WTFwiki: Aleister Crowley
Da "Wiki-est" Man in Da World
The man, the myth, the legend, da Wickedest Man in da World, the Flash Bastard, the great beast 666, the monster of Loch-Ness, Candlestick, Mega Therion, Supreme Rex and Sovereign Grand Master General of Ireland, Iona, and all the Britons. These are but a fraction of the nicknames that were given to British poet and occultist, Aleister Crowley. A man shrouded in mystery and bodily fluids, yet his name can be associated with elite figures who push culture and possibly legislature but only a feint trace is left behind. A Google search can find you only a few photos of him looking directly into the camera with a wide-eyed expression on his face.
As children, the mention of the Loch-Ness monster sent shivers down our spine yet we didn’t know who the actual figure behind the name was. Our brains filled with a black and white photo of some log sticking out the water but no clear image of who or what the monster looked like. In actuality the Monster of Loch Ness was a rich Englishman masturbating into a lake (Loch Ness)in front of his house and calling it magick. This man is the most notorious occultist (and possibly spy) in the world, and subjectively the most successful. With influence ranging from the Beatles’ Sgt Pepper’s album cover to a mention in Adventure Time. I might provide a list at the bottom with all the references I can find but seriously this man has the most insane track-record. The amount of references he has in modern pop culture is wicked. He has ties to the original blueprint for hollywood, the musical tones which inspired the Golden Rock & Roll era, to the crazy minds which led to Scientology, Satanism, NASA! A magickal life including: being born into a rich family in 1800’s England, being accepted into elite fraternities, becoming a Mason, traveling around the world mountaineering and climbing the world’s 2nd tallest mountain (K2), seeing the dawn of a new century, transcribing ancient literature dating back to biblical times so the 20th century is able to consume, traveling to Mexico City to fall in love with a local and practice ceremonial magick, faking his own death and reappearing at his own art exhibit two months later, possible ties to intelligence, befriending a monk and studying yoga in India, marrying a friend to prevent an arranged marriage, founding a religion on his honeymoon, starting a commune in an old villa and being kicked out of Italy by Mussolini for hosting grotesque orgies. When a totalitarian dictator who’s besties with Hitler calls you out for wildin’ out too hard, you’re a goofball on a cosmological scale.
Crazy to think that an Englishman born in the 1800’s ends up being America’s original Rick Rubin without even being alive at the time. Kind of looks like him too! This lasting influence is due to Aleister’s infamy gained through his ability to befriend others, his extensive work in deciphering literature, his practice of occult magick. He even wrote his own Book of the Law while on honeymoon in Egypt and many other books serving as the central doctrine for his later religion of Thelema. It also helps to have a heap of dad’s money to keep you afloat and host extravagant parties until the cocaine comes by (it did.)
The spelling of, “magick” is different because “magic” is performative and what stage performers do to entertain their audience, magick is what one performs for self-development or internal alchemy. It involves all types of exercises to sharpen one’s mind for the purpose of self-divination. Including studying the alignment of astral bodies and calendars to the connection between shapes and numbers; even reciting verbal hymns to evoke spirits from a “higher plane” to come contact you, leading to a deeper self-understanding and sharper conscious control. It was a blending of many different practices and religions. He called it, “a purer form of Paganism” and the religion was given a central motif and coined the phrase, “Do what thou wilit” which means to reallign yourself to your true will’s belief and stop living on autopilot. Many young people today interpret it as being a symbol for anarchy but Thelema is a lot more structured and ritualistic than you would think. Hindu yoga and Buddhism, scientific naturalism, and various currents within Western esotericism, among them ceremonial magic, alchemy, astrology, Rosicrucianism, Kabbalah, and the Tarot were all incorporated into his doctrine but he gained a lot of hatred because he made men do butt stuff to get into the club. Not exactly lustful homo-erotica, but if you were to be accepted into the higher levels of this religion and were male, you had to give it up. Everything was a “test” of sorts which measured cognitive and physical ability, how long can I go without using the word “the,” how long can I walk around on my knees, I wont eat food until I need to.. and apparently unless you’re able to go through the booty plundering unfazed you’re not on top of your game and need more mental discipline.
It never states where his fascination with the occult came from but does mention he was very opposed to his parent’s Christian practice. Specifically, he was a legendary Mom rage-baiter. His mother is quoted as saying she had a, “strained” relationship with her son Alexander who later changed his name. Also, when he was first accepted into a fraternity in college would have been a great opportunity to split from his family’s beliefs and become indoctrinated into some extreme movement (it still constantly happens today.) Aleister was a rich kid from a Christian family but sought a more adventurous life which led to a journey of mysticism and raw, unrestrained, emotions. It led to life’s purest experiences and to constant highs and lows. It led to traveling around the world and falling in love many times. It led to great confidence and to colossal hubris but in the end Aleister’s footprints have been long admired by the free-willed and his ideas have propagated through artistic expression worldwide and called Satanic by those who don’t understand. It didn’t help that Aleister was a fan of the outrageous and would lean into the idea that he was a Satanist.
His philosophy attracted many small, elite characters around the world. Allegedly he and Jack Parsons, lead propulsion expert working for the government, would pen each other constantly and even made sure that Jack be appointed head of the Thelemite branch in Pasadena, CA where other characters would attend like Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard, Church of Satanism founder Anton Lavey, Psychological Warfare Expert for the military Michael Aquino, and more. Jack Parsons’ resarch and inventions ended up leading to the creation of NASA. Aleister’s most famous for his impact on Hollywood and the arts but Crowley’s tentacles reach much farther than one would expect.
Posthumously Alistair has left a free-thinking legacy with artists pushing the “Do what thou wilt” narrative even today. If you were to look up all the references there are of Thelema or the man in our society you’d be in for a deep dive. As I was researching this topic I found an old video of one of my favorite rappers speaking on Crowley. Ab Soul describes how integral, “Mr. Crowley” is in the music industry, mind you the Great Beast died in 1947. Here is the opening stanza for one of Led Zeppelin’s most famous songs Kashmir:
Oh, let the sun beat down upon my face With stars to fill my dreams I am a traveler of both time and space To be where I have been Sit with elders of a gentle race This world has seldom seen Talk of days for which they sit and wait All will be revealed
Here is a great video essay on the man if you want a more thorough explanation on bro.