Aleister Crowley is an English poet and writer, occultist and mystic. Founder of the doctrine of Thelema and author of many occult works, including The Book of the Law. He is the creator of the Thoth Tarot deck.
Childhood and youth
Aleister Crowley was born in Warwickshire, in the city of Leamington Spa. At birth, the boy received the name Edward Alexander Crowley. His father Edward Crowley was an engineer by profession, but never worked a day by profession. He owned a share in family business- Crowley Beer brewery. He received considerable profit from this business, so soon after his marriage he joined the ranks of the Christian sect “Plymouth Brethren”, and later became their preacher.
Alistair's mother, Emily Bishop, was a housewife and was also a member of the Plymouth Brethren sect. Of course, the boy spent his childhood reading religious literature and listening to sermons. Every day, after breakfast, my father read one Bible chapter to them and their mother.
When the boy was 11 years old, his father died of tongue cancer, leaving his son an inheritance. As Alistair grew older, he began to notice inaccuracies and inconsistencies in the Bible, so he did not find a common language with his mother, who continued to be a member of the sect and forced the boy to study Christian treatises. They often argued, once Emily Bishop called her son a beast, meaning the messenger of Satan; later he signed some of his works “Beast 666.”
Crowley studied at the Plymouth Brethren private school in Cambridge. But he was expelled for bad behavior. After several years he studied at Tonbridge School, Malvern Boarding College and Eastbourne.
At first he became interested in economics and psychology, later he became interested in English literature. But essentially, he didn’t find himself in any area; Alistair was great at squandering his inheritance and enjoying life. But already in 1896, Aleister Crowley began to study in detail the occult, mysticism and alchemy.
The man was also interested in mountaineering, chess and poetry. By the way, he began writing poetry at the age of 10. Every year he became more and more disillusioned with religion. He began to talk about this to his mentors, and the main manifestation of “disobedience” to Christianity was his sexual relationships, and not only with girls he knew, but also with lung women behavior.
Literature and occult practices
In 1898, the man met Julian Baker. The man was a chemist, so they found common language based on alchemy. Baker brought Crowley into the Order of the Golden Dawn, an occult organization dedicated to magic, alchemy and theurgy. In the same year he was ordained to the degree of Neophyte of the Golden Dawn. At the same time, Crowley bought himself a luxurious apartment - he dedicated one room for practicing white magic, and the other for black magic. A fellow member of the order, Alan Bennett, lived with him and became his mentor in ceremonial magic.
It is noteworthy that in the ranks of the Golden Dawn there were people in whom Crowley found enemies and rivals. Alistair did not hide his attitude towards his fellow members of the order - he openly criticized William Yates and Arthur Waite. Their personalities were reflected in his works of those years; he described them in an extremely impartial and humiliating manner. But they also did not skimp on negative reviews of his books.
He soon began to become disillusioned with both his mentor and the order itself. Crowley officially left the Golden Dawn only in 1904. In 1900, he went to Mexico, where he independently continued to study magic. His fellow climber Oscar Eckenstein is traveling with him. He practices meditation and raja yoga, which he teaches to Alistair.
He later visited Hawaii, San Francisco, Hong Kong, Japan and Ceylon. He wrote his main book during a trip to Egypt. As Crowley himself claimed, the Book of the Law was written by him under the dictation of the holy spirit Aiwas. In the book, he described the basics of the religious doctrine known in the world as thelema. Translated from ancient Greek it means “will”. But some historians still believed that this teaching was directly borrowed from the ancient “Left Hand Path” faith. Of course, Crowley denied any accusations of plagiarism.
In 1907, Aleister Crowley created his own order, which he gave the name “Silver Star”.
In 1920, he moved to Sicily, where he organized the Abbey of Thelema, which is a commune where Crowley is the leader. He leads an extremely immoral lifestyle. His followers fulfill all his demands. They organize orgies and use drugs. The end of the abbey came after one of Crowley's followers died.
There was a lot of fuss about this, and the newspapers reported the most various reasons his death, for example, that he was poisoned by cat’s blood, which the mystic ordered the deceased to drink. After all, he often said to do things that defied logic either then or now. For example, Crowley argued that anyone who wants to become a great magician must have syphilis. He explained this by saying that this way they would get " valuable experience" Of course, in the end the mystic and his commune were ordered to leave Sicily.
But this didn’t upset him at all. He went on travels again. Visited Tunisia North Africa, France and Germany. During this period of time, he published several books: “Magic in Theory and Practice”, “Equinox of the Gods”, “Magic Without Tears”, “Diary of a Drug Addict” and others. True, it was at this time that he gained a reputation as a Satanist, sectarian and black magician.
Fame came to Crowley after he created Tarot cards. The deck was called the “Tarot of Thoth” and is still popular among esotericists. The maps are full of symbolism; Egyptologist artist Frieda Harris helped him draw them. Alistair also published a book of the same name, in which the mystic gives an explanation of each card.
A follower of Crowley from Germany claimed that the mystic's works greatly influenced his personality and life. True, historians were able to quickly dispel these speculations. But still, after the death of Aleister Crowley, this topic was extremely popular in the occult environment for a long time.
