when in trance, Crowley wrote the two-volume Book 4 (1912–13) and at the time developed the spelling “magick” in reference to the paranormal phenomenon as a means of distinguishing it from the stage magic of illusionists.^[107]

English	Angel and Abyss^[20]	Angel and Abyss Eshelman explains this as an ‘affectionate’ meaning for the Order’s name. It refers to the work of the initiate in working with the Holy Guardian Angel and with the work of aspiring to cross the Abyss of the Qabalistic Tree of Life ^[21]
English	Atlantean Adepts^[22]	Atlantean Adepts as suggested by L. Sprague de Camp

Babalon /ˈbæbælən/ (also known as the Scarlet Woman, Great Mother or Mother of Abominations) is a goddess found in the occult system of Thelema, which was established in 1904 with English author and occultist Aleister Crowley‘s writing of The Book of the Law, her name being later given in other works. In her most abstract form, she represents the female sexual impulse and the liberated woman. In the creed of the Gnostic Mass she is also identified with Mother Earth, in her most fertile sense.^[1] At the same time, Crowley believed that Babalon had an earthly aspect in the form of a spiritual office, which could be filled by actual women—usually as a counterpart to his own identification as “To Mega Therion” (The Great Beast)—whose duty was then to help manifest the energies of the current Aeon of Horus. He believed in his life the Lady of Babalon was personified as Lady Leah Hirsig, who, after several portraits, was consecrated, taking the name Alostrael.^[2]^{[better source needed]}

Babalon’s consort is Chaos, the “Father of Life” and the male form of the Creative Principle. Babalon is often described as being girt with a sword^{[citation needed]} and riding the Beast. She is often referred to as a sacred whore, and her primary symbol is the Chalice or Graal.

As Crowley wrote in his The Book of Thoth, “she rides astride the Beast; in her left hand she holds the reins, representing the passion which unites them. In her right she holds aloft the cup, the Holy Grail aflame with love and death. In this cup are mingled the elements of the sacrament of the Aeon“.

Three aspects[edit]

Babalon is a complex figure, although, within one particular view of Thelemic literature, she is said to have three essential aspects: she is the Gateway to the City of the Pyramids, the Scarlet Woman and the Great Mother.^{[citation needed]}

Gateway to the City of Pyramids[edit]

Within the mystical system of the A∴A∴, after the adept has attained the Knowledge and Conversation of his Holy Guardian Angel, he then might reach the next and last great milestone — the crossing of the Abyss, that great spiritual wilderness of nothingness and dissolution. Choronzon is the dweller there, and its job is to trap the traveler in his meaningless world of illusion.^{[citation needed]}

However, Babalon is just on the other side, beckoning. If the adept gives himself totally to her—the symbol of this act being the pouring of the adept’s blood into her graal — he becomes impregnated in her, then to be reborn as a Master of the Temple and a saint that dwells in the City of the Pyramids. From Crowley’s book Magick Without Tears:

[S]he guardeth the Abyss. And in her is a perfect purity of that which is above, yet she is sent as the Redeemer to them that are below. For there is no other way into the Supernal mystery but through her and the Beast on which she rideth.^[3]

and from The Vision and the Voice (12th Aethyr):

Let him look upon the cup whose blood is mingled therein, for the wine of the cup is the blood of the saints. Glory unto the Scarlet Woman, Babalon the Mother of Abominations, that rideth upon the Beast, for she hath spilt their blood in every corner of the earth and lo! she hath mingled it in the cup of her whoredom.^{[This quote needs a citation]}

She is considered to be a sacred whore because she denies no one, and yet she extracts a great price — the very blood of the adept and his ego-identity as an earthly individual. This aspect of Babalon is described further from the 12th Aethyr:

This is the Mystery of Babylon, the Mother of Abominations, and this is the mystery of her adulteries, for she hath yielded up herself to everything that liveth, and hath become a partaker in its mystery. And because she hath made her self the servant of each, therefore is she become the mistress of all. Not as yet canst thou comprehend her glory.

