Aleister Crowley and Islam (original) (raw)
Related papers
In late 19th century Great Britain, there was a revival of interest in the magic and occultism that emerged during the Renaissance. Aleister Crowley (1875-1947) was a product of that revival, one who has had an ironically long afterlife, despite all of the controversy that has surrounded him. Crowley should also be remembered as a significant influence upon the founders of a variety of New Religious Movements (such as Gerald Gardner and L. Ron Hubbard). There was increased interest in his work and personality that emerged several decades after his death, as evidenced by the use of his image on the cover of a Beatles album, an increase in the sales of his books, and an emerging new status as a countercultural icon.
Rethinking Aleister Crowley and Thelema: New Perspectives
Aries: Journal for the Study of Western Esotericism, 2021
against his upbringing at an early age, identifying himself with the Great Beast 666 of Revelation. He joined the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn in 1898 and rose quickly through the grades. Though Crowley's involvement with the Golden Dawn ended in 1900, its degree structure and magical curriculum came to comprise one of two basic components of his system of Magick, the second consisting of yogic techniques he learned while travelling in India, Burma, and Ceylon.3 1904 marked a turning point in Crowley's occult career. On honeymoon in Cairo, Crowley sought to impress his wife Rose (née Kelly, 1874-1932) with some invocations, when she entered a trance state, proclaiming that someone awaited him. This someone was later identified as the god Horus. At Rose's behest, Crowley over the course of April 8-10 penned The Book of the Law, which he claimed was dictated to him by a discarnate entity named Aiwass.4 The text announces the advent of a new epoch in the spiritual evolution of humanity, with Crowley, as the Beast, as its prophet. This new age was to be characterised by individual liberation and self-realisation, epitomised by the maxim: 'Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law' , and the word Thelema (Greek for "will"), which became the title of Crowley's religion.5 Crowley's magical teachings were structured within two initiatory orders. The first of these was A⸫A⸫, which Crowley co-founded with George Cecil Jones (1873-1960) in 1907, and whose curriculum combined ceremonial magic in the style of the Golden Dawn with yogic techniques and study of the "Holy Books of Thelema".6 The second order within which Crowley assumed a formative role was Ordo Templi Orientis (oto), an initiatory fraternity led by the German socialist and singer Theodor Reuss (1855-1923). oto claimed to possess the secret uniting all masonic and Hermetic systems, namely, that of sexual magic.7 Reuss made Crowley the head of oto in Britain in 1912, and from 1914 onward, he began experimenting systematically with sexual magic. Over time, he came to reshape oto's degree structure and rituals in accordance with Thelema, assuming international headship of the order after Reuss's death.8
The Role of Religious Experience in the Magical Philosophy of Aleister Crowley
A short paper which examines the role and importance of the concept of 'religious experience' in the magical and philosophical system of Aleister Crowley. Written for the 'Religious Experience' module of the Research Masters in Religious Studies at the University of Amsterdam 2014-2015. [Note: requires further editing.]