The Invocation Of Thoth

Book: The Invocation Of Thoth by Aleister Crowley

An Invocation of the Egyptian God Thoth. Classic invocation of Thoth. With the manifestation of this book, the invocation proves Extremely successful.

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Aleister Crowley - The Invocation Of Thoth

Between A Rock And A Soft Spot

I am having a multi-venue discussion now about these questions of Thelema as religion, and how it might relate or not to other religions, especially Christianity. By the way, Keith418, if you have something to offer on these points, pro or con, offer it here as well, so I can reply. The following is something I posted to my Facebook wall. The reference below to Jesus' lesson is in reply to someone who made this claim—that it could be summed up in part as an encouragement to be more than we let ourselves be.:

In Christianity and Thelema, which we should recall are respective heresies of an older tradition, there is an idea that is central, and which is generally ignored by alleged adherents. This is the idea of surrender, and of diminishment and indeed destruction of self to serve the Great Work.

I think if Jesus' lesson was that we can be more than we let ourselves be, it would not be much different than the US Army's "Be All You Can Be". Yet I think their encouragements would have very different aims. So maybe their messages are also not very alike.

Jesus was mainly concerned that the spirit of the Law had been lost, because worship of the Laws had replaced concern for the Will of God, particularly as that might work through any human being. As for forgiveness, that was offered simply enough, but not without qualification. For example, a person, whose behavior clearly demonstrated he had not been salvaged, even after he affirmed faith by the magic words, was not saved. Nevertheless, no human was to judge this shortcoming in any cosmic respect in another, since who can know the ultimate plan, which may incorporate evil people and their ways (as Gandalf pointed out as well).

As for Thelemites, they are caught between the occult rock, upon which Thelema is built and which they generally do not understand, and the soft place of their cultural sensibilities, towards which they will escape and from which they will interpret Thelema, to conform it to their respective, respectable, zones of comfort. A pointless exercise. If there is an Aeonic change coming, it will be unbelievably destructive, not comforting or sustaining.

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Liber 044 The Mass Of The Phoenix

Book: Liber 044 The Mass Of The Phoenix by Aleister Crowley

Liber CCCXXXIII (The Book of Lies); and Appendix VI in Book IV.

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Liber 335 Adonis An Allegory

Book: Liber 335 Adonis An Allegory by Aleister Crowley

Adonis an Allegory. A short play. Set in the hanging gardens of Babylon in classical times with classical characters. An account in poetic language of the struggle of the human and divine elements in the consciousness of man, giving their harmony following on the victory of the latter.

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Liber 370 Aash Vel Capricorni Pneumatici

Book: Liber 370 Aash Vel Capricorni Pneumatici by Aleister Crowley

"Liber A'ASH Vel Capricorni Pneumatici Sub Figura CCCLXX. Contains the true secret of all practical magick." Analyzes the nature of the creative magical force in man, explains how to awaken it, how to use it and indicates the general as well as the particular objects to be gained thereby. Sexual magick heavily veiled in symbolism. See also: Equinox I vi; III ix.

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Aleister Crowley And Ron Habbard

Hubbard had clear connections to the occult. Even in the first publication of dianetics in "Astounding Science Fiction", Hubbard in explaining how he did his "research" into what the mind was doing, says he used "automatic writing, speaking and clairvoyance" (1) to discover what the mind's memory banks were doing. Automatic writing is an occult method of communicating with the spirit world, although psychologists consider its products to arise from subconscious thoughts of the writer. Whichever is correct, it is hardly a method used by competent scientific researchers.

Hubbard's connection to the occultist aleister crowley is quite clear and noteworthy. Crowley called himself the Anti-Christ, the Beast of Revelations, and 666. Russell Miller has adequately chronicled Hubbard's connection in 1945 to John W. Parsons, who headed Crowley's Ordo Templi Orientis chapter in Los Angeles. (2) Hubbard was an active member in this group for several months, and first met his second wife there. The Church of Scientology claims that Hubbard was actually infiltrating this group in order to break it up, but the following should suffice to dismiss this claim.

In the Philadelphia Doctorate Course lectures taped in 1952, Hubbard discusses occult magic of the middle ages, and recommends a current book - "it's fascinating work in itself, and that's work written by Aleister Crowley, the late Aleister Crowley, my very good friend." (3) The book recommended was The Master Therion, (published in London in 1929) later re-released as magick in Theory and Practise. L. Ron Hubbard, Jr. asserts that during the time when the Philadelphia course was given his father would read Crowley's works "in preparation for the next day's lecture..."

There are interesting similarities between Crowley's writings and the teachings of Hubbard. Dianetics' Time Track, in which every incident in a person's life is chronologically recorded in full in the mind, is quite similar to Crowley's Magical Memory. The Magical Memory is developed over time until "memories of childhood reawaken" which were previously forgotten, and memories of previous incarnations are recalled as well. Hubbard gives examples in the Philadelphia Doctorate Course of several people remembering lives earlier on earth, some up to a million years ago. The similarity between the Magical Memory and Time Track, then, is that they both can recall every past incident in a person's life, they both can recall incidents from past lives, and they both must be developed by certain techniques in order to make use of them.

Both Hubbard and Crowley consider it important to have the person recall his or her birth. "Having allowed the mind to return for some hundred times to the hour of birth, it should be encouraged to endeavour to penetrate beyond that period" (Crowley). "After twenty runs through birth, the patient experienced a recession of all somatics and 'unconsciousness' and aberrative content." "Thus there was no inhibition about looking earlier than birth for what Dianetics had begun to call basic-basic" (Hubbard).

Both Hubbard and Crowley are avowedly anti-psychiatry. "Official psychoanalysis is therefore committed to upholding a fraud... psychoanalysts have misinterpreted life, and announced the absurdity that every human being is essentially an anti-social, criminal, and insane animal" (Crowley). Hubbard considered that psychiatry controlled most of society and was struggling to create their own 1984 world.

