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179-576: Thelema is a philosophical, mystical and religious system elaborated by Aleister Crowley , and based on The Book of the Law . The word Catholic denotes the universality of doctrine and not a Christian or Roman Catholic belief set. The chief function of Ecclesia Gnostica Catholica is the public and private performance of the Gnostic Mass ( Liber XV ), a eucharistic ritual written by Crowley in 1913. According to William Bernard Crow, Crowley wrote

358-528: A cottage at Felpham , in Sussex (now West Sussex ), to take up a job illustrating the works of William Hayley , a minor poet. It was in this cottage that Blake began Milton (the title page is dated 1804, but Blake continued to work on it until 1808). The preface to this work includes a poem beginning " And did those feet in ancient time ", which became the words for the anthem " Jerusalem ". Over time, Blake began to resent his new patron, believing that Hayley

537-593: A drug user , a bisexual , and an individualist social critic . Crowley has remained a highly influential figure over western esotericism and the counterculture of the 1960s , and he continues to be considered a prophet in Thelema. He is the subject of various biographies and academic studies. Crowley was born Edward Alexander Crowley at 30 Clarendon Square in Royal Leamington Spa , Warwickshire, on 12 October 1875. His father, Edward Crowley (1829–1887),

716-472: A "marriage of convenience" to prevent her from entering an arranged marriage ; the marriage appalled the Kelly family and damaged his friendship with Gerald. Heading on a honeymoon to Paris, Cairo, and then Ceylon, Crowley fell in love with Rose and worked to prove his affections. While on his honeymoon, he wrote her a series of love poems, published as Rosa Mundi and other Love Songs (1906), as well as authoring

895-599: A Grand Lodge. The Frater (or Soror) Superior of O.T.O. is also the Patriarch (Matriarch) of the Church, with ultimate authority over the clergy. The principal ritual of Ecclesia Gnostica Catholica is the Gnostic Mass , a Eucharistic ceremony written by Aleister Crowley in 1913. Theodor Reuss produced and authorized a German translation in 1918. The text of the Gnostic Mass makes reference to ceremonies of baptism, confirmation, and marriage. Crowley left some notes towards

1074-601: A Thelemite. He also befriended the journalist Tom Driberg ; Driberg did not accept Thelema either. It was here that Crowley also published one of his most significant works, Magick in Theory and Practice , which received little attention at the time. In December 1928 Crowley met the Nicaraguan Maria Teresa Sanchez (Maria Teresa Ferrari de Miramar). Crowley was deported from France by the authorities, who disliked his reputation and feared that he

1253-733: A bad reputation, and he developed feuds with some of the members, including W. B. Yeats . When the Golden Dawn's London lodge refused to initiate Crowley into the Second Order, he visited Mathers in Paris, who personally admitted him into the Adeptus Minor Grade. A schism had developed between Mathers and the London members of the Golden Dawn, who were unhappy with his autocratic rule. Acting under Mathers' orders, Crowley—with

1432-513: A baptism ritual, and his " Liber CVI " was written for use in a last rites circumstance. The Bishops of the contemporary Church have developed rituals for all of these purposes, as well as infant benedictions, consecration of holy oil, funerals, and home administration of the Eucharist to the sick. Although some Gnostic Masses are held privately for initiates only, there is nothing 'secret' about E.G.C. rituals as such, and they are commonly open to

1611-478: A ceremony of ordination). The first ordination in E.G.C. is that of the diaconate. Second Degree initiates of O.T.O. who have been confirmed in E.G.C. can be ordained as Deacons, whose principal duties are to assist the Priesthood. The sacerdotal ordination admits members to the priesthood. Sacerdotal ordinands must hold at least the K.E.W. degree of O.T.O., a degree only available by invitation. The Priesthood

1790-614: A daughter named Lilith, and Crowley wrote the pornographic Snowdrops from a Curate's Garden to entertain his recuperating wife. He also founded a publishing company through which to publish his poetry, naming it the Society for the Propagation of Religious Truth in parody of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge . Among its first publications were Crowley's Collected Works , edited by Ivor Back, an old friend of Crowley's who

1969-484: A diplomatic career in favour of pursuing an interest in the occult. In March 1898, he obtained A. E. Waite 's The Book of Black Magic and of Pacts , and then Karl von Eckartshausen 's The Cloud Upon the Sanctuary , furthering his occult interests. That same year, Leonard Smithers , a publisher who Crowley met through Pollitt, published 100 copies of Crowley's poem Aceldama: A Place to Bury Strangers In , but it

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2148-406: A distinctive vision of a humanity redeemed by self-sacrifice and forgiveness, while retaining his earlier negative attitude towards what he felt was the rigid and morbid authoritarianism of traditional religion. Not all readers of Blake agree upon how much continuity exists between Blake's earlier and later works. Psychoanalyst June Singer has written that Blake's late work displayed a development of

2327-519: A gesture of equality, as the barren earth blooms beneath their feet. Europe wears a string of pearls, while her sisters Africa and America are depicted wearing slave bracelets. Some scholars have speculated that the bracelets represent the "historical fact" of slavery in Africa and the Americas while the handclasp refer to Stedman's "ardent wish": "we only differ in color, but are certainly all created by

2506-406: A great number of his works, particularly his Bible illustrations, to Thomas Butts , a patron who saw Blake more as a friend than a man whose work held artistic merit; this was typical of the opinions held of Blake throughout his life. The commission for Dante 's Divine Comedy came to Blake in 1826 through Linnell, with the aim of producing a series of engravings. Blake's death in 1827 cut short

2685-646: A group of female violinists led by Waddell, as they performed at London's Old Tivoli theatre. They subsequently performed in Moscow for six weeks, where Crowley had a sadomasochistic relationship with the Hungarian Anny Ringler. In Moscow, Crowley continued to write plays and poetry, including "Hymn to Pan ", and the Gnostic Mass , a Thelemic ritual that became a key part of O.T.O. liturgy. Churton suggested that Crowley had travelled to Moscow on

2864-610: A housekeeper. She believed she was regularly visited by Blake's spirit. She continued selling his illuminated works and paintings, but entertained no business transaction without first "consulting Mr. Blake". On the day of her death, in October 1831, she was as calm and cheerful as her husband, and called out to him "as if he were only in the next room, to say she was coming to him, and it would not be long now." On her death, longtime acquaintance Frederick Tatham took possession of Blake's works and continued selling them. Tatham later joined

3043-550: A local boy, Mohammad ben Brahim, as his servant, Crowley went with him on a retreat to Nefta , where they performed sex magic together. In January 1924, Crowley travelled to Nice , France, where he met with Frank Harris , underwent a series of nasal operations, and visited the Institute for the Harmonious Development of Man and had a positive opinion of its founder, George Gurdjieff . Destitute, he took on

3222-403: A magazine edited by his friend Frank Harris . He also wrote Liber 777 , a book of magical and Qabalistic correspondences that borrowed from Mathers and Bennett. Into my loneliness comes— The sound of a flute in dim groves that haunt the uttermost hills. Even from the brave river they reach to the edge of the wilderness. And I behold Pan. The opening lines of Liber VII (1907),

3401-700: A memorial to Blake and his wife was erected in Westminster Abbey. Another memorial lies in St James's Church, Piccadilly , where he was baptised. At the time of Blake's death, he had sold fewer than 30 copies of Songs of Innocence and of Experience. Blake was not active in any well-established political party. His poetry consistently embodies an attitude of rebellion against the abuse of class power as documented in David Erdman's major study Blake: Prophet Against Empire: A Poet's Interpretation of

3580-435: A method he used to produce most of his books, paintings, pamphlets and poems. The process is also referred to as illuminated printing, and the finished products as illuminated books or prints. Illuminated printing involved writing the text of the poems on copper plates with pens and brushes, using an acid-resistant medium. Illustrations could appear alongside words in the manner of earlier illuminated manuscripts . He then etched

3759-435: A nanny for the purpose. Crowley smoked opium throughout the journey, which took the family from Tengyueh through to Yungchang, Tali , Yunnanfu , and then Hanoi . On the way, he spent much time on spiritual and magical work, reciting the "Bornless Ritual", an invocation to his Holy Guardian Angel , on a daily basis. While Rose and Lilith returned to Europe, Crowley headed to Shanghai to meet old friend Elaine Simpson, who

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3938-530: A new title for himself: the "Sovereign Patriarch and Primate of the Gnostic Catholic Church". In 1979, Hymenaeus Alpha X° ( Grady McMurtry ) separated Ecclesia Gnostica Catholica from Ordo Templi Orientis , and made it into an independent organization, with himself at the head of both. During this period of separation Ecclesia Gnostica Catholica published its own quarterly magazine. However, in 1986, his successor, Hymenaeus Beta , dissolved

4117-489: A number of Blake's drawings. At the same time, some works not intended for publication were preserved by friends, such as his notebook and An Island in the Moon . Blake's grave is commemorated by two stones. The first was a stone that reads "Near by lie the remains of the poet-painter William Blake 1757–1827 and his wife Catherine Sophia 1762–1831". The memorial stone is situated approximately 20 metres (66 ft) away from

