Biography for Aleister Crowley Date of Birth 12 October 1875, Leamington, Warwickshire, England, UK Date of Death 1 December 1947,

Hastings, England, UK. Birth Name Edward Alexander Crowley Nickname The Beast 666 The Wickedest Man Alive Alick SpouseRose Kelly Trivia He was a member of the extremely close occult group named "Golden Dawn". Jimmy Page, Led Zeppelin guitarist, purchased his Boleskine House on the shore o f Loch Ness, reportedly one of the world's most haunted places. Lost his virginity at age 14 to the family maid. Contracted gonorrhea at age 17. Expelled after only two years with the Hermetic Order Of The Golden Dawn, report edly through efforts by William Butler Yeats, with whom he did not get along. Accused of leaving fellow climbers to die in an avalanche during his 1905 trek t o clim Kangchenjunga, the third highest peak in the world. At the time of his death in 1947, at the age of 72 years, Crowley was taking her oin in doses large enough to kill five people. Ozzy Osbourne wrote the song "Mr. Crowley" about him. Personal Quotes "Every man and every woman is a star." "In the house of pain, there are ten thousand shrines." "The conscience of the world is so guilty that it always assumes that people who investigate heresies must be heretics; just as if a doctor who studies leprosy must be a leper. Indeed, it is only recently that science has been allowed to st udy anything without reproach." "The people who have really made history are the martyrs." "The pious pretense that evil does not exist only makes it vague, enormous and m enacing." "There is only one really safe, mild, harmless beverage and you can drink as muc h of that as you like without running the slightest risk, and what you say when (1903 - 1909) (divorced) 1 child

you want it is, 'Garcon! Un Pernod!'" "To the eyes of a god, mankind must appear as a species of bacteria which multip ly and become progressively virulent whenever they find themselves ina congenial culture, and whose activity diminishes until they disappear completely as soon as proper measures are taken to sterilize them." "Intolerance is evidence of impotence." "Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law." "I slept with faith and found a corpse in my arms on awakening; I drank and danc ed all night with doubt and found her a virgin in the morning." "I was asked to memorise what I did not understand; and, my memory being so good , it refused to be insulted in that manner." "Destiny is an absolutely definite and inexorable ruler. Physical ability and mo ral determination count for nothing. It is impossible to perform the simplest ac t when gods say 'no.' I have no idea how they bring presure to bear on such occa sions; I only know that it is irresistible." "Falsehood is invariably the child of fear in one form or another." "Existence, as we know it, is full of sorrow. To mention only one minor point: e very man is a condemned criminal, only he does not know the date of his executio n. This is unpleasant for every man. Consequently every man does everything poss ible to postpone the date, and would sacrifice anything that he has if he could reverse the sentence. Practically all religions and all philosophies have starte d thus crudely, by promising their adherents some such reward as immortality. No religion has failed hitherto by not promising enough; the present breaking up o f all religions is due to the fact that people have asked to see the securities. Men have even renounced the important material advantages which a well-organize d religion may confer upon a State, rather than acquiesce in fraud or falsehood, or even in any system which, if not proved guilty, is at least unable to demons trate its innocence. Being more or less bankrupt, the best thing that we can do is to attack the problem afresh without preconceived ideas. Let us begin by doub ting every statement. Let us find a way of subjecting every statement to the tes t of experiment. Is there any truth at all in the claims of various religions? L et us examine the question." "Magick is the science and art of causing change to occur in conformity with wil l." "The supreme satisfaction is to be able to despise one's neighbor and this fact goes far to account for religious intolerance. It is evidently consoling to refl ect that the people next door are headed for hell." "Love is the law, Love under will." "I may be a black magician but I'm a bloody great one." "Not all the filth of London can keep me from the Light of God, and by that Ligh t, I live." "One of the principal points about the sin stupidity is that it flatters the sin ner. All insanity depends upon the exacerbation of the ego. The melancholic hugs the delusion that he has committed the unpardonable sin. Sins grow by repressio n and by brooding upon their enormity. Few people would go to excess if they wer e not unwholesomely over-excited about their trivial apishness."

