The couple had been married at London's Kensington Registry Office in November 1874, and were evangelical Christians.
Aleister Crowley (; born Edward Alexander Crowley; 12 October 1875 – 1 December 1947) was an English occultist, ceremonial magician, poet, painter, novelist, and mountaineer.
He is the subject of various biographies and academic studies. ==Early life== ===Youth: 1875–1894=== Crowley was born as Edward Alexander Crowley at 30 Clarendon Square in Royal Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, on 12 October 1875.
Following the death of their baby daughter in 1880, in 1881 the Crowleys moved to Redhill, Surrey.
Following the death of their baby daughter in 1880, in 1881 the Crowleys moved to Redhill, Surrey.
Habershon's evangelical Christian boarding school in Hastings, and then to Ebor preparatory school in Cambridge, run by the Reverend Henry d'Arcy Champney, whom Crowley considered a sadist. In March 1887, when Crowley was 11, his father died of tongue cancer.
Back in London, Baker introduced Crowley to George Cecil Jones, Baker's brother-in-law and a fellow member of the occult society known as the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, which had been founded in 1888.
Crowley developed interests in chess, poetry, and mountain climbing, and in 1894 climbed Beachy Head before visiting the Alps and joining the Scottish Mountaineering Club.
He continued his mountaineering, going on holiday to the Alps to climb every year from 1894 to 1898, often with his friend Oscar Eckenstein, and in 1897 he made the first ascent of the Mönch without a guide.
The following year he returned to the Bernese Alps, climbing the Eiger, Trift, Jungfrau, Mönch, and Wetterhorn. ===Cambridge University: 1895–1898=== Having adopted the name of Aleister over Edward, in October 1895 Crowley began a three-year course at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he was entered for the Moral Science Tripos studying philosophy.
These feats led to his recognition in the Alpine mountaineering community. Crowley had his first significant mystical experience while on holiday in Stockholm in December 1896.
He continued his mountaineering, going on holiday to the Alps to climb every year from 1894 to 1898, often with his friend Oscar Eckenstein, and in 1897 he made the first ascent of the Mönch without a guide.
In October 1897, Crowley met Herbert Charles Pollitt, president of the Cambridge University Footlights Dramatic Club, and the two entered into a relationship.
In July 1898, he left Cambridge, not having taken any degree at all despite a "first class" showing in his 1897 exams and consistent "second class honours" results before that. ===The Golden Dawn: 1898–99=== In August 1898, Crowley was in Zermatt, Switzerland, where he met the chemist Julian L.
In 1898, he joined the esoteric Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, where he was trained in ceremonial magic by Samuel Liddell MacGregor Mathers and Allan Bennett.
He continued his mountaineering, going on holiday to the Alps to climb every year from 1894 to 1898, often with his friend Oscar Eckenstein, and in 1897 he made the first ascent of the Mönch without a guide.
In March 1898, he obtained A.E.
Waite's The Book of Black Magic and of Pacts, and then Karl von Eckartshausen's The Cloud Upon the Sanctuary, furthering his occult interests. In 1898, Crowley privately published 100 copies of his poem Aceldama: A Place to Bury Strangers In, but it was not a particular success.
In July 1898, he left Cambridge, not having taken any degree at all despite a "first class" showing in his 1897 exams and consistent "second class honours" results before that. ===The Golden Dawn: 1898–99=== In August 1898, Crowley was in Zermatt, Switzerland, where he met the chemist Julian L.
Crowley was initiated into the Outer Order of the Golden Dawn on 18 November 1898 by the group's leader, Samuel Liddell MacGregor Mathers.
He continued writing poetry, publishing Jezebel and Other Tragic Poems, Tales of Archais, Songs of the Spirit, Appeal to the American Republic, and Jephthah in 1898–99; most gained mixed reviews from literary critics, although Jephthah was considered a particular critical success. Crowley soon progressed through the lower grades of the Golden Dawn, and was ready to enter the group's inner Second Order.
In November 1899, Crowley purchased Boleskine House in Foyers on the shore of Loch Ness in Scotland.
When the case was taken to court, the judge ruled in favour of the London lodge, as they had paid for the space's rent, leaving both Crowley and Mathers isolated from the group. ===Mexico, India, Paris, and marriage: 1900–1903=== In 1900, Crowley travelled to Mexico via the United States, settling in Mexico City and starting a relationship with a local woman.
Eckenstein joined him later in 1900, and together they climbed several mountains, including Iztaccihuatl, Popocatepetl, and Colima, the latter of which they had to abandon owing to a volcanic eruption.
In 1902, he was joined in India by Eckenstein and several other mountaineers: Guy Knowles, H.
They reached an altitude of before turning back. Having arrived in Paris in November 1902, he socialised with friend and future brother-in-law, the painter Gerald Kelly, and through him became a fixture of the Parisian arts scene.
He returned to Boleskine in April 1903.
He married Rose Edith Kelly and in 1904 they honeymooned in Cairo, Egypt, where Crowley claimed to have been contacted by a supernatural entity named Aiwass, who provided him with The Book of the Law, a sacred text that served as the basis for Thelema.
While on his honeymoon, he wrote her a series of love poems, published as Rosa Mundi and other Love Songs (1906), as well as authoring the religious satire Why Jesus Wept (1904). ==Developing Thelema== ===Egypt and The Book of the Law: 1904=== In February 1904, Crowley and Rose arrived in Cairo.
According to his account, he instead sent typescripts of the work to several occultists he knew, putting the manuscript away and ignoring it. ===Kanchenjunga and China: 1905–06=== Returning to Boleskine, Crowley came to believe that Mathers had begun using magic against him, and the relationship between the two broke down.
On 28 July 1905, Rose gave birth to Crowley's first child, a daughter named Lilith, with Crowley writing the pornographic Snowdrops from a Curate's Garden to entertain his recuperating wife.
In 1907, he and George Cecil Jones co-founded an esoteric order, the A∴A∴, through which they propagated Thelema.
He began short-lived romances with actress Vera "Lola" Neville (née Snepp) and author Ada Leverson, while Rose gave birth to Crowley's second daughter, Lola Zaza, in February 1907. ===The A∴A∴ and The Holy Books of Thelema: 1907–1909=== With his old mentor George Cecil Jones, Crowley continued performing the Abramelin rituals at the Ashdown Park Hotel in Coulsdon, Surrey.
He also claimed to have been contacted once again by Aiwass in late October and November 1907, adding that Aiwass dictated two further texts to him, "Liber VII" and "Liber Cordis Cincti Serpente", both of which were later classified in the corpus of
After spending time in Algeria, in 1912 he was initiated into another esoteric order, the German-based Ordo Templi Orientis (O.T.O.), rising to become the leader of its British branch, which he reformulated in accordance with his Thelemite beliefs.
In 1920, he established the Abbey of Thelema, a religious commune in Cefalù, Sicily where he lived with various followers.
His libertine lifestyle led to denunciations in the British press, and the Italian government evicted him in 1923.
Aleister Crowley (; born Edward Alexander Crowley; 12 October 1875 – 1 December 1947) was an English occultist, ceremonial magician, poet, painter, novelist, and mountaineer.
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