4296-410: A plate that Blake employed for his relief etching, and indicates why the engravings took so long to complete. Blake's marriage to Catherine was close and devoted until his death. Blake taught Catherine to write, and she helped him colour his printed poems. Gilchrist refers to "stormy times" in the early years of the marriage. Some biographers have suggested that Blake tried to bring a concubine into

4475-460: A practice that was preferred to actual drawing. Within these drawings Blake found his first exposure to classical forms through the work of Raphael , Michelangelo , Maarten van Heemskerck and Albrecht Dürer . The number of prints and bound books that James and Catherine were able to purchase for young William suggests that the Blakes enjoyed, at least for a time, a comfortable wealth. When William

4654-459: A prince and princess, they rented an apartment in which Crowley set up a temple room and began invoking ancient Egyptian deities, while studying Islamic mysticism and Arabic . According to Crowley's later account, Rose regularly became delirious and informed him "they are waiting for you." On 18 March, she explained that "they" were the god Horus , and on 20 March proclaimed that "the Equinox of

4833-584: A process invented in 1725, consisted of making a metal cast from a wood engraving, but Blake's innovation was, as described above, very different. The pages printed from these plates were hand-coloured in watercolours and stitched together to form a volume. Blake used illuminated printing for most of his well-known works, including Songs of Innocence and of Experience , The Book of Thel , The Marriage of Heaven and Hell and Jerusalem . Although Blake has become better known for his relief etching, his commercial work largely consisted of intaglio engraving ,

5012-601: A result, he wrote his Descriptive Catalogue (1809), which contains what Anthony Blunt called a "brilliant analysis" of Chaucer and is regularly anthologised as a classic of Chaucer criticism. It also contained detailed explanations of his other paintings. The exhibition was very poorly attended, selling none of the temperas or watercolours. Its only review, in The Examiner , was hostile. Also around this time (circa 1808), Blake gave vigorous expression of his views on art in an extensive series of polemical annotations to

5191-698: A series of surgical operations. He began short-lived romances with actress Vera "Lola" Neville (née Snepp) and author Ada Leverson , while Rose gave birth to Crowley's second daughter, Lola Zaza, in February 1907. With his old mentor George Cecil Jones, Crowley continued performing the Abramelin rituals at the Ashdown Park Hotel in Coulsdon , Surrey. Crowley believed that in doing so he attained samadhi , or union with Godhead, thereby marking

5370-724: A student at the Royal Academy in Old Somerset House, near the Strand. While the terms of his study required no payment, he was expected to supply his own materials throughout the six-year period. There, he rebelled against what he regarded as the unfinished style of fashionable painters such as Rubens , championed by the school's first president, Joshua Reynolds . Over time, Blake came to detest Reynolds' attitude towards art, especially his pursuit of "general truth" and "general beauty". Reynolds wrote in his Discourses that

5549-586: A supporter of Irish independence from Great Britain, Crowley began to espouse support for Germany in their war against Britain. He became involved in New York's pro-German movement, and in January 1915 German spy George Sylvester Viereck employed him as a writer for his propagandist paper, The Fatherland , which was dedicated to keeping the US neutral in the conflict. In later years, detractors denounced Crowley as

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5728-428: A third of his father's wealth, he began misbehaving at school and was harshly punished by Champney; Crowley's family removed him from the school when he developed albuminuria . He then attended Malvern College and Tonbridge School , both of which he despised and left after a few terms. He became increasingly sceptical of Christianity, pointing out Biblical inconsistencies to his religious teachers, and went against

5907-593: A traitor to Britain for this action. Crowley entered into a relationship with Jeanne Robert Foster , with whom he toured the West Coast. In Vancouver , headquarters of the North American O.T.O., he met with Charles Stansfeld Jones and Wilfred Talbot Smith to discuss the propagation of Thelema on the continent. In Detroit he experimented with Peyote at Parke-Davis , then visited Seattle, San Francisco, Santa Cruz , Los Angeles, San Diego, Tijuana , and

6086-426: A turning point in his life. Making heavy use of hashish during these rituals, he wrote an essay on "The Psychology of Hashish" (1909) in which he championed the drug as an aid to mysticism. He also said he had been contacted once again by Aiwass in late October and November 1907, adding that Aiwass dictated two further texts to him, "Liber VII" and "Liber Cordis Cincti Serpente", both of which were later classified in

6265-616: A visit to India and China, Crowley returned to Britain, where he attracted attention as a prolific author of poetry, novels, and occult literature. In 1907, he and George Cecil Jones co-founded an esoteric order—the A∴A∴ , through which they propagated Thelema. After spending time in Algeria, in 1912 he was initiated into another esoteric order—the German-based Ordo Templi Orientis (O.T.O.), in which he rose to become

6444-461: A wealthy student, Alexander Zu Zolar, before taking on another American follower, Dorothy Olsen. Crowley took Olsen back to Tunisia for a magical retreat in Nefta, where he also wrote To Man (1924), a declaration of his own status as a prophet entrusted with bringing Thelema to humanity. After spending the winter in Paris, in early 1925 Crowley and Olsen returned to Tunis, where he wrote The Heart of

6623-714: A work of literary criticism, The Gospel According to Bernard Shaw . In December, he moved to New Orleans , his favourite US city, before spending February 1917 with evangelical Christian relatives in Titusville, Florida . Returning to New York City, he moved in with artist and A∴A∴ member Leon Engers Kennedy in May, learning of his mother's death. After the collapse of The Fatherland , Crowley continued his association with Viereck, who appointed him contributing editor of arts journal The International . Crowley used it to promote Thelema, but it soon ceased publication. He then moved to

6802-537: Is THELEMA. And I believe in the communion of Saints. And, forasmuch as meat and drink are transmuted in us daily into spiritual substance, I believe in the Miracle of the Mass. And I confess one Baptism of Wisdom whereby we accomplish the Miracle of Incarnation. And I confess my life one, individual, and eternal that was, and is, and is to come. AUMGN. AUMGN. AUMGN. The first six articles profess several beliefs by

6981-417: Is at last fulfilled." John Middleton Murry notes discontinuity between Marriage and the late works, in that while the early Blake focused on a "sheer negative opposition between Energy and Reason", the later Blake emphasised the notions of self-sacrifice and forgiveness as the road to interior wholeness. This renunciation of the sharper dualism of Marriage of Heaven and Hell is evidenced in particular by

7160-676: Is in proportion to its merits the least read body of poetry in the English language". While he lived in London his entire life, except for three years spent in Felpham , he produced a diverse and symbolically rich collection of works, which embraced the imagination as "the body of God", or "human existence itself". Although Blake was considered mad by contemporaries for his idiosyncratic views, he came to be highly regarded by later critics and readers for his expressiveness and creativity, and for

7339-625: Is not limited to couples of different genders. About the Gnostic Mass, Crowley wrote in The Confessions of Aleister Crowley , "... the Ritual of the Gnostic Catholic Church ... I prepared for the use of the O.T.O., the central ceremony of its public and private celebration, corresponding to the Mass of the Roman Catholic Church ." It is the single most commonly performed ritual at O.T.O. bodies, with many locations celebrating

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7518-602: Is responsible for administering the sacraments through the Gnostic Mass and other ceremonies as authorized by their supervising Bishops. The Priesthood is supervised and instructed by the Episcopate , or Bishops. Full initiation to the Seventh Degree of O.T.O. includes episcopal consecration in E.G.C. The Tenth Degree Supreme and Holy King serves as the Primate or chief Bishop for any country that O.T.O. has organized

7697-425: Is said to have cried, "Stay Kate! Keep just as you are – I will draw your portrait – for you have ever been an angel to me." Having completed this portrait (now lost), Blake laid down his tools and began to sing hymns and verses. At six that evening, after promising his wife that he would be with her always, Blake died. Gilchrist reports that a female lodger in the house, present at his expiration, said, "I have been at

7876-602: Is similar to the Roman Catholic Church, with some important differences. As currently constituted, E.G.C. includes both clergy and laity. Clergy must be initiate members of O.T.O., while laity may affiliate to E.G.C. through baptism and confirmation without undertaking any of the degree initiations of the Order. Novice clergy are initiate members who participate in the administration of E.G.C. sacraments , although they have not yet taken orders (i.e., been through

8055-459: Is the first work to mention them. In particular, Blake's God/Man union is broken down into the bodily components of Urizen (head), Urthona (loins), Luvah (heart), and Tharmas (unity of the body) with paired Emanations being Ahania (wisdom, from the head), Enitharmon (what can't be attained in nature, from the loins), Vala (nature, from the heart), and Enion (earth mother, from the separation of unity). As connected to Blake's understanding of

8234-487: Is the most innovative aspect of his art, but a 2009 study drew attention to Blake's surviving plates, including those for the Book of Job : they demonstrate that he made frequent use of a technique known as " repoussage ", a means of obliterating mistakes by hammering them out by hitting the back of the plate. Such techniques, typical of engraving work of the time, are very different from the much faster and fluid way of drawing on

