The Grandfather of Modern Satanism, Aleister Crowley (1875-1947) was a British occultist, black magician, author, and secret British spy who is one of the most well-known and controversial figures of the 20th-century.
He drew quite a following from the British upper classes, who had a preoccupation with the occult and networked extensively in artistic and literary scenes where he felt perfectly at home in these circles of the elite.
Crowley gained much notoriety during his lifetime, being a demon conjurer, recreational drug experimenter, bisexual, and an individualist social critic.
Much of the controversy surrounding him came through an association with ritual sex magick and the Enochian magick that had been practiced by the infamous consultant to Queen Elizabeth, John Dee (1527-1608).
Dee used a grimoire called the Goetia (or the Lesser Key of Solomon) for conjuring angels and demons. Crowley considered himself to be the reincarnation of Dee’s assistant, necromancer and interpreter of the angelic language, Edward Kelly (1555-1597).
It was early in the 20th century when Crowley proudly proclaimed himself The Great Beast 666, who believed or acted as if he was an agent of the devil in order to help bring about humanity’s spiritual evolution.
He considered himself to be the prophet of a new age – the Æon of Horus and his religion Thelema, whose law was, “Do what thou wilt, shall be the whole of the Law.”
As he once said, “I was not content to believe in a personal devil and serve him, in the ordinary sense of the word. I wanted to get hold of him personally and become his chief of staff.” And “There are no “standards of Right”.
Ethics is balderdash. Each Star must go on its own orbit. To hell with “moral principle”; there is no such thing.” (Aleister Crowley, The Old and New Commentaries to Liber AL)
This is why the British press once labeled him “The Wickedest Man In the World,” and a 1915 Vanity Fair profile put it well, “a legend has been built up around his name. He is a myth. No other man has so many strange tales told of him.”
In addition to working for the British government, he helped spawn several Satanic organizations and influenced millions of people in the process. I argue that Crowley’s influence and propaganda helped make him the Grandfather of Modern Satanism, and I believe we can also call him the founder of Modern Atheism and Neo-Liberalism.
Crowley can be credited with influencing millions of people in the Western world with his brand of individualistic religion in the counter-culture generation from the 1960s to the 1970s up until this very day.
This is why some of his critics argue that he is also responsible for spawning a whole generation of witches, warlocks, and degenerates, in addition to being an influence on modern Satanism.
When you study his life, you will find that Crowley’s statement about being the Devil’s chief of staff may very well be true. He had worked his whole life to facilitate the removal of obstacles in Western culture, such as morality and Christian values, in order to bring about the end-time.
Whether most of Crowley’s antics and life were the product of self-will, the Devil or financed and controlled by British intelligence agencies still remains somewhat of a mystery.
One thing is for certain – his mission was to spread his brand of Satanic ethos around the world through his books and counter-culture religion of Thelema.
In fact, I believe his mission was a global success, as you will see.
Crowley’s most famous work was The Book of the Law, which he claimed to have received telepathically in June 1904 in Cairo, Egypt from a self-described supernatural entity named Aiwass. It is important to note that he identified Aiwass with Satan and with Horus’ brother Seth, which is the ancient Egyptian equivalent to the Devil in Christianity.
Thelema was primarily developed by Crowley through his written works during his lifetime. But it has continued to evolve under subsequent generations of Thelemites and Satanists who have added new interpretations and practices to it. Crowley’s Book of the Law has gone on to become a sacred text to many Left Hand Path practitioners.
It is also accepted as official writing by the Ordo Templi Orientis (O.T.O), a secret society based on sex magick of German origin.
The book predicted that humanity was ready to enter a new period of spiritual evolution, known as the “Æon of Horus” (Age of Aquarius). A new era that was supposed to be characterized by humanity embracing spiritual freedom absent from moral and social restraint.
Crowley believed that humanity could be re-initiated into a spiritualized state of existence through immoral activities and the practice of ritual sex magic and the use of drugs such as heroin, and especially cocaine, which he called “the great weapon against stupidity.”
This is why Crowley’s teachings are the complete opposite of Judeo-Christianity’s core philosophical concepts of Brotherly Love, Love Thy Neighbor as Thyself and Treat People How You Want to be Treated. Hence, the reason they are considered immoral and Satanic.
In The Book of the Law, the Satanic entity, Aiwass allegedly dictated three chapters to Crowley that are now considered to be some of the core principles that describe a philosophy he calls “Thelema.” Thelema is derived from the Greek word for “will” and is a religion of the Law of Thelema.
It is essentially an atheist, individualistic, and magical philosophy, which denies the existence of God and the Devil, and states several proclamations such as, “there is no other god but Man;” “Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law”. “Love is the law, love under will,” and “Every man and every woman is a star.”