Hubbard and Crowley both posit the ability of the person to leave his or her body at times. Crowley states that the way to learn to leave your body is to mock up a body like your own in front of your physical body. Eventually you will learn to leave your physical body with your "astral body" and travel and view at will without physical restrictions. Hubbard teaches the same, and his method of "exteriorization" is to tell the person to "have preclear mock up own body", which will send the person outside his body .Both Crowley and Hubbard use an equilateral triangle pointing up in a circle as one of their group's symbols. Both use Volume 0 instead of Volume 1 to begin enumerating their works. One could go on for quite some time listing the similarities between Crowley's and Hubbard's theories and writings, but for more the reader is encouraged to look for him or herself.

In Crowley's Organization are several grade levels. To reach the Grade of Adeptus Exemptus "The Adept must prepare and publish a thesis setting forth His knowledge of the Universe, and his proposals for its welfare and progress. He will thus be known as the leader of a school of thought." It is apparent that Hubbard has fulfilled this requirement.

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Liber 157 The Tao Teh King

Book: Liber 157 The Tao Teh King by Aleister Crowley

A new translation with a commentary by the Master Therion. This is the most exalted and yet practical of the Chinese classics. Also called Liber LXXXI. Equinox III viii. Typescripts of Crowley's version of this Chinese classic circulated amongst his students, but the work remained unpublished until 1976. Then, Helen Parsons Smith (1910 - 2003), ex-wife of Jack Parsons, widow of W. T. Smith, and long time member of Agape Lodge of the OTO, produced this edition under her Thelema publications imprint.

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Duty

Book: Duty by Aleister Crowley

A note on the chief rules of practical conduct to be observed by those who accept the Law of Thelema.

"Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law."
"There is no law beyond Do what thou wilt."
"...thou hast no right but to do thy will. Do that and no other shall say nay. For pure will, unassuaged of purpose, delivered from the lust of result, is every way perfect."
"Love is the law, love under will."
"Every man and every woman is a star."

Explore the nature and Powers of your own Being. This includes everything which is, or can be for you: and you must accept everything exactly as it is in itself, as one of the factors which go to make up your True Self. This True Self thus ultimately includes all things soever: its discovery is Initiation (the travelling inwards) and as its nature is to move continually, it must be understood not as static, but as dynamic, not as a Noun but as a Verb.

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Liber 175 Astarte Vel Liber Berylli

Book: Liber 175 Astarte Vel Liber Berylli by Aleister Crowley

An instruction in attainment by the method of devotion, on Bhakta-Yoga; how one may unite oneself to any particular Deity. Both Magical and mystical methods are given. Equinox I vii, p. 37

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What Crowley Got To Do With Thelema

It's strange being a magickian among the witches. Stranger still being a Thelemite magickian, a member of the OTO and other Orders and always getting blamed for Uncle Al's misbehavior. Really! What does aleister crowley have to do with Thelema anyway?

He's only its founder…

In 1904, in a small hotel room in Cairo the end of the world occurred. The Apocalypse happened and only a middle aged cynical rationalist Buddhist was there to see it. He did not want to be there but after his pregnant wife started telling him "They're waiting for you," he took some interest. He asked "Who are They, What are They like, What are their Attributes?" And she, neither initiate nor studied, rattled off the secret and unpublished traditional Golden Dawn correspondences for Horus: His color, planet, station in the temple her husbands relationship with the god and many another attribute. The Buddhist, formerly an adept of the Golden Dawn, calculated the odds of correctly guessing the right combination and it was astronomical. Horus was calling.

He was still skeptical. "Show me his image," he demanded of his wife, and off they went to the Cairo Museum. He secretly smirked as she walked right past image after image of Horus until she stopped and pointed, "That one!" It was the Funerary Stele of the Priest Ankh-af-na-Khonsu. In the Museum catalogue it was numbered Stele #666. Crowley, whose mother used to always call him "You Beast!" was dumbfounded. He had the curators make a copy and a translation and went back to the hotel.

Rose, his wife, told him to do an invocation to Horus, but the way she wanted him to do it broke all the rules. He was to invoke the archetype and force that is Horus among the Egyptians from among four other cultures all at the same time! Although common in modern practice in his day this was unheard of. He went and invoked the Patron of all Magicks, Thoth, who told him to obey his wife.

On March 20, 1904 Crowley was told by the image of Horus he invoked to enter the emptied room of their hotel suite with only paper and pen and wearing a simple white robe on April 8, 9, and 10 at the stroke of noon.

He sat down at the desk facing the wall of the room with paper and pen in hand. As the twelfth bell was tolled, a Voice behind the scribe began to speak, "Had, the manifestation of Nuit…" This was Aiwaz, the minister of Hoor-Paar-Khraat; the babe in the lotus, the god of innocence and silence. He had come to announce the end of the reign of Osirus, the Slain God, and the enthroning of Ra-Hoor-Khuit, the Risen Lord. Very much like the angel of the Apocalypse of John, who came bearing a little book to be kept sealed until the end times, Aiwaz came bearing words of a new testament of the relationship of Humanity with the Divine.

The central image of this relationship is Ra-Hoor-Khuit, which means in Egyptian the Illuminated Solar Hero. Horus is the only god among the Egyptians who is, dies, and is born again forgetting all of his godly wisdom but with all of its unguided power. Through His struggles against Set (read Matter) and with the help of his teachers Isis and Thoth, he remembers Who He Is. He awakens from His dreamlike ignorance and chooses to war no more against His Twin as He now remembers Set to be. No longer needing to fight with Matteriality, educated in Art, by Isis, and Science, by Thoth, He is suitable now to rule.

Without an adversarial attitude toward the world what of the Buddhist doctrine "All is Sorrow?" Chucked. What of the Christian attitude of suffering? Not necessary. "Remember all ye that existence is pure joy, that all the sorrows are but as shadows, they pass & are done; but there is that which remains. (AL II, 9)" What Aiwaz was saying Crowley would not accept but he was forced to write on, "I see thee hate the hand and the pen but for me in thee which thou knewest not…" For three days from Noon until the stroke of One, Crowley wrote the two hundred and twenty verses of the Book of the Law.

