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Aleister CrowleyAleister Crowley, c. 1912

BornEdward Alexander Crowley(1875-10-12)12 October 1875Royal Leamington Spa, WarwickshireEnglandDied1 December 1947(1947-12-01) (aged 72)Hastings, East SussexEnglandInfluenced

Timothy Leary, Robert Anton Wilson, Kenneth Anger, Anton LaVey, Gerald Gardner, Jack Parsons, Israel Regardie, Christopher Hyatt, Temple of Set, Peter J. Carroll, Jimmy Page,Aleister Crowley (//; 12 October 1875 '' 1 December 1947), born Edward Alexander Crowley, was an English occultist, ceremonial magician, poet, and mountaineer, who was responsible for founding the religion of Thelema. In his role as the founder of the Thelemite philosophy, he came to see himself as the prophet who was entrusted with informing humanity that it was entering the new Aeon of Horus in the early 20th century.

Born to a wealthy evangelical Christian family, Crowley rejected this faith to embrace an interest in western esotericism, poetry, and mountaineering. He was educated at Cambridge University, and some biographers have argued that here he was recruited as a spy for British intelligence, a role they allege he maintained throughout his life. In 1898 he joined the esoteric Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, before moving to Boleskine House by Loch Ness, and travelling to India to study Hindu and Buddhist practices. After marrying Rose Edith Kelly, in 1904 they travelled to 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.

After an unsuccessful attempt to climb Kangchenjunga, Crowley returned to Britain where, in 1907, he co-founded the A'´A'´ as a Thelemite order alongside George Cecil Jones. After spending time in Algeria, in 1912 he was initiated into the Ordo Templi Orientis (O.T.O.), rising to become leader of the Order's British branch. Spending the First World War in the United States, where he worked for British intelligence services, in 1920 he moved to Cefal¹, Sicily, to run a commune known as the Abbey of Thelema. His libertine lifestyle led to denunciations in the British press, and the Italian government evicted him in 1923. Dividing his time between France, Germany, and England, he continued to promote Thelema until his death.

During his lifetime, Crowley gained widespread notoriety, being openly bisexual, a recreational drug experimenter, and a social critic. As a result, he was denounced in the popular press as "the wickedest man in the world". Crowley has remained a highly influential figure over western esotericism and the counter-culture. In 2002, a BBC poll ranked him as the seventy-third greatest Briton of all time.[1]

Early life[edit]Youth: 1875''1894[edit]Crowley was born as Edward Alexander Crowley at 30 Clarendon Square in Royal Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, on 12 October 1875. His father, Edward Crowley (1834''1887), was trained as an engineer but never worked as one, instead owning shares in a lucrative family brewing business, Crowley's Alton Ales, which allowed him to retire before his son was born. His mother, Emily Bertha Bishop (1848''1917), drew roots from a Devonshire-Somerset family and had a strained relationship with her son, whom she described as "the Beast", a name that he revelled in. The couple had been married at London's Kensington Registry Office in November 1874, and were evangelical Christians. Crowley's father had been born a Quaker, but had converted to the Exclusive Brethren, an ultra-conservative faction of the Plymouth Brethren, with Emily joining him upon marriage. Crowley's father was particularly devout, spending his time as a travelling preacher for the sect and reading a chapter from the Bible to his wife and son after breakfast every day. Following the death of their baby daughter in 1880, in 1881 the family moved to Redhill, Surrey. Aged 8, Crowley was sent to H.T. Habershon's evangelical Christian boarding school in Hastings, and then to the preparatory Ebor school in Cambridge, run by the Reverend Henry d'Arcy Champney, whom Crowley considered a sadist.

In March 1887, when Crowley was 11, his father died of tongue cancer. Crowley would describe this as a turning point in his life, and he always maintained an admiration of his father, describing him as "his hero and his friend". Inheriting a third of his father's wealth, he began misbehaving at school, and was harshly punished by Champney; Crowley's family removed him from the school when he contracted albuminuria. He then attended Malvern College and then Tonbridge School, both of which he despised and left after only a few terms. He became increasingly sceptical regarding Christianity, pointing out to his religious teachers Inconsistencies in the Bible, and went against the Christian morality of his upbringing by smoking, masturbating, and having sex with women, including a prostitute from whom he contracted gonorrhea. Sent to live with a Brethren tutor in Eastbourne, where he undertook chemistry courses at Eastbourne College, Crowley developed his interests in chess, poetry, and mountain climbing, and in 1894 climbed Beachy Head before visiting the Alps and joining the Scottish Mountaineering Club. The following year he returned to the Bernese Alps, climbing the Eiger, Trift, Jungfrau, M¶nch, and Wetterhorn, with his achievements being recognised by the alpinist community.

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 ScienceTripos studying philosophy, but with approval from his personal tutor, he changed to English literature, which was not then part of the curriculum offered. 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 in the sport. Crowley also embraced his love of literature and poetry, becoming a particular fan of Richard Burton and Percy Bysshe Shelley, and many of his own poems appeared in student publications The Granta, Cambridge Magazine, and Cantab. Another hobby was mountaineering; he went on holiday to the Alps to do so every year from 1894 to 1898, often with his friend Oscar Eckenstein, and in 1897 he made the first guideless ascent of the M¶nch, receiving recognition from the Alpine mountaineering community.

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.

Aleister Crowley, on his name change.Crowley later claimed to have had his first significant mystical experience while on a winter holiday in Stockholm in December 1896. Several biographers, including Lawrence Sutin, Richard Kaczynski, and Tobias Churton, believed that this was the result of Crowley's first same-sex sexual encounter, enabling him to recognise his bisexuality. At Cambridge, Crowley maintained a vigorous sex life, largely with female prostitutes, from one of whom he caught syphilis, but eventually he took part in same-sex activities, despite their being illegal. 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, something Crowley regretted for years.

