He Was Rich, Reckless, And Really Twisted
Many people know Aleister Crowley because of Ozzy Osbourne’s “Mr Crowley,” but the song only hints at the bizarre truth. An occultist, magician, writer, painter, mountaineer, and alleged spy, Crowley was a trust-fund Victorian edgelord who courted scandal at every turn. A peek into the life of “The Wickedest Man in the World” reveals a trail of dark rituals, broken lives, addiction, affairs, and a legacy as unsettling as the man himself.
1. His Nickname Stuck
At first glance, Aleister Crowley’s origin story seems too good to be true. Born Edward Alexander Crowley on October 12, 1875, in a posh spa town in Warwickshire, England, he had every advantage money could buy. Even so, the unease started early. Whenever young Alick (as he was called) misbehaved, his intensely religious mother called him “the Beast”—after the monstrous 666 figure from the Book of Revelation.
Curious, he looked up the Bible passage himself. Even then, he started to wonder if his mother was right.
Underwood Archives, Getty Images
2. He Loved The Bible
It might come as a surprise, but the future “Wickedest Man in the World” loved the Bible and idolized his father, a preacher with the Plymouth Brethren, a conservative Christian movement. After breakfast each morning, the Crowleys and their servants would take turns reading the Scripture aloud. Young Alick became fascinated by the strange names and stories in its pages.
When he turned eight, his father declared it was time for boarding school. Alick soon discovered that home had been the easy part.
3. He Was The Kind Of Boy Headmasters Dreamed Of
Nothing builds character like a Victorian boarding school—and Aleister Crowley fit right in. The boys’ days were packed with prayers, sermons, Bible readings, and ceremonies. Even cricket came with a catch: there was no scorekeeping to avoid the “sin of emulation”. Surprisingly, Crowley loved it. He excelled in class, made close friends, and even dreamed of following in his father’s footsteps.
Then, just as his world seemed settled, in the middle of the spring term of 1886, everything changed.
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4. His Childhood Crumbled
Crowley was 11 when he was suddenly pulled out of boarding school with devastating news: His father, Edward, the preacher whose sermons had filled his childhood, had been diagnosed with tongue cancer. For a man whose life revolved around his voice, it was a pretty cruel twist of fate. Instead of having it immediately removed by Queen Victoria’s surgeon, Edward began seeing Count Cesare Mattei, the inventor of electrohomeopathy.
Although doctors were optimistic, Crowley couldn’t shake the feeling that something was terribly wrong.
5. His Happy Days Were Over
Back at boarding school, young Alick tried to get on with life, but there was one problem. As the months passed, he couldn’t stop worrying about his father. Then came the dream. One night, Crowley jolted awake after dreaming that his father had lost his battle with cancer. The next day, the boy learned that Edward had passed. Crowley had lost his father, his hero, his friend, and the center of his world.
The nightmare didn’t end when he woke up. In many ways it was only beginning.
6. He Was A Little Boy Lost
Losing his father also made young Aleister Crowley rich. At just 11 years old, he inherited what would be worth millions today, but all the money in the world couldn’t buy back the one person he missed. While his mother struggled through what Crowley later called the “hysteria of widowhood,” the boy unraveled. The model student who had once dreamed of becoming a preacher became a regular in the headmaster’s office.
In a Victorian evangelical boarding school, that was a very scary place to be.
7. He Had No One To Save Him
The one person who had always protected Crowley was gone. His father’s final piece of advice before boarding school had been chillingly simple: “Never let anyone touch you there”. Now whenever Alick ended up in the headmaster’s office, the punishment was almost as unsettling. With the boy lying over the headmaster’s lap, the man would hit him “on the legs, because flogging the buttocks excites the victim’s sensuality!”
Too bad the canings weren’t the worst form of punishment waiting for Crowley.
8. He Stayed Silent
When Crowley's uncle visited the school, he took one look at the boy’s pale face and gaunt frame and knew something was terribly wrong. But when he asked questions, young Alick insisted everything was fine. His uncle confronted the headmaster and even sent the boy to speak with a judge. Crowley still didn’t snitch.
The terrified boy thought that if he complained, his mother or uncle would get locked up. So, they sent him back to school.
9. He Came This Close
Crowley managed to keep the truth hidden—until he came home for Christmas looking so sick that even his grieving mother couldn’t ignore it. She questioned her son until he finally spilled the tea: Crowley was being punished for refusing to confess to an offense he hadn’t committed. He hadn’t even been told what it was he was being accused of. His punishment? Isolation, with nothing but bread and water.
