Free US shipping over $150

A free sticker on orders $35+

New: The Illuminati Comic

Conspiracy file · 1875–1947

Aleister Crowley

English occultist, poet and mountaineer who founded the religion of Thelema on a text he said was dictated to him in Cairo in 1904. The British press called him "the wickedest man in the world." He died in 1947, and the stories about him have kept growing.

Also known as The Great Beast 666 · Edward Alexander Crowley · Frater Perdurabo · The wickedest man in the world

WatchOn the recordTimelineIn Paranoid American comicsSources & further reading

Aleister Crowley: Crowley Liber "Do As Thou Wilt" Sticker Sheet
From Crowley Liber "Do As Thou Wilt" Sticker Sheet

The story

Aleister Crowley was born Edward Alexander Crowley on October 12, 1875, in Royal Leamington Spa, England, to a wealthy family of Plymouth Brethren. He left Cambridge in 1898 without a degree and joined the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn that November. In Cairo in April 1904 he wrote down The Book of the Law, which he said was dictated by a being called Aiwass. Its central line, "Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law," became the basis of his religion, Thelema.

He spread it through two orders: the A∴A∴, which he co-founded in 1907, and the Ordo Templi Orientis, which he joined in 1912 and later led. In 1920 he set up a commune, the Abbey of Thelema, in a rented villa at Cefalù in Sicily. A young follower, Raoul Loveday, died there in February 1923. The tabloid John Bull named Crowley "the wickedest man in the world," and Mussolini's government ordered him out of Italy that April. He was declared bankrupt in 1935 and died in a boarding house in Hastings on December 1, 1947.

The stories kept growing after his death. Historian Richard Spence argues that Crowley worked for British intelligence, and that his pro-German writing in wartime New York was a cover. Other tales stand on less. The claim that he was the father of Barbara Bush traces to a single blog post dated April 1, 2006, whose author later said it was an April Fool's joke.

Watch

Aleister Crowley Was Just a Rich Edgelord · Paranoid AmericanWatch on YouTube
How Disney Hid Crowley's Scarlet Woman in Hocus Pocus 2 · Paranoid AmericanWatch on YouTube

Memorandum for the recordSubject: Aleister Crowley

On the record

  1. Born Edward Alexander Crowley on October 12, 1875, in Royal Leamington Spa, Warwickshire; he entered Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1895 and left in 1898 without a degree.
  2. He was initiated into the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn on November 18, 1898, by its leader, Samuel Liddell MacGregor Mathers.
  3. The Book of the Law states that it was dictated in Cairo between noon and 1 p.m. on three successive days: April 8, 9 and 10, 1904.
  4. He co-founded the A∴A∴ with George Cecil Jones in 1907, launched its journal The Equinox in 1909, and was initiated into the Ordo Templi Orientis in 1912, soon heading its British branch.
  5. He sailed to New York in October 1914, and from January 1915 wrote for The Fatherland, George Sylvester Viereck's pro-German paper.
  6. He rented the Villa Santa Barbara at Cefalù, Sicily, on April 2, 1920, as the Abbey of Thelema; after Raoul Loveday died there in February 1923, Italy served him a deportation notice that April.
  7. He died of chronic bronchitis at the Netherwood boarding house in Hastings on December 1, 1947, aged 72; about a dozen people attended the funeral in Brighton four days later.

The theory

  • Historian Richard Spence (Secret Agent 666, 2008) argues that Crowley was a British intelligence asset. He cites a U.S. Army Military Intelligence Division file on a 1918 American investigation that found Crowley was an employee of the British government.
  • Spence also argues that Crowley's Fatherland articles were deliberate parody meant to undermine German propaganda, that he encouraged German attacks such as the sinking of the Lusitania to draw America into the war, and that he played a murky role in Rudolf Hess's 1941 flight. Spence himself says most biographers dismissed the intelligence connection as idle boasting.
  • Spence and biographer Tobias Churton suggest that Crowley joined the Golden Dawn on intelligence orders, to watch its leader Mathers.
  • Betty May, Raoul Loveday's widow, said her husband was made to drink the blood of a sacrificed cat at the Abbey, and accused Crowley of murder. Biographers attribute the death to an infection from a polluted stream.
  • A rumor holds that Crowley was the father of Barbara Bush, after an affair with her mother, Pauline Pierce, in France. USA Today traced it to a post on the blog Cannonfire dated April 1, 2006; its author, Joseph Cannon, told the paper it was an April Fool's joke.

Timeline

  1. 1875Born Edward Alexander Crowley in Royal Leamington Spa (October 12)
  2. 1898Leaves Cambridge without a degree; initiated into the Golden Dawn (November 18)
  3. 1904Writes down The Book of the Law in Cairo (April 8 to 10)
  4. 1907Co-founds the A∴A∴ with George Cecil Jones
  5. 1912Initiated into the Ordo Templi Orientis; soon heads its British branch
  6. 1914Sails to New York; writes for the pro-German paper The Fatherland from 1915
  7. 1920Opens the Abbey of Thelema at Cefalù, Sicily (April 2)
  8. 1923Raoul Loveday dies at the Abbey; John Bull calls Crowley "the wickedest man in the world"; Italy deports him
  9. 1935Declared bankrupt after losing a libel suit over Nina Hamnett's memoir Laughing Torso
  10. 1947Dies in Hastings (December 1)
  11. 1967Appears on the cover of the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
  12. 2006The Barbara Bush rumor first appears, in a blog post dated April 1
  13. 2008Richard Spence publishes Secret Agent 666

Get on the watch list

New comics, limited drops and Kickstarter launches before anyone else. 10% off your first order.

Get the evidence

Comics, stickers & more

More conspiracy files

See every conspiracy file