In 1897, Crowley travelled to St Petersburg in Russia, later claiming that he was trying to learn Russian as he considered a future diplomatic career there. 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.

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. 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. In 1898 Crowley privately published 100 copies of his poem Aceldama: A Place to Bury Strangers In, but it was not a particular success. That same year he published a string of other poems, the most notable of which was White Stains, a piece of decadent erotica that had to be printed abroad as a safety measure in case it caused trouble with the British authorities. In July 1898, he left Cambridge, not having taken any degree at all despite a "first class" showing in his spring 1897 exams and consistent "second class honours" results before that.

The Golden Dawn: 1898''1899[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. Back in London, Baker introduced Crowley to George Cecil Jones, a member of the occult society known as the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, which had been founded in 1888. Crowley was subsequently 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 at the Isis-Urania Temple in London's Mark Masons Hall, where Crowley accepted his motto and magical name of "Frater Perdurabo", a Latin term meaning "Brother I shall endure to the end". 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.

Crowley moved from the Hotel Cecil to his own luxury flat at 67''69 Chancery Lane. He 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 magic of the Goetia. Bennett desired to study Buddhism, and left for Asia to do so. In November 1899, Crowley acquired Boleskine House in Foyers on the shore of Loch Ness in Scotland. He subsequently 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. He continued writing poetry, publishing Jezebel and Other Tragic Poems (1898), Tales of Archais (1898), Songs of the Spirit (1898), Appeal to the American Republic (1899), and Jephthah (1899); while most gained mixed reviews, the latter was a critical success.

Crowley soon progressed through the grades of the Golden Dawn, and was ready to enter the inner Second Order. He was unpopular in the group, having gained a bad reputation for his bisexuality and libertine lifestyle, and he had developed feuds with members like W.B. Yeats. When the London members of the group refused to initiate Crowley into the Second Order, he visited Mathers in Paris, who personally upgraded him. A schism had developed between Mathers and the London members of the Golden Dawn, who were unhappy with his autocratic rule. Acting under Mathers' orders, Crowley '' with the help of his mistress and fellow initiate Elaine Simpson '' attempted to seize the Vault of Rosenkreutz, a temple space at 36 Blythe Road, from the London rebels. When the case was taken to court, the judge ruled in favour of the rebels, as they had paid for the space's rent. Spence suggested that this was part of an intelligence operation to undermine Mathers' authority.

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 in the city, and spending time writing, he authored a play based on Richard Wagner's Tannh¤user 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. Spence has suggested that the purpose of the trip might have been to explore Mexican oil prospects for British intelligence. 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; claiming to have fallen in love with her, he wrote a series of poems about the romance, published as Alice: An Adultery (1903).

Briefly stopping at Japan and Hong Kong, Crowley reached Ceylon, where he met with Allan Bennett, who was there studying Shaivism. The pair spent some time in Kandy before Bennett decided to become a Buddhist monk in the Theravada tradition, travelling to Burma to do so. Crowley decided to tour India, devoting himself to the Hindu practice of raja yoga, from which he claimed to have achieved the spiritual state of dhyana. He spent much of this time studying at the Meenakshi Amman Temple in Madura, and also wrote poetry which would be published as The Sword of Song (1904). He contracted malaria, and had to recuperate from the disease in Calcutta and Rangoon. In 1902, he was joined in India by Eckenstein and several other mountaineers; Guy Knowles, H. Pfannl, V. Wesseley, and Jules Jacot-Guillarmod. Together the Eckenstein-Crowley expedition attempted K2, which had never been climbed. On the journey, Crowley was afflicted with influenza, malaria, and snow blindness, while other expedition members were similarly struck with illness. They reached an altitude of 20,000 feet (6,100 m) before turning back.

Arriving in Paris in November 1902, he associated largely with the painter Gerald Festus Kelly, and through him became a fixture of the Parisian arts scene, authoring a series of poems on the work of an acquaintance, the sculptor Auguste Rodin, published as Rodin in Rime (1907). One of those frequenting this milieu was W. Somerset Maugham, who after briefly meeting Crowley later used him as a model for the character of Oliver Haddo in his novel The Magician (1908). Returning to Boleskine in April 1903, in August Crowley wed Gerald's sister Rose Edith Kelly in a "marriage of convenience" to prevent her entering an arranged marriage; the marriage appalled the Kelly family and damaged his friendship with Gerald. Heading on a honeymoon to Paris, Cairo, and then Ceylon, Crowley actually fell in love with her and set about to successfully prove his affections. He wrote her a series of love poems, published as Rosa Mundi and other Love Songs (1906), also authoring Why Jesus Wept.

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, Egypt. 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, also studying Arabic and Islamic mysticism. 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 later termed it the "Stele of Revealing"); Crowley was astounded, for the exhibit's number was 666, the number of the beast in Christian belief.

According to later claims, on 8 April Crowley heard a disembodied voice claiming to be coming from Aiwass, an entity who was 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 subsequently titled it Liber AL 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 "True Will". This book, and the philosophy that it espoused, would be the cornerstone of Crowley's religion, Thelema. Crowley was unsure as to what to do with The Book of the Law, and often came to resent it. He ignored the instructions that it 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. Instead he sent typescripts of the work to several occultists whom he knew, and then "put aside the book with relief".

Kangchenjunga and China: 1905''1906[edit]Returning to Boleskine, Crowley came to believe that Mathers had begun using magic against him, and the relationship between the two broke down. On 28 July 1905, Rose gave birth to Crowley's first child, a daughter named Lilith, with Crowley authoring the pornographic Snowdrops From a Curate's Garden to entertain his recuperating wife. 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 where Crowley's Collected Works, edited by Ivor Back. While his poetry often received strong reviews (either positive or negative), it never sold well, and attempting to gain more publicity, he issued a reward of £100 for whomever could write the best essay on the topic of his work. The winner of this would be 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.