His mother promised to take care of it. Spoiler: She made it so much worse.
Boston Public Library, Unsplash
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10. He Walked Into A Trap
After telling the truth about what was happening at school, Crowley thought that help was coming. Boy, was he wrong. His mother told him they were visiting his uncle for the holiday, but when they arrived, there was a horrifying surprise waiting: the headmaster was there. When Crowley saw him, his blood ran cold.
For the whole visit, the terrified boy hid in the corner and didn’t utter a word.
11. His Nightmare Was Never-Ending
Like a horrific version of Groundhog Day, Aleister Crowley again returned to the place he feared most. Finally, during a visit, his uncle saw the truth and didn’t back down. He confronted the headmaster and pulled Crowley out of school. Soon afterward, the school closed, but by then, the damage had been done. Crowley's doctor diagnosed him with a lethal kidney disease and said he might not survive to adulthood.
12. He Went On The Trip Of A Lifetime
For wealthy Victorians, a “rest cure” was what most of us call a dream vacation. After surviving kidney disease, Crowley came down with whooping cough at age 15 and was sent to a seaside resort on the English Riviera to recover. His tutor and chaperone was James Douglas, a 25-year-old philosophy teacher—and let’s just say he gave Crowley an education he wouldn’t find in any classroom.
Torquay : Torbay Scenery by Lewis Clarke, Wikimedia Commons
13. His Chaperone Failed (Or Succeeded?)
Douglas was supposed to keep young Alick out of trouble on the trip. Instead, he blew open everything Crowley had been taught about pleasure. He smoked, drank, played cards, and, most shockingly of all, didn’t think women were sinful temptations. Then, on a sunny afternoon in a field, Crowley lost his virginity with a local girl—and it was glorious. After a childhood spent being warned about the evils of pleasure, this was revolutionary.
Crowley later wrote that Douglas “taught him sense and manhood”. His next act definitely did not involve the former.
14. He Crossed A Line
Apparently, getting lucky was good medicine. Aleister Crowley was no longer a sickly boy who might not reach adulthood. Now he was a handsome, square-jawed guy with penetrating eyes and a newly acquired lust for life. He decided to put it to use by flirting with the family’s new parlor maid, and she flirted back. One Sunday, he made an excuse to skip church and instead seduced her—on his mother’s bed.
As enjoyable as it was, for Crowley it was also symbolic. He’d just given a big middle finger to his mother and the harsh religious rules he’d grown up with. And he had only just begun.
15. He Took A Big Bite Out Of Uni Life
We all know that university changes people (Hello, freshman 15!), but Crowley went in as Alick and came out as Aleister. The boy for whom books other than the Bible were forbidden was now a man with a massive trust fund, devouring literature, writing poetry, climbing mountains, and even considering becoming a professional chess player.
With all of this newfound freedom came a busy—and increasingly dangerous—romantic life.
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16. He Went Wild
At university, Crowley was making up for lost time in the romance department. His new name came with a new wardrobe: silk shirts, bow ties, and a floppy hat, which must have been irresistible to the ladies—and if it wasn’t, he’d pay them for their company. Unfortunately, one of those encounters left him with syphilis. It didn’t slow him down, though.
On an 1896 trip to Stockholm, Crowley crossed yet another line.
17. He Was Plowing Through All The Taboos
As creative as he was, Aleister Crowley was not the first poet to compare the big O to a mystical experience. In verse, he called it “joining the Order of the Temple,” but in reality, on New Year’s Eve in Stockholm, he had a secret intimate encounter with a man, which was against the law at the time. Herbert Charles Pollitt was a fellow trust-fund kid who also happened to be a female impersonator performing under the stage name Diane de Rougy.
For all its enchantment, the relationship was not perfect. As Crowley later wrote, “I was determined to make my dreams come true; and he represented eternal dissatisfaction”.
Frederick H. Evans, Wikimedia Commons
18. He Was Terrified Of Being Forgotten
Some rich men put their names on buildings to live forever. Crowley decided to master the dark arts. In 1897, while in Russia, an illness sent 22-year-old Crowley into an existential spiral. He began wondering what the point was of becoming a diplomat or great poet if everyone eventually forgot about you. Even Shakespeare and Homer, he reasoned, would ultimately be forgotten.
