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In this episode of Weird History Presents: Graveyard Shift, we attempt to uncover the truth behind Crowley's dark reputation as "the wickedest man in the world", his bizarre rituals, infamous scandals, and the beliefs that made him one of the most mysterious figures of the 20th century. Was he an evil mastermind, a misunderstood visionary, or something in between?
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Many historical and pop culture figures boast diverse and very public resumes
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However, the focus of today's episode spent the majority of his life in the shadows
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defying traditional norms. And his track record is proof of that. He was an occultist
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ceremonial magician, poet, painter, novelist, mountaineer, and he was rumored to be a British
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spy. We're excavating the life and works of Alistair Crowley, founder of the religion Thelema
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and self-proclaimed prophet entrusted with guiding humanity into the eon of Horus
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The man we now know as Alistair Crowley was born Edward Alexander Crowley on October 12, 1875
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He was the son of devout Christian Plymouth Brethren Fundamentalists, Edward Crowley and Emily Bertha Bishop
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While Crowley described his father, who died of tongue cancer when Crowley was only 11
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as his hero and friend, he had a strained relationship with his mother. She described
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him as the Beast when he was a child, a nickname he wore like a badge of honor throughout his life
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Crowley was sent to Ybor Preparatory School in Cambridge when he was just eight years old
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After inheriting a third of his father's wealth, he began misbehaving and received harsh punishments
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from the school's owner, the Reverend Henry Darcy Champney, who placed young Crowley in a form of
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solitary confinement known euphemistically as Coventry, where the boy was given only bread and
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water during his forced isolation. The pressures of school caused Crowley to develop albuminuria
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a kidney disorder made worse when schoolyard bullies learned of his illness and amused
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themselves by punching him in the kidneys. This led his family to pull him out of school
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and enroll him at Malvern College and Tunbridge School, both of which Crowley quit after only a
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few terms. Crowley eventually received the bulk of his education through Plymouth Brethren
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tutors in Eastbourne East Sussex. During this time, the future occultist became increasingly
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skeptical of Christianity, pointing out discrepancies in the Bible to his religious teachers
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and rebelling against the faith by smoking, masturbating, and having sex with prostitutes
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By the time Crowley began his three-year course at Trinity College, Cambridge in 1895
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he had adopted the name Alistair over Edward and switched his field of study from philosophy
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to English literature, which was not yet a part of the curriculum. It was during this period of his life that Crowley's love for chess and poetry blossomed
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He briefly considered a career as a professional chess player and saw several of his poems appear in student publications
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In 1896, Crowley claimed his first significant mystical experience while in Stockholm, Sweden
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Many biographers today believe this was the result of his first same-sex sexual experience
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which helped him identify his bisexuality. The very next year, after a brief illness that forced Crowley to face his own mortality and what he called the futility of all human endeavor, he abandoned his quest for a diplomatic career, instead choosing to pursue an interest in the occult
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In 1898, he published a string of poems to marginal success before leaving Cambridge without a degree
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Later that same year Crowley met George Cecil Jones a member of the secret society devoted to the study and practice of the occult metaphysics and paranormal activities known as the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn
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Crowley was initiated into the Outer Order of the Golden Dawn in November of 1898 by the group's leader, Samuel Liddell McGregor Mathers
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Soon after, a senior Golden Dawn member named Alan Bennett became Crowley's personal magical tutor
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teaching him about ceremonial magic and the ritual use of drugs. Together, they performed the demonic rituals of Goetia until Bennett left for South Asia to study Buddhism
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Crowley progressed quickly through the lower grades of the Golden Dawn, but his initiation into the Second Order was rejected
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Apparently, his bisexuality and libertine lifestyle made him unpopular within the group
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Unhappy with this rejection, Crowley visited his old leader, Samuel Mathers, in Paris
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who undermined the group's decision by personally admitting Alistair into the adeptest minor grade
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Mathers' autocratic rule created a rift within the Golden Dawn that ultimately led to his and Crowley's isolation from the group
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For the next three years, Crowley traveled the world, strengthening his intricate faith
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In 1900, he spent time in Mexico City where he continued experimenting with ceremonial magic and was later initiated into Freemasonry
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Shortly thereafter, he toured India, devoting himself to the Hindu practice of Raja Yoga and claimed to have achieved the spiritual state Diyana
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In August of 1903, Crowley agreed to marry Rose Edith Kelly to keep her from entering into an arranged marriage
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However, while honeymooning in Paris, Cairo, and Ceylon, Crowley fell deeply in love with his wife
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and wrote her a series of love poems, published as Rosa Mundi and Other Love Songs
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While in Cairo, Crowley and Rose rented an apartment where Crowley set up a temple room
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to study Islamic mysticism and Arabic, invoking ancient Egyptian deities. During this time
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Rose would become delirious and warn her husband that they are waiting for you. She later explained
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that they were Horus, the ancient Egyptian god of kingship in the sky. After revealing to Crowley
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that the equinox of the gods has come, she showed him a 7th century mortuary stele known as the
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Stele of Ankh-Efen-Honsu at a nearby museum. Crowley noted the significance that the exhibit's
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number was 666, the Christian mark of the beast, and dubbed the artifact the Stele of Revealing
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Following this experience, Crowley claimed to have heard the disembodied voice of Ivas
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the messenger of Horus. Crowley spent three days copying everything the voice told him
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and compiled it into what he titled Liber alvel legis, or the Book of the Law. The Book of the
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Law proclaims that Crowley is a prophet tasked with ushering humanity into a new eon and introduced
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the new supreme moral law, do what thou wilt, or as we might say today, you do you. This book and