Crowley decided to climb Kangchenjunga in the Himalayas, 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 felt 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. Crowley was proved right as Pache and several porters were subsequently killed in an accident, something for which Crowley was widely blamed by the mountaineering community.

Spending time in Moharbhanj, where he took part in big game hunting and authored 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 who had tried to mug him. Briefly visiting Bennett in Burma, Crowley and his family decided to tour Southern China, hiring porters and a nanny for the purpose. Spence has suggested that this was part of Crowley's job as an intelligence agent, in order to report on the region's opium trade. It is known that Crowley smoked opium throughout the journey, which took the family from Tengyueh through to Yungchang, Tali, Yunnanfu, and then Hanoi, before sailing to Hong Kong. On the way he spent much time on spiritual and magical work, reciting invocations from the Goetia on a daily basis.

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 to contact Aiwass. Crowley then sailed to Japan and Canada, before continuing to New York City, where he unsuccessfully attempted to gain support for a second expedition up Kangchenjunga. Upon arrival at Britain, Crowley learned that his daughter Lilith had died of typhoid in Rangoon, something he later blamed on Rose's increasing alcoholism. Heartbroken, his health began to suffer, and he underwent a series of surgical operations. He proceeded to begin short-lived romances with actress Vera "Lola" Stepp and author Ada Leverson, while Rose gave birth to Crowley's second daughter, Lola Zaza, in February 1907.

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 do 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 influential essay on "The Psychology of Hashish" (1909). He also claimed to have been contacted once again by Aiwass in late October and November 1907, resulting in two further texts, "Liber VII" and "Liber Cordis Cincti Serpente", which would later be classified in the corpus of Holy Books of Thelema. Crowley wrote down more received 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". In June 1909, when the manuscript of The Book of the Law was rediscovered at Boleskine, Crowley finally came to fully accept Thelema as objective truth.

Crowley's inheritance was running out. 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 a holiday to France and Morocco to recuperate. In the summer of 1907, he also began taking in paying students, whom he instructed in occult and magical practice. His closest discipline became Victor Neuburg, whom he met in February 1907. They became close friends and sexual partners, and in summer 1908 toured northern Spain before heading to Tangiers, Morocco. In 1909, Neuburg stayed at Boleskine, where he and Crowley engaged in sadomasochistic behaviour. Crowley continued to write prolifically, producing such works of poetry as Ambergris, Clouds Without Water, and Kom On Pax, as well as his first attempt an autobiography, The World's Tragedy. Recognising the popularity of short horror stories, he wrote a number of his own, some of which saw publication, 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.

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.

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.[87]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'´, also known as the Argenteum Astrum, or the Silver Star. 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. Its earliest members included solicitor Richard Noel Warren, artist Austin Osman Spare, Horace Sheridan-Bickers, author George Raffalovich, Francis Henry Everard Joseph Fielding, engineer Herbert Edward Inman, Kenneth Ward, and Charles Stansfeld Jones. In March 1909, Crowley began production of a biannual periodical that acted as the "Official Organ" of the A'´A'´, titled The Equinox, which was billed as "The Review of Scientific Illuminism". The philosophy it espoused was described as "The Method of Science, the Aim of Religion", and it contained both articles on occultism, non-fiction pieces, and artworks.

Meanwhile, unable to stand her alcoholism, Crowley divorced Rose in November 1909, on the grounds of his own adultery. Lola was entrusted to Rose's care, although the couple remained friends and she continued to live at Boleskine. Her alcoholism worsened, and as a result she was institutionalised in September 1911.

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 Sada, and then DÄ'leh Addin, with Crowley reciting the Quran on a daily basis. During the trip he performed the 19 Calls 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. Returning to London in January 1910, Crowley found that Mathers was suing him for publishing Golden Dawn secrets in The Equinox, although the court found in favour of Crowley. The case was widely reported on in the press, with Crowley gaining a level of wider fame. Crowley enjoyed this, and played up to the sensationalist stereotype of being a Satanist and advocate of human sacrifice, despite being neither.

The publicity attracted new members to the A'´A'´, among them Frank Bennett, James Bayley, Herbert Close, and James Windram. Most significant however was the Australian violinist Leila Waddell, who soon became Crowley's lover. 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, although this time press reviews were mixed. 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." Fenton's articles inferred that Crowley and Jones were involved in same-sex sexual activity; Crowley did not mind, but Jones was incensed and unsuccessfully sued for libel. Fuller broke off his friendship and involvement with Crowley over the scandal, while 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. In the summer of 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 Mary's statements when in trance, Crowley authored the two-volume Book 4 (1912''13) and developed the spelling "magick" to differentiate what he practiced to the tricks of illusionists.

Ordo Templi Orientis and the Paris Working: 1912''1914[edit]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". Subsequently, the German occultist Theodor Reuss 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 Magica 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". 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 XI° level initiates.

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. In Moscow, Crowley continued to write plays and poetry, the most notable being "Hymn to Pan", as well as the Gnostic Mass, a Thelemic ritual that would become a key part of O.T.O. liturgy. Churton suggested that Crowley had traveled to Moscow on the orders of British intelligence to spy on revolutionary elements in the city. Proceeding to Paris, where he was involved in the controversy surrounding Jacob Epstein's new monument to Oscar Wilde, in January 1914, Crowley and Neuburg settled in to an apartment where they performed the six-week "Paris Working", in which they invoked the gods Mercury and Jupiter. Involving strong drug use, they performed sex magic among themselves and with journalist Walter Duranty. Crowley would write down the results of the working, among them Liber Agap(C), a treatise on sex magic. Following the Working, Neuburg began to distance himself from Crowley, resulting in an argument in which Crowley cursed him.

