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Aleister Crowley was an English occultist, ceremonial magician, poet, painter, novelist, and mountaineer. He founded the religion of Thelema, identifying himself as the prophet entrusted with guiding humanity into the Æon of Horus in the early 20th century. A prolific writer, he published widely over the course of his life.
Thelema is a social or spiritual philosophy developed in the early 1900s by Aleister Crowley, an English writer, mystic, and ceremonial magician. The word thelema is the English transliteration of the Koine Greek noun θέλημα, "will", from the verb θέλω (ethélō): "to will, wish, want or purpose".
Liber AL vel Legis, commonly known as The Book of the Law, is the central sacred text of Thelema, allegedly written down from dictation mostly by Aleister Crowley, although his wife Rose Edith Crowley is also known to have written two phrases into the manuscript of the Book after its dictation. Crowley claimed it was dictated to him by a preternatural being calling himself Aiwass, but the three chapters are largely written in the first person by the Thelemic deities Nuit, Hadit, and Ra-Hoor-Khuit respectively.
Ordo Templi Orientis (O.T.O.) is an occult initiatory organization founded at the beginning of the 20th century. The origins of the O.T.O can be traced back to the German-speaking occultists Carl Kellner, Heinrich Klein, Franz Hartmann and Theodor Reuss. English author and occultist Aleister Crowley is the best-known and most influential member of the order.
Francis Israel Regardie was an English occultist, ceremonial magician, and writer who spent much of his life in the United States. He wrote fifteen books on the subject of occultism.
The Typhonian Order, previously known as the Typhonian Ordo Templi Orientis (TOTO), is a self-initiatory magical order based in the United Kingdom that focuses on magickal and typhonian concepts. It was originally led by British occultist Kenneth Grant (1924–2011) and his partner Steffi Grant, and is now believed to be led by their deputy Michael Staley.
Kenneth Grant was an English ceremonial magician and prominent advocate of the Thelemic religion. A poet, novelist, and writer, he founded his own Thelemic organisation, the Typhonian Ordo Templi Orientis—later renamed the Typhonian Order—with his wife Steffi Grant.
William Breeze is an American author and publisher on magick and philosophy. He is a Patriarch of Ecclesia Gnostica Catholica, the liturgical arm of Ordo Tempi Orientis, of which he is the current international leader. In this capacity he is a leading editor of the occult works of Aleister Crowley, the founder of the philosophy and religion of Thelema, who is regarded as its prophet. Under the name Hymenaeus Beta he is a successor of Grady McMurtry, who was the first of the caliphs to succeed the Thelemic prophet Aleister Crowley, and served as the Outer Head of Ordo Templi Orientis from 1971 until 1985. Caliph was a designation given to McMurtry by Crowley in relation to the continuing office of Outer Head of the Order (OHO) of OTO of which Crowley was a religious leader. According to Crowley, caliph is the elected spiritual and organizational worldwide leader of OTO and is his successor. A lineage of caliphs carrying religious and organisational significance were designated by Crowley. The caliphs, as successors to Crowley, lead the Order after his death.
Lon Milo DuQuette, also known as Rabbi Lamed Ben Clifford, is an American writer, lecturer, musician, and occultist, best known as an author who applies humor in the field of Western Hermeticism.
Aiwass is the name given to a voice that English occultist Aleister Crowley claimed to have heard on April 8, 9, and 10 in 1904. Crowley claimed that this voice, which he considered originated with a non-corporeal intelligence, dictated The Book of the Law to him.
Lea (Leah) Hirsig was a Swiss-American notably associated with the author and occultist Aleister Crowley.
Karl Johannes Germer, also known as Frater Saturnus, was a German occultist and the United States representative and later a successor of author and occultist Aleister Crowley as the Outer Head of the Order (OHO) of Ordo Templi Orientis from 1947 until his death in 1962. He was born in Elberfeld, Germany and died in West Point, California.
The Blue Equinox, officially known as The Equinox: Volume III, Number I, is a book written by the English occultist Aleister Crowley, the founder of Thelema. First published in 1919, it details the principles and aims of the secret society O.T.O. and its ally the A∴A∴, both of which were under Crowley's control at the time. It includes such topics as The Law of Liberty, The Gnostic Mass, and Crowley's "Hymn to Pan".
Richard Kaczynski is an American writer and lecturer in the fields of social psychology, metaphysical beliefs and new religious movements. He is known for his biography of the occultist Aleister Crowley, Perdurabo: The Life of Aleister Crowley, described by The Times Literary Supplement as "the major biography to date", and by the Norwegian daily Aftenposten as the best biography of Crowley.
James Wasserman is an American author and occultist. A member of Ordo Templi Orientis since 1976 and a book designer by trade, he has written extensively on spiritual and political liberty.
Wilfred Talbot Smith was an English occultist and ceremonial magician known as a prominent advocate of the religion of Thelema. Living most of his life in North America, he played a key role in propagating Thelema across the continent.
Betty May was a British singer, dancer, and model, who worked primarily in London's West End. She was a member of the London Bohemian set of the inter-war years, claimed to have joined a criminal gang in Paris, was associated with occultist Aleister Crowley, and sat for Augustus John and Jacob Epstein. She became known as the "Tiger Woman". She adopted the name Betty May early in life, for reasons that are unclear.
Cecil Frederick Russell (1897–1987) was a 20th-century American occultist. Russell was a member of the A∴A∴ and Aleister Crowley's O.T.O. magical order. Russell later founded his own magical order, the G.B.G..
Herbert Charles Pollitt, also known as Jerome Pollitt, was a patron of the arts and on-stage female impersonator who performed as Diane de Rougy. He became notorious as an Cambridge undergraduate due to his taste for Decadent art and literature, and was immortalised as the eponymous hero of an E.F. Benson novel in 1896. He became a very close friend of the artist Aubrey Beardsley, and had a brief but significant relationship with the occultist Aleister Crowley. Following his time at Cambridge, Pollitt moved to London and saw service in the First World War as a lance-corporal. He died in 1942.
References
- ↑ Tobias Churton Aleister Crowley: The Biography "James Archibald Douglas did surely live and breathe and could be found in the 1891 British Census, dwelling at 5 Cary Parade, Torbay Road, Torquay, as James A Douglas 'teacher of arts and philology' with 'Edward A Crowley'"
- ↑ Richard Kaczynski - Perdurabo, Revised and Expanded Edition: The Life of Aleister Crowley 2010 -- Page 24 "The Life of Aleister Crowley" Richard Kaczynski. ... As an Oxford University graduate and Bible Society missionary, Douglas had much to teach Alec, but most important was his refreshing—and surprising— normality. ... Most importantly, however, he demonstrated one could safely enjoy these things in moderation."
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