Beautiful art thou, O Babylon, and desirable, for thou hast given thyself to everything that liveth, and thy weakness hath subdued their strength. For in that union thou didst understand. Therefore art thou called Understanding, O Babylon, Lady of the Night!^{[This quote needs a citation]}

The concept contained within this aspect of Babalon is that of the mystical ideal, the quest to become one with All through the annihilation of the earthly ego (“For as thy blood is mingled in the cup of BABALON, so is thine heart the universal heart.“^[4]). The blood spilling into the graal of Babalon is then used by her to “flood the world with Life and Beauty” (meaning to create Masters of the Temple that are “released” back into the world of men), symbolized by the Crimson Rose of 49 Petals.^[5]

In sex magic, the mixture of female sexual fluids and semen produced in the sexual act with the Scarlet Woman or Babalon is called the Elixir of Life. Another alternative form of this Elixir is the Elixir Rubeus consisting of the menstrual blood and semen (abbreviated as El. Rub. by Crowley in his magical diaries), and is referred to as the “effluvium of Babalon, the Scarlet Woman, which is the menstruum of the lunar current” by Kenneth Grant.^[6]

Babalon’s Daughter[edit]

One of the most extensive descriptions by Crowley of Babalon’s Daughter is to be found in The Vision and the Voice, 9th Aethyr, quoted in The Book of Thoth:

THE VIRGIN UNIVERSE

[From The Vision and the Voice, 9th Aethyr]

We are come unto a palace of which every stone is a separate jewel, and is set with millions of moons. And this palace is nothing but the body of a woman, proud and delicate, and beyond imagination fair. She is like a child of twelve years old. She has very deep eyelids, and long lashes. Her eyes are closed, or nearly closed. It is impossible to say anything about her. She is naked; her whole body is covered with fine gold hairs, that are the electric flames which are the spears of mighty and terrible Angels whose breastplates are the scales of her skin. And the hair of her head, that flows down to her feet, is the very light of God himself. Of all the glories beheld by the Seer in the Aethyrs, there is not one which is worthy to be compared with her littlest finger-nail. For although he may not partake of the Aethyr, without the ceremonial preparations, even the beholding of this Aethyr from afar is like the par taking of all the former Aethyrs.

The Seer is lost in wonder, which is Peace.

And the ring of the horizon above her is a company of glorious Archangels with joined hands, that stand and sing: This is the daughter of BABALON the Beautiful, that she hath borne unto the Father of All. And unto all hath she borne her.

This is the Daughter of the King. This is the Virgin of Eternity. This is she that the Holy One hath wrested from the Giant Time, and the prize of them that have overcome Space. This is she that is set upon the Throne of Understanding. Holy, Holy, Holy is her name, not to be spoken among men. For Kore they have called her, and Malkah, and Betulah, and Persephone.

And the poets have feigned songs about her, and the prophets have spoken vain things, and the young men have dreamed vain dreams: but this is she, that immaculate, the name of whose name may not be spoken. Thought cannot pierce the glory that defendeth her, for thought is smitten dead before her presence. Memory is blank, and in the most ancient books of Magick are neither words to conjure her, nor adorations to praise her. Will bends like a reed in the tempests that sweep the borders of her kingdom, and imagination cannot figure so much as one petal of the lilies whereon she standeth in the lake of crystal, in the sea of glass.

This is she that hath bedecked her hair with seven stars, the seven breaths of God that move and thrill its excellence. And she hath tired her hair with seven combs, whereupon are written the seven secret names of God that are not known even of the Angels, or of the Archangels, or of the Leader of the armies of the Lord.

Holy, Holy, Holy art thou, and blessed be thy name for ever, unto whom the Aeons are but the pulsings of thy blood.^[7]

Office of the Scarlet Woman[edit]

“This is Babalon, the true mistress of The Beast; of Her, all his mistresses on lower planes are but avatars,” said Crowley in The Vision and the Voice.^[8]

Although Crowley often wrote that Babalon and the Scarlet Woman are one, there are also many instances where the Scarlet Woman is seen more as a representative or physical manifestation of the universal feminine principle. In a footnote to Liber Reguli, Crowley mentions that of the “Gods of the Aeon,” the Scarlet Woman and the Beast are “the earthly emissaries of those Gods.” (Crowley 1997, Liber V vel Reguli). He then writes in The Law is for All:

It is necessary to say here that The Beast appears to be a definite individual; to wit, the man Aleister Crowley. But the Scarlet Woman is an officer replaceable as need arises. Thus to this present date of writing, Anno XVI, Sun in Sagittarius, there have been several holders of the title.^{[This quote needs a citation]}

Individual scarlet women[edit]

Aleister Crowley believed that many of his lovers and magical companions were playing a cosmic role, even to the point of fulfilling prophecy. The following is a list of women that he considered to have been (or might have been) scarlet women (quotes are from The Law is for All):

Rose Edith Crowley, Crowley’s first wife. —Put me in touch with Aiwas; see Equinox 1, 7, “The Temple of Solomon the King.” Failed as elsewhere is on record.