United States: 1914''1919[edit]By 1914, Crowley was living a hand-to-mouth existence, relying largely on donations and the membership fees from the O.T.O. and A'´A'´. In May he transferred ownership of Boleskine House to the MMM for financial reasons, while in July he went mountaineering in the Swiss Alps, during which the First World War broke out. After recuperating from a bout of phlebitis, Crowley set sail for the United States aboard the RMS Lusitania in October 1914. 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. 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.

Professing to be of Irish ancestry and a supporter of Irish independence from Great Britain, Crowley began to espouse views supporting Germany in their war against Britain. Becoming involved in New York's pro-German movement, in January 1915 German spy George Sylvester Viereck employed Crowley as a writer for his propagandist paper, The Fatherland, which was dedicated to keeping the U.S. neutral in the conflict. In later years, detractors denounced Crowley as a traitor to Britain for this action. 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 Kaiser Wilhelm II to Jesus Christ, while 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. It has been argued that he encouraged the German Navy to destroy the Lusitania, informing them that it would ensure the U.S. stayed out of the war, while in reality hoping that it would bring the U.S. into the war on Britain's side.

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 W.T. Smith to discuss the propagation of Thelema on the continent. Proceeding to Detroit, where he experimented with anhalonium at Parke-Davis, he then visited Seattle, San Francisco, Santa Cruz, Los Angeles, San Diego, Tijuana, and the Grand Canyon, before returning to New York. There he befriended Ananda Coomaraswamy and his wife Alice Richardson; Crowley and Richardson performed sex magic in April 1916, following which she became pregnant, though subsequently miscarried. In the summer 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 authored several short stories based on J.G. Frazer's The Golden Bough and a work of literary criticism, The Gospel According to Bernard Shaw.

In December he moved to New Orleans, his favourite U.S. city, before spending February 1917 with evangelical Christian relatives in Titusville, Florida. Returning to New York, he moved in with artist and A'´A'´ member Leon Engars Kennedy, in May learning of his mother's death. After the collapse of The Fatherland, Crowley continued his association with Viereck, who appointed him contributing editor of arts journal The International in the summer. Crowley used it to promote Thelema, but it soon ceased publication. He subsequently moved to the studio apartment of Roddie Minor, who became his partner and Scarlet Woman. Through their rituals, Crowley believed that they were contacted by a preternatural entity named Alamantrah, though the relationship soon ended.

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 and experienced past life memories of being Ge Xuan, Pope Alexander VI, Alessandro Cagliostro, and Eliphas Levi, also painting Thelemic slogans on the riverside cliffs. Back in New York, he moved to Greenwich Village, where he took Leah Hirsig as his lover and next Scarlet Woman. 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. With the financial assistance of sympathetic Freemasons, Crowley revived The Equinox with the first issue of volume III, known as "The Blue Equinox." He then spent the summer of 1919 on a climbing holiday in Montauk before returning to London in December.

Abbey of Thelema: 1920''1923[edit]Now destitute and back in London, Crowley came under attack from right-wing tabloid John Bull, who labelled him traitorous "scum"; although several friends aware of his intelligence work urged him to sue, he decided not to. When he was suffering from asthma, a doctor prescribed him heroin, to which he soon became addicted. In January 1920, he moved to Paris, renting a house in Fontainebleau with Lea Hersig; they were soon joined in a m(C)nage trois by Ninette Shumway, and also by Leah's newborn daughter Anne "Poup(C)e" Leah. Crowley had ideas of forming a community of Thelemites, which he would call the Abbey of Thelema after the Abbaye de Th(C)l¨me in Fran§ois Rabelais's satire Gargantua and Pantagruel. After consulting the I Ching, he chose Cefal¹ on Sicily as a location, and after arriving there, began renting the old Villa Santa Barbara as his Abbey on 2 April.

Moving to the commune with Hirsig, Shumway, and their children Hansi, Howard, and Poup(C)e, Crowley described the scenario as "perfectly happy... my idea of heaven." 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. Undertaking widespread correspondences, Crowley continued to paint, authored a commentary on The Book of the Law, and revised the third part of Book 4. He offered a libertine education for the children, allowing them to play all day and witness acts of sex magic. He occasionally travelled to Palermo to visit rent boys and purchase supplies, including drugs; his heroin addiction came to dominate his life, while cocaine began to erode his nasal cavity. There was no cleaning rota, and wild dogs and cats wandered throughout the building, which soon became unsanitary. Poup(C)e died in October 1920, although Ninette gave birth to a daughter, Astarte Lulu Panthea, soon afterword.

New followers continued to arrive at the Abbey to be taught be 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. Another was Cecil Frederick Russell, however he often argued with Crowley, disliking the same-sex sexual magic that he was required to perform, and left after a year. More conducive was the Australian Thelemite Frank Bennett, who also spent several months at the Abbey. In February 1922, Crowley returned to Paris for a retreat in an unsuccessful attempt to kick his heroin addiction. He then proceeded to London in search of money, where he published articles in The English Review criticising the Dangerous Drugs Act 1920 and authored 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 prevented further reprints.

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 claimed 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". Raoul also drank from a local polluted stream, soon developing a liver infection resulting in his death on February 1923. May then returned to London, where she told her story to the press.John Bull proceeded to proclaim Crowley "the wickedest man in the world" and "a man we'd like to hang", making various slanderous accusations against Crowley, although he was unable to afford the legal fees to sue them. As a result, John Bull continued its attack, with the stories also being picked up by newspapers in North America and throughout Europe. 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.