So, Crowley didn’t claim to receive a mysterious voice from beyond. He simply decided he needed a form of power that couldn’t be destroyed by time. His answer? Magic.
Universal History Archive, Getty Images
19. His Trajectory Was Wild
So, here’s a resume: Aleister Crowley abandoned his budding diplomatic career, dropped out of Cambridge, immersed himself in the occult, published some decidedly mid poetry (including White Stains, a collection of dirty verses—eek), and kept mountaineering around the globe. He also joined a secret society, moved into a luxury London flat, and invited another member to move in as his personal magic tutor.
Then things got weird.
Internet Archive Book Images, Wikimedia Commons
20. He Let His Freak Flag Fly
With unlimited funds, a luxury flat, and no one to tell him no, Crowley, in his 20s, was able to truly unleash “the Beast”. His new live-in magic coach, Allan Bennett, introduced him to the ritual use of substances. And with such a wide range, including chloroform, morphine, coke, opium, and ether, it’s no wonder they saw spirits. Crowley fearlessly experimented, convinced he could unlock his mind and communicate with the spirit world.
Then there was the decor.
21. His Flat Was Scary
Do you want the house tour? Located in the heart of bustling London, this luxurious residence featured not one but two temple rooms: The white temple boasted six enormous mirrors (48 square feet each!), ideal for deflecting evil forces. The black temple room contained a human skeleton. Both rooms included a magic circle and a pentagram on the floor—perfect for rituals!
Bonus feature: The tenant had kept the skeleton on a diet of blood and sparrows in the hope that it would come back to life. Updates still pending.
Pseudo-Peter de Abano, Wikimedia Commons
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22. He Had An Outrageous Alter Ego
When it came to his new occult obsession, Aleister Crowley wasn’t exactly out of the closet. To keep things on the DL, he went undercover. At his first meeting of the Golden Dawn, he arrived wearing a fake mustache, speaking in an exaggerated Russian accent, and introducing himself as the “Count Vladimir Svareff”.
The Hermetic order of the Golden Dawn was a secret society that claimed its members could communicate with angels and unlock ancient magic—and for a hot minute Crowley fit right in. Then things got messy.
Underwood Archives, Getty Images, Modified
23. He Had Major Beef With A Literary Legend
Crowley may have been whip smart and had extra help from Allan Bennett, but when it came to the Golden Dawn, he wasn’t exactly Mr Popularity. One of his biggest haters was renowned poet WB Yeats. Yeats, who considered Crowley an “unspeakable degenerate” due to his bedroom activities and libertine lifestyle, helped convince the other members to reject Crowley’s initiation into Second Order.
Let’s just say Crowley didn’t take it well.
Bain News Service, publisher, Wikimedia Commons
24. He Wanted Payback
For a secret society of mysterious Victorian occultists, the members of the Golden Dawn were more like a group chat full of pettiness, gossip, and feuds. After his rejection, Aleister Crowley fled to Paris and convinced the group’s founder to back him in a power struggle. Furious and armed with magic tips, he returned to London determined to seize control of the Blythe Road headquarters.
Crowley showed up in full Highland regalia: kilt, cloak, and dagger, wearing…a black mask. The members barricaded themselves inside and called the authorities. The whole thing was a spectacular anticlimax—and Crowley lost the court battle that followed.
25. He Bought A Haunted House
Oh, and if you’re wondering about the kilt, Aleister Crowley had entered his Scottish laird era, complete with a haunted manor on the shore of Loch Ness. Even before he bought it, Boleskine House had a sinister reputation. Locals believed it to be haunted by the severed head of Simon Fraser, executed in 1747. The house was also built on the site of a church that burned down with everyone inside.
It was the perfect isolated spot where Crowley could perform a complicated and notoriously demanding ritual. What could go wrong?
Aleister Crowley, Wikimedia Commons
26. He Couldn’t Put The Toothpaste Back In The Tube
Summoning your guardian angel is not an activity for the time-pressed. Crowley needed six months of preparation, isolation, and discipline (no booze, total celibacy) to perform the Sacred Magic of Abramelin the Mage. Too bad that, right in the middle of the process, he had to suddenly leave for Paris and London for his Golden Dawn “showdown”.
Legend has it that Crowley left the ritual unfinished—and the demons he had summoned were still hanging around. The strange and tragic events that followed would certainly back that up.
