Aleister Crowley – Esoteric Collection of Books
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Aleister Crowley – Esoteric Collection of Books
Aleister Crowley (
/ˈkroʊli/; 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 and philosophy of
Thelema, identifying himself as the prophet entrusted with guiding humanity into the
Æon of Horus in the early 20th century.
Born to a wealthy
Plymouth Brethren family in
Royal Leamington Spa,
Warwickshire, Crowley rejected this
fundamentalist Christianfaith to pursue an interest in
Western esotericism. He was educated 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. Moving to
Boleskine House by
Loch Ness in Scotland, he went mountaineering in Mexico with
Oscar Eckenstein, before studying
Hindu and
Buddhist practices in India. He married
Rose Edith Kelly and in 1904 they honeymooned in
Cairo, Egypt, where Crowley claimed to have been contacted by a supernatural entity named
Aiwass, who provided him with
The Book of the Law, a sacred text that served as the basis for Thelema. Announcing the start of the Æon of Horus,
The Book declared that its followers should adhere to the code of “Do what thou wilt” and seek to align themselves with their Will through the practice of
magick.
After
an unsuccessful attempt to climb Kanchenjunga 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 a Thelemite order, the
A∴A∴, through which they propagated the religion. 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 the 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, later revealing 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
Cefalù, 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
recreational drug experimenter,
bisexual and an
individualist social critic. He was denounced in the popular press as “the wickedest man in the world”, and labelled a
Satanist because of his embrace of the title ‘The Beast’. Crowley has remained a highly influential figure over Western esotericism and the counter-culture, and continues to be considered a prophet in Thelema. In 2002, a
BBC poll ranked him as the seventy-third
greatest Briton of all time.