Later life[edit]Tunisia, Paris, and London: 1923''1929[edit]Crowley and Hirsig proceeded to Tunis, Tunisia, where his poor health continued and he unsuccessfully tried to kick his heroin addiction. He began writing what he termed his "autohagiography", The Confessions of Aleister Crowley. They were joined in Tunis by the Thelemite Norman Mudd, who became Crowley's public relations consultant. 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. In January 1924, Crowley traveled to Nice, France, where he met with Frank Harris, underwent a series of nasal operations, and visited the Institute for the Harmonious Development of Man, thinking positively of its founder, George Gurdjieff. Destitute, he took on a wealthy student, Alexander Zu Zolar, before taking on another American follower, Dorothy Olsen. Crowley took Olsen back to Tunisia for a magical retreat in Nefta, where he also authored To Man. After spending the winter in Paris, in Spring 1925 Crowley and Olsen returned to Tunis, where he authored The Heart of the Master. In March Olsen became pregnant, and Hirsig was called to take care her of her; however, she miscarried, following which Crowley took Olsen back to France. Hirsig subsequently distances herself off from Crowley, who later denounced her.

According to Crowley, Reuss had named him head of the OTO upon his death, but this was challenged by leader of the OTO in Germany, Heinrich Tr¤nker. Tr¤nker called the Hohenleuben Conference in Thuringia, Germany, at which Crowley attended. There, prominent members like Karl Germer and Martha K¼ntzel championed Crowley's leadership, but others opposed it, resulting in a split in the OTO. Moving to Paris, where he broke with Olsen in 1926, Crowley proceeded through a large number of Scarlet Women over the following years, with whom he experimented in sex magic. Throughout, he was dogged by poor health, largely caused by his heroin and cocaine addictions. In 1928, Crowley was introduced to young Englishman Israel Regardie, who embraced Thelema and became Crowley's secretary for the next three years. That year, Crowley also met Gerald Yorke, who began organising Crowley's finances, although never became a Thelemite. He also befriended Thomas Driberg, although again Driberg did not accept Thelema. It was here that Crowley also published one of his most significant works, Magick in Theory and Practice, although it received little attention at the time.

In December 1929 Crowley met the Nicaraguan Maria Teresa Sanchez, who became his most significant Scarlet Woman of the period. Crowley was subsequently deported from France by the authorities, who disliked his reputation and feared that he was a German agent. So that she could join him in Britain, Crowley married Sanchez in August 1929. 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. However, Mandrake went into liquidation in November 1930, before the entirety of Crowley's Confessions could be published. Mandrake's owner P.R. Stephenson meanwhile authored The Legend of Aleister Crowley, an analysis of the media coverage surrounding him.

Berlin and London: 1930''1938[edit]In February 1930, Crowley was banned from lecturing on Gilles de Rais at the Poetry Society in London which he said was due to accusations he had killed Raoul Loveday and 'eaten children'.[179] In April 1930, Crowley moved to Berlin, where he took Hanni Jaegar as his new Scarlet Woman, although the relationship would be troubled. In September he proceeded to Lisbon in Portugal in order 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. 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, and although few of them sold, the press reports were largely favourable. In August 1931, he took Bertha Busch as his new lover, although they had a violent relationship, and often physically assaulted one another. He continued to have affairs with both men and women while in the city, and met with famous individuals like Aldous Huxley and Alfred Adler. 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; he was potentially a spy at this time.

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.[187]Crowley left Busch and returned to London. 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. Here, he took Pearl Brooksmith as his new Scarlet Woman. In need of money, he launched a series of court cases against people whom he believed had libeled him, some of which proved successful. However, he then launched a law suit against Constable and Co for publishing Nina Hamnett's Laughing Torso (1932), which he claimed was libelous against himself. In doing so, he gained much publicity, but lost the case, and a further appeal was also denied.[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.

Crowley developed a platonic friendship with Deidre Patricia O'Doherty, although she agree to bear his child, who was born in May 1937. Named Randall Gair, Crowley would nickname him Aleister Ataturk. Crowley continued to socialise with friends, holding curry parties in which he would cook particularly spicy food for them. In 1936, he also 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. In 1937 he gave a series of public lectures on yoga in Soho. With the A'´A'´ effectively defunct, Crowley was now living largely off contributions supplied by the O.T.O.'s Agape Lodge in California. He was intrigued by the rise of Nazism in Germany, hoping that Adolf Hitler would convert to Thelema; this was influenced by his friend Kn¼sel, who was a Nazi sympathiser. Nevertheless, the Nazis closed the German O.T.O., and imprisoned Germer, who subsequently fled to the U.S., with Crowley later labeling Hitler a black magician.

Second World War and death: 1939''1947[edit]When the Second World War broke out, Crowley wrote to the Naval Intelligence Division offering his services in the war effort. Although they declined, in a private capacity he aided Britain's propaganda effort. At the time, he was acquainted with a variety of figures in Britain's intelligence community, including Dennis Wheatley, Ian Fleming, and Maxwell Knight. He claimed to have been behind the "V for Victory" sign first used by the BBC, although this has never been conclusively proven. In 1940, his asthma worsened, and with his German-produced asthma medication unavailable, he returned to using heroin, once again becoming addicted. As the Blitz hit London, Crowley decided to move away from the capital, relocating to Torquay. There, he remained very ill with asthma, and was for a time hospitalised, although when possible frequented the local chess club. He eventually returned to London, where he was visited by Grady McMurty; Crowley awarded him the title of "Hymenaeus Alpha." He would appoint Germer his chosen successor as head of the O.T.O. upon his death, although stipulated his desire that McMurty would then succeed Germer.

