Aleister Crowley

Aleister Crowley was a British occultist and magician. Crowley was born to an upper-class family in Britain in 1875. From a young age, Crowley was fascinated by more supernatural aspects of the world. He was supposedly a childhood friend of Cecil Phantomhive and claimed to have met Phantomhive's rumoured demonic servant on several occasions. Crowley as a child also reported an encounter with the infamous Mr. Hyde as a child. Hyde, in a state between sizes, chased young Crowley for several blocks but ultimately did not harm the child. Crowley also bore witness to the 'Autumn of Death' in 1886 and claimed to never have believed the claims of London authorities that sightings of the undead in this time were the result of illness-induced hallucinations. These childhood encounters helped establish Crowley's early fascination with esoteric topics and hidden knowledge, as did the various murders of Jack the Ripper and Count Dracula that occurred around the same time. Crowley tended to be drawn to the darker side of the occult in particular, but was also fascinated by the Kabbalah and various legends of ancient gods from Egypt, Greece and Mesopotamia.

Crowley would seek out a number of groups in the 1890's. He was involved in forming the Guild of Calamitous Intent in 1897 alongside a number of other notable figures. Crowley would be removed from the group, however, as a result of attempting to use the powers of a mystical orb for himself. An embittered Crowley would next seek initiation into the Hermetic Order of the Blue Rose, a highly powerful secretive magical order. However, Crowley failed the vetting process and was as a result not allowed to fully initiate, with his mind wiped so he could cause no trouble for the group. The group Crowley ultimately would stick with the longest in this time frame would be the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. The Golden Dawn was far less powerful than the Blue Rose and its members were not as strong, but Crowley would remain involved in the group until 1901. In 1901, while visiting Egypt, Crowley would come into contact with a number of divine beings. The goddess Nuit and the gods Hadit and Ra-Hoor-Kut spoke to him, dictating the text of a document he later titled The Book of the Law, which proclaimed a number of genuine esoteric secrets alongside the titular Law, being "Do what thou wilt, that is the whole of the law." Crowley recorded this text in three days with help from his wife Rose and additionally came into contact with the goddess Babalon and the entity Aiwass, who provided guidance in how the Book ought to be written.

Following this, friction soon arose within the Golden Dawn. Crowley's longtime partners SRMD and Arthwaite would turn on Crowley over forming this new doctrine as the two secretly intended to use the Golden Dawn to advance the agenda of the Black Lodge and viewed Crowley's ideas as threats to this goal. An undeterred Crowley would chose to break off from the Golden Dawn and form his own group, the Ordo Templi Orientis. The OTO drew a number of major figures over the years, not all of whom remained within the group. The occultist Albion Crawley, who operated largely independently for many years, was an early member, as was Roderick Burgess before he broke off to form his own less successful group. The poet Shelley Arabin, the doctor John Taverner, and the defrocked ex-priest Damien Morcata all were early members of the OTO. The OTO practised a number of rituals that seemed odd to outsiders and Crowley often bragged about engaging in depravity. He also claimed to communicate with evil forces and called himself 'the Great Beast 666.' However, as he eventually expelled Morcata over attempting human sacrifice, it appears this was primarily for show rather than genuine black magic.

Crowley was quite active in the period from after World War I to 1947. He had a residence called Bolskine. He earned quite a reputation as a flamboyant character, but set himself apart from other magicians by his deliberate pursuit of a high profile. Crowley's prominence led to him being consulted as an expert on occult phenomenon by outsiders such as Professor Edward P. Dunning, American detective Nero Wolfe and criminal mastermind Harry Lime. Crowley also made the acquaintance of American rocket scientist Jack Parsons and encouraged his study of the occult—encouragement which led Parsons ultimately to ill-fated interactions with L. Keith Winton and the ruining of Parsons' personal life (Crowley himself worked with Parsons and Winton on a lunar expedition in the early postwar era that led to his face being carved into the dark side of the Moon). While most of those who came to Crowley were people who lacked any genuine knowledge of the occult, Crowley did encounter genuine supernatural entities and had some talent.. The magician Oliver Haddo had a number of contacts with Crowley and is generally accepted as the root source of many of Crowley's deeper magical practices that possessed unambiguous and genuine power. He met the immortal woman Mara at one point and used her experiences to further shape his skill in that side of things. An encounter with a changeling who conformed to others' desires was another encounter Crowley had that risked great consequences, as Crowley wanted the changeling to be a harbinger of the New Aeon. Crowley himself is considered responsible for creating the Unsound, a cursed audio form that can, if heard in totality, kill one within a year of hearing it. Crowley also formed the sect known as the Hymn of One, which remained active until relatively recently. During the Second World War, Crowley provided occult assistance to British intelligence and helped to thwart Operation Sealion, a Nazi plan to invade Britain by opening a mystical gateway.

n the postwar era, the aged Crowley engaged in a number of pursuits intending to allow him to live for far longer. Crowley had, in his younger years, made a pact with a demon for increased sexual prowess and feared torment in Hell. As a result, he sought to avoid death by any means necessary. Crowley carried out a ritual based on ancient alchemy and texts obtained from a parallel world dominated by alchemists to produce a new body for his soul to inhabit, but the replica he produced of himself (a younger, long-haired version of himself but who possessed his memories) fled rather than complied, ultimately rejecting occultism in favour of hyper-advanced science in exile in Japan. Crowley, on his deathbed, carried out a ritual intending to ensure he was reborn. This ritual succeeded in part, but unfortunately trapped his soul in a realm inspired in shows made by Toon actors conforming to many of the rules of that world. Meanwhile, Crowley's body would be found by a vampire, who converted him into one. This vampiric body would go on to dub himself Black Sabbath and carry out many atrocities. A portion of Crowley's soul had been left behind in his body before the vampire attack and this portion was consigned to Hell as agreed. Eventually, this shard of Crowley's soul would become a demon using Crowley as his name. This demon would eventually become ruler of Hell—something that doubtless the original Crowley could not help but envy.