The Wickedest Man

The two travelled to Egypt, and it was here that Crowley found religion. Then Crowley himself began to hear voices, specifically that of an entity called Aiwass which claimed to come from the Egyptian god Horus. Under this influence Crowley wrote The Book of the Law, the holy text of the new religion he would found. At first, however, he ignored the book which ordered him to, among other things, steal the Egyptian stele that had prompted his revelation. Instead he had a daughter with Rose who would die of typhoid while he was off travelling , went mountaineering in Nepal once again and, in an amusing incident, was hired by the Earl of Tankerville to protect him against witchcraft.

The rivalry turned into an alliance when he convinced them that the similarities were due to similar insights rather than theft, and the two became allies, with Crowley becoming the head of OTO in Britain and, after the outbreak of World War I led him to move to America, the USA. It was fortunate for him that he had managed to gain such a position, as around this time the money he had inherited from his father ran out, leaving him with no income other than donations to the OTO. Crowley spent the next fifteen years travelling around Europe in infamy, a common piece of fodder for the tabloids and the occasional source of scandal.

He suffered financial problems, and did attempt to sue some of those who had written about him for libel. Some of these cases he won, others he lost, and in he was declared bankrupt.

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At the outbreak of World War 2 he offered his services to Naval Intelligence but was declined. Nonetheless, he was acquainted with many literary intelligence officers such as Ian Fleming and Dennis Wheatley. Free of the inconvenience of being attached to his ailing elderly body, his legend continued to grow apace. The counterculture of the 60s and 70s embraced him, as a symbol of rebellion and of hidden wisdom. However the band most famously influenced by him were Led Zeppelin, who quoted his writings on their album covers.

He was, by the standards of his day, a criminal and a menace to society. His writings give the impression of someone incredibly impressed with their own cleverness, and he was frequently controversial simply for the sake of being controversial. In short, he was a bit of a tosser. He became more than a man — he became a symbol of Magic itself. What magician could ask for anything more?

Darcy type as one could be. Under his polished, collegian exterior lay a deeply tumultuous man, harboring secret plans of magical, spiritual domination, maintaining borderline-sadistic sexual relationships prostitutes of both sexes, delving ever deeper into the world of the occult.

Once his time at school was over, Crowley briefly considered a career in diplomatic relations. However, after being accused of treason during a trip to Russia, he reverted to writing literature. Wikimedia Commons Crowley during his K-2 expedition. In , Crowley met a chemist named Julian L. Baker, a member of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, which he subsequently joined. The order was devoted to studying paranormal activity and all matters of the occult, and eventually, Crowley hired a senior member of the group to be his live-in personal tutor on the subject. Together, Crowley and his tutor experimented with ceremonial magic and the ritualistic use of drugs.

Independently, Crowley continued to experiment with his bisexuality and sex with prostitutes. However, while the lifestyle for him was eye-opening and spiritual, the higher level members of the Golden Dawn considered it too libertine and refused to allow him entry into the upper levels. Having had enough of Europe after his stint with the Golden Dawn, Aleister Crowley traveled to Mexico, bringing to life his past dreams of mountain climbing, and joining the Freemasons.

In India, Crowley began practicing raja yoga, a Hindu meditation tradition and accompanied mountaineers in the first ever attempt to climb K-2 in In November of , Crowley traveled back to Europe, settling in Paris for the time being and immersing himself in the art world. Again, his lifestyle painted quite a different picture than the one he was truly living, as he surrounded himself with famed artists like painter Gerald Kelly and sculptor Auguste Rodin. To the surprise of many, Paris was where Aleister Crowley fell in love. Gerald Kelly introduced Crowley to his sister, Rose, during a meeting, after which the two married.

However, before long, the two fell in love for real. Crowley even set aside his profane, dark writings, and penned his wife several love poems. Her alcoholism worsened, and as a result she was institutionalised in September During the trip he invoked the thirty aethyrs 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.

The case was widely reported in the press, with Crowley gaining wider fame. Various members of the press attended, and reported largely positively on it. In October and November , Crowley decided to stage something similar, the Rites of Eleusis , at Caxton Hall , Westminster ; this time press reviews were mixed. In early , 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". Crowley convinced Reuss that the similarities were coincidental, and the two became friends.

Reuss appointed Crowley as head of the O. Fascinated by the O.

Aleister Crowley: The Wickedest Man in the World | Documentary Heaven

O's emphasis on sex magic , Crowley devised a magical working based on anal sex and incorporated it into the syllabus for those O. They subsequently performed in Moscow for six weeks, where Crowley had a sadomasochistic relationship with the Hungarian Anny Ringler. As part of the ritual, the couple performed acts of sex magic together, at times being joined by journalist Walter Duranty. During this time the First World War broke out. Professing to be of Irish ancestry and a supporter of Irish independence from Great Britain, Crowley began to espouse support for Germany in their war against Britain.

He became involved in New York's pro-German movement, and in January German spy George Sylvester Viereck employed him as a writer for his propagandist paper, The Fatherland , which was dedicated to keeping the US neutral in the conflict. In Vancouver , headquarters of the North American O.

There, he made heavy use of drugs and undertook a ritual after which he proclaimed himself "Master Therion". He also wrote several short stories based on J. Crowley used it to promote Thelema, but it soon ceased publication. Through their rituals, which Crowley called "The Amalantrah Workings", he believed that they were contacted by a preternatural entity named Lam.

The relationship soon ended. Now destitute and back in London, Crowley came under attack from the tabloid John Bull , which labelled him traitorous "scum" for his work with the German war effort; several friends aware of his intelligence work urged him to sue, but he decided not to. New followers continued to arrive at the Abbey to be taught by Crowley.

