Aleister Crowley

Aleister Crowley

Aleister Crowley, born Edward Alexander Crowley (pronounced /ˈkroʊli/), (12 October 1875 – 1 December 1947), was an English occultist, writer, mountaineer, poet, spy and yogi.^[1] He was an influential member of several occult organizations, including the Golden Dawn, the A∴A∴, and Ordo Templi Orientis (O.T.O.),^[2] and is best known today for his occult writings, especially The Book of the Law, the central sacred text of Thelema. He gained much notoriety during his lifetime, and was dubbed "The Wickedest Man In the World."^[3]

Crowley was also a chess player, painter, astrologer, hedonist, bisexual, drug experimenter, and social critic.

Involved as a young adult in the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, he first studied mysticism with and made enemies of William Butler Yeats and Arthur Edward Waite.^{[citation needed]} Like many in occult circles of the time, Crowley voiced the view that Waite was a pretentious bore through searing critiques of Waite's writings and editorials of other authors' writings. In his periodical The Equinox, Crowley titled one diatribe, "Wisdom While You Waite", and his note on the passing of Waite bore the title, "Dead Waite".

His friend and former Golden Dawn associate, Allan Bennett, introduced him to the ideas of Buddhism,^[21] while Samuel Liddell MacGregor Mathers, acting leader of the Golden Dawn organization, acted as his early mentor in western magic but would later become his enemy. Several decades after Crowley's participation in the Golden Dawn, Mathers claimed copyright protection over a particular ritual and sued Crowley for infringement after Crowley's public display of the ritual. While the public trial continued, both Mathers and Crowley claimed to call forth armies of demons and angels to fight on behalf of their summoner.^{[citation needed]} Both also developed and carried complex Seal of Solomon amulets and talismans.

In 1899, Crowley acquired Boleskine House, in Foyers on the shore of Loch Ness in Scotland.

In a book of fiction, titled Moonchild, Crowley later portrayed Mathers as the primary villain, including him as a character named SRMD, using the abbreviation of Mathers' magical name. Arthur Edward Waite also appeared in Moonchild as a villain named Arthwaite, while Bennett appeared as the silent, monkish Mahathera Phang.

While he did not officially break with Mathers until 1904, Crowley lost faith in this teacher's abilities soon after the 1900 schism in the Golden Dawn (if not before).^[22] Later in the year of that schism, Crowley travelled to Mexico and continued his magical studies in isolation. Crowley's writings suggest that he discovered the word Abrahadabra during this time.

In October 1901, after practicing Raja Yoga for some time, he said he had reached a state he called dhyana—one of many states of unification in thoughts that are described in Magick (Liber ABA) (See Crowley on egolessness).^[23] 1902 saw him writing the essay Berashith (the first word of Genesis), in which he gave meditation (or restraint of the mind to a single object) as the means of attaining his goal. The essay describes ceremonial magick as a means of training the will, and of constantly directing one's thoughts to a given object through ritual. In his 1903 essay, Science and Matter, Crowley urged an empirical approach to Buddhist teachings.

777 vel Prolegomena Symbolica Ad Systemam Sceptico Mysticae - Download

A complete dictionary of the correspondences of all magical elements, reprinted with extensive additions, making it the only standard comprehensive book of reference ever published. It is to the language of Occultism what Webster or Murray is to the English language.


A Handbook of Geomancy - Download

A guide but with some intentional inaccuracies.


A Master of the Temple - Download

Frater Achad's magical diary with comments by Crowley.


A Note on Genesis - Download

By Allen Bennet. A model of Qabalistic ratiocination. Specially adapted to Gnana Yoga. With a preface and notes by Crowley.


An Article on the Qabalah - Download

A general discussion of the Method and uses of the Qabalah (The Temple of Solomon the King).


Ararita - Download

An account of the Hexagram and the method of reducing it to the Unity and Beyond. This book describes in magical language a very secret process of Initiation.


Eight Lectures on Yoga - Download

Eight Lectures on Yoga is a book by Aleister Crowley about the practice of Yoga. The book is Number 4 of Volume 3 of the Equinox, which was published by the O.T.O. The work is largely a demystified look at yoga, using little to no jargon or satirical humor. It is divided under two sections into eight parts, which are transcripts of eight one-hour lectures on the subject given by Crowley. It was originally published in 1939.