Despite the odiousness of Crowley's figure, some of his books are not without meaning and logic. Many of his works have been analyzed into quotes.
Personal life
In 1903, Aleister Crowley married his friend Gerald Kelly's sister, Rose Edith Kelly. Initially, the marriage was of convenience, but soon after the wedding the man realized that he had fallen in love. The woman shared his love for the occult and mysticism and supported her husband in his endeavors.
Aleister Crowley and his first wife Rose Edith Kelly with their daughter Lola In 1904, the couple had a daughter, they gave her an unusual name - Nuit Ma Ahator Hecate Sappho Jezebel Lilith Crowley. But the girl did not live to be three years old; she died. Some time later, their second daughter, Lola Zaza Crowley, was born.
One day Gerald Kelly introduced Crowley to a writer, who later wrote the novel “The Magician,” and main character Oliver Haddo is the inspiration for Aleister Crowley. Was later withdrawn feature film"Chemical Wedding", where Oliver Haddo also became the hero.
In 1929, in Germany, he met Maria Ferrari de Miramar. She was originally from Nicaragua. Soon they got married.
Death
IN recent years In his life, the popular mystic spent a lot of money in his finances. He had to move from one hotel to another, trying to earn a living. Some biographers believe that during this period he began to use heroin. As a result, Crowley died on December 1, 1947 from asthma. He was 72 years old.
Even after death, he remained true to himself: the funeral ceremony was gloomy and strange, during which the poem “Hymn to Pan” was read. Crowley asked for this in his will.
Bibliography
- 1904 – Book of Law
- 1944 – The Book of Thoth
- 1945 – Magic without tears
- 1961 – The Book of Aleph: The Book of Wisdom or Madness
- 1969 – Tarot of Thoth
- 1904 – A Lecherous Affair
- 1912 – Through the abyss
- 1913 – Will of Magdalene Blair
- 1917 – Cocaine
- 1922 – Diary of a Drug Addict
- 1929 – Moon Child
- 1929 – The Unworthy and Other Stories
- 1970 – The Lost Continent
Aleister Crowley - famous poet originally from England, tarot reader, occultist, Kabbalist and Satanist of the 19th and 20th centuries. For many followers, he still remains one of the most significant ideologists of occultism.
Aleister Crowley - biography
Aleister's real name is Edward Alexander Crowley. He was born on October 12, 1875 in Great Britain. The boy's father was an engineer who owned his own private brewery. The mother did housework. It so happened that Edward's parents became members of the Plymouth Brethren sect. Throughout his childhood, the child was forced to read the Bible and be faithful to Christianity.
Aleister Crowley
However, all this ended after Alexander’s father passed away. The mother could no longer instill in the boy an interest in faith. The more she tried to instill in him the love of God, the more resistance the woman encountered on her way.
The scandals reached the point where the mother called her own son beast 666. Nevertheless, the boy really liked this nickname and subsequently in his adult life he often called himself that way. In 1895, Crowley graduated from school and entered Trinity College, Cambridge University.
Initially, he threw himself into studying economics, psychology and philosophy. However, not without the influence of his teacher, he realized that English literature was closer to him. While studying at the university, Crowley carelessly squandered his rich inheritance and enjoyed life.
Beginning in the winter of 1896, Edward realized that he was attracted to mysticism and the occult. The very next year he began to study magic, mysticism and alchemy in more detail.
Alistair’s illness turned out to be fatal, since it was he who pushed him to think about death, the frailty of human existence. His first book was published in 1898, after which the guy left the university and struck up an acquaintance with Julian Baker and Samuel Mathers.
Entry into the Order of the Golden Dawn
Since 1898, Alexander was listed as a member of the Order of the Golden Dawn. It was there that he made two strong and influential rivals - William Yates and Arthur Waite.
The conflict arose due to the fact that Crowley did not hide his attitude towards his brothers and positioned them as arrogant bores, constantly criticizing their works. Crowley managed to humiliate his rivals subtly and skillfully. They were reflected in his novels, and their images were used to create extremely unpleasant characters.
Beginning in 1890, Crowley began to gradually become disillusioned with his mentor Samuel Mathers. That is why he goes on a trip to Mexico, where he independently continues to study magical art. Alistair officially left the Golden Dawn in 1904.
In 1901, the man was already actively practicing Raja yoga. His own knowledge was reflected in the essay “Berashit.” There, meditation is presented to the reader as a method by which one can achieve one’s goal. Alexander speaks of the ceremony of magic as a way of strengthening the will.
Thelema and the Law of the Left Hand
If we look at the meaning of the word thelema, then we learn that translated from ancient Greek it means “Will”. Here you can remember main principle Alistair's teachings:
Do what you wish, that’s the whole Law and Love – the law, Love obeys the Will.
thelema
Thelema itself is a religious movement that Crowley developed. Its basis was the magical teaching of the sage Abramelin. Moreover, his doctrine was based on Kabbalah. At the time of the development of such a movement as Thelema, Crowley was a fairly famous member of the Golden Dawn Order.