On publication, it received mixed reviews; he was lambasted by the Sunday Express , which called for its burning and used its influence to prevent 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 said 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". Loveday drank from a local polluted stream, soon developing a liver infection resulting in his death in February Returning to London, May told her story to the press.

As a result, John Bull continued its attack, with its stories being repeated in newspapers throughout Europe and in North America. Crowley and Hirsig went to Tunis , where, dogged by continuing poor health, he unsuccessfully tried again to give up heroin, [] and began writing what he termed his " autohagiography ", The Confessions of Aleister Crowley. Crowley took Olsen back to Tunisia for a magical retreat in Nefta, where he also wrote To Man , a declaration of his own status as a prophet entrusted with bringing Thelema to humanity.

Hirsig later distanced herself from Crowley, who then denounced her.

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According to Crowley, Reuss had named him head of the O. Mandrake went into liquidation in November , before the entirety of Crowley's Confessions could be published. Stephenson meanwhile wrote The Legend of Aleister Crowley , an analysis of the media coverage surrounding him.

In April , Crowley moved to Berlin , where he took Hanni Jaegar as his magical partner; the relationship was troubled.

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There, he decided to fake his own death, doing so with Pessoa's help at the Boca do Inferno rock formation. Crowley's paintings fitted with the fashion for German Expressionism ; few of them sold, but the press reports were largely favourable. Justice Swift, in Crowley's libel case. He gained much publicity for his lawsuit against Constable and Co for publishing Nina Hamnett 's Laughing Torso — a book he thought libelled him — but lost the case. During the hearing, it was revealed that Crowley had been spending three times his income for several years.

Crowley developed a friendship with Deidre Patricia Doherty ; she offered to bear his child, who was born in May The work sold well, resulting in a second print run. He associated with a variety of figures in Britain's intelligence community at the time, including Dennis Wheatley , Roald Dahl , Ian Fleming , and Maxwell Knight , [] and claimed to have been behind the " V for Victory " sign first used by the BBC ; this has never been proven. Accompanying this was a book, published in a limited edition as The Book of Thoth by Chiswick Press in An Anthology of Sixty Years of Song.

In April 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. They became friends, with Crowley authorising Gardner to revive Britain's ailing O. The funeral generated press controversy, and was labelled a Black Mass by the tabloids. Crowley's belief system, Thelema, has been described by scholars as a religion, [] and more specifically as both a new religious movement , [] and as a "magico-religious doctrine".

In his autobiography, Crowley claimed that his purpose in life had been to "bring oriental wisdom to Europe and to restore paganism in a purer form", although what he meant by " paganism " was unclear. Crowley believed that the twentieth century marked humanity's entry to the Aeon of Horus, a new era in which humans would take increasing control of their destiny. He believed that this Aeon follows on from the Aeon of Osiris, in which paternalistic religions like Christianity, Islam, and Buddhism dominated the world, and that this in turn had followed the Aeon of Isis, which had been maternalistic and dominated by goddess worship.

Crowley believed in the objective existence of magic , which he chose to spell "Magick", an older archaic spelling of the word. Mysticism is the raising of oneself to their level. The historian Ronald Hutton []. Sexuality played an important role in Crowley's ideas about magick and his practice of it, [] and has been described as being central to Thelema.

Crowley's theological beliefs were not clear. The historian Ronald Hutton noted that some of Crowley's writings could be used to argue that he was an atheist , [] while some support the idea that he was a polytheist , [] and others would bolster the idea that he was a mystical monotheist. Nuit, Hadit, and Ra-Hoor-Khuit. Both during his life and after it, Crowley has been widely described as a Satanist , usually by detractors.

Crowley stated he did not consider himself a Satanist, nor did he worship Satan , as he did not accept the Christian world view in which Satan was believed to exist. This was a tongue-in-cheek reference to ejaculation , something not realised by his critics, thus reflecting their own "ignorance and prejudice" toward Crowley. Crowley considered himself to be one of the outstanding figures of his time. Crowley enjoyed being outrageous and flouting conventional morality, [] with John Symonds noting that he "was in revolt against the moral and religious values of his time".

In their subversive powers, he saw the possibility of an annihilation of old religious traditions, and the creation of a void that Thelema, subsequently, would be able to fill. Crowley was bisexual, and exhibited a sexual preference for women, [] with his homosexual relationships being fewer and clustered in the early part of his life. Biographer Lawrence Sutin stated that "blatant bigotry is a persistent minor element in Crowley's writings".

Although he praised their "sublime" poetry and stated that they exhibited "imagination, romance, loyalty, probity and humanity", he also thought that centuries of persecution had led some Jews to exhibit "avarice, servility, falseness, cunning and the rest". Crowley also exhibited a "general misogyny" that Booth believed arose from his bad relationship with his mother.

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.

Thelema continued to develop and spread following Crowley's death. In , the O. Amado argued that Thelema was a false religion created by Crowley to hide his true esoteric teachings, which Amado claimed to be propagating. Several Western esoteric traditions other than Thelema were also influenced by Crowley, with Djurdjevic observing that "Crowley's influence on twentieth-century and contemporary esotericism has been enormous". Ron Hubbard , the American founder of Scientology , was involved in Thelema in the early s with Jack Parsons , and it has been argued that Crowley's ideas influenced some of Hubbard's work.

Lewis, and Jesper Petersen noted that despite the fact that Crowley was not a Satanist, he "in many ways embodies the pre-Satanist esoteric discourse on Satan and Satanism through his lifestyle and his philosophy", with his "image and ought" becoming an "important influence" on the later development of religious Satanism. Crowley also had a wider influence in British popular culture. He sold it in