8413-716: The Abbey of Thelema after the Abbaye de Thélème in François Rabelais ' satire Gargantua and Pantagruel . After consulting the I Ching , he chose Cefalù in Sicily as a location, and after arriving there, began renting the old Villa Santa Barbara as his Abbey on 2 April. Moving to the commune with Hirsig, Shumway, and their children Hansi, Howard, and Poupée, Crowley described the scenario as "perfectly happy ... my idea of heaven." They wore robes, and performed rituals to

8592-581: The Bernese Alps , climbing the Eiger , Trift , Jungfrau , Mönch , and Wetterhorn . Having adopted the name of Aleister over Edward, in October 1895 Crowley began a three-year course at Trinity College, Cambridge , where he was entered for the Moral Science Tripos studying philosophy. With approval from his personal tutor, he changed to English literature, which was not then part of

8771-670: The Dangerous Drugs Act 1920 and wrote a novel, The Diary of a Drug Fiend , completed in July. On publication, it received mixed reviews; he was lambasted by the Sunday Express , which called for its burning and used its influence to prevent further reprints. Subsequently, a young Thelemite named Raoul Loveday moved to the Abbey with his wife Betty May ; while Loveday was devoted to Crowley, May detested him and life at

8950-477: The Discourses of Sir Joshua Reynolds , denouncing the Royal Academy as a fraud and proclaiming, "To Generalize is to be an Idiot". In 1818, he was introduced by George Cumberland's son to a young artist named John Linnell . A blue plaque commemorates Blake and Linnell at Old Wyldes' at North End, Hampstead. Through Linnell he met Samuel Palmer , who belonged to a group of artists who called themselves

9129-663: The French and American revolutions and wore a Phrygian cap in solidarity with the French revolutionaries, but despaired with the rise of Robespierre and the Reign of Terror in France. That same year, Blake composed his unfinished manuscript An Island in the Moon (1784). Blake illustrated Original Stories from Real Life (2nd edition, 1791) by Mary Wollstonecraft. Although they seem to have shared some views on sexual equality and

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9308-832: The Gnostic Creed —is recited in the Gnostic Mass, during the Ceremony of the Introit. The text of the Creed is as follows: I believe in one secret and ineffable LORD; and in one Star in the Company of Stars of whose fire we are created, and to which we shall return; and in one Father of Life, Mystery of Mystery, in His name CHAOS , the sole vicegerent of the Sun upon the Earth; and in one Air

9487-659: The Grand Canyon , before returning to New York. There he befriended Ananda Coomaraswamy and his wife Alice Richardson; Crowley and Richardson performed sex magic in April 1916, following which she became pregnant and then miscarried. Later that year he took a "magical retirement" to a cabin by Lake Pasquaney owned by Evangeline Adams. There, he made heavy use of drugs and undertook a ritual after which he proclaimed himself "Master Therion". He also wrote several short stories based on James George Frazer 's The Golden Bough and

9666-670: The RMS Lusitania in October 1914. Arriving in New York City, he moved into a hotel and began earning money writing for the American edition of Vanity Fair and undertaking freelance work for the famed astrologer Evangeline Adams . In the city, he continued experimenting with sex magic, through the use of masturbation, female prostitutes, and male clients of a Turkish bathhouse; all of these encounters were documented in his diaries. Professing to be of Irish ancestry and

9845-538: The Shoreham Ancients . The group shared Blake's rejection of modern trends and his belief in a spiritual and artistic New Age. Aged 65, Blake began work on illustrations for the Book of Job , later admired by Ruskin , who compared Blake favourably to Rembrandt , and by Vaughan Williams , who based his ballet Job: A Masque for Dancing on a selection of the illustrations. In later life Blake began to sell

10024-492: The paranormal phenomenon as a means of distinguishing it from the stage magic of illusionists. In early 1912, Crowley published The Book of Lies , a work of mysticism that biographer Lawrence Sutin described as "his greatest success in merging his talents as poet, scholar, and magus". The German occultist Theodor Reuss later accused him of publishing some of the secrets of his own occult order, Ordo Templi Orientis (O.T.O.), within The Book . Crowley convinced Reuss that

10203-406: The "disposition to abstractions, to generalising and classification, is the great glory of the human mind"; Blake responded, in marginalia to his personal copy, that "To Generalize is to be an Idiot; To Particularize is the Alone Distinction of Merit". Blake also disliked Reynolds' apparent humility, which he held to be a form of hypocrisy. Against Reynolds' fashionable oil painting , Blake preferred

10382-432: The Abbey. They teased him and one tormented him so much that Blake knocked the boy off a scaffold to the ground, "upon which he fell with terrific Violence". After Blake complained to the Dean, the schoolboys' privilege was withdrawn. Blake claimed that he experienced visions in the Abbey. He saw Christ with his Apostles and a great procession of monks and priests, and heard their chant. On 8 October 1779, Blake became

10561-443: The Alps to climb every year from 1894 to 1898, often with his friend Oscar Eckenstein , and in 1897 he made the first ascent of the Mönch without a guide. These feats led to his recognition in the Alpine mountaineering community. For many years I had loathed being called Alick, partly because of the unpleasant sound and sight of the word, partly because it was the name by which my mother called me. Edward did not seem to suit me and

10740-460: The Beast: William Blake and the Moral Law (1993), claims to show how far he was inspired by dissident religious ideas rooted in the thinking of the most radical opponents of the monarchy during the English Civil War . Because Blake's later poetry contains a private mythology with complex symbolism, his late work has been less published than his earlier more accessible work. The Vintage anthology of Blake edited by Patti Smith focuses heavily on

10919-468: The British intelligence services. In 1920, he established the Abbey of Thelema —a religious commune in Cefalù , Sicily, where he lived with various followers. His libertine lifestyle led to denunciations in the British press, and the Italian government evicted him in 1923. He divided the following two decades between France, Germany, and England, and continued to promote Thelema until his death. Crowley gained widespread notoriety during his lifetime, being

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11098-460: The Christian morality of his upbringing by smoking, masturbating, and having sex with prostitutes from whom he contracted gonorrhea . Sent to live with a Brethren tutor in Eastbourne , he undertook chemistry courses at Eastbourne College . Crowley developed interests in chess , poetry, and mountain climbing , and in 1894 climbed Beachy Head before visiting the Alps and joining the Scottish Mountaineering Club . The following year he returned to

11277-419: The Classical precision of his early influences, Michelangelo and Raphael . David Bindman suggests that Blake's antagonism towards Reynolds arose not so much from the president's opinions (like Blake, Reynolds held history painting to be of greater value than landscape and portraiture), but rather "against his hypocrisy in not putting his ideals into practice." Certainly Blake was not averse to exhibiting at

11456-518: The Crowleys moved to Redhill , Surrey. At the age of 8, Crowley was sent to H. T. Habershon's evangelical Christian boarding school in Hastings , and then to Ebor preparatory school in Cambridge , run by the Reverend Henry d'Arcy Champney, whom Crowley considered a sadist. In March 1887, when Crowley was 11, his father died of tongue cancer . Crowley described this as a turning point in his life, and he always maintained an admiration of his father, describing him as "my hero and my friend". Inheriting

11635-429: The Gnostic Catholic Church into O.T.O. after the original founders renamed their own church to the Universal Gnostic Church. The name " Ecclesia Gnostica Catholica " was not applied to the church until Crowley wrote the Gnostic Mass in 1913, which Reuss proclaimed to be the church's official rite. This marked the first time an established church was to accept the Law of Thelema as its central doctrine. Reuss then announced

11814-419: The Gnostic Mass "under the influence of the Liturgy of St. Basil of the Russian Church ". Its structure is also influenced by the initiatory rituals of Ordo Templi Orientis. Its most notable separation from similar rites of other churches is a Priestess officiating with a Priest, Deacon, and two Children. In addition to the Eucharist, baptism, confirmation, marriage, and last rites are offered by E.G.C. Marriage

11993-454: The Gods has come". She led him to a nearby museum, where she showed him a seventh-century BCE mortuary stele known as the Stele of Ankh-ef-en-Khonsu ; Crowley thought it important that the exhibit's number was 666, the Number of the Beast in Christian belief, and in later years termed the artefact the "Stele of Revealing". According to Crowley's later statements, on 8 April he heard a disembodied voice identifying itself as that of Aiwass ,

12172-433: The Golden Dawn, but with an added Thelemic basis. Its earliest members included solicitor Richard Noel Warren, artist Austin Osman Spare , Horace Sheridan-Bickers, author George Raffalovich , Francis Henry Everard Joseph Feilding, engineer Herbert Edward Inman, Kenneth Ward, and Charles Stansfeld Jones . In March 1909, Crowley began production of a biannual periodical titled The Equinox . He billed this periodical, which