He was also prompted to develop his religious movement by the fact that he managed to meet his holy spirit Aiwas. It seems that it was this spirit that whispered to Crowley the text of his future Book of Laws.
It is worth noting that almost all of the teachings of the Great and Terrible Satanist are not just based on, but even borrowed from the ancient faith called the “Left Hand Path”. It is worth noting that Crowley often tried to pass off other people's achievements as his own. Moreover, the very basis of the system that he seemed to create belongs to Francois Rabelais and Pascal Randolph.
It is interesting that everything that Alexander borrowed from his more experienced like-minded people, he completely distorted and presented in a different light. For example, initially the Left Hand Path implied the use of the feminine and masculine principles in order to master sexual magic.
Moreover, in this case, the feminine principle was considered divine, and the masculine was only an addition to it. As you know, Crowley was a terrible misogynist and racist.
Therefore, he could not allow the primacy of the feminine principle in his own created cult. He believed that a girl could not become an initiate because she was unworthy of it and was just a tool that could be used to achieve her goals. However, despite the obvious imperfection of Thelema, the teaching had many followers.
Crowley tried to establish temples wherever he lived. It is worth noting that the rituals performed there were not the most pleasant. Bloody animal sacrifices and perverted sexual orgies were carried out. At this point, Crowley's entire personality as a simple madman rather than a great genius emerges.
The man begins to feed his followers strange ideas that are now beyond comprehension. Alistair assured that in order to become a truly powerful magician, it is necessary to become infected with syphilis, since this is one of the most valuable experiences.
There was also a very popular ritual in which it was necessary to catch a toad, give it gifts, as if to little Jesus, and then crucify the toad on the cross. Having said this:
Here you are, Jesus of Nazareth.
Such chaos could not go unnoticed for a long time. He soon became persona non grata in many countries. They did not want to see him on the territory of Sicily, France, and Germany. Traveling around the world, Alex began to make many enemies, among whom were famous domestic occultists. For example, Gurdjieff, who considered him a simple upstart and a madman.
Order of the Eastern Templars
The year 1907 became decisive in the life of Alex Crowley. He ventured to open his own order, which he called the Silver Star. If you believe the Satanist himself, then in 1912 he was accused by Theodor Reuss of revealing everything to the public secret orders Eastern Templars. It is worth noting that initially this order in his secret dreams, Crowley had to help the entire society recognize the truth in every person and know the will of God.
The man was sure that if a person goes through certain initiation rites, appreciates their significance, masters extraordinary occult techniques and receives sacred knowledge, then he will not only become a member of the Order of the Eastern Templars, but will even be able to obtain the knowledge necessary for dialogue with his sacred angel - guardian, the highest part of one’s nature, which is the connection with the entire universe and God.
As a result, a person had to answer the eternal questions “Who am I, what is my mission?”
Despite Theodore's accusations, Crowley stated that he did not reveal any secrets in his Holy Book, since he himself had not yet reached the required degree of development.
So, unlike other psychics (Groening, Chumak, Kashpirovsky, Vanga), the magician Crowley did not win anything but contempt and disgust.
Today, everyone who has been at least somehow connected with esotericism is familiar with the name Tarot of Thoth. Sometimes this deck of cards is also called Aleister Crowley's Tarot. It was created together with Frieda Harris, who worked as an artist and Egyptologist. It is worth noting that today this deck is quite popular among tarot readers, since each card has its own astrological correspondence, and many unique hidden symbols can be found on it.
For those who want to work with this deck, they must have in their arsenal the book of Thoth, in which Crowley explains the meaning of each card and each element depicted on it. Most often these cards are used to predict fortune.
Throughout his life, the famous Satanist assured everyone that he was the reincarnation of Eliphas Levi. A similar opinion is also expressed in his book “Magic in Theory and Practice.” The occultist explains it this way: between the death of Levi and the birth of Crowley there is only six months; some are sure that in the case of reincarnation, this is the time necessary for the soul to move from one body to another.
Eliphas himself was surprisingly similar in appearance to Alex's father. Having not yet become familiar with Levy's works, Crowley wrote a play called Fatal Power, which used a magical formula that turned out to be present in Levy's works.
While in Paris, Alex purchased an apartment that was familiar to him (as it seemed to him then), and only many years later did he learn that Eliphas had previously lived in the next apartment.
At the end of his life, Crowley had to travel a lot, wandering and hiding. He tried to find his followers and somehow make a living. Some biographers claim that he became especially addicted to heroin during this time. During this same period, Edward met Gerald Gardner, who later founded the Wicca movement.
Some historians believe that Crowley himself wrote books for Wiccans, however this information I didn't find any confirmation. On December 1, 1947, Alistair’s life was cut short, and on December 5 he was cremated. As required by his will, the “Hymn to Pan” he composed was read at his funeral.
Aleister Crowley Quotes
This is not to say that the works of a crazy Satanist are devoid of common sense. In each of his works and books, any person can find something that will interest him and that will push him to different (and even sensible) thoughts. For example:
As long as a person still has emotions towards certain things, love or fear or anything else, he cannot look at them correctly. This is why a doctor will not treat his own family.