For nine years the manuscript gathered dust in the attic of Crowley's Scottish Highland home. Until one day, while looking for skis for a guest he found the manuscript. He had avoided magick and all things related since the time in Cairo. No yoga, no meditation, just being a husband. I think his marriage ended at this point or he chose to go on an excursion to the Sahara for some particular reason. During his sojourn in the desert he was inspired to perform the Enochian Calls of the 30 ?thers. During this visionary experience he became convinced of the profound importance of the Book of the Law and determined to promulgate its way.

In essence Thelema is a call to radical individual Liberty and Responsibility. It is summed up in the axiom "Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law." Thelema is Greek for will in its creative, magickal or primogenital sense. Thus for an incarnate being one's will is the intent for which one incarnated. The working hypothesis is that if all things did their Will, did what they are "supposed" to do, there would be no Accidents. The model to describe this is the orderly Solar System, each planet following its own orbit. However, stars, some times whole galaxies, collide. "As brothers fight ye," we are counciled. There will be conflicts of will, perhaps from a greater perspective the conflict itself is the central act and not the apparent ends, and so with the awareness that we are essentially all family let us enter into our conflicts with justice, fairness and honor in our hearts.

This brings us to the phrase, "Love is the law, love under will." This is the principle which is expressed in physics as gravity. In the Egyptian and Hermetic philosophies there is no separation between the forces of nature and the actions of the Humanity and the Divine. The apparent differences are a question of scale. Love is seen at the natural attraction of all things for each other as gravity binds all matter together over vast distances. The place of will is then a matter of determining the right relationship to have with other bodies. We are at the correct distance from the Sun for our kind of life to flourish on Earth. Not much closer or farther would kill us. Thus is Earth in a state of love under will towards the Sun, prolonging its rightful existence. We choose to be near our friends and lovers, we choose to be far from places of pestilence and decay. The law is love, we must have relation, but we get to choose how to relate, placing our love under will.

Throughout the Book of the Law there are little messages to Crowley telling him he will never fully understand that which he has written. An ego blow for sure, but when we look at the declaration made in the third verse, "Every man and every woman is a star," and look at Crowley's life it is obvious that he never out grew the Victorian misogyny he was raised with. Although he intellectually comprehended the equality of the sexes he never lived it. Unfortunately, some who follow this path follow in Aleister's footsteps, others are simply blamed for it…

I was raised by stern Irish-Polish Catholic parents. It was wrong to say "no" to them; obedience was a virtue. I was expected to follow out the program set down for me by parents in education, then grow up and get a "respectable" job. However, the world my parents grew up in is not the one I'm living in and they simply don't have the experience necessary to advise me. With the way I was raised I was very uncertain of myself. I did not know what I really wanted to be when I grew up. To Know Your Will is to know Who You Are and What You Want. This is the essence of the practice of Thelema.

Using classical and self-created rituals and meditations I seek and attain to knowledge of my Will daily, ever knowing that my Will is not a dead static thing but a living process. Perhaps in an ultimate sense one's will is always perfect, yet from our limited perspective we don't always see how. Many 'accidents' become windfalls, if viewed in this light. This is the central teaching of Thelema, that everything is already perfect, if we should just awaken from our ignorant slumber and see.

When Crowley returned from his trip in the desert, several books of verses came spontaneously to his mind and pen and, having written them, he was as yet uncertain of the author. They came to be known as the Holy Books of Thelema, recently published by Samuel Weiser & Co. These cover in greater detail the Cosmogony of Thelema as a resention of the Egyptian Gnosis and as an extension of Hermetic Philosophy. These Texts show the Great Work as the working towards ending of Sorrow, Sickness and Death: Hedonic Immortalism; learning through pleasure, through love, creativity and cooperation. No longer is it necessary to have a ruler high upon his or her throne to tell us all what to do. "There is no law beyond Do what thou wilt." Each of us is a sovereign with the right and the power to create the world we wish to live in, and also the responsibility.

Responsibility is the key to practicing Thelema. By being willing and able to respond to the needs of the times, we as humans fulfill our role in the world as the causers of change and growth. No animal on this planet has the tool making and using skills that we have to transform our environment into a living Heaven or Hell.

Archimedes said, "Give me a lever long enough and a place to stand and I shall move the world." If working the path of causing responsible change is your heart's desire, then Thelema might give you the Lever Long Enough and a Place to Stand.

Oh, yes, what's Crowley got to do with Thelema any way?

Well, he wrote it down…

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Thelemic Practices

he Law of Thelema is a system of experiential spirituality. This means that Thelemites engage in various spiritual practices in order to realize the truth of the spiritual life in and for themselves. The ultimate goal of the spiritual life is to identify with and actually become a spiritual being, free of the constraints and constrictions of conditioned existence. The state of being a spiritual being is an ecstatic, powerful state of union with everything (Thelemic "compassion"). The Law of Thelema also teaches that all religions are variations of one fundamental underlying spiritual truth, which become fragmented into different religious traditions as a result of variations of place, time, and degree of realization and mutual isolation and hostility as, with the passage of time, religions become increasingly diversified and exclusive. Religions thus harden into increasingly exoteric systems, based on devotion to priest craft and rules, in which individual spiritual experience is increasingly repressed in favour of an official orthodoxy, ultimately the prerogative of the Black Brothers, which becomes increasingly metaphorical and vicarious. Thus, the Law of Thelema rejects aereligiosity" altogether, and actively seeks to destroy it, since the religious attitude in this sense is harmful to the spiritual life and impedes, blocks, restricts, and interferes with real spiritual progress. Consequently, Thelemites incorporate practices from all religious traditions without distinction, in order to reconstitute the primordial tradition that underlies them all. Crowley compared this process to recombining the colours of the spectrum into white light. This reconstruction is the special task of Scientific Illuminism, which is one aspect of the Law of Thelema, the operative branch of which is Magick.