12351-423: The History of His Own Times (1954). Blake was concerned about senseless wars and the blighting effects of the Industrial Revolution . Much of his poetry recounts in symbolic allegory the effects of the French and American revolutions. Erdman claims Blake was disillusioned with the political outcomes of the conflicts, believing they had simply replaced monarchy with irresponsible mercantilism. Erdman also notes Blake

12530-409: The Hohenleuben Conference in Thuringia , Germany, which Crowley attended. There, prominent members like Karl Germer and Martha Küntzel championed Crowley's leadership, but other key figures like Albin Grau , Oskar Hopfer, and Henri Birven backed Tränker by opposing it, resulting in a split in O.T.O. Moving to Paris, where he broke with Olsen in 1926, Crowley went through a large number of lovers over

12709-628: The Law was rediscovered at Boleskine, he developed the opinion that Thelema represented objective truth . Crowley's inheritance was running out. Trying to earn money, he was hired by George Montagu Bennett, the Earl of Tankerville , to help protect him from witchcraft ; recognising Bennett's paranoia as being based in his cocaine addiction, Crowley took him on holiday to France and Morocco to recuperate. In 1907, he also began taking in paying students, whom he instructed in occult and magical practice. Victor Neuburg , whom Crowley met in February 1907, became his sexual partner and closest disciple; in 1908

12888-404: The Law —a sacred text that serves as the basis for Thelema, which he said had been dictated to him by a supernatural entity named Aiwass . The Book announced the start of the Æon of Horus, and declared that its followers should "Do what thou wilt", and seek to align themselves with their True Will via the practice of ceremonial magic. After the unsuccessful 1905 Kanchenjunga expedition , and

13067-500: The MMM and re-writing many O.T.O. rituals, which were then based largely on Freemasonry ; his incorporation of Thelemite elements proved controversial in the group. Fascinated by O.T.O's emphasis on sex magic , Crowley devised a magical working based on anal sex and incorporated it into the syllabus for those O.T.O. members who were initiated into the eleventh degree . In March 1913, Crowley acted as producer for The Ragged Ragtime Girls ,

13246-680: The Mass monthly or more frequently. Most O.T.O. bodies make some or all of these celebrations open to interested members of the public, so the Mass is often an individual's first experience of O.T.O. Ecclesia Gnostica Catholica has a hierarchical structure of clergy, assisting officers, and laity which parallels the degree structure of the O.T.O. initiatory system. Before 1997, the two systems were more loosely correlated, but since then there have been strict rules concerning minimum O.T.O. degrees required to serve in particular E.G.C. roles. Membership in Ecclesia Gnostica Catholica

13425-577: The Master (1938) as an account of a vision he experienced in a trance. In March Olsen became pregnant, and Hirsig was called to take care of her; she miscarried, following which Crowley took Olsen back to France. Hirsig later distanced herself from Crowley, who then denounced her. According to Crowley, Reuss named him head of O.T.O. upon his death, but this was challenged by a leader of the German O.T.O., Heinrich Tränker  [ de ] . Tränker called

13604-645: The Royal Academy, submitting works on six occasions between 1780 and 1808. Blake became a friend of John Flaxman , Thomas Stothard and George Cumberland during his first year at the Royal Academy. They shared radical views, with Stothard and Cumberland joining the Society for Constitutional Information . Blake's first biographer, Alexander Gilchrist , records that in June 1780 Blake was walking towards Basire's shop in Great Queen Street when he

13783-522: The Spirit , Appeal to the American Republic , and Jephthah in 1898–99; most gained mixed reviews from literary critics, although Jephthah was considered a particular critical success. Crowley soon progressed through the lower grades of the Golden Dawn, and was ready to enter the group's inner Second Order. He was unpopular in the group; his bisexuality and libertine lifestyle gained him

13962-745: The Tate Gallery, Catherine mixed and applied his paint colors. One of Catherine Blake's most noted works is the coloring of the cover of the book Europe: A Prophecy . William Blake's 1863 biographer, Alexander Gilchrist , wrote, "The poet and his wife did everything in making the book - writing, designing, printing, engraving - everything except manufacturing the paper: the very ink, or colour rather, they did make." In 2019 Tate Britain 's Blake exhibition gave particular focus to Catherine Boucher's role in William Blake's work. Around 1783, Blake's first collection of poems, Poetical Sketches ,

14141-841: The Union of Father and Mother in the Son (Baphomet); and the Daughter, the Bride of the Son (the Church). The two following clauses describe the essential products of the Mass from the perspective of the congregation. The final two clauses are in the form of confession rather than belief and describe parallels between the occurrences in the Mass and the life of the individual. Aleister Crowley Aleister Crowley ( / ˈ æ l ɪ s t ər ˈ k r oʊ l i / AL -ist-ər KROH -lee ; born Edward Alexander Crowley ; 12 October 1875 – 1 December 1947)

14320-678: The United States, settling in Mexico City and starting a relationship with a local woman. Developing a love of the country, he continued experimenting with ceremonial magic, working with John Dee 's Enochian invocations. He later said he had been initiated into Freemasonry while there, and he wrote a play based on Richard Wagner 's Tannhäuser as well as a series of poems, published as Oracles (1905). Eckenstein joined him later in 1900, and together they climbed several mountains, including Iztaccihuatl , Popocatepetl , and Colima ,

14499-506: The actual grave, which was not marked until 12 August 2018. For years since 1965, the exact location of William Blake's grave had been lost and forgotten. The area had been damaged in the Second World War ; gravestones were removed and a garden was created. The memorial stone, indicating that the burial sites are "nearby", was listed as a Grade II listed structure in 2011. A Portuguese couple, Carol and Luís Garrido, rediscovered

14678-420: The atmosphere of the three states of being in the poem. Blake's illustrations of the poem are not merely accompanying works, but rather seem to critically revise, or furnish commentary on, certain spiritual or moral aspects of the text. Because the project was never completed, Blake's intent may be obscured. Some indicators bolster the impression that Blake's illustrations in their totality would take issue with

14857-643: The book are the Four Zoas ( Urthona , Urizen , Luvah and Tharmas ), who were created by the fall of Albion in Blake's mythology . It consists of nine books, referred to as "nights". These outline the interactions of the Zoas, their fallen forms and their Emanations . Blake intended the book to be a summation of his mythic universe . Blake's Four Zoas, which represent four aspects of the Almighty God and Vala

15036-412: The commune. She later said that Loveday was made to drink the blood of a sacrificed cat, and that they were required to cut themselves with razors every time they used the pronoun "I". Loveday drank from a local polluted stream, soon developing a liver infection resulting in his death in February 1923. Returning to London, May told her story to the press. John Bull proclaimed Crowley "the wickedest man in

15215-686: The congregants. The remaining two are confessions. The Creed ends with the Thelemic form of the Pranava, equivalent to the sacred Vedic syllable " Aum " or to the " Amen " of the Judaeo-Christian tradition. On the basic form of the Creed, Tau Apiryon and Helena (1998) write: The first 4 clauses are attributed to the four letters of Tetragrammaton YHVH: the Father (Chaos); the Mother (Babalon);

15394-411: The corpus of The Holy Books of Thelema . Crowley wrote down more Thelemic Holy Books during the last two months of the year, including "Liber LXVI", "Liber Arcanorum", "Liber Porta Lucis, Sub Figura X", "Liber Tau", " Liber Trigrammaton " and "Liber DCCCXIII vel Ararita", which he again said he had received from a preternatural source. Crowley stated that in June 1909, when the manuscript of The Book of

15573-546: The curriculum offered. Crowley spent much of his time at university engaged in his pastimes, becoming president of the chess club and practising the game for two hours a day; he briefly considered a professional career as a chess player. Crowley also embraced his love of literature and poetry, particularly the works of Richard Francis Burton and Percy Bysshe Shelley . Many of his own poems appeared in student publications such as The Granta , Cambridge Magazine , and Cantab . He continued his mountaineering, going on holiday to

15752-437: The death, not of a man, but of a blessed angel." George Richmond gives the following account of Blake's death in a letter to Samuel Palmer : He died ... in a most glorious manner. He said He was going to that Country he had all His life wished to see & expressed Himself Happy, hoping for Salvation through Jesus Christ – Just before he died His Countenance became fair. His eyes Brighten'd and he burst out Singing of

15931-463: The demon Choronzon involving blood sacrifice , and considered the results to be a watershed in his magical career. Returning to London in January 1910, Crowley found that Mathers was suing him for publishing Golden Dawn secrets in The Equinox ; the court found in favour of Crowley. The case was widely reported in the press, with Crowley gaining wider fame. Crowley enjoyed this, and played up to

16110-526: The desert from El Arba to Aumale , Bou Saâda , and then Dā'leh Addin, with Crowley reciting the Quran to fortify himself against growing feelings of awe and dread. During the trip he invoked the thirty aethyrs of Enochian magic , with Neuburg recording the results, later published in The Equinox as The Vision and the Voice . Following a mountaintop sex magic ritual, Crowley also performed an evocation to

