Aleister Crowley and Western Esotericism

Aleister Crowley and Western Esotericism
Author: Henrik Bogdan
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 421
Release: 2012-09-05
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0199996067

This volume is the first comprehensive examination of one of the twentieth century's most distinctive iconoclasts. Aleister Crowley (1875-1947) was a study in contradictions. Born into a fundamentalist Christian family and educated at Cambridge, he was vilified as a traitor, drug addict, and debaucher, yet revered as perhaps the most influential thinker in contemporary esotericism. Moving beyond the influence of contemporary psychology and the modernist understanding of the occult, Crowley declared himself the revelator of a new age of individualism. Crowley's occult bricolage, Magick, was an eclectic combination of spiritual exercises drawn from Western European magical ceremonies and Indic sources for meditation and yoga. This journey of self-liberation culminated in harnessing sexual power as a magical discipline, a "sacrilization of the self" as practiced in Crowley's mixed masonic group, the Ordo Templi Orientis. The religion Crowley created, Thelema, legitimated his role as a charismatic revelator and herald of a new age of freedom. Aleister Crowley's lasting influence can be seen in the counter-culture movement of the late 1960s and early 1970s and in many forms of alternative spirituality and popular culture. The essays in this volume offer crucial insight into Crowley's foundational role in the study of Western esotericism, new religious movements, and sexuality.

The Collected Works of Aleister Crowley

The Collected Works of Aleister Crowley
Author: Aleister Crowley
Publisher: DigiCat
Total Pages: 870
Release: 2023-11-20
Genre: Body, Mind & Spirit
ISBN:

This carefully created collection presents the most important Aleister Crowley's works on Thelema and magick. This book has been designed and formatted to the highest digital standards and adjusted for readability on all devices. Contents: Thelema Texts The Book of the Law (Liber AL vel Legis) The Law of Liberty (Liber DCCCXXXVII) Ecclesiæ Gnosticæ Catholicæ Creed Liber A'ash vel Capricorni Pneumatici Liber B vel Magi Liber Cheth vel Vallum Abiegni Liber Cordis Cincti Serpente Liber DCCCXIII vel Ararita Liber III vel Jugorum Liber Liberi vel Lapidis Lazuli Liber Librae Liber LXI vel Causæ Liber Porta Lucis Liber Resh vel Helios Liber Stellae Rubeae Liber Tzaddi vel Hamus Hermeticus Mysticism & Magick The Book Of Lies The Blue Equinox The Lesser Key of Solomon The Psychology of Hashish White Stains The Diary of a Drug Fiend

Aleister Crowley and the Temptation of Politics

Aleister Crowley and the Temptation of Politics
Author: Marco Pasi
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 253
Release: 2014-09-11
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 131754630X

Aleister Crowley (1875-1947) is one of the most famous and significant authors in the history of western esotericism. Crowley has been long ignored by scholars of religion whilst the stories of magical and sexual practice which circulate about him continue to attract popular interest. "Aleister Crowley and the Temptation of Politics" looks at the man behind the myth - by setting him firmly within the politics of his time - and the development of his ideas through his extensive and extraordinarily varied writings. Crowley was a rationalist, sympathetic to the values of the Enlightenment, but also a romantic and a reactionary. His search for an alternative way to express his religious feelings led him to elaborate his own vision of social and political change. Crowley's complex politics led to his involvement with many key individuals, organisations and groups of his day - the secret service of various countries, the German Nazi party, Russian political activists, journalists and politicians of various persuasions, as well as other writers - both in Europe and America. "Aleister Crowley and the Temptation of Politics" presents a life of ideas, an examination of a man shaped by and shaping the politics of his times.

Aleister Crowley

Aleister Crowley
Author: Tobias Churton
Publisher: Watkins Media Limited
Total Pages: 497
Release: 2014-05-20
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1780283849

At last, the unexpurgated, true story of the amazing Aleister Crowley—philosopher, poet, artists, writer, magus, explorer, parapsychology—and spy. Packed with fresh research and previously unpublished ‘Crowleyana.’ For 100 years, Aleister Crowley’s true achievements have been suppressed and his true character defaced in a campaign of vilification unparalleled in British history. Until now, Crowley’s life has not been written—it has been written over. Tobias Churton is a world authority on Freemasonry, Rosicrucianism, and Gnosticism. In writing Aleister Crowley, he enjoyed complete access to all Crowley’s restricted papers, unpublished letters and personal diaries kept in a trust at London’s Warburg Institute and in the Ordo Templi Orientis archives. Ninety percent of the authentic material here has never before been published.