With one of his O.T.O. initiates, Frieda Harris, Crowley developed plans to produce a tarot card deck, designed by him and painted by Harris. Accompanying this tarot set was a book, published as The Book of Thoth in a limited edition in 1944 by Chiswick Press. To aid the war effort, he authored a proclamation on the rights of humanity, Liber Oz, and a poem for the liberation of France, Le Gauloise. Crowley's final publication during his lifetime would be a book of poetry, Olla: An Anthology of Sixty Years of Song. Another of his projects was Aleister Explains Everything, which would be posthumously published as Magick Without Tears.

In April 1944, Crowley briefly moved to Aston Clinton in Buckinghamshire, where he was visited by the poet Nancy Cunard, before relocating to Hastings in Sussex, where he took up residence at the Netherwood boarding house. He took a young man named Kenneth Grant as his secretary, paying him in magical teaching rather than wages. He was also introduced to John Symonds, whom he appointed to be his literary executor; Symonds thought little of Crowley however, later publishing negative biographies of the man. 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. Another visitor was Eliza Marian Butler, who interviewed Crowley for her book The Myth of the Magus. Other friends and family also visited him, among them Doherty and his son Aleister Ataturk.

Aged 72, Crowley died at Netherwood on 1 December 1947 of chronic bronchitis aggravated by pleurisy and myocardiac degeneration. It was reported that he left £18 in his will.[220] Crowley's funeral was held at a crematorium in Brighton 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 falsely labelled a Black Mass by the tabloids. Crowley's ashes were then sent to Germer in the U.S., who buried them in his garden in Hampton, New Jersey.

Beliefs[edit]Philosopher John Moore opined that Crowley's thought was rooted in Romanticism and the Decadent movement, with historian Alex Owen noting that Crowley adhered to the "modus operandi" of the decadent movement throughout his life.

Crowley would tell 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." Crowley saw Magick as a third way between religion and magic.

Spiritual and recreational use of drugs[edit]Crowley was a habitual drug user and also maintained a meticulous record of his drug-induced experiences with opium, cocaine, cannabis, alcohol, ether, mescaline, morphine, and heroin.[226]Allan Bennett, Crowley's mentor, was said to have "instructed Crowley in the magical use of drugs".[227]

In October 1930, Crowley dined with Aldous Huxley in Berlin, and to this day rumours persist that he introduced Huxley to peyote on that occasion.[228]

Crowley developed a drug addiction after a London doctor prescribed heroin for his asthma and bronchitis.[229] His life as an addict influenced his 1922 novel, Diary of a Drug Fiend, but the fiction presented a hopeful outcome of rehabilitation and recovery by means of magical techniques and the exercise of True Will. He overcame his addiction to heroin during this period (chronicled in Liber XVIII '' The Fountain of Hyacinth) but began taking it once more late in his life, again on doctor's prescription for his respiratory difficulties.[230]

In the days following Crowley's death in 1947 it was reported that his Doctor, William Brown Thomson, who had prescribed him 'morphia tablets', had himself died less than 24 hours after his patient.[231]

Personal life[edit]Crowley biographer Martin Booth asserted that in his youth, Crowley was "self-confident, brash, eccentric, egotistic, highly intelligent, arrogant, witty, wealthy, and, when it suited him, cruel." Similarly, Richard Spence noted that Crowley was "capable of immense physical and emotional cruelty". Biographer Lawrence Sutin noted that Crowley exhibited "courage, skill, dauntless energy, and remarkable focus of will" while at the same time showing his "blind arrogance, petty fits of bile, [and] contempt for the abilities of his fellow men". Crowley enjoyed being outrageous and flaunting conventional morality, with John Symonds noting that he "was in revolt against the moral and religious values of his time". He was a Social Darwinist and "amateur eugenicist", although he opposed abortion on moral grounds. Crowley also saw himself as an aristocrat, describing himself as Lord Boleskine, although had contempt for most of the British aristocracy.

Crowley was bisexual, although he exhibited a sexual preference for women. In particular he had an attraction toward "exotic women", and claimed to have fallen in love on multiple occasions; Kaczynski stated that "when he loved, he did so with his whole being, but the passion was typically short-lived." Even in later life, he was able to attract young bohemian women to be his lovers, largely due to his charisma. During same-sex anal intercourse, he usually played the passive role, which Booth believed "appealed to his masochistic side." Crowley argued that gay and bisexual people should not suppress their sexual orientation, commenting that individuals "must not be ashamed or afraid of being homosexual if he happens to be so at heart; he must not attempt to violate his own true nature because of public opinion, or medieval morality, or religious prejudice which would wish he were otherwise."

Racism and sexism[edit]Biographer Lawrence Sutin stated that "blatant bigotry is a persistent minor element in Crowley's writings". Sutin thought Crowley "a spoiled scion of a wealthy Victorian family who embodied many of the worst John Bull racial and social prejudices of his upper-class contemporaries", noting that he "embodied the contradiction that writhed within many Western intellectuals of the time: deeply held racist viewpoints courtesy of their culture, coupled with a fascination with people of colour". He insulted his close Jewish friend Victor Neuburg using anti-Semitic slurs, although had mixed feelings to Jews as a group. Although praising their "sublime" poetry and claiming that the "Jewish race" contained "imagination, romance, loyalty, probity and humanity in an exceptional degree", he thought that centuries of persecution had led Jews to exhibit "avarice, servility, falseness, cunning and the rest". He was also known to praise various ethnic and cultural groups, for instance claiming that the Chinese people exhibited a "spiritual superiority" to the English, and praising Muslims for exhibiting "manliness, straightforwardness, subtlety, and self-respect."