16289-881: The diminutives Ted or Ned were even less appropriate. Alexander was too long and Sandy suggested tow hair and freckles. I had read in some book or other that the most favourable name for becoming famous was one consisting of a dactyl followed by a spondee , as at the end of a hexameter : like Jeremy Taylor . Aleister Crowley fulfilled these conditions and Aleister is the Gaelic form of Alexander. To adopt it would satisfy my romantic ideals. Aleister Crowley, on his name change. Crowley had his first significant mystical experience while on holiday in Stockholm in December 1896. Several biographers, including Lawrence Sutin , Richard Kaczynski , and Tobias Churton , believed that this

16468-566: The divine, the Zoas are the God the Father (Tharmas, sense), the Son of God (Luvah, love), the Holy Ghost (Urthona, imagination), and Satan who was originally of the divine substance (Urizen, reason) and their Emanations represent Sexual Urges (Enion), Nature (Vala), Inspiration (Enitharmon), and Pleasure (Ahania). Blake believed that each person had a twofold identity with one half being good and

16647-496: The earlier work, as do many critical studies such as William Blake by D. G. Gillham. The earlier work is primarily rebellious in character and can be seen as a protest against dogmatic religion especially notable in The Marriage of Heaven and Hell , in which the figure represented by the "Devil" is virtually a hero rebelling against an imposter authoritarian deity. In later works, such as Milton and Jerusalem , Blake carves

16826-558: The end of the 18th century. Europe Supported by Africa and America is an engraving by Blake held in the collection of the University of Arizona Museum of Art . The engraving was for a book written by Blake's friend John Gabriel Stedman called The Narrative of a Five Years Expedition against the Revolted Negroes of Surinam (1796). It depicts three women embracing one another. Black Africa and White Europe hold hands in

17005-428: The enterprise, and only a handful of watercolours were completed, with only seven of the engravings arriving at proof form. Even so, they have earned praise: [T]he Dante watercolours are among Blake's richest achievements, engaging fully with the problem of illustrating a poem of this complexity. The mastery of watercolour has reached an even higher level than before, and is used to extraordinary effect in differentiating

17184-539: The exact burial location after 14 years of investigatory work, and the Blake Society organised a permanent memorial slab, which was unveiled at a public ceremony at the site on 12 August 2018. The new stone is inscribed "Here lies William Blake 1757–1827 Poet Artist Prophet" above a verse from his poem Jerusalem . The Blake Prize for Religious Art was established in his honour in Australia in 1949. In 1957

17363-564: The financial assistance of sympathetic Freemasons, Crowley revived The Equinox with the first issue of volume III, known as The Blue Equinox . He spent mid-1919 on a climbing holiday in Montauk before returning to London in December. Now destitute and back in London, Crowley came under attack from the tabloid John Bull , which labelled him traitorous "scum" for his work with the German war effort; several friends aware of his intelligence work urged him to sue, but he decided not to. When he

17542-550: The first of the Holy Books of Thelema to be revealed to Crowley after The Book of the Law . In November 1907, Crowley and Jones decided to found an occult order to act as a successor to the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, being aided in doing so by Fuller. The result was the A∴A∴ . The group's headquarters and temple were situated at 124 Victoria Street in central London, and their rites borrowed much from those of

17721-411: The following years, with whom he experimented in sex magic. Throughout, he was dogged by poor health, largely caused by his heroin and cocaine addictions. In 1928, Crowley was introduced to Israel Regardie , a young Englishman, who embraced Thelema and became Crowley's secretary for the next three years. That year, Crowley also met Gerald Yorke , who began organising Crowley's finances but never became

17900-490: The fundamentalist Irvingite church and under the influence of conservative members of that church burned manuscripts that he deemed heretical. The exact number of destroyed manuscripts is unknown, but shortly before his death Blake told a friend he had written "twenty tragedies as long as Macbeth ", none of which survive. Another acquaintance, William Michael Rossetti, also burned works by Blake that he considered lacking in quality, and John Linnell erased sexual imagery from

18079-525: The gods Mercury and Jupiter . As part of the ritual, the couple performed acts of sex magic together, at times being joined by journalist Walter Duranty . Inspired by the results of the Working, Crowley wrote Liber Agapé , a treatise on sex magic. Following the Paris Working, Neuburg began to distance himself from Crowley, resulting in an argument in which Crowley cursed him. By 1914, Crowley

18258-440: The government of George III , and the creation of the first police force. In 1781 William met Catherine Boucher when he was recovering from a relationship that had culminated in a refusal of his marriage proposal. He recounted the story of his heartbreak for Catherine and her parents, after which he asked Catherine: "Do you pity me?" When she responded affirmatively, he declared: "Then I love you". William married Catherine, who

18437-496: The greatest ever written. Crowley decided to climb Kanchenjunga in the Himalayas of Nepal, widely recognised as the world's most treacherous mountain. The collaboration between Jacot-Guillarmod , Charles Adolphe Reymond, Alexis Pache, and Alcesti C. Rigo de Righi, the expedition was marred by much argument between Crowley and the others, who thought that he was reckless. They eventually mutinied against Crowley's control, with

18616-405: The grim humour of the cantos ). At the same time, Blake shared Dante's distrust of materialism and the corruptive nature of power, and clearly relished the opportunity to represent the atmosphere and imagery of Dante's work pictorially. Even as he seemed to be near death, Blake's central preoccupation was his feverish work on the illustrations to Dante's Inferno ; he is said to have spent one of

18795-514: The group's leader, Samuel Liddell MacGregor Mathers . The ceremony took place in the Golden Dawn's Isis-Urania Temple held at London's Mark Masons Hall, where Crowley took the magical motto and name "Frater Perdurabo", which he interpreted as "Brother I shall endure to the end". Crowley moved into his own luxury flat at 67–69 Chancery Lane and soon invited a senior Golden Dawn member, Allan Bennett , to live with him as his personal magical tutor. Bennett taught Crowley more about ceremonial magic and

18974-633: The help of his mistress and fellow initiate Elaine Simpson —attempted to seize the Vault of the Adepts, a temple space at 36 Blythe Road in West Kensington , from the London lodge members. When the case was taken to court, the judge ruled in favour of the London lodge, as they had paid for the space's rent, leaving both Crowley and Mathers isolated from the group. In 1900, Crowley travelled to Mexico via

19153-444: The humanisation of the character of Urizen in the later works. Murry characterises the later Blake as having found "mutual understanding" and "mutual forgiveness". Regarding conventional religion, Blake was a satirist and ironist in his viewpoints which are illustrated and summarized in his poem Vala, or The Four Zoas , one of his uncompleted prophetic books begun in 1797. The demi-mythological and demi-religious main characters of

19332-439: The ideas first introduced in his earlier works, namely, the humanitarian goal of achieving personal wholeness of body and spirit. The final section of the expanded edition of her Blake study The Unholy Bible suggests the later works are the "Bible of Hell" promised in The Marriage of Heaven and Hell . Regarding Blake's final poem, Jerusalem , she writes: "The promise of the divine in man, made in The Marriage of Heaven and Hell ,

19511-526: The institution of marriage, no evidence is known that would prove that they had met. In Visions of the Daughters of Albion (1793), Blake condemned the cruel absurdity of enforced chastity and marriage without love and defended the right of women to complete self-fulfilment. From 1790 to 1800, William Blake lived in North Lambeth , London, at 13 Hercules Buildings, Hercules Road . The property

19690-591: The last shillings he possessed on a pencil to continue sketching. Blake's last years were spent at Fountain Court off the Strand (the property was demolished in the 1880s, when the Savoy Hotel was built). On the day of his death (12 August 1827), Blake worked relentlessly on his Dante series. Eventually, it is reported, he ceased working and turned to his wife, who was in tears by his bedside. Beholding her, Blake

19869-588: The latter of which they had to abandon owing to a volcanic eruption. Leaving Mexico, Crowley headed to San Francisco before sailing for Hawaii aboard the Nippon Maru . On the ship, he had a brief affair with a married woman named Mary Alice Rogers; saying he fell in love with her, he wrote a series of poems about the romance, published as Alice: An Adultery (1903). Briefly stopping in Japan and Hong Kong, Crowley reached Ceylon, where he met with Allan Bennett, who

20048-540: The leader of its British branch, which he reformulated in accordance with his Thelemite beliefs. Through O.T.O., Thelemite groups were established in Britain, Australia, and North America. Crowley spent the First World War in the United States, where he took up painting, and campaigned for the German war effort against Britain. His biographers later revealed that he had infiltrated the pro-German movement to assist

20227-552: The marriage bed in accordance with the beliefs of the more radical branches of the Swedenborgian Society , but other scholars have dismissed these theories as conjecture. In his Dictionary, Samuel Foster Damon suggests that Catherine may have had a stillborn daughter for which The Book of Thel is an elegy. That is how he rationalizes the Book's unusual ending, but notes that he is speculating. In 1800, Blake moved to