The Aleister Crowley Collection

The Aleister Crowley Collection
Author: Aleister Crowley
Publisher: Lulu.com
Total Pages: 420
Release: 2019-09-07
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0359905722

The Aleister Crowley Collection includes Crowley's seminal works The Book of the Law and The Book of Lies, as well as his esoteric, entertaining drug memoir, Diary of a Drug Fiend.

Aleister Crowley in America

Aleister Crowley in America
Author: Tobias Churton
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 1116
Release: 2017-12-05
Genre: Body, Mind & Spirit
ISBN: 1620556316

An exploration of Crowley’s relationship with the United States • Details Crowley’s travels, passions, literary and artistic endeavors, sex magick, and psychedelic experimentation • Investigates Crowley’s undercover intelligence adventures that actively promoted U.S. involvement in WWI • Includes an abundance of previously unpublished letters and diaries Occultist, magician, poet, painter, and writer Aleister Crowley’s three sojourns in America sealed both his notoriety and his lasting influence. Using previously unpublished diaries and letters, Tobias Churton traces Crowley’s extensive travels through America and his quest to implant a new magical and spiritual consciousness in the United States, while working to undermine Germany’s propaganda campaign to keep the United States out of World War I. Masterfully recreating turn-of-the-century America in all its startling strangeness, Churton explains how Crowley arrived in New York amid dramatic circumstances in 1900. After other travels, in 1914 Crowley returned to the U.S. and stayed for five years: turbulent years that changed him, the world, and the face of occultism forever. Diving deeply into Crowley’s 5-year stay, we meet artists, writers, spies, and government agents as we uncover Crowley’s complex work for British and U.S. intelligence agencies. Exploring Crowley’s involvement with the birth of the Greenwich Village radical art scene, we discover his relations with writers Sinclair Lewis and Theodore Dreiser and artists John Butler Yeats, Leon Engers Kennedy, and Robert Winthrop Chanler while living and lecturing on now-vanished “Genius Row.” We experience his love affairs and share Crowley’s hard times in New Orleans and his return to health, magical dynamism, and the most colorful sex life in America. We examine his controversial political stunts, his role in the sinking of the passenger ship Lusitania, his making of the “Elixir of Life” in 1915, his psychedelic experimentation, his prolific literary achievements, and his run-in with Detroit Freemasonry. We also witness Crowley’s influence on Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard and rocket fuel genius Jack Parsons. We learn why J. Edgar Hoover wouldn’t let Crowley back in the country and why the FBI raided Crowley’s organization in LA. Offering a 20th-century history of the occult movement in the United States, Churton shows how Crowley’s U.S. visits laid the groundwork for the establishment of his syncretic “religion” of Thelema and the now flourishing OTO, as well as how Crowley’s final wish was to have his ashes scattered in the Hamptons.

Aleister Crowley in India

Aleister Crowley in India
Author: Tobias Churton
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 512
Release: 2019-12-03
Genre: Body, Mind & Spirit
ISBN: 1620557975

Follow Aleister Crowley through his mystical travels in India, which profoundly influenced his magical system as well as the larger occult world • Shares excerpts from Crowley’s unpublished diaries and details his travels in India, Burma, and Sri Lanka from 1901 to 1906 • Reveals how Crowley incorporated what he learned in India--jnana yoga, Vedantist, Tantric, and Buddhist philosophy--into his own school of Magick • Explores the world of Theosophy, yogis, Hindu traditions, and the first Buddhist sangha to the West as well as the first pioneering expeditions to K2 and Kangchenjunga in 1901 and 1905 Early in life, Aleister Crowley’s dissociation from fundamentalist Christianity led him toward esoteric and magical spirituality. In 1901, he made the first of three voyages to the Indian subcontinent, searching for deeper knowledge and experience. His religious and magical system, Thelema, shows clear influence of his thorough experimental absorption in Indian mystical practices. Sharing excerpts from Crowley’s unpublished diaries, Tobias Churton tells the true story of Crowley’s adventures in India from 1901 to 1906, culminating in his first experience of the supreme trance of jnana (“gnostic”) yoga, Samadhi: divine union. Churton shows how Vedantist and Advaitist philosophies, Hindu religious practices, yoga, and Mahayana and Theravada Buddhism informed Crowley’s spiritual system and reveals how he built on Madame Blavatsky and Henry Steel Olcott’s prior work in India. Churton illuminates links between these beliefs and ancient Gnostic systems and shows how they informed the O.T.O. system through Franz Hartmann and Theodor Reuss. Churton explores Crowley’s early breakthrough in consciousness research with a Dhyana trance in Sri Lanka, becoming a devotee of Shiva and Bhavani, fierce avatar of the goddess Parvati. Recounting Crowley’s travels to the temples of Madurai, Anuradhapura, and Benares, Churton looks at the gurus of yoga and astrology Crowley met, while revealing his adventures with British architect, Edward Thornton. Churton also details Crowley’s mountaineering feats in India, including the record-breaking attempt on Chogo Ri (K2) in 1902 and the Kangchenjunga disaster of 1905. Revealing how Crowley incorporated what he learned in India into his own school of Magick, including an extensive look at his theory of correspondences, the symbology of 777, and the Thelemic synthesis, Churton sheds light on one of the most profoundly mystical periods in Crowley’s life as well as how it influenced the larger occult world.

