Crowley, Aleister
(1875-1947), occultist.

A prolific poet, essayist, artist, mountaineer, world traveler, and bon vivant, Aleister Crowley—born Edward Alexander Crowley—was the most influential occultist of the twentieth century. Echoes of his work on magical theory and practice are ubiquitous throughout modern paganism. Since 1923, when a newspaper article branded him "the wickedest man in the world," Crowley—who variously styled himself "Baphomet," "the Beast 666," and "To Mega Therion" (the Great Beast)—has served as a public icon of transgressive power, celebrated by counterculturalists, and maligned by conservatives.

Crowley's parents were wealthy and devoted members of the Plymouth Brethren (Exclusive), an independent evangelical sect noted for its biblical literalism, strict moralism, and millennialism. His father's death in 1887 left Crowley financially independent. After his last term at Trinity College, Cambridge, he was inducted in 1898 into the Order of the Golden Dawn, a society devoted to hermetic lore whose members included W. B. Yeats and Florence Farr. A series of schisms fragmented the order after 1900, and Crowley redirected his energies to learning a form of Yoga meditation. Combining Western esotericism and Egyptian cosmology with Eastern technologies of transcendence, Crowley developed his own religious system of "scientific illuminism," which he called Thelema, a transliteration of the Greek term for "will."

The scriptural heart of Thelema is The Book of the Law (also cited as Liber AL), a prophetic text dictated to Crowley in 1904 by what he believed to be "a praeterhuman intelligence." At its most basic level, Thelema may be understood as a method of self-understanding and self-actualization. Its aim is to help the practitioner discover his or her purpose in life, or True Will, and empower him or her to take the necessary steps to accomplish it. The Thelemic motto, "Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law," is not an antinomian creed but rather an injunction to know oneself. The processes through which one realizes one's True Will may include textual study, meditation, divination, and ritual practice. These techniques are grouped under the larger rubric of Magick, which Crowley defined as "the Science and Art of causing Change to occur in conformity with Will." The process of attaining spiritual perfection—"the union of the individual as a microcosm with the divine macrocosm"—is termed the Great Work.

The advanced operations of Magick involve sexual acts consecrated to a higher (though not necessarily nobler) purpose. Crowley was evasive in his public writings on these matters. A notorious chapter in his most popular text, Magick in Theory and Practice (1929–1930), appears to advocate the ritual sacrifice of "a male child of perfect innocence and high intelligence," but this is an allusion to the expenditure of semen. Thelema's ethical code demands that one respect the rights of others—in the words of Liber AL, "every man and every woman is a star."

Crowley propagated Thelema through two organizations, the A∴ A∴, which he founded in 1907–1908; and the Ordo Templi Orientis (O.T.O.), a Masonic offshoot that he joined in 1912 and led after 1923. A fixture of the international bohemian subculture that flourished before World War II, Crowley led a commune in Cefalú, Sicily, between 1920 and 1923. After his death, the O.T.O. languished for several decades until it was revitalized in the 1970s by Grady McMurtry. In addition to the A∴ A∴ and the O.T.O., there exist a number of other organizations in the United States and abroad devoted in greater or lesser degree to Crowley's work. However, Crowley's readership—and his cultural influence—extend far beyond the limited membership of these institutions.

See alsoMagic; Neopaganism; Occult, The; Paranormal; Psychic; Transcendence.

Bibliography

Crowley, Aleister. The Confessions of Aleister Crowley: AnAutohaigiography, edited by John Symonds and Kenneth Grant. 1970.

Crowley, Aleister. The Law Is for All: The Authorized Popular Commentary to Liber Al Vel Legis Sub Figura CCXX,the Book of the Law, edited by Louis Umfreville Wilkinson and Hymenaeus Beta. 1996.

Crowley, Aleister. Magick: Liber ABA, Book 4, Parts 1 to 4, 2nd rev. ed., edited by Hymenaeus Beta. 1997.

Crowley, Aleister, Mary Desti, and Leila Waddell, eds. The Equinox: The Official Organ of the A∴ A∴: TheReview of Scientific Illuminism, 10 issues. 1909–1913, 1998.

Symonds, John. The Beast 666: The Life of Aleister Crowley. 1997.

Bradford Verter