20406-509: The media coverage surrounding him. William Blake This is an accepted version of this page William Blake (28 November 1757 – 12 August 1827) was an English poet, painter, and printmaker. Largely unrecognised during his life, Blake has become a seminal figure in the history of the poetry and visual art of the Romantic Age . What he called his " prophetic works " were said by 20th-century critic Northrop Frye to form "what

20585-417: The messenger of Horus, or Hoor-Paar-Kraat . Crowley said that he wrote down everything the voice told him over the course of the next three days, and titled it Liber AL vel Legis or The Book of the Law . The book proclaimed that humanity was entering a new Aeon , and that Crowley would serve as its prophet . It stated that a supreme moral law was to be introduced in this Aeon, "Do what thou wilt shall be

20764-894: The most blasphemous and cold-blooded villains of modern times". Fenton's articles suggested that Crowley and Jones were involved in homosexual activity; Crowley did not mind, but Jones unsuccessfully sued for libel. Fuller broke off his friendship and involvement with Crowley over the scandal, and Crowley and Neuburg returned to Algeria for further magical workings. The Equinox continued publishing, and various books of literature and poetry were also published under its imprint, like Crowley's Ambergris , The Winged Beetle , and The Scented Garden , as well as Neuburg's The Triumph of Pan and Ethel Archer's The Whirlpool . In 1911, Crowley and Waddell holidayed in Montigny-sur-Loing , where he wrote prolifically, producing poems, short stories, plays, and 19 works on magic and mysticism, including

20943-439: The museum, fortifying his own island, and translating the book into all the world's languages. According to his account, he instead sent typescripts of the work to several occultists he knew, putting the manuscript away and ignoring it. Returning to Boleskine, Crowley came to believe that Mathers was using magic against him, and the relationship between the two broke down. On 28 July 1905, Rose gave birth to Crowley's first child,

21122-607: The nourisher of all that breathes. And I believe in one Earth, the Mother of us all, and in one Womb wherein all men are begotten, and wherein they shall rest, Mystery of Mystery, in Her name BABALON . And I believe in the Serpent and the Lion, Mystery of Mystery, in His name BAPHOMET . And I believe in one Gnostic and Catholic Church of Light, Life, Love and Liberty, the Word of whose Law

21301-409: The orders of British intelligence to spy on revolutionary elements in the city. In January 1914, Crowley and Neuburg settled into an apartment in Paris, where the former was involved in the controversy surrounding Jacob Epstein 's new monument to Oscar Wilde . Together Crowley and Neuburg performed the six-week "Paris Working", a period of intense ritual involving strong drug use in which they invoked

21480-819: The other climbers heading back down the mountain as nightfall approached despite Crowley's warnings that it was too dangerous. Subsequently, Pache and several porters were killed in an accident, something for which Crowley was widely blamed by the mountaineering community. Spending time in Moharbhanj , where he took part in big-game hunting and wrote the homoerotic work The Scented Garden , Crowley met up with Rose and Lilith in Calcutta before being forced to leave India after non-lethally shooting two men who tried to mug him. Briefly visiting Bennett in Burma, Crowley and his family decided to tour Southern China, hiring porters and

21659-411: The other evil. In Vala , both the character Orc and The Eternal Man discuss their selves as divided. By the time he was working on his later works, including Vala , Blake felt that he was able to overcome his inner battle but he was concerned about losing his artistic abilities. These thoughts carried over into Vala as the character Los (imagination) is connected to the image of Christ, and he added

21838-668: The painter Gerald Kelly , and through him became a fixture of the Parisian arts scene. Whilst there, Crowley wrote a series of poems on the work of an acquaintance, the sculptor Auguste Rodin . These poems were later published as Rodin in Rime (1907). One of those frequenting this milieu was W. Somerset Maugham , who after briefly meeting Crowley later used him as a model for the character of Oliver Haddo in his novel The Magician (1908). He returned to Boleskine in April 1903. In August, Crowley wed Gerald Kelly's sister Rose Edith Kelly in

22017-596: The pair toured northern Spain before heading to Tangier , Morocco. The following year Neuburg stayed at Boleskine, where he and Crowley engaged in sadomasochism . Crowley continued to write prolifically, producing such works of poetry as Ambergris , Clouds Without Water , and Konx Om Pax , as well as his first attempt at an autobiography, The World's Tragedy . Recognizing the popularity of short horror stories, Crowley wrote his own, some of which were published, and he also published several articles in Vanity Fair ,

22196-633: The philosophical and mystical undercurrents within his work. His paintings and poetry have been characterised as part of the Romantic movement and as "Pre-Romantic". A theist who preferred his own Marcionite style of theology, he was hostile to the Church of England (indeed, to almost all forms of organised religion), and was influenced by the ideals and ambitions of the French and American Revolutions . Although later he rejected many of these political beliefs, he maintained an amicable relationship with

22375-507: The plates in acid to dissolve the untreated copper and leave the design standing in relief (hence the name). This is a reversal of the usual method of etching, where the lines of the design are exposed to the acid, and the plate printed by the intaglio method. Relief etching (which Blake referred to as " stereotype " in The Ghost of Abel ) was intended as a means for producing his illuminated books more quickly than via intaglio. Stereotype,

22554-497: The political activist Thomas Paine ; he was also influenced by thinkers such as Emanuel Swedenborg . Despite these known influences, the singularity of Blake's work makes him difficult to classify. The 19th-century scholar William Michael Rossetti characterised him as a "glorious luminary", and "a man not forestalled by predecessors, nor to be classed with contemporaries, nor to be replaced by known or readily surmisable successors". Collaboration with his wife, Catherine Boucher ,

22733-422: The public. The Gnostic Saints of Ecclesia Gnostica Catholica are a series of historical and mythological figures revered in the religion of Thelema. They are found in the fifth Collect of Liber XV, titled "The Saints". Two Gnostic Saints have been officially added to the original list. William Blake was so recognized based on a discovered writing by Aleister Crowley which described him as such. Giordano Bruno

22912-591: The religious satire Why Jesus Wept (1904). Had! The manifestation of Nuit . The unveiling of the company of heaven. Every man and every woman is a star. Every number is infinite; there is no difference. Help me, o warrior lord of Thebes, in my unveiling before the Children of men! The opening lines of The Book of the Law In February 1904, Crowley and Rose arrived in Cairo . Pretending to be

23091-680: The ritual use of drugs, and together they performed the rituals of the Goetia , until Bennett left for South Asia to study Buddhism . In November 1899, Crowley purchased Boleskine House in Foyers on the shore of Loch Ness in Scotland. He developed a love of Scottish culture, describing himself as the " Laird of Boleskine", and took to wearing traditional highland dress, even during visits to London. He continued writing poetry, publishing Jezebel and Other Tragic Poems , Tales of Archais , Songs of

23270-518: The riverside cliffs, and—he later wrote—experienced past life memories of being Ge Xuan , Pope Alexander VI , Alessandro Cagliostro , and Éliphas Lévi . Back in New York City, he moved to Greenwich Village , where he took Leah Hirsig as his lover and next Scarlet Woman. He took up painting as a hobby, exhibiting his work at the Greenwich Village Liberal Club and attracting the attention of The Evening World . With

23449-418: The same Hand." Others have said it "expresses the climate of opinion in which the questions of color and slavery were, at that time, being considered, and which Blake's writings reflect." Blake employed intaglio engraving in his own work, such as for his Illustrations of the Book of Job , completed just before his death. Most critical work has concentrated on Blake's relief etching as a technique because it

23628-595: The sensationalist stereotype of being a Satanist and advocate of human sacrifice, despite being neither. The publicity attracted new members to the A∴A∴, among them Frank Bennett, James Bayley, Herbert Close, and James Windram. The Australian violinist Leila Waddell soon became Crowley's lover. Deciding to expand his teachings to a wider audience, Crowley developed the Rites of Artemis, a public performance of magic and symbolism featuring A∴A∴ members personifying various deities. It

23807-422: The separate Gnostic Catholic Church corporation and folded the church back into O.T.O. Since then the Church has expanded greatly, and in recent years several books and articles dealing with the E.G.C. and the Gnostic Mass have been published by its Clergy, notably by Tau Apiryon and Tau Helena, James and Nancy Wasserman, Rodney Orpheus, and Cathryn Orchard. The creed of Ecclesia Gnostica Catholica—also known as

23986-593: The similarities were coincidental, and the two became friends. Reuss appointed Crowley as head of O.T.O's British branch, the Mysteria Mystica Maxima (MMM), and at a ceremony in Berlin Crowley adopted the magical name of Baphomet and was proclaimed "X° Supreme Rex and Sovereign Grand Master General of Ireland, Iona, and all the Britons". With Reuss' permission, Crowley set about advertising

24165-399: The standard process of engraving in the 18th century in which the artist incised an image into the copper plate, a complex and laborious process, with plates taking months or years to complete, but as Blake's contemporary, John Boydell , realised, such engraving offered a "missing link with commerce", enabling artists to connect with a mass audience and became an immensely important activity by