Crowley also exhibited a "general misogyny" that Booth believed arose from his bad relationship with his mother. Sutin noted that Crowley "largely accepted the notion, implicitly embodied in Victorian sexology, of women as secondary social beings in terms of intellect and sensibility". Crowley himself described women as "moral inferiors" who had to be treated with "firmness, kindness and justice." Conversely, Crowley himself wrote that "We of Thelema say that 'Every man and every woman is a star.' We do not fool and flatter women, we do not despise and abuse them. To us, a woman is herself, absolute, original, independent, free, self-justified, exactly as a man is."[256]

Bibliography[edit]Legacy and influence[edit]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. Academic Wouter Hanegraaff asserted that Crowley was an extreme representation of "the dark side of the occult", while 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 Madame Blavatsky. Moore also thought that Crowley acted as a "living embodiment" to Oswald Spengler's "Faustian Man". Biographer Tobias Churton considered Crowley "a pioneer of consciousness research", while Sutin thought that he had made "distinctly original contributions" to the study of yoga in the West.

In popular culture[edit]In fiction[edit]Fictionalised accounts of Crowley or characters based upon him have been included in a number of literary works, published both during his life and after. The writer W. Somerset Maugham used him as the model for the character in his novel The Magician, published in 1908.[262] Crowley was flattered by Maugham's fictionalised depiction of himself, stating that "he had done more than justice to the qualities of which I was proud... The Magician was, in fact, an appreciation of my genius such as I had never dreamed of inspiring."[263] Other works including characters based on or inspired by Crowley include: "Dance To The Music of Time" by Anthony Powell, "Black Easter" by James Blish, and "The Winged Bull" by Dion Fortune.

In comics and games[edit]The acclaimed comic book author Alan Moore, himself a practitioner of ceremonial magic, has also included Crowley in several of his works. In Moore's From Hell, he appears in a cameo as a young boy declaring that magic is real, while in the series Promethea he appears several times existing in a realm of the imagination called the Immateria. V for Vendetta makes reference to "Do what thou wilt..." on more than one occasion in the comic series. Moore has also discussed Crowley's associations with the Highbury area of London in his recorded magical working, The Highbury Working.[264] Other comic book writers have also made use of him, with Pat Mills and Olivier Ledroit portraying him as a reincarnated vampire in their series Requiem Chevalier Vampire. Crowley also is referenced in the Batman comic Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth, by Grant Morrison, where the character Amadeus Arkham meets with him, discuss the symbolism of Egyptian tarot, and they play chess. He has also appeared in Japanese media, such as D.Gray-Man and Toaru Majutsu no Index, as well as the hentai series Bible Black, where he has a fictional daughter named Jody Crowley who continues her father's search for the Scarlet Woman. Occult scholar Hiroshi Aramata, author of the groundbreaking historical fantasy novel Teito Monogatari, has described the protagonist of his work as a person "closely resembling" Aleister Crowley.[265] He is also depicted in the Original PlayStation game Nightmare Creatures as a powerful demonic resurrection of himself.[266]

In music[edit]Crowley has been an influence for a string of popular musicians throughout the 20th century. The Beatles included him as one of the many figures on the cover sleeve of their 1967 album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, where he is situated between Sri Yukteswar Giri and Mae West. A more intent interest in Crowley was held by Jimmy Page, the guitarist and co-founder of 1970s rock band Led Zeppelin. Despite not describing himself as a Thelemite, Page was still fascinated by Crowley, and owned some of his clothing, manuscripts and ritual objects, and during the 1970s bought Boleskine House, which also appears in the band's movie The Song Remains the Same.

On the back cover of the Doors 13 album, Jim Morrison and the other members of the Doors are shown posing with a bust of Aleister Crowley. Author Paulo Coelho introduced the writings of Aleister Crowley to Brazilian rocker Raul Seixas, who went on to write and perform songs (most notably, "Viva a Sociedade Alternativa" and "Novo Aeon") that were strongly influenced by Crowley.[267] The later rock musician Ozzy Osbourne released a song titled "Mr. Crowley" on his solo album Blizzard of Ozz, while a comparison of Crowley and Osbourne in the context of their media portrayals can be found in the Journal of Religion and Popular Culture.[268] Crowley has also been a favourite of Swiss Avant-Garde metal band Celtic Frost. In fact, the song Os Abysmi Vel Daath from Monotheist is based partially on some of his writings. In the early 1990s, British Indie band Five Thirty carried with them on tour a front door which they alleged had belonged to Crowley. The door was placed prominently on stage during their gigs.[269]

In cinema[edit]Crowley was also a major influence and inspiration to the work on the radical avant garde underground film-maker Kenneth Anger, especially his Magick Lantern Cycle series of works. One of Anger's works is a film of Crowley's paintings.[270]