Spiritual practices are pursued in the context of various systems of attainment, which are appropriate to different types of aspirant, differentiated by race, culture, personal psychology, and degree of realization or "grade." Consequently, not all practices are suitable for all aspirants at all stages of development. Recognizing which practices are suitable to which aspirants at different stages of their spiritual development is the special skill of a spiritual master.

In the system of the A...A..., the grades correspond to specific tasks and corresponding attainments, arranged in an hierarchy. Many of these tasks and attainments have become the special study of parapsychology and transpersonal psychology in recent years. In the system described by Crowley, these are the main attainments of the Outer Order (collated from the three main documents describing these attainments, Liber XIII, Liber CLXV, and "One Star in Sight"):

The Neophyte formulates the Body of Light (popularly known today as "astral projection").
The Zelator masters Hatha Yoga, specifically, Asana and Pranayama, resulting in the experience of aepsychic opening."
The Practicus achieves Kundalini Awakening, so-called (see Lee Sanella, The Kundalini Experience).
The Philosophus masters Rising on the Planes (popularly known as the "out of body experience" or "OBE").
The Dominus Liminis acquires the power of mental Concentration (ekagrata).

The Adeptus Minor attains the Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel, so-called, corresponding to the Hindu trance-state known as Atmadarshana, but with important differences as well.
The work of an aspirant to the A...A... is so subtle and advanced that it is beyond the ability of most people, although a few aspirants attained high grades in the A...A... during Crowleyaes lifetime. The tests, some of which are published, which Crowley applied to aspirants in order to qualify were very stringent, and Crowley did not grant grades casually. For example, one has to "astral travel" through an abstract symbol that one has never seen before and describe a vision the character of which is consistent with the symbolaes meaning in order to pass the test for "rising on the planes."

Crowley was promoted to the leadership of the English branch of the O.T.O. in 1912 e.v., and he used this order ever afterwards as a vehicle for popularizing the Law of Thelema, as well as the practice of the Supreme Secret of the O.T.O. During his lifetime, this secret was zealously guarded, although it is not always discreetly hinted at in the esoteric literature of the day and by Crowley himself. However, since Crowleyaes death the cat has long been out of the bag. The Supreme Secret of the O.T.O. is nothing other than the use of sex in the pursuit of spiritual enlightenment, equivalent in fact to a Western Tantra.

Sex is, of course, the single most powerful psycho-physiological energy in man, so pressing it into the service of spiritual development is a natural evolution, once one overcomes the restriction of shame. From the Tantric point of view, sexual abstinence is really a form of "sex magick," so-called, since sexual abstinence modifies the sexual instinct. Exotericism sees in sexual abstinence the rejection of sexuality per se as contrary to the spiritual life, but the Tantric view is more subtle and profound. Rather than rejecting sex, the Tantric practitioner seeks to sublimate the sexual energy, inhibiting its outflow so that the energy accumulates in the brain, its original source, where it induces the state of illumination (the physiological precursor of enlightenment).

Once one realizes that this is how sexual abstinence actually works, the possibility of a contrary methodology presents itself to the discerning consciousness. Instead of repressing the sexual energy, one can intensify it to the point where the sheer excess of sexual arousal causes the energy to ascend the spine and, once again, "illuminate" the brain. In the latter case, however, the body is also "illuminated." Thus, the formulae of sexual abstinence and orgiastic excess are realized to be essentially identical, variations of the same underlying energy-economy.

The members of the O.T.O. are encouraged to engage in practical experimentation, and many members pursue various tasks connected with the Great Work. This is especially true of the followers of Kenneth Grant, who has created a system of Thelemic attainment strongly suggestive of Vodou, the primal religion of Africa and humanity, since, according to current archaeological research, humanity originated in Africa.

In addition to the major tasks of the Great Work described above, committed Thelemites are enjoined to engage in a number of regular daily practices that have the effect of disciplining and directing the mind and regulating oneaes life according to objective natural cycles. These include (based on the Official Publications of the A...A...):

A short reminder of oneaes dedication to the Great Work, spoken before meals.
Rituals of purification and empowerment, performed at the beginning and end of each day (see Liber V, XXV, and XXXVI).
A daily eucharist (see Liber XLIV).
The adoration of the Sun, followed by one hour of meditation, repeated four times daily; thus, the truly committed Thelemite, like the followers of the Sant Mat, meditates four hours per day (see Liber CC).
Adoration of oneaes Star, performed as it rises above the horizon (see Liber CMLXIII)
In addition to the foregoing, members of the O.T.O. observe the Gnostic Mass (see Liber XV), in which the Supreme Secret is rehearsed and an eucharist consumed by the celebrants, and various visualization practices. The Book of the Law also refers to the spiritual use of drugs, which informed the spiritual practice of many significant spiritual teachers before their criminalization, including Georges Ivanovitch Gurdjieff (according to Timothy Leary), Julius Evola, Aldous Huxley and others. Drugs are also an integral part of many different South American aboriginal shamanic cultures. The traditional cultures of the Quiches, Incans, Mayans, and Aztecs bears many striking affinities to the Law of Thelema, more so even than Africa.


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Thelemic Holy Days

Part of the spiritual discipline of a Thelemite consists in the coordination of his personal, individual, terrestrial life with the great cosmic cycles that regulate the life of the earth and humanity. Accepting the Law of Thelema is itself such an act of coordination or alignment with the cosmic cycle known as the precession of the equinoxes. Crowley implies that the New Aeon of Horus, the Crowned and Conquering Child, which began with the self-revelation of Aiwass at the Vernal Equinox, 1904 e.v., corresponds to the advent of the astrological Age of Aquarius. By aligning one's personal life with the universal life mediated by these cycles one becomes a vehicle of the manifestation of the universal life, thus making oneself a channel of higher spiritual forces which in turn accelerate one's natural spiritual evolution and affect the karma of the planet.