Aleister Crowley "Diary of an Addict"
Today, few people have heard of Plato and Aristotle. Hardly one person in a thousand - perhaps one in ten thousand - has read them even in translation. But there are just as few whose thinking, such as it is, is not determined by the ideas of these two people.
Aleister Crowley "The Book of Thoth"
The battle with your doubts is a very serious thing. You will still have time to be surprised at how cunning and insightful your subconscious is, how well its “irrefutable” logic is tailored, how great its power is - oh, it will be able to force you to recognize day as night if you allow it.
Aleister Crowley "Moonchild"
Aleister Crowley's personality is extremely ambiguous. On the one hand, he is a racist, a misogynist who promotes very strange and terrible things. But on the other hand, he is a genius who managed to create many works that are used by occultists all over the world to this day.
In the popular understanding, an occultist is a person who goes out at midnight in a long black robe and for some reason always barefoot on the damp grass. After which he, together with other adherents, draws a pictogram and calls our master Satan. Having received clear instructions from his superiors, the adept peace of mind goes to study the bestiary and indulge in sin with dissolute virgins.
The most amazing thing is that it is very difficult to imagine the always elegant and sophisticated Aleister Crowley in these raging ranks. Even though after for many years and tons of books written by his hand, this simple British surname is still a symbol of world mysticism and occultism. Now all the knights of the purple outfit and strange things consider him their standard, almost God. Even some Satanists respect him much more than a showman.
To popularize the already well-known black magic and all kinds of hoaxes, he did much more than Voldemort and other fictional characters with all sorts of sticks, wands and toothpicks in their hands. But many have not decided who he is - a charlatan who successfully capitalized on his eloquence, or really a man who saw and knew something. The descendant of successful brewers had commercial spirit in his blood, but he also had a craving for the otherworldly.
Be that as it may, the “demon in the guise of a man,” as the particularly quarrelsome inhabitants called him, or the Beast and Ankh-af-na-khons, as the hero himself called himself, left behind a huge mark on the world of living people. And not only in culture.
Antichrist from an early age
Aleister Crowley was born into a very rich and, oddly enough, pious family living in the small town of Stardford-upon-Avon. Also here, Will had the good fortune to be born - the son of a glover named Shakespeare, who later grew into one of the greatest playwrights and poets in history. Therefore, in the town you can meet two groups of fans who come to “bow” at the birthplaces of their idols.
Alexander's father (the name given to Crowley at birth) is the hereditary owner of a brewery, his mother is a devout, conservative Protestant with three minds and a completely non-progressive approach to life. Every day the guy had to study the Bible. However, after the death of his father, all his mother’s attempts to strengthen Crowley in the Christian faith only provoked his skepticism. This is what happens when you try to force someone into a cult.
The scandals reached the point that the mother called her own son “beast 666” (quote from the revelation of John the Theologian). The rebellious boy liked the nickname, and subsequently in his adult life he often called himself that way. Next came college, diligently squandering my dad’s fortune. But suddenly the guy was overcome by an illness, which pushed him to think about the death and frailty of human existence. From then on, “beast 666” began to study everything occult.
Profits at the cost of a career
Having dropped out of university, he begins to travel a lot around the world, and the most fateful was a visit to Stockholm, where, as he said, he was drawn as if by a magnet. Then the strangest thing that had ever happened in his life happened - inspiration descended on him.
The knowledge that I was involved in magical intentions awoke within me... my nature, which until that moment was essentially hidden from me. It was an experience of horror and pain, coupled with a certain amount of mental discomfort, and, at the same time, it represented the key to the purest and most holy spiritual ecstasy that is possible.
Many attributed this to delirium or the fantasies of a rake. But he believed that he had learned almost the very secret of the universe.
Upon his return, he joined the Order of the Golden Dawn, whose organizers practiced medieval kabbalism and eastern demonology through traditional Masonic rituals. The order was full of interesting personalities, some of whom, like the notorious Arthur Conan Doyle and the poet William Yeats, were in search of the truth. It is not surprising that the shores of occultism and mysticism, fertile in impressions and unique experiences, attracted people, primarily creative ones.
But Crowley mercilessly despises his surroundings, displaying them in a not very pleasant light on the pages of his own waste paper masterpieces.
The Loch Ness monster is also his work
Tired of hanging out with peace-loving creative bastards, Crowley leaves for Loch Ness, buys the Boleskine House estate, converts two rooms into the Black and White Temples and, together with a friend, uses spells to summon the demon Buer, the ruler of 50 hellish legions. Of course, there were no witnesses, and he told all his followers that the demon had come, but due to some interference, in the guise of a lizard. The one that looks like the swollen Diplodocus mother from the cartoon “The Land Before Time.” Simply put, the demon has not left and is still floating in Loch Ness.
The whole essence of Thelema
Conducting another course of world tours, Crowley began to claim that in Cairo he was visited by an interesting person in the form of the ancient spirit Aiwaz. It was the person who dictated to him the Book of the Law, which later became the basis of the teaching.