24344-563: The studio apartment of Roddie Minor, who became his partner and Scarlet Woman . Through their rituals, which Crowley called "The Amalantrah Workings", he believed that they were contacted by a preternatural entity named Lam. The relationship soon ended. In 1918, Crowley went on a magical retreat in the wilderness of Esopus Island on the Hudson River . Here, he began an adaptation of the Tao Te Ching , painted Thelemic slogans on

24523-621: The sun god Ra at set times during the day, also occasionally performing the Gnostic Mass; the rest of the day they were left to follow their own interests. Undertaking widespread correspondences, Crowley continued to paint, wrote a commentary on The Book of the Law , and revised the third part of Book 4 . He offered a libertine education for the children, allowing them to play all day and witness acts of sex magic. He occasionally travelled to Palermo to visit rent boys and buy supplies, including drugs; his heroin addiction came to dominate his life, and cocaine began to erode his nasal cavity. There

24702-790: The text they accompany: in the margin of Homer Bearing the Sword and His Companions , Blake notes, "Every thing in Dantes Comedia shews That for Tyrannical Purposes he has made This World the Foundation of All & the Goddess Nature & not the Holy Ghost." Blake seems to dissent from Dante's admiration of the poetic works of ancient Greece , and from the apparent glee with which Dante allots punishments in Hell (as evidenced by

24881-802: The things he saw in Heaven. Catherine paid for Blake's funeral with money lent to her by Linnell. Blake's body was buried in a plot shared with others, five days after his death – on the eve of his 45th wedding anniversary – at the Dissenter 's burial ground in Bunhill Fields , that became the London Borough of Islington . His parents' bodies were buried in the same graveyard. Present at the ceremonies were Catherine, Edward Calvert , George Richmond , Frederick Tatham and John Linnell. Following Blake's death, Catherine moved into Tatham's house as

25060-508: The two entered into a relationship. They broke apart because Pollitt did not share Crowley's increasing interest in Western esotericism, a break-up that Crowley regretted for many years. In 1897, Crowley travelled to Saint Petersburg in Russia, later saying that he was trying to learn Russian as he was considering a future diplomatic career there. In October 1897, a brief illness triggered considerations of mortality and "the futility of all human endeavour", and Crowley abandoned all thoughts of

25239-410: The two final Holy Books of Thelema. In Paris, he met Mary Desti, who became his next " Scarlet Woman ", with the two undertaking magical workings in St. Moritz ; Crowley believed that one of the Secret Chiefs , Ab-ul-Diz, was speaking through her. Based on Desti's statements when in trance, Crowley wrote the two-volume Book 4 (1912–13) and at the time developed the spelling "magick" in reference to

25418-425: The whole of the Law," and that people should learn to live in tune with their Will. This book, and the philosophy that it espoused, became the cornerstone of Crowley's religion, Thelema . Crowley said that at the time he was unsure what to do with The Book of the Law . Often resenting it, he said that he ignored the instructions which the text commanded him to perform, which included taking the Stele of Revealing from

25597-412: The world" and "a man we'd like to hang", and although Crowley deemed many of their accusations against him to be slanderous, he was unable to afford the legal fees to sue them. As a result, John Bull continued its attack, with its stories being repeated in newspapers throughout Europe and in North America. The Fascist government of Benito Mussolini learned of Crowley's activities, and in April 1923 he

25776-481: Was Cecil Frederick Russell, who often argued with Crowley, disliking the same-sex sexual magic that he was required to perform, and left after a year. More conducive was the Australian Thelemite Frank Bennett, who also spent several months at the Abbey. In February 1922, Crowley returned to Paris for a retreat in an unsuccessful attempt to kick his heroin addiction. He then went to London in search of money, where he published articles in The English Review criticising

25955-512: Was a German agent. So that she could join him in Britain, Crowley married Sanchez in August 1929. Now based in London, Mandrake Press agreed to publish his autobiography in a limited edition six-volume set, also publishing his novel Moonchild and book of short stories The Stratagem . Mandrake went into liquidation in November 1930, before the entirety of Crowley's Confessions could be published. Mandrake's owner P. R. Stephensen meanwhile wrote The Legend of Aleister Crowley , an analysis of

26134-522: Was an English occultist , ceremonial magician , poet, novelist, mountaineer , and painter. He founded the religion of Thelema , identifying himself as the prophet entrusted with guiding humanity into the Æon of Horus in the early 20th century. A prolific writer, he published widely over the course of his life. Born to a wealthy family in Royal Leamington Spa , Warwickshire, Crowley rejected his parents' fundamentalist Christian Plymouth Brethren faith to pursue an interest in Western esotericism . He

26313-438: Was an early and profound influence on Blake, and remained a source of inspiration throughout his life. Blake's childhood, according to him, included mystical religious experiences such as "beholding God's face pressed against his window, seeing angels among the haystacks, and being visited by the Old Testament prophet Ezekiel ." Blake started engraving copies of drawings of Greek antiquities purchased for him by his father,

26492-488: Was apprenticed to engraver James Basire of Great Queen Street , at the sum of £52.10, for a term of seven years. At the end of the term, aged 21, he became a professional engraver. No record survives of any serious disagreement or conflict between the two during the period of Blake's apprenticeship, but Peter Ackroyd 's biography notes that Blake later added Basire's name to a list of artistic adversaries; and then crossed it out. This aside, Basire's style of line-engraving

26671-428: Was born a Quaker , but converted to the Exclusive Brethren , a faction of a Christian fundamentalist group known as the Plymouth Brethren ; Emily likewise converted upon marriage. Crowley's father was particularly devout, spending his time as a travelling preacher for the sect and reading a chapter from the Bible to his wife and son after breakfast every day. Following the death of their baby daughter in 1880, in 1881

26850-423: Was both a practicing surgeon and an enthusiast of literature. His poetry often received strong reviews (either positive or negative), but never sold well. In an attempt to gain more publicity, he issued a reward of £100 for the best essay on his work. The winner of this was J. F. C. Fuller , a British Army officer and military historian, whose essay, The Star in the West (1907), heralded Crowley's poetry as some of

27029-415: Was charged not only with assault, but with uttering seditious and treasonable expressions against the king. Schofield claimed that Blake had exclaimed "Damn the king. The soldiers are all slaves." Blake was cleared in the Chichester assizes of the charges. According to a report in the Sussex county paper, "[T]he invented character of [the evidence] was ... so obvious that an acquittal resulted". Schofield

27208-438: Was decorated with suits of armour, painted funeral effigies and varicoloured waxworks. Ackroyd notes that "...the most immediate [impression] would have been of faded brightness and colour". This close study of the Gothic (which he saw as the "living form") left clear traces in his style. In the long afternoons Blake spent sketching in the Abbey, he was occasionally interrupted by boys from Westminster School , who were allowed in

27387-421: Was deeply opposed to slavery and believes some of his poems, read primarily as championing " free love ", had their anti-slavery implications short-changed. A more recent study, William Blake: Visionary Anarchist by Peter Marshall (1988), classified Blake and his contemporary William Godwin as forerunners of modern anarchism . British Marxist historian E. P. Thompson 's last finished work, Witness Against

27566-409: Was demolished in 1918, but the site is marked with a plaque. A series of 70 mosaics commemorates Blake in the nearby railway tunnels of Waterloo Station . The mosaics largely reproduce illustrations from Blake's illuminated books, The Songs of Innocence and of Experience , The Marriage of Heaven and Hell , and the prophetic books . In 1788, aged 31, Blake experimented with relief etching ,

27745-722: Was educated at Trinity College at the University of Cambridge , where he focused his attention upon mountaineering and poetry, resulting in several publications. Some biographers allege that here he was recruited into a British intelligence agency , further suggesting that he remained a spy throughout his life. In 1898, he joined the esoteric Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn , where he was trained in ceremonial magic by Samuel Liddell MacGregor Mathers and Allan Bennett . He went mountaineering in Mexico with Oscar Eckenstein , before studying Hindu and Buddhist practices in India. In 1904, he married Rose Edith Kelly , and they honeymooned in Cairo , Egypt, where Crowley wrote down The Book of

27924-498: Was fascinated by The Book of the Law ; together they performed rituals in an attempt to contact Aiwass. Crowley then sailed to Japan and Canada, before continuing to New York City, where he unsuccessfully solicited support for a second expedition up Kanchenjunga. Upon arrival in Britain, Crowley learned that his daughter Lilith had died of typhoid in Rangoon , something he later blamed on Rose's increasing alcoholism. Under emotional distress, his health began to suffer, and he underwent

28103-505: Was first performed at the A∴A∴ headquarters, with attendees given a fruit punch containing peyote to enhance their experience. Various members of the press attended, and reported largely positively on it. In October and November 1910, Crowley decided to stage something similar, the Rites of Eleusis , at Caxton Hall , Westminster ; this time press reviews were mixed. Crowley came under particular criticism from West de Wend Fenton, editor of The Looking Glass newspaper, who called him "one of