Mary d’Este Sturges —Put me in touch with Abuldiz; hence helped with Book 4. Failed from personal jealousies.

Jeanne Robert Foster —Bore the “child” to whom this Book refers later. Failed from respectability.

Roddie Minor —Brought me in touch with Amalantrah. Failed from indifference to the Work.

Marie Rohling —Helped to inspire Liber CXI. Failed from indecision.

Bertha Almira Prykrl —Delayed assumption of duties, hence made way for No. 7.

Leah Hirsig —Assisted me in actual initiation; still at my side, An XVII, Sol in Sagittarius.

Great Mother[edit]

Within the Gnostic Mass, Babalon is mentioned in the Gnostic Creed:

And I believe in one Earth, the Mother of us all, and in one Womb wherein all men are begotten, and wherein they shall rest, Mystery of Mystery, in Her name BABALON.^{[This quote needs a citation]}

Here, Babalon is identified with Binah on the Tree of Life, the sphere that represents the Great Sea and such mother-goddesses as Isis, Bhavani, and Ma’at. Moreover, she represents all physical mothers. Bishops T. Apiryon and Helena write:

BABALON, as the Great Mother, represents MATTER, a word which is derived from the Latin word for Mother. She is the physical mother of each of us, the one who provided us with material flesh to clothe our naked spirits; She is the Archetypal Mother, the Great Yoni, the Womb of all that lives through the flowing of Blood; She is the Great Sea, the Divine Blood itself which cloaks the World and which courses through our veins; and She is Mother Earth, the Womb of All Life that we know.^[9]

Another source is from the system of Enochian magic created by Dr. John Dee and Sir Edward Kelley in the 16th century. This system is based upon a unique language, Enochian, two words of which are certainly relevant. The first is BABALOND, which is translated as harlot. The other is BABALON, which means wicked. Some flavour of context in which they appear in can be found in a communication received by Dee & Kelley in 1587:

I am the daughter of Fortitude, and ravished every hour from my youth. For behold I am Understanding and science dwelleth in me; and the heavens oppress me. They cover and desire me with infinite appetite; for none that are earthly have embraced me, for I am shadowed with the Circle of the Stars and covered with the morning clouds. My feet are swifter than the winds, and my hands are sweeter than the morning dew. My garments are from the beginning, and my dwelling place is in myself. The Lion knoweth not where I walk, neither do the beast of the fields understand me. I am deflowered, yet a virgin; I sanctify and am not sanctified. Happy is he that embraceth me: for in the night season I am sweet, and in the day full of pleasure. My company is a harmony of many symbols and my lips sweeter than health itself. I am a harlot for such as ravish me, and a virgin with such as know me not. For lo, I am loved of many, and I am a lover to many; and as many as come unto me as they should do, have entertainment.

Purge your streets, O ye sons of men, and wash your houses clean; make yourselves holy, and put on righteousness. Cast out your old strumpets, and burn their clothes; abstain from the company of other women that are defiled, that are sluttish, and not so handsome and beautiful as I, and then will I come and dwell amongst you: and behold, I will bring forth children unto you, and they shall be the Sons of Comfort. I will open my garments, and stand naked before you, that your love may be more enflamed toward me.^[12]

Babalon Working

The Babalon Working was a series of magic ceremonies or rituals performed from January to March, 1946 by author, pioneer rocket-fuel scientist, and occultist Jack Parsons and Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard.^[1] This ritual was essentially designed to manifest an individual incarnation of the archetypal divine feminine called Babalon. The project was based on the ideas of Aleister Crowley, and his description of a similar project in his 1917 novel Moonchild.^[2]

The Babalon Working rituals[edit]

When Parsons declared that the first of the series of rituals was complete and successful, he almost immediately met Marjorie Cameron in his own home, and regarded her as the elemental that he and Hubbard had called through the ritual.^[3]

Universally, an elemental is a type of magical entity who personifies a force of nature and controls natural powers derived from their element. Within the Paracelsian concept an elemental is a mythic being described in occult and alchemical works from around the time of the European Renaissance and particularly elaborated in the 16th century works of Paracelsus. From the classical Paracelsian perspective there are four elemental categories: gnomes, undines, sylphs, and salamanders.^[1]These correspond to the Classical elements of antiquity: earth, water, air and fire. Aether (quintessence) was not assigned an elemental. Terms employed for beings associated with alchemical elements vary by source and gloss.

