Aleister Crowley

He married Maria de Miramar in 1929. The couple separated within a year though they did not divorce.

He led an unrestrained life characterized by vigorous sexual activities with both men and women, and had a history of recreational drug usage.

He was born as Edward Alexander Crowley to Edward Crowley and Emily Bishop. His parents were evangelist Christians and his father was deeply religious. He had a strained relationship with his mother.

He was sent to study at H.T. Habershon’s evangelist Christian boarding school when he was eight years old.

Later on, he went to the preparatory Ebor School in Cambridge. He considered the head of the institute, Reverend Henry d’Arcy Champney to be a sadist.

His father died of cancer when he was 11 years old.

After school he attended Malvern College before going to Tonbridge School. He hated college and dropped out after a few terms.

He went on a holiday to Sweden in 1896 where he had a major mystical experience that originated from his first same-sex sexual encounter. He began to lead a highly promiscuous life having sexual relations with people of both genders.

During 1897 he began getting interested in Black Magic and Occult and decided that pursuing occult was the purpose of his life.

He dropped out of Cambridge in 1898 without completing his degree in spite of being a good student.

He became a member of the occult society known as the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn in 1898. There he adopted the magical name of ‘Frater Perdurabo’. He learned ceremonial magic and ritualistic drug usage from senior Golden Dawn members.

He published several collections of poetry which included ‘Jezebel and Other Tragic Poems’ (1898), ‘Tales of Archais’ (1898), and ‘Jephthah’ (1899).

Regarded as the most powerful occultist of all time, Crowley’s biggest contribution to ceremonial magic was the founding of the religion Thelema which indicates that its adherents should seek out their ‘True Will’—or grand destiny—instead of their egoistic pursuits.

He is the author of Thelema’s major sacred text, ‘The Book of the Law’, which he claimed was dictated to him by his holy guardian angel, Aiwass.