27. His Demons Didn’t Leave
Boleskine’s reputation kept getting darker—and more tragic. Crowley’s estate keeper, Hugh Gillies, lost his 10-year-old daughter when she suddenly perished at school. A year later, his 15-month-old son passed after suffering from convulsions in his mother’s arms. Decades later, Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page, who was also fascinated by Crowley, bought the house.
Page’s groundskeeper, a paranormal skeptic, later described one event at the house as “the most terrifying night of my life,” adding “whatever was there was pure evil”.
Andrew Smith, Wikimedia Commons
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28. He Found An Unexpected Muse
Never one to do things in the normal way, Crowley’s marriage was, ahem, unconventional. He offered to marry his friend’s sister, Rose Edith Kelly, to save her from an arranged marriage. Like any good rom-com, the union ended up turning into real love—and then something much stranger. The pair explored carnal rituals and tantric practices, sure (no kink shaming here), but it was something else that made their honeymoon unforgettable.
29. His Honeymoon Was Insta-Worthy (At First)
Aleister Crowley took his new bride on a honeymoon that would make most travel influencers jealous, with stops in Italy, Egypt, India, and China. In Egypt, he arranged a private dinner in the King’s Chamber of the Great Pyramid of Giza. After sending the servants away, he lit candles, cracked open an ancient spellbook, and started summoning spirits.
Next stop on the itinerary: big game hunting in Ceylon. Then, the now-pregnant Rose and Crowley decided to rent a flat in Cairo. That’s when Rose started acting very strangely.
30. His Wife Blew His Mind
One evening in their Cairo flat, Crowley was trying to show Rose some air spirits when she suddenly started muttering, “They are waiting for you”. Staring vacantly, she started naming specific Egyptian gods despite never having studied Egyptian mythology. Crowley assumed it was morning sickness or, ahem, a hangover. Then he started testing her—and she got every question right.
Over the next three days, he recorded everything Rose said while in her trance. The result was The Book of Law, the foundation of the religion Crowley would call Thelema. Its core tenet? Do what thou wilt…yeah, you can tell this isn’t gonna end well.
Aleister Crowley / Aiwass, publ. Ordo Templi Orientis, Wikimedia Commons, Enhanced
31. His Feud Turned Fatal
Crowley liked his hobbies the way he liked everything else in his life: extreme. He was a world-class mountaineer who, unfortunately, let his ego get in the way during a 1905 expedition on Kangchenjunga with fatal results. When four members of his climbing party were buried by an avalanche after Crowley had been quarreling with them, Crowley refused to leave his tent to dig them out—even though he could hear their screams from camp.
“A mountain ‘accident’ of this sort is one of the things for which I have no sympathy whatever,” he later wrote. While Crowley was scaling mountains, disaster was brewing on the home front.
My Discovery, Wikimedia Commons
32. He Was Hands Off
Crowley may have called himself a “proud Papa,” but he wasn’t going to let fatherhood interfere with his busy life of occultism, mountain climbing, and globe-trotting. While his infant daughter with Rose, Nuit (full name: Nuit Ma Ahathoor Hecate Sappho Jezebel Lilith but nicknamed “Little Nut”), was battling typhoid fever in Burma, Crowley was off doing Crowley things.
He had abandoned his pregnant wife and baby Nuit in the Far East and then literally headed in the opposite direction. What happened next would leave Rose devastated—and destroy their marriage.
Unknown authorUnknown author, Wikimedia Commons
33. His Family Was Unravelling
Baby Nuit did not survive the typhoid fever. Both Rose and Crowley were devastated—but they dealt with their grief in very different ways. Rose coped by drinking heavily, even while pregnant with their second child. Instead of getting her help, Crowley threw himself back into magic and, oh, you know, creating his own new religion. Somehow, though, he found time for a mistress.
Aleister Crowley, Wikimedia Commons, Modified
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34. He Was Shameless
Adam Levine may have considered naming his baby after his mistress, but Aleister Crowley actually went there. In early 1906, Rose gave birth to their second daughter, Lola Zaza. Because of Rose’s drinking, the baby was tiny and frail, and so inactive that they weren’t sure if she was alive. At just a few weeks old, she nearly succumbed to bronchitis. It was hardly a joyous beginning.
Eventually, Crowley had Rose committed to an asylum for drinking-related dementia. He believed she had failed her spiritual mission—and suddenly found himself free to pursue his “spiritual” (nudge, nudge, wink, wink) interests.