Soon Parsons began the next stage of the series, an attempt to conceive a child through sexual magic workings. Although no child was conceived, this did not affect the result of the ritual to that point. Parsons and Cameron, who Parsons now regarded as the Scarlet Woman – Babalon – called forth by the ritual, soon married.

The rituals performed drew largely upon rituals and sex magic described by English author and occult teacher Aleister Crowley. Crowley was in correspondence with Parsons during the course of the Babalon Working, and warned Parsons of his potential overreactions to the magic he was performing, while simultaneously deriding Parsons’ work to others.^[4]

The Book of Babalon, Liber 49[edit]

A brief text entitled The Book of Babalon, or Liber 49, was written by Jack Parsons as a transmission from the goddess or force called Babalon received by him during the Babalon Working.^[5] Parsons claimed that Liber 49 constituted a fourth chapter of Crowley’s Liber AL Vel Legis (The Book of the Law), the holy text of Thelema.^[6]

1912-13

In early 1912, Crowley published The Book of Lies, a work of mysticism that biographer Lawrence Sutin described as “his greatest success in merging his talents as poet, scholar, and magus”.

The German occultist Theodor Reuss later accused him of publishing some of the secrets of his own occult order, the Ordo Templi Orientis (O.T.O.), within The Book. Crowley convinced Reuss that the similarities were coincidental, and the two became friends.

Reuss appointed Crowley as head of the O.T.O’s British branch, the Mysteria Mystica Maxima (MMM), and at a ceremony in Berlin Crowley adopted the magical name of Baphomet and was proclaimed “X° Supreme Rex and Sovereign Grand Master General of Ireland, Iona, and all the Britons“.

Crowley set about advertising the MMM and re-writing many O.T.O. rituals, which were then based largely on Freemasonry; his incorporation of Thelemite elements proved controversial in the group.

Fascinated by the O.T.O’s emphasis on sex magic, Crowley devised a magical working based on anal sex and incorporated it into the syllabus for those O.T.O. members who had been initiated into the eleventh degree.

In Moscow, Crowley continued to write plays and poetry, including “Hymn to Pan“, and the Gnostic Mass, a Thelemic ritual that became a key part of O.T.O. liturgy

Together Crowley and Neuburg performed the six-week “Paris Working”, a period of intense ritual involving strong drug use in which they invoked the gods Mercury and Jupiter.

As part of the ritual, the couple performed acts of sex magic together, at times being joined by journalist Walter Duranty.

Inspired by the results of the Working, Crowley wrote Liber Agapé, a treatise on sex magic

1914-19

Arriving in New York City, he moved into a hotel and began earning money writing for the American edition of Vanity Fair and undertaking freelance work for the famed astrologer Evangeline Adams.^[121] In the city, he continued experimenting with sex magic, through the use of masturbation, female prostitutes, and male clients of a Turkish bathhouse; all of these encounters were documented in his diaries.^[122]

Crowley was a double agent, working for the British intelligence services to infiltrate and undermine Germany’s operation in New York

In Vancouver, headquarters of the North American O.T.O., he met with Charles Stansfeld Jones and Wilfred Talbot Smith to discuss the propagation of Thelema on the continent.

In December he moved to New Orleans, his favourite US city, before spending February 1917 with evangelical Christian relatives in Titusville, Florida.

He then moved to the studio apartment of Roddie Minor, who became his partner and Scarlet Woman. Through their rituals, which Crowley called “The Amalantrah Workings”, he believed that they were contacted by a preternatural entity named Lam. The relationship soon ended

Back in New York City, he moved to Greenwich Village, where he took Leah Hirsig as his lover and next Scarlet Woman.^[136] He took up painting as a hobby, exhibiting his work at the Greenwich Village Liberal Club and attracting the attention of the New York Evening World.^[137] With the financial assistance of sympathetic Freemasons, Crowley revived The Equinox with the first issue of volume III, known as The Blue Equinox.^[138] He spent mid-1919 on a climbing holiday in Montauk before returning to London in December.^[139]

1920-23

Moving to the commune with Hirsig, Shumway, and their children Hansi, Howard, and Poupée, Crowley described the scenario as “perfectly happy … my idea of heaven.“^[144] They wore robes, and performed rituals to the sun god Ra at set times during the day, also occasionally performing the Gnostic Mass; the rest of the day they were left to follow their own interest

He offered a libertine education for the children, allowing them to play all day and witness acts of sex magic

1923-29

Crowley took Olsen back to Tunisia for a magical retreat in Nefta, where he also wrote To Man (1924), a declaration of his own status as a prophet entrusted with bringing Thelema to humanity

After spending the winter in Paris, in early 1925 Crowley and Olsen returned to Tunis, where he wrote The Heart of the Master (1938) as an account of a vision he experienced in a trance

1928, Crowley was introduced to young Englishman Israel Regardie, who embraced Thelema and became Crowley’s secretary for the next three years.

