The Great Aleister Crowley Library [ebooks]

The Great Aleister Crowley Library [ebooks]

Aleister Crowley (1875–1947), born Edward Alexander Crowley, was an English occultist, ceremonial magician, poet, and mountaineer. He was responsible for founding the religion and philosophy of Thelema, in which role he identified himself as the prophet entrusted with guiding humanity into the Aeon of Horus in the early 20th century. Born to a wealthy Plymouth Brethren family, Crowley came to reject this faith to embrace western esotericism, poetry, and mountaineering. He was educated at Cambridge University, where he embraced his bisexuality. Some biographers have claimed that he was recruited as a spy for British intelligence there, 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 Mexico and India to study Hindu and Buddhist practices. He married Rose Edith Kelly and they travelled to Cairo in 1904; there, 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 and George Cecil Jones co-founded the A A as a Thelemite order. After spending time in Algeria, he was initiated into the Ordo Templi Orientis (O.T.O.) in 1912, rising to become the leader of the Order's British branch, which he reformulated in accordance with his Thelemite beliefs. After spending the First World War in the United States, where he worked for British intelligence services to infiltrate the pro-German lobby, in 1920 he moved to Cefalù in 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. He divided his time between France, Germany, and England, and continued to promote Thelema until his death. Crowley gained widespread notoriety during his lifetime, 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" and labelled a Satanist. Crowley has remained a highly influential figure over western esotericism and the counter-culture, and continues to be recognised as a prophet in Thelema. In 2002, a BBC poll ranked him as the seventy-third greatest Briton of all time.

books: see file list

comment: Beware, this is the beast 666! Well, kind of…