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its philosophy would become the cornerstone for Crowley's religion, Thelema, which at its core
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is an esoteric and spiritual philosophy considered to be a modern form of paganism
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Around 1907 Crowley used hashish to aid him in performing abramelin rituals where he claimed to have achieved samadhi or union with Godhead He later wrote an essay called The Psychology of Hashish
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where he championed the drug as an aid to mysticism. Under this influence, he claimed to have once again made contact with Ivas
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who dictated several new texts to him that Crowley later compiled into a corpus known as the Holy Books of Thelema
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During this time, Crowley became convinced that Thelema represented objective truth. Later the same year, Crowley began instructing paying students in the occult and magical practice and formed a sexual relationship with his closest disciple, Victor Newberg, with whom he engaged in sadomasochism
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By the end of 1907, Crowley and his former mentor, George Cecil Jones, founded an occult order to act as successor to the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn
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Borrowing rights from the Golden Dawn and adding a thelemic spin, the two created AA, a spiritual organization dedicated to the advancement of humanity by perfection of the individual on every plane
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In 1909, Crowley began releasing a biannual periodical, The Equinox, which he used as the
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official organ of the AA. He continued publications of The Equinox while touring Algeria, where he
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performed an evocation to the demon Choronzon, involving a blood sacrifice. Upon his return to
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London from the desert, Crowley discovered he was being sued by Samuel Liddell McGregor Mathers
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for publishing secrets of the Golden Dawn and the Equinox. Not only did Crowley win the case
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its widely reported coverage by the press also grew his fame, sensationalizing him as a Satanist, an advocate of human sacrifice
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Crowley enjoyed and even played into the stereotype, despite being neither. In early 1912, Crowley published The Book of Lies
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a work of mysticism that caused German occultist Theodore Reuss to accuse him of revealing secrets of his own occult order
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the Ordo Templi Orientis, or OTO. After convincing Royce that the similarities were coincidental
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the two became friends, and Royce appointed Crowley as head of the OTO's British branch
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the Mysteria Mystica Maxima. With Royce's permission, Crowley rewrote many OTO rituals
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incorporating Thelemite elements and emphasizing sex magic. Roughly two years later, Crowley and Victor Newberg traveled to Paris
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where they performed Paris Working, a six-week intense ritual involving heavy drug use and the invocation of the gods Mercury and Jupiter
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While living in the U.S. in 1915, Crowley became involved in New York's pro-German movement
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and got a job as a writer on George Sylvester Virick's propagandist paper The Fatherland
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This led many detractors to denounce Crowley as a German spy, a traitor to Britain
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when in reality, he was acting as a double agent, working for the British intelligence services to infiltrate and undermine Germany's operation in New York
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Many of Crowley's articles for the fatherland were hyperbolic, and in July 1915, he declared independence for Ireland in front of the Statue of Liberty
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a publicity stunt intended to make the German lobby appear ridiculous in the eyes of Americans On his return to London in 1920 the British tabloid John Bull began chastising Crowley labeling him traitorous scum for his work with the German war
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effort. Crowley chose not to sue, despite the truth about his actual intelligence work during
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that time. Later in 1920, Crowley founded the Abbey of Thelema, a small house in Italy that
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Crowley and his followers used as a temple and spiritual commune for performing rituals to the sun god Ra and practicing sex magic
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The Abbey of Thalema drew in many new followers, including a couple named Raul Loveday and Betty May
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While Loveday was devoted to Crowley, May detested him and life at the commune
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claiming her husband was forced to drink the blood of a sacrificed cat and that the couple were required to cut themselves with razors every time they used the pronoun I
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Raoul Loveday later died of a liver infection caused by drinking from a polluted stream
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and Betty May returned to London to leak her story to the press. Because of May's testimony, John Bull proclaimed Crowley as the wickedest man in the world
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and a man we'd like to hang. At this point, Crowley was unable to afford the legal fees required to sue the paper for slander
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The British tabloid escalated its attacks, with its stories repeated in newspapers throughout Europe and North America
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By 1923, Benito Mussolini's fascist government caught wind of Crowley's activities and deported him from Italy
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effectively closing the Abbey of Thelema for good. Crowley believed that the 20th century marked humanity's entry to the Aeon of Horus
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a new epoch in which humans would take control of their destiny. He was convinced that Thelema was the proper religion for this time
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Thelema revolves around the idea that each individual has their own true will
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that they should discover and pursue, and that this exists in harmony with the cosmic will that pervades the universe
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Crowley referred to this process of searching and discovering one's true will as the great work
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Crowley incorporated magic and mysticism into his theology, viewing magic as a bridge between religion and science
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He's been quoted as saying that magic is getting into communication with individuals who exist on a higher plane than ours
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Mysticism is the raising of oneself to their level. Today, Aleister Crowley remains an influential figure among occultists, as well as in popular culture
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He appears as one of the figures on the cover art of the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
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and his motto, Do What Thou Wilt, was inscribed on the vinyl of Led Zeppelin's third album
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Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page lived in one of Crowley's homes on Loch Ness, Scotland
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reporting several strange occurrences at the mansion. Even L. Ron Hubbard, the founder of Scientology, was notably involved in Thelema in the early 1940s
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and it's been argued that Crowley's influence can be found in Hubbard's own work and belief system
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Although the 2008 B-movie Chemical Wedding, written by Bruce Dickinson of Iron Maiden
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featured Crowley as the main antagonist, it was not received well by other mainstream or
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called audiences, and a major film adaptation of Crowley's life has yet to appear on the big screen
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However, with such a unique life story, it's only a matter of time before the wickedest man in the world graces the silver screen