It was here that Crowley also published one of his most significant works, Magick in Theory and Practice, which received little attention at the time.

Now based in London, Mandrake Press agreed to publish his autobiography in a limited edition six-volume set, also publishing his novel Moonchild and book of short stories The Stratagem.

1930-38

In April 1930, Crowley moved to Berlin, where he took Hanni Jaegar as his magical partner;

He continued to have affairs with both men and women while in the city,^[185] and met with famous people like Aldous Huxley and Alfred Adler

Crowley left Busch and returned to London,^[190] where he took Pearl Brooksmith as his new Scarlet Woman

1936, he published his first book in six years, The Equinox of the Gods, which contained a facsimile of The Book of the Law and was considered to be volume III, number 3, of The Equinox periodical.

In 1937 he gave a series of public lectures on yoga in Soho.^[198]

Crowley was now living largely off contributions supplied by the O.T.O.’s Agape Lodge in California, led by rocket scientist John Whiteside “Jack” Parsons.^[199] C

rowley was intrigued by the rise of Nazism in Germany, and influenced by his friend Martha Küntzel believed that Adolf Hitler might convert to Thelema; when the Nazis abolished the German O.T.O. and imprisoned Germer, who fled to the US, Crowley then lambasted Hitler as a black magician.

1939-47

With O.T.O. initiate Lady Frieda Harris, Crowley developed plans to produce a tarot card set, designed by him and painted by Harris. Accompanying this was a book, published in a limited edition as The Book of Thoth by Chiswick Press in 1944

Legacy and influence[edit]

“[H]e is today looked upon as a source of inspiration by many people in search of spiritual enlightenment and/ or instructions in magical practice. Thus, while during his life his books hardly sold and his disciples were never very numerous, nowadays all his important works are constantly in print, and the people defining themselves as “thelemites” (that is, followers of Crowley’s new religion) number several thousands all over the world. Furthermore, Crowley’s influence over magically oriented new religious movements has in some cases been very deep and pervasive. It would be difficult to understand, for instance, some aspects of Anglo-Saxon neo-paganism and contemporary satanism without a solid knowledge of Crowley’s doctrines and ideas. In other fields, such as poetry, alpinism and painting, he may have been a minor figure, but it is only fair to admit that, in the limited context of occultism, he has played and still plays a major role.”

Marco Pasi, 2003.^[289]

Crowley has remained an influential figure, both amongst occultists and in popular culture, particularly that of Britain, but also of other parts of the world. In 2002, a BBC poll placed Crowley seventy-third in a list of the 100 Greatest Britons.^[290] Richard Cavendish has written of him that “In native talent, penetrating intelligence and determination, Aleister Crowley was the best-equipped magician to emerge since the seventeenth century.”^[291] The scholar of esotericism Egil Asprem described him as “one of the most well-known figures in modern occultism”.^[292] The scholar of esotericism Wouter Hanegraaff asserted that Crowley was an extreme representation of “the dark side of the occult“,^[293] adding that he was “the most notorious occultist magician of the twentieth century”.^[294] The philosopher John Moore opined that Crowley stood out as a “Modern Master” when compared with other prominent occult figures like George Gurdjieff, P. D. Ouspensky, Rudolf Steiner, or Helena Blavatsky,^[295] also describing him as a “living embodiment” of Oswald Spengler‘s “Faustian Man“.^[296] Biographer Tobias Churton considered Crowley “a pioneer of consciousness research”.^[297] Hutton noted that Crowley had “an important place in the history of modern Western responses to Oriental spiritual traditions”,^[298] while Sutin thought that he had made “distinctly original contributions” to the study of yoga in the West.^[299]