Other cycles with which the Thelemite aligns his life are the diurnal motion of the Sun, specifically, sunrise, noon, sunset, and midnight; the diurnal rising of the star or constellation rising in his horoscope; the diurnal rising of the lunar orb; the monthly lunar cycle, especially the new and full moons; the monthly entry of the sun into the signs of the zodiac; the annual solar cycle of the equinoxes and solstices; and an annual calendar of holy days prescribed in the Book of the Law, as follows:

The First Night of the Prophet and His Bride, corresponding to the consummation of the marriage of Aleister Crowley and Rose Edith Crowley on August 12, 1903 e.v.;
The Writing of the Book of the Law, on April 8, 9, and 10, 1904 e.v.; and
The Supreme Ritual, commemorating the successful Invocation of Horus on March 20, 1904 e.v.

All these times are celebrated by means of rituals, in which energy is generated, and feasts, in which energy is both discharged and absorbed. In addition, Aiwass' directs that the birth, puberty, and death of Thelemites and their children are to be celebrated. Many Thelemites also observe the "quarter-days" of the wiccan religion, viz., Samhain (November 1 eve), Imbolc (February 1 eve), Beltaine (May 1 eve), and Lammas (August 1 eve). Finally, the Book of the Law alludes to a mysterious feast of Tahuti, which has never been satisfactorily explained.

The Problem of Aleister Crowley's Reputation:

Many criticisms of the Law of Thelema are based on a moral critique of the personal character and conduct of Aleister Crowley. These accusations generally resolve themselves into seven basic assertions: that he was a pornographer, traitor, sexual deviant, sado-masochist, womanizer, drug addict/alcoholic, or even psychotic. Each of these accusations can be discussed in the context of the evidence. It is certainly true that Crowley published or wrote pornographic poems and stories, and was extremely interested in extreme sexual experimentation; that he wrote apparently pro-German propaganda in America during the First World War;

that he engaged in sexual relationships with both men and women; that he engaged in physically and psychologically abusive sexual relationships; that he professed contempt for women; that he drank heavily and became severely addicted to heroin in middle-age; and that he experienced ASCs, generally induced rather than spontaneous.

Strictly speaking, however, the truth or falsehood of any of these claims is unrelated to the truth or falsehood of the Law of Thelema, just as the truth or falsehood of the Tractatus Philosophicus is unrelated to the fact that Wittgenstein was an homosexual. As every first year philosophy student learns, truth or falsehood is not a moral quality or a function of the personal psyche, and it is quite possible for a morally mean or even psychologically dysfunctional person to experience and express insights that are both beautiful and true.

The history of Western civilization provides numerous examples, many of whom are studied in universities. Crowley himself regards the pursuit of spiritual realization as a science, in which moral considerations are either secondary or entirely irrelevant. Crowley himself writes, "Since the ultimate truth of teleology is unknown, all codes of morality are arbitrary. Therefore the student has no concern with ethics as such." Philosophically, then, aleister crowley is an amoralist.

Nevertheless, the Law of Thelema does imply an ethical teaching. The doctrine of the Black Brothers itself implies a kind of moral judgement. The essential ethical teaching of the Law of Thelema is that each and every individual has an absolute and inalienable right to pursue his own True Will without restriction by others, and that no one has the ethical or moral right or duty to compel another to pursue any other path, or even the capacity to criticize them. A Thelemite who knows his True Will can however guide others in accordance with universal principles, but the relationship should not be one of imitation. If Aleister Crowley violated his own or any other individual's True Will at any time, he simply violated his own law and paid the karmic price, but this does not invalidate the Law itself.

Great art and true philosophies are both created by scoundrels, but we balk when a scoundrel creates a true religion. The imitative tendency, which Crowley despised, is deep. Since imitating the moral example of a founder is not the ethical teaching of the Law of Thelema, every Thelemite is free to imitate Aleister Crowley's personal lifestyle or not as they choose, although Crowley himself advises against it, warning that those who try to do so will be possessed or obsessed by the "vision of the demon Crowley" (Crowley, who was an amateur artist, even drew a sketch of this particular demon). Unfortunately, as the history of the Law of Thelema shows with great clarity, Crowley's advice was accurate, and numerous heedless Thelemites have been devoured as a result.

The True Will represents the inertia of the universe, and is irresistible (if not, that simply proves that it is not the True Will). However, no one may restrict the True Will of another, unless another chooses, without coercion, to be so restricted.

Aleister Crowley should be understood as a natural phenomenon, without moral judgement. A prophet is himself merely a symptom of the zeitgeist. A storm is not "evil." Aleister Crowley was a storm, which may yet sink the ship of the Judaeo-Christian civilization that he despised.

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The Golden Dawn Internal Problems

In addition to Crowley’s expulsion, there was rampant in-fighting among founding members of the organization. Woodman died in 1891 and wasn’t replaced. Mathers produced an initiation ritual for the Adeptus Minor degree. Most of these rituals were based on Freemasonry. Many members thought that he was a little eccentric, possibly a lunatic.

He claimed his wife, Mina, received teachings from the Secret Chiefs through clairaudience, psychic hearing. Mathers translated The Book of the Sacred magic of Abra-Melin the Mage, which he claimed was bewitched and created by a nonphysical intelligence. He claimed the Secret Chiefs had initiated him into a Third Order and was expelled from the organization. In 1897, members discovered Westcott's questionable activities in founding The Golden Dawn. He resigned. Schisms beyond repair had formed within the organization.

In 1917, it was reestablished as the Merlin Temple of the Stella Matutina which lasted until the 1940s when it declined after the publication of its secret rituals by former member Israel Regardie, Crowley's one-time secretary.
Crowley and the Golden Dawn

The rise and fall of this hermetic organization parallels the history of many occult groups. Highly intelligent people with mystical beliefs found these organizations and attract others who share these qualities. Eventually there are internal conflicts for various reasons. Some splinter organizations of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn still exist. Aleister Crowley, a heroin addict, died in Hastings, England on December 1, 1947 from a respiratory infection. His teachings also live on.