According to Alistair, they did not immediately come to the essence of the teaching - they suddenly remembered that according to Kabbalah, “thelema” (from the Greek “will”), “aiwass” and “agape” (ancient Greek “love”) have the same thing the numerical value is 93. Thus Crowley came to the conclusion:
“Love is the Law! Do whatever you wish - that is the Law! Act according to your Will."
As a result, the words “Do what you want is the whole law” became the main slogan of the movement.
Fascinated by the concept of a change of eras, Crowley insisted in every possible way that the same ominous Age of Aquarius was coming, and that people needed to change their consciousness en masse in order to become enlightened and invulnerable, like himself. In addition, there is a pleasant bonus - after death, passengers will be reborn.
But if you look carefully, the “hoaxer” didn’t come up with anything of his own. A lot was borrowed from Nietzsche, Rabelais, Kabbalah, the ancient mystical teaching of the Left Hand Path (not at all related to the vulgarities you are thinking of) and the main world religions. He generally had the peculiarity of attributing the merits of others to his beloved. But the people represented by the intelligentsia, drug-addled, worthy of early Rolling Stones, through a mind still besotted with legal cocaine and similar substances, actively absorbed newfangled knowledge. So it is reasonable to say that Crowley was simply gracefully mocking his main clients.
But since then, the world has been discussing the Thelemites, who roam the earth as undead remnants. Who is a Thelemite? Too cowardly to become a Satanist; too corrupt to be a Christian; and too unique to stick with another mystical JSC? It’s quite likely, you can’t say for sure - they’re encrypted, you bastards.
Tarot of the Beast
Everyone who was at least somehow connected with esotericism or tried to impress their acquaintances with the presence of Tarot cards, and many whom a novice fortuneteller tried to seduce with fortune telling in the style of “you and your girlfriend are not on the same path, so the cards say,” is familiar with Crowley’s main creation - the Tarot Thoth. Sometimes this deck of cards is called the Aleister Crowley Tarot.
It is very popular among tarot readers because each card has its own astrological correspondence and many unique hidden symbols can be found on it. In order to make working with the deck convenient, Crowley even wrote a wonderful book in which, without his usual quirks, he explains the meaning of each card and each element depicted on it.
A short visit to Moscow
Shortly before the outbreak of World War I, Crowley came to Moscow with the Reggae Ragtime Girls choir. Alas, he was unable to recruit new supporters of the teachings of Thelema in the city, and that is why poorly hidden irritation can be seen in his poem “The City of God” and the essay “The Heart of Holy Rus'”.
Crowley called the Kremlin “a hashish smoker’s dream come true,” admired the barbaric beauty of the bells, and about the Cathedral of Christ the Savior he said, we quote: “a bad church in the modern European spirit, where the height is so disproportionate to the width that anyone can imagine that they are in a cell torture of a sadistic god... As a result, the building turns into a kind of magical mouth with gold teeth, which sucks out the soul until it disappears.”
But he really liked St. Basil’s Cathedral, which he proposed to call nothing more than “Basilisk Cathedral.”
Crowley and Nazism
The Nazis and Hitler are said to have had a strong interest in the esoteric. Considering the fact that in Germany Crowley had admirers in the person of Theodor Reuss, the head of the German order “Eastern Templars,” who even initiated him into the sacrament of the order and gave him the name “Brother Baphomet,” then it was not at all difficult to contact him. Moreover, there are facts that at the dawn of their power, even before the war, they supported it.
It is believed that Hitler was a follower of Crowley's instructions. But “Beast 666” himself repeatedly spoke of Hitler as “a magician who could not understand true essence sacraments." In addition, it is well known that Crowley's friend and sponsor, Karl Germer, was arrested by the Nazi government on charges of "collaboration with the enemy of the Reich" - Freemason Aleister Crowley. This means that if there was some kind of sympathy before, it turned out to be short-lived and fragile.
But it should be noted that during the First World War, Crowley conducted pro-German propaganda and, according to rumors, even tore up his British passport at the foot of the Statue of Liberty. However, over time, he became persona non grata in Sicily and France, and not at all because of politics. For example, Mussolini personally drove him out of Sicily. Crowley simply publicly announced that he would have sexual intercourse with a goat, and since it was inappropriate to imprison a friend of his German friends, he was asked to leave the island.
The man had a talent for ruining relationships; even the Nazis couldn’t stand it. And Reuss, who adored him, eventually took offense at him when Crowley founded his own order, the Silver Star. The German friend did not like that Crowley revealed all the secrets of his order. Although initially, Alistair’s brainchild was supposed to help the entire society recognize the truth in every person and know the will of God.
An unbridled homosexual with perverted fantasies?
Our sorcerer was unbridled in his sexual desires, which is why he created Telem. Sometimes his concerns frightened even his followers. For example, when he began to actively hang out with English witches, who were often bored aristocrats, then after several mysteries the High Priestess drove him away for “sexual licentiousness and animal perversions.”