28282-445: Was five years his junior, on 18 August 1782 in St Mary's Church, Battersea . Illiterate, Catherine signed her wedding contract with an X. The original wedding certificate may be viewed at the church, where a commemorative stained-glass window was installed between 1976 and 1982. The marriage was successful and Catherine became William's "partner in both life and work", undertaking important roles as an engraver and colourist. According to

28461-436: Was given a deportation notice forcing him to leave Italy; without him, the Abbey closed. Crowley and Hirsig went to Tunis , where, dogged by continuing poor health, he unsuccessfully tried again to give up heroin, and began writing what he termed his " autohagiography ", The Confessions of Aleister Crowley . They were joined in Tunis by the Thelemite Norman Mudd, who became Crowley's public relations consultant. Employing

28640-432: Was in Zermatt , Switzerland, where he met the chemist Julian L. Baker, and the two began discussing their common interest in alchemy . Back in London, Baker introduced Crowley to George Cecil Jones , Baker's brother-in-law and a fellow member of the occult society known as the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn , which was founded in 1888. Crowley was initiated into the Outer Order of the Golden Dawn on 18 November 1898 by

28819-493: Was instrumental in the creation of many of his books. Boucher worked as a printmaker and colorist for his works. "For almost forty-five years she was the person who lived and worked most closely with Blake, enabling him to realize numerous projects, impossible without her assistance. Catherine was an artist and printer in her own right", writes literary scholar Angus Whitehead. William Blake was born on 28 November 1757 at 28 Broad Street (now Broadwick Street ) in Soho , London. He

28998-430: Was later depicted wearing "mind forged manacles" in an illustration to Jerusalem The Emanation of the Giant Albion . Blake returned to London in 1804 and began to write and illustrate Jerusalem (1804–20), his most ambitious work. Having conceived the idea of portraying the characters in Chaucer 's Canterbury Tales , Blake approached the dealer Robert Cromek , with a view to marketing an engraving. Knowing Blake

29177-403: Was living a hand-to-mouth existence, relying largely on donations from A∴A∴ members and dues payments made to O.T.O. In May, he transferred ownership of Boleskine House to the MMM for financial reasons, and in July he went mountaineering in the Swiss Alps. During this time the First World War broke out. After recuperating from a bout of phlebitis , Crowley set sail for the United States aboard

29356-523: Was more recently added to the list. The Ecclesia Gnostica Catholica descended from a line of French Gnostic revival churches that developed in the 19th century. At that time, these Gnostic churches were essentially Christian in nature. In 1907, Gerard Encausse , Jean Bricaud and Louis-Sophrone Fugairon founded their own, simply called the Gnostic Catholic Church. In 1908, they gave O.T.O. Grand Master Theodor Reuss episcopal consecration and primatial authority in their GCC. Later that year, Reuss incorporated

29535-434: Was no cleaning rota, and wild dogs and cats wandered throughout the building, which soon became unsanitary. Poupée died in October 1920, and Ninette gave birth to a daughter, Astarte Lulu Panthea, soon afterwards. New followers continued to arrive at the Abbey to be taught by Crowley. Among them was film star Jane Wolfe , who arrived in July 1920, where she was initiated into the A∴A∴ and became Crowley's secretary. Another

29714-452: Was not a particular success. That same year, Crowley published a string of other poems, including White Stains , a Decadent collection of erotic poetry that was printed abroad lest its publication be prohibited by the British authorities. In July 1898, he left Cambridge, not having taken any degree at all despite a " first class " showing in his 1897 exams and consistent "second class honours" results before that. In August 1898, Crowley

29893-546: Was of a kind held at the time to be old-fashioned compared to the flashier stipple or mezzotint styles. It has been speculated that Blake's instruction in this outmoded form may have been detrimental to his acquiring of work or recognition in later life. After two years, Basire sent his apprentice to copy images from the Gothic churches in London (perhaps to settle a quarrel between Blake and James Parker, his fellow apprentice). His experiences in Westminster Abbey helped form his artistic style and ideas. The Abbey of his day

30072-550: Was printed. In 1784, after his father's death, Blake and former fellow apprentice James Parker opened a print shop. They began working with radical publisher Joseph Johnson . Johnson's house was a meeting-place for some leading English intellectual dissidents of the time: theologian and scientist Joseph Priestley ; philosopher Richard Price ; artist John Henry Fuseli ; early feminist Mary Wollstonecraft ; and English-American revolutionary Thomas Paine . Along with William Wordsworth and William Godwin , Blake had great hopes for

30251-671: Was published as The Sword of Song (1904). He contracted malaria , and had to recuperate from the disease in Calcutta and Rangoon. In 1902, he was joined in India by Eckenstein and several other mountaineers: Guy Knowles , H. Pfannl, V. Wesseley, and Jules Jacot-Guillarmod . Together, the Eckenstein-Crowley expedition attempted K2 , which was never climbed before. On the journey, Crowley was afflicted with influenza , malaria, and snow blindness , and other expedition members were also struck with illness. They reached an altitude of 20,000 feet (6,100 m) before turning back. Having arrived in Paris in November 1902, he socialized with his friend

30430-401: Was suffering from asthma, a doctor prescribed him heroin, to which he soon became addicted. In January 1920, he moved to Paris, renting a house in Fontainebleau with Leah Hirsig ; they were soon joined in a ménage à trois by Ninette Shumway, and also (in living arrangement) by Leah's newborn daughter Anne "Poupée" Leah. Crowley had ideas of forming a community of Thelemites, which he called

30609-423: Was swept up by a rampaging mob that stormed Newgate Prison . The mob attacked the prison gates with shovels and pickaxes, set the building ablaze, and released the prisoners inside. Blake was reportedly in the front rank of the mob during the attack. The riots, in response to a parliamentary bill revoking sanctions against Roman Catholicism, became known as the Gordon Riots and provoked a flurry of legislation from

30788-409: Was ten years old, his parents knew enough of his headstrong temperament that he was not sent to school but instead enrolled in drawing classes at Henry Pars' drawing school in the Strand . He read avidly on subjects of his own choosing. During this period, Blake made explorations into poetry; his early work displays knowledge of Ben Jonson , Edmund Spenser , and the Psalms . On 4 August 1772, Blake

30967-454: Was the result of Crowley's first same-sex sexual experience, which enabled him to recognize his bisexuality . At Cambridge, Crowley maintained a vigorous sex life with women—largely with female prostitutes, from one of whom he caught syphilis —but eventually he took part in same-sex activities, despite their illegality . In October 1897, Crowley met Herbert Charles Pollitt , president of the Cambridge University Footlights Dramatic Club , and

31146-445: Was the third of seven children, two of whom died in infancy. Blake's father, James, was a hosier , who had lived in London. He attended school only long enough to learn reading and writing, leaving at the age of 10, and was otherwise educated at home by his mother Catherine Blake ( née Wright). Even though the Blakes were English Dissenters , William was baptised on 11 December at St James's Church , Piccadilly, London. The Bible

31325-457: Was there studying Shaivism . The pair spent some time in Kandy before Bennett decided to become a Buddhist monk in the Theravada tradition, travelling to Burma to do so. Crowley decided to tour India, devoting himself to the Hindu practice of Rāja yoga , by which means he believed he had achieved the spiritual state of dhyana . He spent much of this time studying at the Meenakshi Temple in Madura . At this time he also wrote poetry which

31504-489: Was to become the "Official Organ" of the A∴A∴, as "The Review of Scientific Illuminism". Crowley became increasingly frustrated with Rose's alcoholism, and in November 1909 he divorced her on the grounds of his own adultery. Lola was entrusted to Rose's care; the couple remained friends and Rose continued to live at Boleskine. Her alcoholism worsened, and as a result she was institutionalized in September 1911. In November 1909, Crowley and Neuburg travelled to Algeria, touring

31683-455: Was too eccentric to produce a popular work, Cromek promptly commissioned Blake's friend Thomas Stothard to execute the concept. When Blake learned he had been cheated, he broke off contact with Stothard. He set up an independent exhibition in his brother's haberdashery shop at 27 Broad Street in Soho . The exhibition was designed to market his own version of the Canterbury illustration (titled The Canterbury Pilgrims ), along with other works. As

31862-482: Was trained as an engineer, but his share in a lucrative family brewing business, Crowley's Alton Ales, allowed him to retire before his son was born. His mother, Emily Bertha Bishop (1848–1917), came from a Devonshire-Somerset family and had a strained relationship with her son; she described him as "the Beast", a name that he revelled in. The couple had been married at London's Kensington Registry Office in November 1874, and were evangelical Christians. Crowley's father

32041-418: Was uninterested in true artistry, and preoccupied with "the meer drudgery of business" (E724). Blake's disenchantment with Hayley has been speculated to have influenced Milton: a Poem , in which Blake wrote that "Corporeal Friends are Spiritual Enemies". (4:26, E98) Blake's trouble with authority came to a head in August 1803, when he was involved in a physical altercation with a soldier, John Schofield. Blake

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