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Rockmusic And Aleister Crowley

Aleister Crowley has had a large influence upon modern rock music. The following overview of Crowley’s life is from Hungry for Heaven by Steve Turner:

“Born in 1875, Aleister Crowley had, like the Rolling Stones, rebelled against a regulated small-town background. He’d been raised in Leamington, Warwickshire, by parents who were members of the Strict Brethren, a fundamentalist Christian sect. From an early age young Aleister identified with the enemies of God in the Bible stories that were read to him. In particular he identified with the antichrist predicted in the book of Revelation. In 1898 he joined the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, a magical society.

“Most of Crowley’s adult life was dedicated to indulging in everything he believed God would hate: performing sex magic, taking heroin, opium, hashish, peyote and cocaine, invoking spirits, and even once offering himself to the Russian authorities to help destroy Christianity. He wrote volumes of books that he believed were dictated to him by a spirit from ancient Egypt called Aiwass. “To worship me take wine and strange drugs,” the spirit conveniently told him. “Lust, enjoy all things of sense and rapture. Fear not that any God shall deny thee for this.” …

“Crowley finished his life as a sick, wasted heroin addict given to black rages and doubts about the value of his life’s work. His last words as he passed into a coma on December 1, 1947, were, “I am perplexed…” (Steve Turner, Hungry for Heaven, pp. 92,97,98).

Aleister’s father Edward was a Brethren preacher, but he had inherited a fortune from his father who Crowley Ale. Edward died when Aleister was eleven and the son inherited the fortune. From this inheritance, Aleister financed his satanic career. He began torturing and killing animals at age twelve. Crowley was a heroin addict and a sexual pervert. His Christian mother referred to him as “The Great Beast of Revelation whose number is 666,” and he was pleased with the title. He was convinced that he was the reincarnation of the magician Eliphas Levi, who died the year Crowley was born. Crowley also believed he had lived other lives, including that of Pope Alexander VI. Crowley claimed that dark powers gave him the words to his “Book of the Law.” His first wife, Rose, died in a mental asylum. His second wife also went insane. “Five mistresses committed suicide, and scores of his concubines ended in the gutter as alcoholics, drug addicts, or in mental institutions” (Hellhounds on Their Trail, p. 56).

Crowley’s philosophy was as follows —

“Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law.”

“Lust, enjoy all things of sense and rapture. Fear not that any God shall deny thee for this.”

“I do not wish to argue that the doctrines of Jesus, they and they alone, have degraded the world to its present condition. I take it that Christianity is not only the cause but the symptom of slavery” (Crowley, The World’s Tragedy, p. xxxix).

“That religion they call Christianity; the devil they honor they call God. I accept these definitions, as a poet must do, if he is to be at all intelligible to his age, and it is their God and their religion that I hate and will destroy” (Crowley, The World’s Tragedy, p. xxx).

Crowley studied Buddhism and Hindu yoga, following in the footsteps of Helena Blavatsky, and did much to popularize these in the West.

In 1922, Crowley published Dairy of a Drug Fiend, which was about the use of cocaine. He described the widespread use of cocaine among Hollywood stars, which he described as “cocaine-crazed sexual lunatics.”

As noted, Crowley died a wasted heroin addict given to rages and doubts. His last words were “I am perplexed…” Crowley worshipped the demon god Pan, the god of sexuality and lust. His “Hymn to Pan” was read at his funeral: “I rave and I rape and I rip and I rend/ Everlasting world without end!”

Crowley has had a great influence on rock & roll. The International Times voted Crowley “the unsung hero of the hippies.” One man who helped popularized Crowley’s work among rockers is avant-garde film artist Kenneth Anger. He claimed that his films were inspired by Crowley’s philosophy and called them “visual incantations” and “moving spells.” Anger considered Crowley a unique genius. Mick Jagger of the Rolling Stones and Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin both scored soundtracks for Anger’s films about Crowley. See “Led Zeppelin” for more about Page’s enthusiasm for Crowley.

Crowley’s photo appeared on the Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper album cover. The Beatles testified that the characters who appeared on the album were their “heroes.” John Lennon explained to Playboy magazine that “the whole Beatle idea was to do what you want … do what thou wilst, as long as it doesn’t hurt somebody” (Lennon, cited by David Sheff, The Playboy Interviews with John Lennon and Yoko Ono, p. 61). This was precisely what Crowley taught.

Ozzy Osbourne called Crowley “a phenomenon of his time” (Circus, Aug. 26, 1980, p. 26). Ozzy even had a song called “Mr. Crowley.” “You fooled all the people with magic/ You waited on Satan's call / … Mr. Crowley, won't you ride my white horse…”

On the back cover of the Doors 13 album, Jim Morrison and the other members of the Doors are shown posing with a bust of Aleister Crowley.

David Bowie referred to Crowley in his song “Quicksand” from the album The Man Who Sold the World.

Graham Bond thought he was Crowley’s illegitimate son and recorded albums of satanic rituals with his band Holy Magick.

Iron Maiden lead singer Bruce Dickinson said: “… we’ve referred to things like the tarot and ideas of people like Aleister Crowley” (Circus, Aug. 31, 1984). Their song “The Number of the Beast” said, “666, the number of the beast/ 666, the one for you and me.” Crowley was called the Beast.

Daryl Hall of the rock duo Hall and Oates admits that he follows Crowley. “I became fascinated with Aleister Crowley, the nineteenth-century British magician who shared those beliefs. … I was fascinated by him because his personality was the late-nineteenth-century equivalent of mine—a person brought up in a conventionally religious family who did everything he could to outrage the people around him as well as himself” (Rock Lives: Profiles and Interviews, p. 584). Hall owns a signed and numbered copy of Crowley’s The Book of Thoth (about an Egyptian god).

Sting, formerly of the Police, has spent many hours studying Crowley’s writings.

Stiv Bators, lead singer for The Dead Boys and Lords of the New Church, had a song titled “Do What Thou Wilt/ This Is the Law,” after the philosophy of Satanist Aleister Crowley. In another song Bators sang: “I heard the Devil curse/ I recognized my name.”