The Greatest Works of Aleister Crowley

The Greatest Works of Aleister Crowley
Author: Aleister Crowley
Publisher: Good Press
Total Pages: 1047
Release: 2023-12-21
Genre: Body, Mind & Spirit
ISBN:

Within the pages of 'The Greatest Works of Aleister Crowley,' readers are invited into a complex world of mysticism, poetry, and magical theory, offering a unique glimpse into the esoteric undercurrents of the early 20th century. This anthology unites a diverse array of Crowley's writings, showcasing the remarkable breadth of his literary output. From evocative ceremonial rituals to transcendental poetry, the collection reveals the multifaceted nature of Crowley's work, highlighting his profound influence on Western esotericism and the development of modern occult practices. The inclusion of complementary pieces by S. L. MacGregor Mathers and Mary d'Este Sturges provides additional context, enriching the readers understanding of the historical and cultural milieu from which these works emerged. The contributing authors, each pivotal to the fabric of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn and its subsequent offshoots, collectively embody the spirit of turn-of-the-century occultism. Crowley, with his notorious reputation and prodigious output, alongside Mathers, a foundational figure in modern Hermeticism, and Sturges, a collaborator of Crowley's, illustrate the eclectic and often controversial nature of early 20th-century esoteric thought. Their writings, drawn from years of occult practice and literary endeavors, mirror the eras complex interplay of mysticism, philosophy, and art. 'The Greatest Works of Aleister Crowley' is an indispensable volume for those interested in the arcane. It invites scholars, practitioners, and novices alike to explore the confluence of thought and ritual that defines this era of esoteric history. The anthology not only serves as a comprehensive introduction to Crowleys oeuvre but also as a testament to the enduring power of his writings to challenge, mystify, and inspire. Its carefully curated content beckons readers to immerse themselves in the depths of magical theory and poetic expression, offering a rare opportunity to engage with the intellectual legacy of one of occultism's most enigmatic figures.

Western Esotericism and Rituals of Initiation

Western Esotericism and Rituals of Initiation
Author: Henrik Bogdan
Publisher: State University of New York Press
Total Pages: 250
Release: 2012-02-01
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0791480100

For more than three hundred years the practice of Masonic rituals of initiation has been part of Western culture, spreading far beyond the boundaries of traditional Freemasonry. Henrik Bogdan explores the historical development of these rituals and their relationship with Western esotericism. Beginning with the Craft degrees of Freemasonry—the blueprints, as it were, of all later Masonic rituals of initiation—Bogdan examines the development of the Masonic High Degrees, the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn—the most influential of all nineteenth-century occultist initiatory societies—and Gerald Gardner's Witchcraft movement of the 1950s, one of the first large-scale Western esoteric New Religions Movements.

Aleister Crowley's Four Books of Magick

Aleister Crowley's Four Books of Magick
Author: Stephen Skinner
Publisher: National Geographic Books
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2021-10-12
Genre: Body, Mind & Spirit
ISBN: 1786785196

This is the masterpiece of occultist, magician and philosopher Aleister Crowley, introduced for the first time by one of the world's leading experts on Western esoteric traditions, Stephen Skinner. "Do what thou wilt." Written in the early twentieth century, the four books contained within this collection make up one of the most complete and groundbreaking works on the practice of magick ever written. They are considered to be the masterpiece of occultist, magician and philosopher Aleister Crowley and the core texts for the religion of Thelema. Their influence on alternative western thought and philosophy cannot be exaggerated. Also known as Book Four, or Liber ABA, the four parts bring together many rituals, received texts, theorems and unequalled insights into the practice of magick, culminating in The Book of the Law, the central, sacred text dictated to Crowley by a preternatural entity. Anyone interested in yoga, ceremonial magic, esoteric thought, invocation, divination and beyond, or those looking to delve into the fascinating, playful and illuminating writings of a unique man, will find inspiration. For the first time, one of the world's leading experts on Western esoteric traditions and magic, Dr. Stephen Skinner, introduces the text, sharing his insights into Crowley's take on yoga, ceremonial magick and Thelema. His long involvement with magick, both as an academic and as a practitioner, enabled Dr. Skinner to highlight the differences between the psychological and the spirit-orientated approaches to magick, and to show how that dilemma shaped Crowley's practice and his founding of Thelema, enlightening the reader to many previously unknown connections.