35. He Really Unleashed The Beast
Credit where credit is due, even with his inheritance running out, Crowley was not short on charisma—or audacity. He managed to take over the German secret society, Ordo Templi Orientis (OTO), and replace its Masonic rituals with his own Thelemic practices. Among them? Cakes made of bodily fluids, including menstrual blood (or if that was not available, blood from a child, priest, or goat would do.)
And yes, it gets even more salacious...
Jules Jacot Guillarmod (24 December 1868 – 5 June 1925), Wikimedia Commons
36. His Rituals Went Off The Rails
What was it? His charm? Copious amounts of substances? Whatever the explanation, by his thirties, Crowley had pushed his occult practices into increasingly extreme territory. For one, he was bringing goats into the bedroom to do more than collect their blood. He was a pioneer of what he called sex magick, and his elaborate rituals and sacrifices were all part of his quest for enlightenment.
Then in 1914, he took his experiments to Paris with the poet Victor Neuburg. But what could have happened during those six weeks that was so intense that it drove Neuburg to a nervous breakdown? Gird your loins and pull up a chair.
37. His Experiments Were Grueling
In Paris, Crowley’s bedroom really was where the magick happened—but that wasn’t the half of it. For six weeks, he and Neuburg used the act of love as ground zero for their body-punishing rituals. Picture it: New Year's Eve, Crowley is the bottom as they try to time their pleasure for midnight, all while very high and chanting in Latin in an attempt to summon Egyptian deities. Rinse and repeat for six weeks.
Crowley was convinced it worked when random checks started arriving in the mail, and even his health improved. Too bad the entities also had a warning for them.
Unknown authorUnknown author, Wikimedia Commons
38. He Was A Madman On A Mission
During the Paris rituals, the spirits also delivered a bizarre warning: Crowley’s magical experiments were unleashing dark forces that would spread worldwide. A few months later, WWI broke out, and to Crowley that was no coincidence. He sailed to New York, staged a bizarre declaration of Irish Independence near the Statue of Liberty, and started writing outrageous pro-German propaganda.
Crowley later claimed he was deliberately making the German cause look ridiculous—and historians have found evidence that he might have had connections to British Intelligence.
39. He Went Full Commune
Crowley’s next chapter almost sounds quaint: He rented a farmhouse in Sicily where he wrote, painted, and lived communally while he and a handful of devoted Thelema followers frolicked under the Italian sun. Plot twist: Life at the Abbey of Thelema quickly turned sinister. It’s not a surprise, really, when you know that Crowley’s guiding philosophy was “Do what thou wilt”.
He brought along his latest “Scarlet Woman,” Leah Hirsig, and the couple’s new baby, Poupée. Crowley called it “my idea of heaven”—it was the total opposite.
Erik Albers, Wikimedia Commons
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40. His Utopia Suddenly Became A Dystopia
Life at the Abbey may have seemed like heaven to Aleister Crowley, but to be fair, he was out of his mind on serious substances to the point where the inside of his nose was eroding. Apparently, “Do what thou wilt” extended to housework, because nobody wanted to clean and the place soon became filthy. Threesomes turned into bitter rivalries. Wild animals roamed around, and so did the children who would often witness all kinds of adult rituals.
Whatever Crowley thought he was building, it was hardly the ideal place to raise a child. And then the unthinkable happened.
Erik Albers, Wikimedia Commons
41. His Spells Couldn’t Save Her
The anything-goes Abbey had already fallen into squalor, but it was about to get much worse. Crowley’s daughter Poupée had been ill when she arrived, and the unsanitary conditions and goat’s milk they fed her likely didn’t help. When doctors in Palermo couldn’t help, Crowley tried magic but was too distraught. Leah took the baby to the hospital and returned to the Abbey alone.
It was all too much. Leah, who was also pregnant, suffered a miscarriage. As heartbroken as Crowley was, it didn’t do anything to rein in his lifestyle.