LSD guru Timothy Leary was a Crowley enthusiast. He said: “I’ve been an admirer of Aleister Crowley. I think that I’m carrying on much of the work that he started over a hundred years ago … He was in favor of finding yourself, and ‘Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law’ under love. It was a very powerful statement. I’m sorry he isn’t around now to appreciate the glories he started” (Late Night America, Public Broadcasting Network, cited by Hells Bells, Reel to Real Ministries).

The Marilyn Manson song “Misery Machine” contains the lyrics, “We’re gonna ride to the abbey of Thelema.” The Abbey of Thelema was the temple of Satanist Aleister Crowley.

“And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them” (Ephesians 5:11).

“Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness?” (2 Cor. 6:14).

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Household Gods Comedy

Book: Household Gods Comedy by Aleister Crowley

"The Household," a one-act Comedy that makes readers roar With laughter, is eaxctly one of those masterpieces by This important Bristish writer that needs to be rediscovered by contemporary readers.

Download Aleister Crowley's eBook: Household Gods Comedy

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The Bhikkhu And The Magus Exploring Allan Bennett Influence On Aleister Crowley

Book: The Bhikkhu And The Magus Exploring Allan Bennett Influence On Aleister Crowley by John Crow

The Bhikkhu and the Magus: Exploring Allan Bennett's Influence on aleister crowley By John L. Crow University of Amsterdam. With a title like "Exploring Allan Bennett's Influence on Aleister Crowley" I could take this paper in any number of directions. This is because Allan Bennett was a significant person in the early years of Aleister Crowley's magical career. Crowley met Bennett in 1898 while in the Golden Dawn and almost immediately afterwards had Bennett move in with him and become his magical teacher. A couple of years later Bennett traveled to Southeast Asia due to a number of reasons, primarily health concerns and Crowley visited him there three times over the next four years; the last time being in November 1905. Over these seven years Bennett introduced Crowley to a number of magical
practices, Philosophical ideas, and yoga techniques. To cover all these subjects would take more time than I have allotted, thus I will concentrate on an important aspect of Crowley's magical system introduced to Crowley by Bennett that gets very little attention: the Magical Memory.

Download John Crow's eBook: The Bhikkhu And The Magus Exploring Allan Bennett Influence On Aleister Crowley

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Crowley Decay And Disillusion

The end of the Abbey came when Raoul Loveday, one of Crowley' disciples, died after drinking the blood of a cat. Mortified, his wife Betty May fled back to England and sold her story to the press. The British media immediately dubbed Crowley "the wickedest man in the world". The temple was disbanded and many of Crowley' former disciples went mad or committed suicide. Leah Hirsig turned to prostitution. Finally, in 1923, a year after Crowley published his Diary of a Drug Fiend, Benito Mussolini, the Italian dictator, had him deported.

Crowley went on to publish more books " such as Magick: In theory and practice and his Confessions " but his reputation had been damaged. As the years passed he began losing touch with reality. He spent his final years penniless, a sad figure living on the favours of friends. A chronic heroin addict, he died in Hastings in 1947, disillusioned and questioning the philosophies he built to escape his repressed Christian upbringing.

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Concerning Crowley Later Years

Anecdotes concerning Crowley's later years in Netherwood don't say much about the man apart from the rarely acknowledged truth that Crowley could play the part of the English gentleman and could come across as extremely charming and entertaining when it suited him.

Crowley Sr was a wealthy brewer and young Al attended the type of upper crust establishments - Oxbridge included - where he acquired the flash and panache of the young upper class English gent.

The caricature of Crowley repeated in the comments on this thread - Satanist, drug fied etc - is a tabloid press/comic-book legend that plays to the need for larger-than-life villains, especially those with 'occult' associations.

Crowley wasn't a Satanist and has said as much and more in his writings. With reference to black magic he said "I despise the thing to such an extent that I can hardly believe in the existence of people so debased and idiotic as to practice it."

He was engaged in the revival of an ancient current associated with the Egyptian/Sumerian traditions. To equate this with the 'Satan' of the Bible is a mistake. Christians often incorrectly infer that a person with an unconventional lifestyle who engages in magic must therefore be Satanic in the 'inverse-Christian' sense. Flawed logic at best.

Crowley was an original and exceptionally talented. His practical system of magic(k) works, whether or not you agree with magic or even the premise.

He adapted Kabbalistic material to suit contemporary needs. His book "777" was written before he turned 40 and is one of the best collections of Qabalistic (western-style Kabbalah) Texts around.

Maybe not so hot as poet, but still engaging and at times rather humorous. His claim to be a better poet than W.B. Yeats (also a Golden Dawn initiate) was definitely a stretch.

The discussion of AC's human side in the lead post is a pleasant change from the usual. Its about time Crowley was appreciated in a less sensational light.


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Aleister Crowley People

There are a small but growing number of groups, based in this country that work with Crowley's ideas. The following list is not exhaustive, but gives some of the main contact points. It is recommended that you do not atttempt to join all of them at once.

OTO, this stands for Ordo Templi Orientis (Order of the Eastern Temple. A magical order, based on eastern eroto-gnostic techniques, some derived from Tantrism. Existed, long before Crowley came on the scene but soon became the principle vehicle for his magical work. Has undergone a big revival over the last ten years. Perhaps it is fortuititous that the OTO split into several rival tendencies following the death of Crowley's successor, Karl Germer. Many magicians feel that magical orders, structured on medieval lines, may not be the appropriate vehicle for Thelema. But as things stand the aspiring candidate must make a choice after investigating and weighing up what both groups have to offer, if anything. In England there are two main groups claiming title to Crowley's mantle: In other parts of Europe and the world, other OTOs exist and can claim priority. There are currently legal threats flying between these groups, so I hope I get it right.

i. OTO 'Caliphate' - BM Thelema, London WC1N 3XX - International HQ: Postfach 33 20 12 D-14180, Germany. More 'traditional' if it can be termed so. Uses original OTO Masonic style rituals and charges annual subscriptions and initiation fees.
ii. OTO 'Typhonian' BM Starfire, London WC1N 3XX. Ruled by famous occult scholar Kenneth Grant, whose book Aleister Crowley & the Hidden God, revolutionised the understanding of Crowley magick. Ditched the old Masonic style rituals in favour of the syllabus very like the Argentinum Astrum, i.e. individual graded magical practices leading to adeptship.

