In Search of Aleister Crowley

I have been fascinated by many things in my life but two, in particular, stand out.

Firstly, I have always had a deep interest in the paranormal and the occult.  As a child/young adult, one of the deepest mysteries to me was why my family and people I knew didn't seem to be remotely interested in these subjects.  Surely, I thought, everybody would be interested in happenings that seemed to defy logic and established knowledge?  Sadly, I found people, in general, are closed-minded and apathetic about such things, despite overwhelming evidence that the phenomena exists, despite contradicting scientific laws as we currently understand them.

Many years later, I find attitudes the same.  Except, of course, the clandestine elements of the Military Industrial Complex, who I believe to be very interested in these subjects, albeit out of the gaze of the proletariat.

Secondly, I have always had great respect and fascination for individuals who have lived their lives in an unconventional manner.  One such individual is Aleister Crowley.

The question, "Who was Crowley" would take many pages to describe and there are many sources out there who will give you an opinion.  Here's an example from a so-called UK broadsheet newspaper, masquerading as journalism.  Drivel.

This is from Wikipedia, not my most trusted source of information, but a source nonetheless:

   

Aleister Crowley
Aleister Crowley, c. 1912
Born	Edward Alexander Crowley 12 October 1875 Royal Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, England
Died	1 December 1947 (aged 72) Hastings, East Sussex, England
Occupation	Occultist, poet, novelist
Spouse(s)	Rose Edith Kelly
Parents	Edward Crowley, Emily Bertha Crowley (neé Bishop)

Aleister Crowley (/ˈkroʊli/ KROH-lee; 12 October 1875 – 1 December 1947), born Edward Alexander Crowley, and also known as both Frater Perdurabo and The Great Beast 666, was an English occultist, mystic, ceremonial magician, poet and mountaineer, who was responsible for founding the religious philosophy of Thelema. In his role as the founder of the Thelemite philosophy, he came to see himself as the prophet who was entrusted with informing humanity that it was entering the new Aeon of Horus in the early 20th century.
Born into a wealthy upper-class family, as a young man he became a member of the esoteric Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. Subsequently he claimed that he was contacted by his Holy Guardian Angel, an entity he named Aiwass, while staying in Egypt in 1904, and that he 'received' a text known as The Book of the Law from what he claimed was a divine source, and around which he would come to develop his new philosophy of Thelema. He would go on to found his own occult society, the A∴A∴ and eventually rose to become a leader of Ordo Templi Orientis (O.T.O.), before founding a religious commune in Cefalù known as the Abbey of Thelema, which he led from 1920 until 1923. After abandoning the Abbey amid widespread opposition, Crowley returned to Britain, where he continued to promote Thelema until his death.
Crowley was also bisexual, a recreational drug experimenter and a social critic. In many of these roles, he "was in revolt against the moral and religious values of his time", espousing a form of libertinism based upon the rule of "Do What Thou Wilt".^[1] Because of this, he gained widespread notoriety during his lifetime, and was denounced in the popular press of the day as "the wickedest man in the world".
Crowley has remained an influential figure and is widely thought of as the most influential occultist of all time. In 2002, a BBC poll described him as being the seventy-third greatest Briton of all time.^[2] References to him can be found in the works of numerous writers, musicians and filmmakers,^[3] and he has also been cited as a key influence on many later esoteric groups and individuals, including Grant Morrison, Marilyn Manson, Alan Moore, Kenneth Grant, Kenneth Anger, Jack Parsons, Gerald Gardner, Robert Anton Wilson, Timothy Leary, Jimmy Page^[4], Raul Seixas and, to some degree, Austin Osman Spare.^[5]

 My first exposure to Crowley was his autobiography, "Confessions".  An entertaining read it is, although I must admit to only understanding about 50% of it.  Here is a biography that I think has some merit for the serious student.

Some sources will tell you that Crowley was some kind of "Antichrist", determined to lead the world into darkness.  Most of these sources I have eventually found to originate from a fundamentalist Christian viewpoint, who decry anything as "evil" which contradict the myths of Jesus and the Bible.

His "Do what thou wilt should be the whole of the Law" mantra has been wilfully misunderstood by many as meaning do whatever you like and hang the consequences.  Although I am not an expert, a more detailed reading of his voluminous writings indicate that he believed that all individuals have a "destiny" and it was governed by a higher aspect of the self (Crowley called it the "Holy Guardian Angel").  It is the task of us all to communicate with this higher aspect and divine what our purpose is during this incarnation.  Commentators who see evil in this philosophy rarely append the line with "Love is the Law, love under Will", which is the full quotation.  Of course what he meant by "love" is up for discussion.  

Crowley, if he did anything, had the time and money to travel the world experimenting with various religious and spiritual methods and philosophies.  He then attempted to distill this into a scientific method that anybody could use to achieve the aim of all religious and spiritual practices since ancient times: to understand the hidden laws of Nature, the Universe and Divinity.   

Crowley's (along with Goerge Cecil Jones) occult society, the A:.A:. was formed to allow interested seekers to study and practice these methods.  The society published a biannual periodical, the Equinox, the strap-line of which was "The Aim of Religion, The Method of Science".

 “Inevitably anyone with an independent mind must become 'one who resists or opposes authority or established conventions': a rebel. If enough people come to agree with, and follow, the Rebel, we now have a Devil. Until, of course, still more people agree. And then, finally, we have --- Greatness.”
― Aleister Crowley

So, genius or devil?

I'll let you decide.