13 curious facts about Aleister Crowley

By: Casandra Vicario

1.- Edward Alexander Crowley was born on October 12, 1875, in Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, England.

2.- His father was a beer businessman who sold his business and joined, together with his wife, a sect called the "Plymouth Brethren," to which he donated all his money and in which he became a preacher.

3.- He is known as "the human beast," "the most wicked man in the world," "the king of depravity," or "the cannibal," while his mother called him "The Beast" and "666."

4.- He studied at Trinity College and took part in writing the book "Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics."

5.- He was friends with figures such as Rodin, Isadora Duncan, Rilke, and others.

6.- He was very fond of mountaineering, which he practiced in the Alps, the Himalayas, and Mexico, where he climbed Popocatépetl and walked the streets of Tepoztlán.

7.- He also enjoyed chess, knew about astrology, and according to his birth chart, he was "a demigod."

8.- At the age of 23, he joined the "Golden Dawn" under the name "Perdurabo."

9.- Crowley himself recounts that his wife Rose fell into a trance and was possessed by a demon, who dictated to her the book "Liber AL vel Legis," or "The Book of the Law," whose basic idea is "Do what thou wilt."

10.- At the age of eight, he gave a cat arsenic and chloroform, put it in an oven, burned it, and skinned it alive.

11.- He claimed to be the reincarnation of several famous occultists, such as Eliphas Levi, who died the year Aleister was born.

12.- He died on December 1, 1947, at the age of seventy-two. After his death, his burial caused a stir in the British press.

13.- The Beatles included him on the cover of their album "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band." The Rolling Stones drew on him for their song "Sympathy for the Devil." David Bowie talks about him on his album "Hunky Dory," and many other artists have given him immortality, as his ideas remain alive.