Crowley did not disdain men either. Like Alexei Panin, who gratefully accepted all the alms of the gods of lust and fornication, he kneaded clay. But not for pleasure, but for the glory of Satan, of course! The fact is that some rituals required homosexual acts. Have you ever wondered why the Loch Ness monster is so crap? The guys just didn't try hard.
Crowley also loved to evoke Jupiter - also to the accompaniment of sodomy. Many attribute even his numerous “insights” to the consequences of an overly vivid homosexual experience, which was also passive. In fact, bloody animal sacrifices and perverted sexual orgies were the norm of his life. This reveals Crowley's whole personality as a simple madman, and not a great genius. Among the sacrifices, special mention should be made of the following rite that he repeated many times: he called the toad Jesus Christ and crucified it.
Crowley claimed that from 1912 to 1921 he killed 150 children annually during his rituals. However, this was just, so to speak, a publicity stunt that attracted drug-addled aristocrats to him who did not know what to do with their money.
But the women fell for the “Beast”
But at the same time, Crowley had his own family. Strange, but still a family, with wives and even two children. The first wife, who already had a tendency towards mental illness, became completely “magical” after communicating with her husband. It was she who went into a trance with Aivaz. True, later, when his wife became completely unwell, he brushed her off as expendable, and took the news of her death with amazing tranquility. Soon he married again.
This devil had an amazing, almost devilish charisma, with which he could force maidens from noble families to crawl in sewage, bark, show their genitals to new supporters of the teachings of Thelema, engage in public masturbation, and also participate in orgies at the next meeting.
There is a simple explanation for all of Alistair’s strange behavior: Crowley constantly “improved” his “magical abilities” with the help of various hallucinogens, primarily mescaline. And all the bohemians were on drugs, and as they say, whoever you mess with... They say that the hoaxer met his death in 1947 after injecting too large a dose of heroin.
The World's Worst Writer
But his main legacy, of course, is literature. At one time, Alistair fancied himself a poet and borrowed his writing style from Swinburne, and his themes and characters from De Sade. His poetry is sexual, sometimes homosexual, it borders on pornography and rudeness, it reflects the protest and rebellion of the author. True, the rebellion is so blatant that even the marquis would vomit upon reading it. Crowley was too inventive in his descriptions.
His main book, “The Book of the Law,” is the main text of the teachings of Thelema. It is quite difficult for an uninitiated person to read and understand it, but it is interesting. Although there are plenty of books that Alistair wrote more legibly and clearly. For example, “The Diary of a Drug Addict”, in which Aleister Crowley appears as he is! Psychopath and philosopher, occultist and poet. A person who received insight at an expensive, narcotic price.
In “Vision and Voice” he tries to describe spiritual experiences and studies of more subtle planes in completely normal and scientific language. The Goetia describes the ritual preparations, tools and spells needed to summon the 72 spirits. And reading “Lectures on Yoga” can pleasantly surprise you. In this book, he does not talk about how glorious it is to drink vodka with Satan, but soberly describes each step as a technique of mental discipline.
Crowley's legacy
To speak about Crowley's influence on culture in full, describing dubious details, will require even more words, but not mentioning them at all is a crime against humanity.
His philosophy, based on unbridled, permissive sexuality and connections with the otherworldly, turned out to be so close to the rockers that they openly sang the praises of their inspiration. His Doctrine 93 even gave its name to the group of the same name.
In addition, Alistair's face can be found on the cover of the legendary and no less mystical album The Beatles - “Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band."
And that same song, with the ominous organ, as if borrowed from horror films? The legendary troublemaker wrote it, impressed by the biography of our hero. Moreover, even such a madman as Osborne could not believe the scale of the hellish genius, and therefore the first words in the song are: “Mr. Crowley, what’s in your head?”
But this guy's main fan, of course, was Jimmy Page from Led Zeppelin. He was ready, without haggling, to buy up everything that Alistair was in one way or another related to. The most expensive were the mansions in which Jimmy settled himself. True, a passion for the occult, as they say, almost ruined the group and Page himself, who miraculously did not drown in a sea of alcohol and drugs in the 70s and 80s.
They say that, having become skilled in various rituals with the help of Crowley's knowledge, Page even made a deal with the Devil so that the group would exist forever. And only a binge with the leader of “Metal Corrosion” made the lord of the underworld forget about Jimmy.
Rumor has it that it was from Crowley that he learned to put hidden messages in songs that can be found if you play them backwards. Look, there is “The Beast 666” and Kabbalistic attributes, so maybe it really is: Satan is alive, Crowley didn’t lie, and our whole life is a game?
Do what you wish, let it be the law, love is the law, love is subject to the will ©
A. Crowley.
The magician, adventurer and poet Edward Alexander Crowley was born in the town of Leamington Spa, in the county of Warwickshire in central England, on October 12, 1875, at half past eleven at night Greenwich Mean Time.
His family never lived in poverty, because his father was a brewer, and there is no need to say how revered and popular this drink is in good old England. Engagement in this kind of business did not exclude an increased interest in religion in the Crowley family. Both father and mother belonged to the Plymouth Brethren sect. The ideology of this sect stemmed from European Protestantism and was built on the postulate of the infallibility of the Bible, and there is nothing strange in the fact that, already as an adult, Crowley was an excellent expert on the Holy Scriptures, not nearly inferior, and perhaps even surpassing many church ministers.