“Worship me with wines and strange drugs whereof I shall tell my prophet, and be drunk thereof! They shall not harm ye at all!” proclaimed The Book of the Law.
When one examines Crolwey’s philosophy of Thelema you will find that it is based on extreme liberalization and the individuality of a person to forge their own path in the world without any regard for morals, ethics, or the collective good of their communities. It simply means that the practitioner is encouraged to discover their True Will, whatever that may be, and to do it.
An individual should act according to his or her own will, which he defined as “love under will.” Love under will means that you love yourself and what you want to do with your life so much that you are willing to do anything to achieve your goals.
While on the surface, this philosophy does not appear to be bad or in the religious sense, evil. It is a way of life for people to do whatever you want, from promiscuous, bisexual, and homosexual sex to black magick, hardcore drugs, and lead to nihilistic self-destruction.
A type of hive mind that targets our lower and animal natures via sex and our material pleasures, making it easy to penetrate and manipulate people and the public as a whole.
What I contend creates a nationalistic “American Satanic State of Mind.”
Hell, that may have been the whole point behind his devilish mission, and if it was tied to a secret counter-intelligence operation to manipulate the public, it could be considered brilliant and Crowley, a secret agent legend among spies and occultists.
Crowley’s introduction to the London occult scene came in 1898, when he was initiated into the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. Crowley had also founded the religion of Thelema, which became adopted by the Ordo Templi Orientis (O.T.O.), as well as the magical order Argenteum Astrum (Silver Star), or A∴A∴, the Order’s parent organization, and the first magical order that Crowley founded.
Several organizations were formed thereafter modeled on his teachings, of which many were founded by former members of the Golden Dawn and the Ordo Templi Orientis.
Other groups like the Church of Scientology, The Process Church of the Final Judgment, Church of Satan, and Temple of Set can all be attributed to Crowley’s lineage or an offshoot of his Satanic ideologies.
From 1909 to 1913, Crowley published the periodical called The Equinox, which was the official magazine of the Astrum Argentum (A:.A:.). Researcher, Mark Morrison claimed that, “[Crowley] needed the magazine to lend an aura of scientific, and even experimental, legitimacy to his ‘scientific illuminism,’ as he styled the mission of the A.A.”
From 1905 until the early 1940’s Crowley produced an impressive number of books on the subjects of ritual theory, magick, and yoga.
He also wrote novels (Diary of a Drug Fiend, Moonchild) and plays. In the summer of 1911, Crowley wrote his first “sex magick” treatise called Liber Stellae Rubeae (The Book of the Ruby Star) in which the star ruby represents the lingam (the Tantric phallus). This book, which was deemed holy by Crowley, “was [his] first formal ritual expression of the dynamics of sexual magic.
He wrote Magick In Theory And Practice, which was first published in Paris in 1929 under the pseudonym of “Aleister Ataturk.” Weiser Books then reissued it in 1972 with an introduction by Israel Regardie. The book is still in print today and has sold well over 3 million copies worldwide.
Many of the figures I mention below and in the next chapter were and still are extremely influential upon Western society through their books, movies, and music.
All of which had a huge impact on liberalizing the minds of millions of teenage children and young adults who sought to embrace and mimic their lifestyles of “Do Thou Wilt.”
Famous authors such as Jack Kerouac and William S. Burroughs, both of whom were Beat Generation writers who wrote about their experiences with drugs and the occult.
Also Ian Fleming (who used elements of Crowley’s life in his James Bond novels), J.G. Ballard (who based some characters on Crowley in Crash), and John Fowles (who used Crowley as inspiration for the character Professor Slocombe in The Magus).
Jack Parsons, who was a rocket scientist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and CalTech. Parsons was also an influential member of the Ordo Templi Orientis, often referred to as the O.T.O., an occult organization that Crowley founded in 1907.
He would later become a successful rocket scientist after his exposure to the teachings of Crowley, who saw him as the “magus” or high priest of his new religion.
Parsons would use his skills to help NASA develop rockets for space exploration and research, including working on the V-2 rockets during World War II that were designed by Wernher von Braun (who later helped develop America’s first satellite).
Another figure influenced by Crowley was former Naval intelligence officer who became the founder of the Church of Scientology, L. Ron Hubbard.
He became one of America’s most famous writers after writing The Book of Dzyan in New York City in 1934 while studying with Crowley himself.
Crowley would also be idolized by Timothy Leary, a famous psychologist who experimented with LSD in the 1960s and 1970s. He wrote about his experiences in The PsychTimothyedelic Experience: A Manual Based on The Tibetan Book of the Dead.
Leary said that he had been inspired by Crowley’s book Liber AL vel Legis (The Book of the Law), which he called “the most enlightened statement ever written”.