Liber A vel Armorum - Download

An instruction for the preparation of the Elemental Instruments.


Liber Arcanorum - Download

An account of the cosmic process so far as it is indicated by the Tarot Trumps. The sequence of the 22 Trumps is explained as a formula of Initiation.


Liber Chanokh - Download

A brief Abstract of the Symbolic Representation of the Universe. Derived by Dr. John Dee through the Scrying of Sir Edward Kelley.


Liber Collegii Sancti - Download

Being the tasks proper to the Grades and their Oaths proper to Liber XIII. This is the Official Paper of the various Grades. It includes the Task and Oath of all Grades to, and including, Adeptus Minor.


Liber Cordis Cincti Serpente - Download

An account of the relations of the aspirant and his Holy Guardian Angel.


Liber DCCCXIII vel Ararita - Download

An account of the Hexagram and the method of reducing it to the Unity, and Beyond.


Liber E vel Exercitiorum - Download

Instructs the aspirant in the necessity of keeping a record. Suggests methods of testing physical clairvoyance. Gives instruction in Asana, Pranayama and Dharana, and advises the application of tests to the physical body, so that the student may thoroughly understand his own limitations.


Liber Liberi vel Lapidis Lazuli - Download

'The birth words of a Master of the Temple'. Being the Voluntary Emancipation of a certain Exempt Adept from his Adeptship. These are the Birth Words of a Master of the Temple. It´s 7 Chapters are referred to the 7 Planets in the following order: Mars, Saturn, Jupiter, Sol, Mercury, Luna, Venus.


Liber Samekh - Download

Being the Ritual employed by the Beast 666 for the Attainment of the Knowledge and Conversation of his Holy Guardian Angel during the semester of His performance of the Operation of the Sacred Magick of Abramelin the Mage.


Liber Septem Regum Sanctorum - Download

Being an Initiation Ritual for certain select probationers to A.·.A.·.


Liber Tau vel Kabbalae Trium Literarum - Download

A graphic interpretation of the Tarot on the plane of Initiation. Analyzes the Hebrew alphabet into seven triads, each of which forms a Trinity of sympathetic ideas relating respectively to the Three Orders comprised in the A.·.A.·.


Liber Trigrammaton - Download

Being a book of Trigrams of the Mutations of the Tao with the Yin and Yang. An account of the Cosmic process: corresponding to the stanzas of Dzyan in another system.


Liber Turris vel Domus Dei - Download

An instruction for attainment by the direct destruction of thoughts as they arise in the mind.


Liber Viarum Viae - Download

A graphic account of Magical powers classified under Tarot Trumps. An analysis of the 22 letters. To each is attributed a magical or mystical practice of progressive difficuly until attainment is complete.


Magick - Download


Sepher Sephiroth - Download

A dictionary of Hebrew words arranged according to their value numerically. This is an Encyclopedia of the Holy Qabalah, which is a map of the Universe, and enables man to attain Perfect Understanding.


The Book of Lies - Download

93 short chapters each Qabalistically related to its chapter number. Deals with many matters on all planes of the very highest importance. It is an Official Publication for Babes of the Abyss, but it is recommended even to beginners as being highly suggestive. 1913.


The Lost Continent - Download

An account of the continent of Atlantis: the manners and customs, magical rites and opinions of it´s people, together with a true account of the catastrophy, so-called, which ended in it´s disappearance.


The Mass of the Phoenix - Download

A solar ritual.


The Soldier and the Hunchback - Download

A general discussion on philosophy.


The Sword of Song - Download

Two Poems. A critical study of various philosophies. An account of Buddhism. 1925.


The Treasurehouse of Images - Download

A superb collection of Litanies appropriate to the Signs of the Zodiac.


The Vision and the Voice - Download

Being of the Angels of the Thirty Aethyrs, the Vision and the Voice. Besides being the classical account of the Thirty Aethyrs and a model of all visions, the cries of the Angels should be regarded as accurate, and the doctrine of the function of the Great White Brotherhood understood as the foundation of the Aspiration of the Adept. The account of the Master of the Temple should, in particular, be taken as authentic.


The Voice of the Silence, the Two Paths, the Seven Portals - Download

By H.P. Blavatsky, with an extensive commentary by Crowley.


The Wake World - Download

A poetical allegory of the relations of the soul and the Holy Guardian Angel.


Thien Tao - Download

An essay on Attainment by way of Equilibrium.