At the age of eleven, Aleister Crowley entered school at the sect in which his parents were members and, by coincidence, his father died in the same year. According to Colin Wilson, Crowley had a hard time with his father’s departure to another world, and this subsequently left a strong imprint on him. It is in the school of strict morals that, after the death of his father, a rebellious spirit settles in the future disturber of public peace. In his educational institution He gains a reputation as a bully, and his Puritan mother calls him the “Antichrist,” foreshadowing her son’s future nickname, the Great Beast.
Soon Crowley was enrolled in Trinity College, a privileged school where only boys studied, and then continued his studies at Oxford, it was at this time, in fact, that he became interested in literature and began writing poetic works and soon began publishing his early writings.
Material support (his father left him a large inheritance) allows Alistair not to worry about his daily bread, to live in grand style and devote himself entirely to spiritual quests. Dogmatic Christianity, implanted in him by his parents since childhood, eventually ceased to be interesting to him; he could not find answers to his questions in it. Crowley begins to become interested in occult sciences - he finds out who he was in past lives: the Egyptian priest Ankh-Khonsu and the famous European magician Eliphas Levi.
Young Crowley goes deeper into studying dark side human knowledge– magic, mysticism, etc. He is greatly influenced by the works of the American Arthur Edward Waits, one of the representatives of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, who brings Crowley to this society, where the aspiring magician becomes acquainted with cabalism and the Western European magical tradition.
Occult practices do not prevent Alistair from creating his own works of art, which will subsequently outnumber lifetime publications his magical works, for poetry occupied one of the main places in his life and work.
His first major collection of poems, The Green Alps, was destroyed. The fire was to blame for everything, and later the collection “White Spots” would suffer a similar fate. But this does not put an end to it literary activity, Alistair continues to write.
Crowley the poet’s prolificacy can only be envied; over the seven years of publishing his own poems, he has accumulated a huge literary material, which would be more than enough for a collection of works in several volumes, although the quality of some creations has been and is being questioned. Such a collection was published by the poet himself. As a starting point, Crowley offered to write a review of his works, motivating the work of the reviewers with a reward of one hundred pounds. There was only one review and it was very enthusiastic, and it is not surprising that its author was one of the first followers of Crowley the magician. It must be said that Crowley never paid the promised reward. Alistair continued to publish his poems, both successful and not so successful.
His poetry is sexual, sometimes homosexual, it borders on pornography and rudeness, it reflects the protest and rebellion of the author.
It is impossible to classify it as one of the literary and poetic movements of Europe at that time, although some tried to attribute it to the decadence so characteristic of the literature of the end of the century before last. But he is too eclectic, and most likely he has always been on his own. Crowley is a seeker. He creates his own philosophy and religious teaching.
As a person he was of a very complex character, he was loved and hated, admired and shuddered at the mere mention of his name. In such circumstances, of course, it is not possible to find a consensus about him as a poet. There were very authoritative people who called him a good poet, but for some he went unnoticed, while others accused him of imitating the English poet Charles Swinburne.
The poetry of Aleister Crowley touched on very sensitive topics for morality late XIX century, all his work was too open for that time - the fading, but not yet completely gone Victorian era.
Due to the breadth of his personality, Crowley could not stop only at poetry; his other passion and meaning was esotericism. But, nevertheless, the love of versification did not leave him. General ledger his teachings, called “Thelema” - “The Book of the Law” - according to the stories of Crowley himself, dictated to him in Cairo by a voice named Aiwass, is a deeply poetic work. And many of the philosophical and religious hymns he wrote (Hymn to Pan, Hymn to Bacchus) were written in the form of verse.
His philosophical position is that the era of Pisces, in which people lived for a long time, has come to an end and a new period in human history is beginning - the era of Aquarius. Man’s previous thinking will no longer be able to provide a melting worldview, and in the transitional stage between eras a new understanding of the world must be prepared, and humanity must finally get rid of its old ideas. The main law new era will be: act according to your Will. This is one of the central concepts of Crowleyan doctrine, which is reflected in his works of art, and at some point, these two lines (artistic and occult) in Crowley’s work became inseparable.
In the history of world literature, Aleister Crowley remains as a not bad prose writer. His novels “Moon Child” and “Diary of a Drug Addict” (directly related to his teaching) are written in the beautiful language of an educated person, and in some way, as in the case of the second novel, open up new literary horizons. He is one of the first to introduce artistic word themes of sex and drug addiction at such a level, thereby anticipating a good half of the writers of the 20th century, such as, beloved by many, W. Burroughs and a bunch of so-called alternative writers. The named themes now become full-fledged independent heroes of modern literature.
Crowley himself sometimes did not disdain using drugs, and, as you know, there are no former drug addicts. On December 1, 1947, in Hastings, Aleister Crowley dies after injecting himself, according to one version, with a dose of heroin incompatible with life.
