Victoria Advocate (TX)
July 11, 2008
Aleister Crowley (1875-1947) was perhaps the most controversial personality to figure in the new era of modern day witchcraft. Born in England, the son of Emily and Edward, he was brought up in an atmosphere of strict religious piety. His parents were devout Christians and staunch members of the Plymouth Brethren sect. His whole life seems to have been a revolt against his parents and everything they stood for. (Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia)
He was educated at Trinity College at Cambridge where he first became interested in the occult. In 1899, Crowley is reported to have become a member of a coven, but was dismissed after a time due to his contemptuous attitude toward women, his personal ego and his sexual perversion.
Crowley travelled much, especially in the East studying Eastern Occult systems including Buddhism and the ‘I Ching.’ As he delved deeper into the occult, he became infamous as a Black magician and Satanist. He openly identified himself with the number 666, the biblical number for the antichrist.
Toward the end of his life, a friend introduced Crowley to Gerald B. Gardner. A certain Leo Ruickbie has said that Crowley played a crucial role in helping Gardner establish a new pagan religion called Wicca. Wiccan initiation rituals are lifted directly from Crowley’s “Gnostic Mass” written for the Ordo Templi Orientis in 1913.
The sordid details of his life are far too lurid to repeat here, but suffice it to say that the British press dubbed him the “Wickedest Man in the World.”
His philosophy of life was: “Do as thou wilt shall be the whole of the law.”
Crowley died penniless and a drug addict. Unrepentant and unbowed, he left this world with a final snub at the society that he had rejected. He left instructions that he was to be cremated and instead of the usual religious service, his “Hymn to Pan” and other extracts from his writing were to be proclaimed from the pulpit.
Wilbur M. Smith once said, “Men who are going to be disciples of these lords of naturalism must expect never to come into the experience of joy for which their very hearts were created.” Crowley undoubtedly had times of pleasure in his sinful way, but real joy surely eluded him.
For much more on this influential Satanist, type in Aleister Crowley in Google or some other search engine. It is said that Crowley’s ideas had a part in the throwing off of moral restraints in the 1960’s as many musicians and popular personalities, including the Beatles, picked up on his ideas.
How to account for such aberrant behavior? Unfortunately, there are some who rebel against the Christian religion for any number of reasons. Then there just seems to be a group of people who want to be different and spout some esoteric ideas in order to impress people. Then, there are unstable, disordered and unthinking people who are taken in by these weird ideas.
Raymond F. Smith is a deacon at Fellowship Bible Church in Victoria and President of Strong Families of Victoria.
http://www.victoriaadvocate.com/features/faith/story/278075.html
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