He would outright defy all Christian morals by smoking, masturbating, and having sex with prostitutes. On a visit to Sweden, he experienced a life-changing vision which persuaded him of his spiritual vocation, a calling which he marked by changing his name to Aleister. The derelict beauty of abandoned Cornwall - in stunning pictures. 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. Crowley continued to experiment with his bisexuality and sex with prostitutes.

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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, writes All That's Interesting. Gradually he evolved his own set of beliefs which drew on Oriental, ancient Egyptian, and an assortment of other traditions. His sexual preoccupations were equally various. He took many lovers — both male and female — and practised a form of sex magic.

A brilliant climber, big game hunter, and inveterate traveller, Crowley explored Mexico, India, Egypt, America, and much more besides. In the first two decades of the twentieth century, he wrote a series of tracts outlining his philosophy.

Who is Aleister Crowley, the wickedest man in the world? - Cornwall Live

The Law of Thelema — a word taken from the Greek for Will — was, he claimed, dictated to him by an ancient Egyptian spirit. It laid out the key principle of life, as Crowley saw it: In , he moved to Sicily, where he established the Abbey of Thelema as the headquarters for his new religion.

Here he pursued spiritual enlightenment, declaring himself Ipssissimus — beyond the Gods — in He also experimented with sex and drugs. In an Englishman died in mysterious circumstances after a ritual during which he was said to have consumed the blood of a cat. The British press and the Italian fascist government were equally appalled. Crowley was expelled from Sicily, the Abbey closed, and the group dispersed. Although impoverished, disgraced, and a near-skeletal heroin addict, Crowley never lacked followers.

He fathered several children, most of them illegitimately, and was still in demand as a medium and a magus to the end, designing a new sequence of tarot cards and commentating on it at some length in his Book of Thoth of He died, in Hastings, in The court case accomplished one thing — it made Crowley a public figure.

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His licentious lifestyle and unusual beliefs, combined with his talent for creating controversy, would prove to be a potent combination. In the immediate aftermath of the expulsion, however, he set out travelling around the world. He first lived in Mexico for some time, climbing mountains and practising magic, before heading to San Francisco and then on to Hawaii.

The pair studied together before Bennett decided to become a Buddhist monk. The monastic life held no allure for Crowley, and he continued west, studying yoga and contracting malaria in India, taking part in an unsuccessful attempt to climb K2, the second highest mountain in the world, and then travelling back to Europe where he spent six months in Paris before he completed his circumnavigation by returning to Britain.

This was exemplified, perhaps, in his next action.

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Originally this was a marriage of convenience to help her escape an arranged marriage, but Crowley fell in love with Rose and managed to win her affections in return. 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.


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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.

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.


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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.

Aleister Crowley: The Wickedest Man in the World

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? His attitudes in writing were typical for one of his class at the time, which is to say blatantly racist and misogynistic by modern standards. The two are often inextricably linked in the public consciousness, though that may have been the only time they ever actually met.