A short life of the author
Aleister Crowley (12 October 1875 – 1 December 1947), born Edward Alexander Crowley, was an English occultist, ceremonial magician, poet, mountaineer, chess player, painter, and self-proclaimed prophet who founded the religious philosophy of Thelema, whose voluminous writings on magick (his preferred spelling), mysticism, yoga, and the occult made him the most influential figure in Western esotericism of the twentieth century, and whose scandalous personal life — involving drug use, bisexuality, and deliberately cultivated outrage — earned him the tabloid sobriquet “the wickedest man in the world.”
Life
Crowley was born in Royal Leamington Spa to a wealthy Plymouth Brethren family. His father, a brewer, died when Crowley was eleven, and the boy rebelled violently against his Puritan upbringing. He attended Trinity College, Cambridge, where he published poetry, climbed mountains, and studied occultism. He joined the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn in 1898 — the most important occult society in Victorian Britain, whose members included W. B. Yeats — and quickly rose through its grades before quarrelling with its leadership and leaving.
In 1904, during a honeymoon trip to Cairo, Crowley claimed to have received a communication from a supernatural entity named Aiwass, which he transcribed as The Book of the Law — the founding text of Thelema. The book’s central commandment — “Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law” — became the basis of Crowley’s religious system.
He spent the following decades travelling, writing, practising magick, founding and running occult orders (the A∴A∴ and the Ordo Templi Orientis), and scandalising the British press. He established an “Abbey of Thelema” in Cefalù, Sicily, in 1920, which was shut down by Mussolini in 1923 following a series of scandals. His later years were spent in poverty, heroin addiction, and declining health. He died in a boarding house in Hastings.
The Writings
Crowley was extraordinarily prolific. His most important works include:
The Book of the Law (Liber AL vel Legis, 1904) — the central text of Thelema, claimed to have been dictated by the entity Aiwass over three days in Cairo. It is a short, cryptic, and often violent text that proclaims a new aeon of individual will and spiritual freedom.
Magick in Theory and Practice (1929) — the most systematic exposition of Crowley’s magical system. “Part III” of a larger work called Book Four, it describes the theory and practice of ceremonial magic with a precision and intellectual rigour that distinguishes it from most occult literature.
The Equinox (1909–1913, revived periodically) — Crowley’s periodical, subtitled “The Review of Scientific Illuminism,” which published rituals, essays, poetry, and Golden Dawn material that the Golden Dawn’s leaders had wanted kept secret. It is a primary source for the study of Western esotericism.
The Book of Lies (1913) — ninety-one short chapters of paradox, poetry, and mystical commentary, written in a style that combines genuine insight with deliberate obscurantism.
The Confessions of Aleister Crowley (published 1969, written 1929) — his vast, self-aggrandising autobiography, which is unreliable as fact but invaluable as a document of personality.
Mountaineering
Crowley was a serious mountaineer. He participated in the 1902 expedition to K2 (one of the earliest attempts on the mountain) and the 1905 expedition to Kangchenjunga. His mountaineering career was cut short by a tragedy on Kangchenjunga when several team members died in an avalanche, for which Crowley was widely (and probably unfairly) blamed.
Influence
Crowley’s influence on subsequent culture has been enormous, extending far beyond the occult community. He appears on the cover of the Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. He influenced Led Zeppelin’s Jimmy Page (who bought Crowley’s former house, Boleskine, on the shores of Loch Ness), the filmmaker Kenneth Anger, and virtually every subsequent Western occultist. His Thoth Tarot deck (painted by Lady Frieda Harris, 1938–1943) remains one of the most popular and artistically accomplished tarot decks.
Collecting Crowley
Crowley’s publications are among the most avidly collected items in the occult book market. Magick in Theory and Practice (1929, Lecram Press, Paris, limited to 100 copies) brings $5,000–$20,000. The Equinox (complete original run, 1909–1913) brings $3,000–$10,000. The Book of Lies (1913, Wieland & Co.) brings $1,000–$5,000. Even minor pamphlets and ephemera command significant prices.