Unknown authorUnknown author, Wikimedia Commons
42. He Took It Too Far
You’d think an Oxford grad would have known better than to move into Crowley’s occult commune. Alas, Raoul Loveday and his wife, Betty May, soon discovered that Thelema’s spiritual enlightenment came with some very real dangers. During one ritual, Loveday drank the blood of a sacrificed cat. Instead of leveling up his spiritual powers as he had hoped, he soon got something else entirely.
http://carnage.users2.50megs.com/AleisterCrowley/, Wikimedia Commons
43. His Commune Claimed More Lives
The cause of Loveday’s demise wasn’t exactly tabloid material, but somehow that’s where the story eventually ended up. Despite Crowley’s warnings about drinking the local water, Loveday, who had been sickly his entire life, contracted a liver infection after drinking from a dirty stream while on a hike. As the doctors did what they could, Crowley turned to astrology.
He calculated that Loveday would meet his end on February 16 at 4:00 pm—and that’s exactly what happened. A grief-stricken Betty returned to London with a new mission: burn Crowley’s reputation to the ground.
44. He Was In The Line Of Fire
Most people would be horrified to see their secret rituals splashed across the London tabloids. Aleister Crowley, naturally, was thrilled. After Betty May returned to London and exposed the Abbey’s shocking conditions, the tabloids dubbed Crowley “The Wickedest Man in the World” and “a man we’d like to hang”. Instead of being ashamed, Crowley wore his newfound notoriety like a badge of honor.
And you know what’s rich? Dictator Benito Mussolini was so disgusted, he had Crowley exiled.
45. He Entered An Abyss
Crowley had broken every other taboo, so why not the age gap? By 1930, he and his 19-year-old lover that he’d nicknamed “Monster” were traveling the world on a budget and writing about it to make some cash. When she got fed up with his bizarre bedroom rituals, she left him in Portugal. He was so distraught, he wanted to depart this world—in the end, he staged his own demise at a sea cave named Boca de Inferno, the Devil's Mouth.
The tabloids went into another frenzy. And then he popped up in Berlin—at his own art show.
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46. He Went From Führer Fan To Hater
The paintings didn’t exactly fly off the walls at Crowley’s Berlin art exhibition, and he ended up storing them at his friend Martha Kuntzel’s place. Kuntzel considered the German dictator her “Magical Son” and hoped to convert him to Thelema. At first Crowley was intrigued, but as Germany pounded Britain, he changed his tune, calling the Führer a black magician and saying he was too “fond of monkeys” to compare any German to one.
Eventually the monkeys had the last laugh—they seized and destroyed Crowley’s paintings.
47. He Created A Masterpiece
Remember Crowley’s very first existential crisis, when he chose magic because he feared that even Shakespeare would eventually be forgotten? By the late 1930s, he was about to create one of his most ambitious projects. Broke, aging, and relying on friends for financial support, he teamed up with artist Lady Frieda Harris to create the Thoth Tarot. The pair spent five years working on the deck of 78 lavishly illustrated cards.
It showed that despite all of the darkness, even the Beast could make something beautiful-ish.
Ethan Doyle White, Wikimedia Commons
48. He Was The Occult Forrest Gump
It’s kinda crazy how, just like the unlikely movie hero, Aleister Crowley had an uncanny knack for running into some of history’s most famous figures. He feuded with poet WB Yeats, rubbed shoulders with Dracula author Bram Stoker, sat for sculptor Auguste Rodin, crossed paths with Aldous Huxley and Roald Dahl, got ousted by Mussolini, influenced L Ron Hubbard—and eventually landed on the cover of a Beatles album.
Despite all of the legends in his life, Crowley’s final chapter was much less glamorous.
unidentified photographer, Wikimedia Commons
49. He Had One Last Trick Up His Sleeve
Oh, how the mighty had fallen. By the time he was 72, Crowley was seriously ill and living in a boarding house. On December 1, 1947, his body finally gave out from myocardial degeneration, complicated by chronic bronchitis and addiction. At the moment he passed, a witness reported a sudden peal of thunder shook the room, and a gust of wind blew the curtains everywhere.
When his attending doctor perished less than 24 hours later, the press exploded with rumors that Crowley had cast one final curse from behind the grave. He may have shuffled off his mortal coil, but he wasn’t done causing trouble.
Unknown authorUnknown author, Wikimedia Commons
50. He Became Immortal…Just Not How He Imagined
After Crowley’s final bow, the absurdity continued. Of course, the tabloids went wild, branding his funeral a “Black Mass”. His ashes were then shipped to a disciple in New Jersey and carelessly scattered under a pine tree in a suburban backyard. For all his money, charm and magic, the one thing Aleister Crowley couldn't conjure was where he would end up.
Aleister Crowley, Wikimedia Commons
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