Thelema continued to develop and spread following Crowley’s death. In 1969, the O.T.O. was reactivated in California under the leadership of Grady Louis McMurtry;^[300] in 1985 its right to the title was unsuccessfully challenged in court by a rival group, the Society Ordo Templi Orientis, led by Brazilian Thelemite Marcelo Ramos Motta.^[300] Another American Thelemite was the filmmaker Kenneth Anger, who had been influenced by Crowley’s writings from a young age.^[301] In the United Kingdom, Kenneth Grant propagated a tradition known as Typhonian Thelema through his organisation, the Typhonian O.T.O., later renamed the Typhonian Order.^[302] Also in Britain, an occultist known as Amado Crowley claimed to be Crowley’s son; this has been refuted by academic investigation. Amado argued that Thelema was a false religion created by Crowley to hide his true esoteric teachings, which Amado claimed to be propagating.^[303]

Several Western esoteric traditions other than Thelema were also influenced by Crowley, with Djurdjevic observing that “Crowley’s influence on twentieth-century and contemporary esotericism has been enormous”.^[304] Gerald Gardner, founder of Gardnerian Wicca, made use of much of Crowley’s published material when composing the Gardnerian ritual liturgy,^[305] and the Australian witch Rosaleen Norton was also heavily influenced by Crowley’s ideas.^[306] More widely, Crowley became “a dominant figure” in the modern Pagan community.^[246] L. Ron Hubbard, the American founder of Scientology, was involved in Thelema in the early 1940s (with Jack Parsons), and it has been argued that Crowley’s ideas influenced some of Hubbard’s work.^[307] The scholars of religion Asbjørn Dyrendel, James R. Lewis, and Jesper Petersen noted that despite the fact that Crowley was not a Satanist, he “in many ways embodies the pre-Satanist esoteric discourse on Satan and Satanism through his lifestyle and his philosophy”, with his “image and ought” becoming an “important influence” on the later development of religious Satanism.^[308] For instance, two prominent figures in religious Satanism, Anton LaVey and Michael Aquino, were influenced by Crowley’s work.^[309]

Crowley also had a wider influence in British popular culture. After his time in Cefalù which had brought him to public attention in Britain, various “literary Crowleys” appeared; characters in fiction based upon him.^[310] One of the earliest was the character of the poet Shelley Arabin in John Buchan‘s 1926 novel The Dancing Floor.^[310] In his novel The Devil Rides Out, the writer Dennis Wheatley used Crowley as a partial basis for the character of Damien Morcata, a portly bald defrocked priest who engages in black magic.^[311] The occultist Dion Fortune used Crowley as a basis for characters in her books The Secrets of Doctor Taverner (1926) and The Winged Bull (1935).^[312] He was included as one of the figures on the cover art of The Beatles‘ album Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967),^[300] and his motto of “Do What Thou Wilt” was inscribed on the vinyl of Led Zeppelin‘s album Led Zeppelin III (1970).^[300] Led Zeppelin co-founder Jimmy Page bought Boleskine in 1971, and part of the band’s film The Song Remains the Same was filmed in the grounds. He sold it in 1992.^[313] David Bowiemade reference to Crowley in the lyrics of his song “Quicksand” (1971),^[300] while Ozzy Osbourne and his lyricist Bob Daisley wrote a song titled “Mr. Crowley” (1980).^[314] Crowley began to receive scholarly attention from academics in the late 1990s.^[298]

Cambridge University: 1895–1898[edit]

The Golden Dawn: 1898–99[edit]

Mexico, India, Paris, and marriage: 1900–1903[edit]

Developing Thelema[edit]

Egypt and The Book of the Law: 1904[edit]

Kanchenjunga and China: 1905–06[edit]

The A∴A∴ and the Holy Books of Thelema: 1907–1909[edit]

Algeria and the Rites of Eleusis: 1909–1911[edit]

Ordo Templi Orientis and the Paris Working: 1912–1914[edit]

United States: 1914–1919[edit]

Abbey of Thelema: 1920–1923[edit]

Tunisia, Paris, and London: 1923–1929[edit]

Berlin and London: 1930–1938[edit]

Second World War and death: 1939–1947[edit]

Beliefs and thought[edit]

Magick and theology[edit]

Political views[edit]

Three aspects[edit]

Gateway to the City of Pyramids[edit]

Babalon’s Daughter[edit]

Office of the Scarlet Woman[edit]

Individual scarlet women[edit]

Great Mother[edit]

Babalon Working

The Babalon Working rituals[edit]

The Book of Babalon, Liber 49[edit]

Legacy and influence[edit]