"I am inclined to think that the most scientific and reliable way of exploring p eople's unconscious minds would be to watch their reaction to a well thought-out series of unfamiliar circumstances. One could compare their respective qualitie s, such as will-power, patience, dignity, courage, imperturbability, and so on. Such data should be of great use in answering the question, 'Wherewithal shall a young man mend his ways?'" "The fact is that the vast majority of people are absolutely impervious to facts . Test the average man by asking him to listen to a simple sentence which contai ns one word with associations to excite his prejudices, fears or passions -- he will fail to understand what you have said and reply by expressing his emotional reaction to the critical word. It was long before I understood this fact of psy chology. Even to this day, it surprises me that there should be minds which are unable to accept any impression equably and critically. I have heard many great orators. The effect has nearly always been to make me wonder how they have the n erve to put forward such flimsy falsehoods." "My mission is, in short, to bring everyone to the realization and enjoyment of his own kingship, and my apparent interference with him amounts to no more than advice to him not to suffer interference." "Of course the world forces us all to compromise with our environment to some ex tent, and we only waste our strength if we fight pitched battles for points whic h are not worth a skirmish. It is only a faddist who refuses to conform with con ventions of dress and the like. But our sincerity should be Roman about things t hat really matter to us. And I am still in doubt, as I write these words, as to how far it is right to employ strategy and diplomacy in order to gain one's poin t. ... Adaptation to one's environment makes for a sort of survival; but after a ll, the supreme victory is only won by those who prove themselves of so much har der stuff than the rest that no power on earth is able to destroy them. The peop le who have really made history are the martyrs." "To read a newspaper is to refrain from reading something worthwhile. The first discipline of education must therefore be to refuse resolutely to feed the mind with canned chatter." "Magic is the Highest, most Absolute, and most Divine Knowledge of Natural Philo sophy, advanced in its works and wonderful operations by a right understanding o f the unward and occult virtue of things; so that true Agents being applied to p roper Patients, strange and admirable effects will thereby be produced. Whence m agicians are profound and diligent searchers into Nature; they, because of their skill, know how to anticipate an effect, the which to the vulgar shall seem to be a miracle." "Modern morality and manners suppress all natural instincts, keep people ignoran t of facts of nature and make them fighting drunk on bogey tales." "Indubitably, Magick is one of the subtlest and most difficult of the sciences a nd arts. There is more opportunity for errors and comprehension, judgment and pr actice than in any other branch of physics." "Sometimes I hate myself." "Initiation is never what you think it is to be: if it were, you would already b e initiated." "Even a scapegoat is liable to butt." "It is quite certain, in particular, that I have always been insane."

"Syphilis is probably the physical basis of genius." "Painting, like golf, is an old man's game." "Practically all women ought to be chloroformed at 35." "In Berlin all the whores look like 'respectable women'; in New York all the 're spectable women look like whores. Reflection: they're all whores, anyhow." "All modern legislation seems designed to hamper honest folk who wish to do norm al things. But I don't have to get a license if I want to commit burglary or mur der." "A person's religious belief varies with his sense of helplessness." "The joy of life consists in the exercise of one's energies, continual growth, c onstant change, the enjoyment of every new experience. To stop means simply to d ie. The eternal mistake of mankind is to set up an attainable ideal." "There is a single main definition of the object of all magical Ritual. It is th e uniting of the Microcosm with the Macrocosm. The Supreme and Complete Ritual i s therefore the Invocation of the Holy Guardian Angel; or, in the language of My sticism, Union with God." "Christianity is like a painted mummy; expose it to fresh air, and it crumbles t o dust." "To succeed in England, it is only necessary to keep doing badly what someone wa s once crucified there for doing well." "Paganism is wholesome because it faces the facts of life." "For pure will, unassuaged of purpose, delivered from the lust of result, is eve ry way perfect." "Science is always discovering odd scraps of magical wisdom and making a tremend ous fuss about its cleverness." "Ordinary morality is only for ordinary people." (His last words): "I am perplexed."