Aleister Crowley

About the Aleister Crowley

Aleister Crowleywas an English occultist, ceremonial magician, poet, philosopher, political theorist, novelist, mountaineer, and painter. He founded the religion of Thelema, identifying himself as the prophet entrusted with guiding humanity into the AEon of Horus in the early 20th century. A prolific writer, he published widely over the course of his life.

Born to a wealthy family in Royal Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, Crowley rejected his parents’ fundamentalist Christian Plymouth Brethren faith to pursue an interest in Western esotericism. He was educated at Trinity College at the University of Cambridge, where he focused his attentions on mountaineering and poetry, resulting in several publications. Some biographers allege that here he was recruited into a British intelligence agency, further suggesting that he remained a spy throughout his life. In 1898, he joined the esoteric Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, where he was trained in ceremonial magic by Samuel Liddell MacGregor Mathers and Allan Bennett. He went mountaineering in Mexico with Oscar Eckenstein, before studying Hindu and Buddhist practices in India. In 1904, he married Rose Edith Kelly and they honeymooned in Cairo, Egypt, where Crowley wrote down The Book of the Law, a sacred text that serves as the basis for Thelema, which he said had been dictated by a supernatural entity named Aiwass. Announcing the start of the AEon of Horus, The Book declared that its followers should “Do what thou wilt” and seek to align themselves with their True Will through the practice of ceremonial magic.

After the unsuccessful 1905 Kanchenjunga expedition and a visit to India and China, Crowley returned to Britain, where he attracted attention as a prolific author of poetry, novels and occult literature. In 1907, he and George Cecil Jones co-founded an esoteric order, the AA, through which they propagated Thelema. After spending time in Algeria, in 1912 he was initiated into another esoteric order, the German-based Ordo Templi Orientis (O.T.O.), rising to become the leader of its British branch, which he reformulated in accordance with his Thelemite beliefs. Through O.T.O., Thelemite groups were established in Britain, Australia and North America. Crowley spent the First World War in the United States, where he took up painting and campaigned for the German war effort against Britain; his biographers later revealed that he had infiltrated the pro-German movement to assist the British intelligence services. In 1920, he established the Abbey of Thelema, a religious commune in Cefalu, Sicily where he lived with various followers. His libertine lifestyle led to denunciations in the British press, and the Italian government evicted him in 1923. He divided the following two decades between France, Germany and England, and continued to promote Thelema until his death.

Crowley gained widespread notoriety during his lifetime, being a drug user, bisexual and an individualist social critic. Crowley has remained a highly influential figure over Western esotericism and the counterculture of the 1960s and continues to be considered a prophet in Thelema. He is the subject of various biographies and academic studies.