Non OTO Thelemic Groups

Apart from the 'OTOs' there are a number of 'new wave' magical groups and orders that are trying to refashion the occult community on more 'rosicrucian' lines, which seem more in tune with modern needs. Strict hierarchies, authoritarianism and obscurantism are definitely out. An honest attempt to build a fellowship or sodality of magicians is on the cards. Amongst these are:

Golden Dawn Occult Society

PO Box 250, Oxford, OX1 1AP. (email C/O Ogdos@mandrake.uk.net or http://www.uk.net/ogdos.htm. Offers a foundation course in magick and other training to associate members (associate membership is ?5 pa.). Is part of a growing network of individuals and groups throughout Britain and all over the world. Online newsletter.

Chaos magic and the Illuminates of Thanateros (IOT)

C/O, BM Sorcery, London WC1N 3XX, Another important new style of magick that has developed out of the Thelemic one. Other influences include new physics and European shamanism.

The Kaula-Nath Community (including AMOOKOS). C/O PO Box 250, Oxford, OX1 1AP. East- West tantrik groups, founded by Dadaji, one of Crowley's disciple's in the 1930s who, on the master's advice, went to India and became a sadhu. A unique blend of western Occultism with authentic magical Hinduism. Has an older equivalent of Crowley's 'Law of Thelema' - viz: svecchacara - 'the path of ones own will'.

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Aleister Crowley Was An International Mason

Crowley was truly an international Mason. He received his 33° in Mexico City and spoke of participating in Masonic rituals in the United States and also was involved in other rites of Freemasonry. Not only was Crowley a 33° Grand Inspector General of Scottish Rite Freemasonry, but he was also involved in other rites of Freemasonry that went even deeper into the occult. The Rite of Memphis contained Masonic rituals with a definite Egyptian flavor.

By the end of 1910, thanks to my relations with the Grand Hierophant 97° of the Rite of Memphis (a post held after his death by Dr. Gerard Encausse ['Papus'], Theodor Reuss ['Merlin'], and myself), I was now a sort of universal inspector-general of the various rites, charged with the secret mission of reporting on the possibility of reconstructing the entire edifice, which was universally recognized by all its more intelligent members as threatened with the gravest danger.

Even for a man like Crowley who was obsessed with the occult, the rituals of Freemasonry provided a profound occult thrill.

I supposed myself to have reached the summit of success when I restored the Secret Word of the Royal Arch. In this case, tradition had preserved the Word almost intact.

Were Aleister Crowley and his followers or perhaps a similar group capable of performing acts and rituals that are comparable to what are described by satanic ritual abuse survivors. The following quotes are from a book entitled, Secrets of the German Sex Magicians. This book talks about the ritual use of pain and attributes to Crowley the most perverted of practices such as bestiality and the ritual consumption of body fluids.

The ritual use of pain and agony as an access mode to trance and magical power does have its limits, though. For one thing, physical pain tends to dull the senses in the long run, so that stimuli have to be increased incessantly. This may quite easily lead to grave bodily harm, not to mention the fact that it can become downright addictive and lead to a kindled frenzy not very easily mastered.

Crowley, in fact, trod in his practice a path similar to that of the more materialistic authorities. Although he positively encouraged ejaculatory orgasm in his sex magic, he always made a point of consuming what he called the "elixir" afterwards. He understood this elixir to be the mixture of the sexual fluids of both partners or, in the masturbatory act, as just the semen. He entered very carefully in his the magical diaries a description of the elixir's consistency and taste, and he even recorded the prophecies which he deduced from these data.

And Crowley's practices go on to be even more disgusting.

Coprophagia, which means consumption of excrement, here also includes consumption of other secretions such as urine and sweat. It was ritually practiced from early times on the sympathetic-magic principle that the secretions of any entity contain part of its magis. Crowley, for example, occasionally offered his disciples in Cefalu the excretement of a goat. This frequently met with no small disapproval!

Crowley performed a similar ritual in his Sicilian Abbey of Thelema, during which his Scarlet Woman was to be mounted by a goat which would be beheaded during the climax.

There exists today a secret society that dedicates itself to carrying on the teachings of Aleister Crowley. This group is called the O.T.O.. The O.T.O. was founded earlier this century by high grade Austrian Freemason Karl Kellner and German Freemason Theodor Reuss. The O.T.O. became a major force in the occult world when Aleister Crowley became its leader.

Crowley learned ritual magic from the man who was renown as the master of his day, MacGregor Mathers. The pupil-student relationship soon turned into a bitter rivalry and resulted literally in a Black Magic war. When Mathers died in 1918 many of his friends were convinced that Crowley was responsible for his death. Mathers, also a Freemason, introduced Crowley to an occult organization called the "Golden Dawn" and helped Crowley along his dark walk on the Egyptian Masonic road.

Mathers and his wife Moina, the sister of the philosopher Henri Bergson, lived in Paris. (Mathers tried to convert Bergson to magic, but without success.) Their house was decorated as an Egyptian temple and they celebrated 'Egyptian Masses', invoking the goddess Isis. Mathers officiated in a long white robe, a metal belt engraved with the signs of the zodiac, bracelets round his wrists and ankles, and a leopard-skin slung across his shoulders. He was convinced that he was descended from the Scottish clan MacGregor and took to calling himself MacGregor Mathers, Chevalier MacGregor and Comte de Glenstrae. W. B. Yeats, whose magical name in the Golden Dawn was Daemon est Deus Inversus (The Devil is God Reversed), was a frequent visitor to the Mathers household in Paris.

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