References[edit][edit]^Churton 2011. p. 3.^Crowley 1983. p. 32.^"LECTURER ON BLUEBEARD BANNED.". The Register News-Pictorial (Adelaide, SA : 1929 - 1931) (Adelaide, SA: National Library of Australia). 6 February 1930. p. 4. Retrieved 29 September 2013. ^The United Press (13 April 1934). "Confessed Genius Loses Weird Suit". The Pittsburgh Press. Retrieved 18 March 2013. ^""BLACK MAGIC".". Examiner (Launceston, Tas. : 1900 - 1954) (Launceston, Tas.: National Library of Australia). 29 December 1934. p. 10 Edition: DAILY. Retrieved 29 September 2013. ^"Raised Devils Lost £29.982.". Barrier Miner (Broken Hill, NSW : 1888 - 1954) (Broken Hill, NSW: National Library of Australia). 4 March 1949. p. 5. Retrieved 29 September 2013. ^"The Confessions of Aleister Crowley: An Autohagiography" by Aleister Crowley (Arkana Publishing, 1989); "Do What Thou Wilt: A Life of Aleister Crowley" by Lawrence Sutin. (St. Martin's Press, 2000); "The Magical Diaries of Aleister Crowley" edited by Stephen Skinner (Weiser, 2003)^Owen, Alex (14 April 2004). "Aleister Crowley in the Desert". The Place of Enchantment: British Occultism and the Culture of the Modern (Hardcover ed.). University of Chicago Press. p. 192. ISBN 978-0-226-64201-7. ^Cornelius, 2001.^"Do What Thou Wilt: A Life of Aleister Crowley" by Lawrence Sutin. (St. Martin's Press, 2000) ch. 7, p. 277^"Do What Thou Wilt: A Life of Aleister Crowley" by Lawrence Sutin. (St. Martin's Press, 2000) p. 416^"Claimed To Be "Invisible Man".". The Courier-Mail (Brisbane, Qld. : 1933 - 1954) (Brisbane, Qld.: National Library of Australia). 5 December 1947. p. 1. Retrieved 29 September 2013. ^Crowley, Aleister (1996-12). The Law Is for All: The Authorized Popular Commentary of Liber Al Vel Legis sub figura CCXX, the Book of the Law. Louis Wilkinson (ed.). Thelema Media. ISBN 0972658386. ^Curtis, Anthony; Whitehead, John (1987). W. Somerset Maugham: the critical heritage. Routledge. p. 44. ISBN 978-0-7100-9640-1. "... in Paris in 1905... At that time he got to know Aleister Crowley,..." ^Symonds 1997. p. 132.^Doyle-White 2009^Hiroshi Aramata, Birds of the World: as painted by 19th century artists (Crown Publishers 1989), p. 11, ISBN 0-517-57374-1^Morehead, John W. (3 August 2010). "Video games: Zombies Ate My Neighbours, and Nightmare Creatures". Theofantastique: a meeting place for myth, imagination and mystery in pop culture. Wordpress. Retrieved 15 November 2010. ^Essinger, Silvio. "A reden§£o do mago e ocultista Aleister Crowley". O Globo 4 January 2012. [1]^Christopher M. Moreman, "Devil Music and the Great Beast: Ozzy Osbourne, Aleister Crowley, and the Christian Right", Journal of Religion and Popular Culture 5 (2003), University of Saskatchewan^Gary Crowley (1991). "Band Explosion". http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IIwqNlycTfk. Retrieved 19 June 2011.^Pilkington, Mark (15 May 2007). "Kenneth Anger: celluloid sorcery and psychedelic Satanism". Bizarre Magazine. Archived from the original on 5 December 2010. Retrieved 15 November 2010. Bibliography[edit]Bogdan, Henrik; Starr, Martin P. (2012). "Introduction". In Bogdan, Henrik; Starr, Martin P. Aleister Crowley and Western Esotericism. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 3''14. ISBN 978-0-19-986309-9. Booth, Martin (2000). A Magick Life: The Biography of Aleister Crowley. London: Coronet Books. ISBN 978-0-340-71806-3. Churton, Tobias (2011). Aleister Crowley: The Biography. London: Watkins Books. ISBN 978-1-78028-012-7. Crowley, Aleister (1983). The Holy Books of Thelema. York Beach, Maine: Samuel Weiser Inc. ISBN 978-0-87728-686-8. Crowley, Aleister (1989). The Confessions of Aleister Crowley: An Autohagiography. London: Arkana. ISBN 978-0-14-019189-9. Hanegraaff, Wouter J. (2012). "Foreword". In Bogdan, Henrik; Starr, Martin P. Aleister Crowley and Western Esotericism. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press. pp. vii''x. ISBN 978-0-19-986309-9. Kaczynski, Richard (2010). Perdurabo: The Life of Aleister Crowley (second edition). Berkeley, California: North Atlantic Books. ISBN 978-0-312-25243-4. Moreman, Christopher M. (2003). "Devil Music and the Great Beast: Ozzy Osbourne, Aleister Crowley, and the Christian Right". The Journal of Religion and Popular Culture3 (1). Morgan, Mogg (2012). "The Heart of Thelema: Morality, Amorality, and Immorality in Aleister Crowley's Thelemic Cult". The Pomegranate: The International Journal of Pagan Studies13 (1) (London: Equinox). Moore, John (2009). Aleister Crowley: A Modern Master. Oxford: Mandrake. ISBN 978-1-906958-02-2. Owen, Alex (2012). "The Sorcerer and His Apprentice: Aleister Crowley and the Magical Exploration of Edwardian Subjectivity". In Bogdan, Henrik; Starr, Martin P. Aleister Crowley and Western Esotericism. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 15''52. ISBN 978-0-19-986309-9. Spence, Richard B. (2008). Secret Agent 666: Aleister Crowley, British Intelligence and the Occult. Port Townsend, WA: Feral House. ISBN 978-1-932595-33-8. Sutin, Lawrence (2000). Do What Thou Wilt: A Life of Aleister Crowley. New York: St Martin's Press. ISBN 978-0-312-25243-4. Symonds, John (1997). The Beast 666: The Life of Aleister Crowley. London: Pindar Press. ISBN 978-1-899828-21-0. Tully, Caroline (2010). "Walk Like an Egyptian: Egypt as Authority in Aleister Crowley's Reception of The Book of the Law". The Pomegranate: The International Journal of Pagan Studies12 (1) (London: Equinox). External links[edit]Folk magicCeremonial magicEarly ModernwitchcraftNeopaganwitchcraftPersondataNameCrowley, AleisterAlternative namesCrowley, Edward Alexander (birth); Perdurabo (motto); Therion, Master (pen)Short descriptionpoet, mountaineer, occultistDate of birth(1875-10-12)12 October 1875Place of birthClarendon Square, Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, EnglandDate of death1 December 1947(1947-12-01)Place of deathNetherwood, Hastings, East Sussex, England