In addition, Crowley had a huge impact on many other famous Satanists and occultists like Kenneth Anger, Kenneth Grant, Gerald Gardner (founder of Wicca), Robert Anton Wilson (author of Illuminatus), and Damien Echols (Convicted Child Murderer – West Memphis Three).
Kenneth Grant wrote several books about him and his ideas (including The Magical Revival) and he was friends with Dennis Wheatley, whose books include several novels based on Crowley’s ideas (Wheatley even wrote a biography of Crowley).
When I examine the chain of events that led to the formation of Satanic State of America, I see the true aristocratic bloodline of Modern Satanism. The evidence proves that Crowley’s Satanic influence upon American, British, and Western culture, in general, has been incredibly profound.
Today, we can see how his philosophy is deeply rooted within American culture with the help of many artists in the music industry, authors, filmmakers, and the tens of millions of people who were influenced by these same people.
The Grandfather of Modern Satanism, Aleister Crowley, The Golden Dawn, and the O.T.O. were the Satanic seeds in America and the West that were the origin of this underground movement. The famous people, celebrities, and bands who emulated these teachings would be the resulting infection spreadingnSatanism around the globe.
Crowley and his fellow Satanists would be the viral contagion that, with clever marketing, media, and the secret help of intelligence agencies, hijacked the music movement acting as its superspreaders.
Up out of hell would sprout like mushrooms the likes of Anton LaVey with the Church of Satan Inc., The Process Church of the Final Judgment, and the U.S. Army Col., Michael Aquino and his brand of Scientific Satanism called the Temple of Set. Aquino’s brand of scientific-based occultism and black magic would be the perfect fit for modern warfare as head of Army Psyops instituting the Mind Wars.
All of whom would incorporate it all into their own brands of official Satanic doctrine—indoctrinating a whole generation of wayward youth, spawning some of the best rock, heavy metal, punk bands, and spies the world has ever witnessed.
Like they were spawned from the abyss, Satanists on the fringe side of the movement would birth serial killers like David Berkowitz (The Son of Sam), Richard Ramirez, and one of the most celebrated, Charles Manson, whose Satanic adventures I will also share with you coming up.
I do not contend that all these different people that I have mentioned or will mention in the next chapters were all magically managed by Crowley. Nor were they an organized group or had any type of central planning. They were all Satanists who individually forged their own paths.
What I do propose was that much of the movement was the end result of Crowley’s ideas, magic, and his brand of Satanic ethos being “Do thou wilt.” An individualistic, neoliberal, immoral and sometimes criminal way of life that all have a common source of origin.
That source was Crowley.
And all the while, he was a secret spy working as an asset for British intelligence, as I will also detail in a following chapter.
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Moe is the founder of GnosticWarrior.com. He is a father, husband, author, martial arts black belt, and an expert in Gnosticism, the occult, and esotericism.
There are so many recent epic espionage films and TV shows on now or in the pipeline. What to mention first is a conundrum but let’s start with Joe and Anthony Russo’s The Gray Man starring Ryan Gosling and Chris Evans based upon Mark Greaney’s debut novel: it sounds like an epic movie. Already on TV or in cinemas are Peter Kosminsky’s Undeclared War, Thomas Perry’s The Old Man, The Ipcress File with newcomer Joe Cole, Mick Herron’s Slow Horses from the Slough House stables, The Courier about Greville Wynne played by Benedict Cumberbatch who looks astonishingly just like Wynne did in real life, Colin Firth in Operation Mincemeat, Olen Steinhauer’s All the Old Knives and let’s not forget Kaley Cuoco in the Flight Attendant.
Indeed, ignoring the fact based Operation Mincemeat and The Courier, there’s almost too much fictional espionage on the menu to cope with so why not try reading instead. If you liked watching Deighton, Herron or Wynne celluloid productions, we suggest a noir fact based espionage masterpiece could do the trick. Two compelling thrillers spring to mind. They are both down to earth curious real life Cold War novels you’ll never put down.
Try Bill Fairclough’s Beyond Enkription in The Burlington Files series and Ben Macintyre’s The Spy and the Traitor about KGB Colonel Oleg Gordievsky. Both are “must reads” for espionage cognoscenti.
Talking of Col Oleg, he knew MI6’s Col Mac (aka Col Alan Pemberton CVO MBE in real life) who was Edward Burlington’s handler in The Burlington Files. Bill Fairclough (aka Edward Burlington) came across John le Carré (aka David Cornwell) long after the latter’s MI6 career ended thanks to Kim Philby. The novelist Graham Greene used to work in MI6 reporting to Philby and Bill Fairclough actually stayed in Hôtel Oloffson during a covert op in Haiti which was at the heart of Graham Greene’s spy novel The Comedians.