Who was he? An occultist, esotericist and prophet or an adventurer, charlatan, drug addict and pervert? Perhaps he was a poet whose spiritual quest was inconceivable to him without magic and drugs? He violated many laws in England and was accused of collaborating with the Nazis and promoting Satanism. He created his religious teaching on the eve of the era of Aquarius, developed a new deck of Tarot cards, left a huge magical and artistic literary heritage, becoming an iconic figure of the 20th century counterculture. Books and articles are written about him, films are now being made, and it may seem that we understand a lot about this person, and as soon as the seeker once again approaches the revelation of the secrets of Aleister Crowley's life, some ambiguities and omissions immediately emerge, as if the Beast himself was covering up the traces of his earthly life.
You can treat Crowley as you like - read a lot and wince with disgust at the sight of his books. But one thing remains undeniable. He was an extraordinary person who showed himself in all areas to which he put his efforts, leaving behind many secrets; he arouses lively and genuine interest among readers and researchers more than sixty years after his death. With his creativity, he was in many ways ahead of his time, which people realized in subsequent years when they took his books off the shelves.
It would be stupid to lose sight of a man of such magnitude, and even more stupid on my part would be not to tell about him.
This post does not pretend to be true or indisputable; it only sets out my personal vision of the life of this strange, extraordinary and, for some, odious person. After all, you can form your own opinion by reading his works, right?
http://crowley.pp.ru/ – Crowley in Russian
http://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%9A%D1%80%D0%BE%D1%83%D0%BB%D0%B8,_%D0%90%D0%BB%D0%B8 %D1%81%D1%82%D0%B5%D1%80 – on the wiki
http://lib.ru/INPROZ/KROULI/ak3.txt – novel “The Diary of a Drug Addict.”
🙂 Hello, dear readers! The article “Aleister Crowley: biography of the prophet Lucifer” is about the life of the English poet, Kabbalist and tarot reader. Crowley is known as a black magician and Satanist of the 19th-20th centuries.
The famous French publicist Jean-Claude Frere called Aleister Crowley the prophet of Lucifer. The question of Crowley's real worship of Satan remains debatable. But the founder of Thelema was undoubtedly one of the most controversial occultists of the 20th century.
Occultist Aleister Crowley
Crowley was born in 1875 in the family of a wealthy English brewer. The boy's parents belonged to a radical Protestant sect.
They raised their son in an atmosphere of religious dictatorship, forcing him to study biblical texts and long prayers for days. This can be considered one of the reasons that pushed Alistair onto the path of studying the occult sciences.
Judging by the biographical materials, Alistair maintained a fairly warm relationship with his father. He had certain problems with his mother, who nicknamed her son “Beast 666” for his rebellious nature.
Crowley himself accepted and wore this nickname with pride. He did everything to secure his reputation as the most depraved person in the history of the 20th century.
Alistair, having finished school, escaped from his parents' nest and went to study at Cambridge College of the Holy Trinity. There he devoted himself to studying English literature and began to write poetry. In addition, the guy was fond of rock climbing, playing chess, and since 1896 -
The story of "Golden Dawn"
Two years before the onset of the 20th century, Crowley met Samuel Mathers and joined his organization - the magical Order of the Golden Dawn. During this period, the order experienced better times.
Mathers, who was living in France at that time, was suspected by his English followers of falsifying the history of the organization and dishonest use of his official position. A split was brewing.
Crowley, who liked Samuel, quickly moved up the internal hierarchy of the order and was sent to London to restore order.
In the London box, Crowley confronted Arthur Waite and the future Nobel laureate William Butler Yeats, also members of the Golden Dawn. It was not possible to extinguish the conflict and the order began to rapidly disintegrate.
In 1900, the Golden Dawn split into smaller organizations, most of which soon ceased to exist. Crowley became disillusioned with Mathers' leadership abilities and broke off relations with him in 1904.
Crowley's legacy
Based on the hierarchy, regulations and rituals developed by the members of the Golden Dawn, Crowley would later create the occult organization Silver Star. This organization will then become the governing body of the Order of the Eastern Templars.
This is an irregular Masonic organization, which Alistair would seize power in 1924 and carry out reforms according to his ideals. This organization continues to operate successfully today.
Aleister Crowley. Years of life 1875-1947
Another achievement of the occultist is the creation of his own religion - “Thelema” (from Greek “Will”). The religion is based on the sacred text The Book of the Law (1904), received by Alistair through Rose Kelly in Cairo. The main magical motto of Thelema - “Do your will, this is the whole Law” - is sometimes interpreted as a manifestation of permissiveness.
Now this deck is one of the most popular in the world. It is only inferior to Arthur Waite's deck, based on the legacy of the Golden Dawn.
Aleister Crowley died in relative poverty and obscurity on December 1, 1947. Real fame came to the magician in the late 60s of the last century.
The black magician became famous thanks to the musicians from the group “The Beatles”, who placed his photograph on the cover of their album from 1967. From a forgotten eccentric, Crowley, as if by magic, turned into a counterculture icon.
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