What's up w Aleister Crowley?

Question

An XBF had a huge pic of him on the wall...come to find out he was an occultist (!) and called himself, among other things, "666", and the "Beast of Revelations"! Uh can anyone elaborate on his creepiness?? WTF!?

Answer 1

the wikipedia article is at

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aleister_Crowley

Answer 2

Crowley, a "breathy" and wordy poet and amateur mountaineer was a founder and believer in the so called order of the Golden Dawn. Much of his writing remains, but you can get a fairly lengthy and comprehensive history by seeking out his autobiography - The Confessions of Aleister Crowley.

Rather than choose the confines/shackles of the overwhelming (and just as incorrect) christian church, Crowley chose to pursue his own blend of religio-magick, become obsessively intersted in "ritual" and pagentry, and basically "made" up his entire religion borrowing heavily from the ancients, whose rituals had been handed down through history.

That he was coined, or coined himself The Beast, or 666 was self-glamorizing, and egoist. That he was Satanist or a devil worshipper is certainly open to debate. My guess is that you would find his teachings and writings rather boring, lack-luster, and patch-work from one of several grimoires he plagarized from.

You can find a rather well-written short novel of him by esteemed author Somerset Maugham. It's title, the Magician and the story tell of a fictional character, but this character was largely modled after Crowley, as both Maugham and Crowley have readily admitted.

To each his own as they say. One religion hardly defines or proves more accurate than another.

Answer 3

He turned a lot of people on to drugs, so I suppose we owe him a debt of gratitude for that. Wikipedia has a nice article about him, including, among other things, a photo of him wearing a towel. Should you be interested.