The text Liber AL vel Legis, or The Book of the Law, which Crowley claimed had been dictated to him in Cairo by the voice (or intelligence) Aiwaz or Aiwass, was to form the cornerstone of Thelema. The book's philosophy is highly opaque, apparently calling in places for peaceful (and erotic) discovery of "magick," and in other places for violence and war. Portions of it are in numerical cipher, which Crowley claimed inability to decode. This is in no small part due to the fact that within the Book of the Law it is forewarned that the scribe, Ankh-af-na-khonsu! — Aleister Crowley --was never to attempt to decode the ciphers for to do so would end only in folly. The later written The Law is For All sees Crowley warning all not to discuss the writing amongst fellow critics, for fear that a dogmatic position would arise. It was years after the original trance sessions in Cairo that Crowley would accept the writing of the Book of the Law and follow its doctrine. Only after countless attempts to falsify its writings did he come to embrace them as the official doctrine of the New Aeon of Horus. The rest of his professional and personal careers were spent expanding the new frontiers of scientific illuminism. Crowley was very adamant toward any who chose to read his works — "Don't Believe Me!" It is from this position of the skeptic, he insists, any person of common sense and reason will be shielded and protected against the many trappings of egotism that countless prior seers, prophets, or holy men have succumbed.
Crowley was notorious in his life — a frequent target of attacks in the tabloid press, which labelled him "The Wickedest Man in the World" to his evident amusement. The claims made about him by the press range from the realistic (if scandalous at the time) — that he was an avowed atheist (anyone who has ever read his writings knows this realistic view is false and perpetuated by Crowley who in 777 & Other Qabalistic Writings makes it painfully clear that, in his view, an atheist is as equally blind and stunted to that of the dogmatist; The Method Of Science, the Aim of Religion is what Crowley synthesized in his works of Magick), openly kept mistresses, and had favored the Germans in World War I— to the apparently ridiculous (that he sacrificed hundreds of babies in black magic rituals). At one point, he was expelled from fascist Italy after having established a sort of commune the organization of which was based on his personal philosophies, the Abbey of Thelema, at Cefalu, Sicily.
Crowley despised Mussolini and in his many writings of the Equinox he reveals that he also worked in the United States as an agent of England to help reveal the latent German fascist support within the United States, at that time. When asked, Scotland Yard denied Crowley was an agent and distanced themselves from him, due in no small part to Crowley being visceral towards the frigid and bigotted social views Victorian England exhibited throughout the first half of the twentieth century. The Book of Wisdom and Folly, written in 1918 while in New York stands today as one of the most erudite pieces of mysticism ever written.
Crowley laid claim to giving Churchill the mystical "V for Victory" sigil to help thwart Hitler's Occult practices, targeted against Churchill and England, during WWII. Unsurprisingly, Crowley would not be given credit for such work. England was in the midst of transition from a staunchly dogmatic to a more secular nation.
Aleister revelled in pushing the boundaries. What is clear from the many biographers of his works is he loved England and through his various personal relationships with various political figures it is clear they valued his insight in matters of diplomacy. To his many critics and admirers no one has ever matched the quality and quantity of occult scientific work he produced. Up until his death, Crowley never stopped poking fun at all matters serious. This refreshing approach to studying the many paths of occult science should be taken to heart by any serious student, practitioner or historian of Crowley and other occult authors.
The religious or mystical system which Crowley founded, into which most of his nonfiction writings fall, he named Thelema. The word is the ancient Greek θελημα, "will", from the verb εθελειν, ethelein, meaning "to will" or "to wish." Thelema combines a radical form of philosophical libertarianism, akin in some ways to Nietzsche, with a mystical initiatory system derived in part from the Golden Dawn.
Chief among the precepts of Thelema is the sovereignty of the individual will: "Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law" is, as it were, the system's first commandment. Crowley's idea of will, however, is not simply the individual's desires or wishes, but also incorporates a sense of the person's destiny or greater purpose: what he termed the "Magick Will." Much of the initiatory system of Thelema is focused on discovering one's true will, true purpose, or higher self. Much else is devoted to an Eastern-inspired dissolution of the individual ego, as a means to that end
The second commandment of Thelema is "Love is the law, love under will" — and Crowley's meaning of "Love" is as complex as that of "Will". It is frequently sexual: Crowley's system, like elements of the Golden Dawn before him, sees the dichotomy and tension between the male and female as fundamental to existence, and sexual "magick" and metaphor form a significant part of Thelemic ritual.
Thelema draws on numerous older sources, and like many other new religious movements of its time combines "Western" and "Eastern" traditions. Its chief Western influences include the Golden Dawn, Kabbalah, and elements of Freemasonry; Eastern influences include aspects of yoga, Taoism, and Tantra.
The word Thelema finds its origins in the Bible, but was first brought into common usage by Rabelais, who wrote of the Abbey of Theleme, and had the motto "Fay ce que vouldras" or "Do what you will." This theme echoed St. Augustine's "Love and do what you will" and was a part of the emerging philosophy of humanism. Others who adopted this idea was Sir Francis Dashwood and the Monks of Medmenham (better known as The Hellfire Club) and Sir Walter Besant and James Rice in their novel The Monks of Thelema (1878).
Magick and Sexuality
Crowley claimed to use a scientific method to study what people at the time called "spiritual" experiences, making "The Method of Science, the Aim of Religion" the catchphrase of his magazine The Equinox. By this he meant that mystical experiences should not be taken at face value, but critiqued and experimented with in order to arrive at their underlying religious meaning. In this he may be considered to foreshadow Dr. Timothy Leary, who at one point sought to apply the same method to psychedelic drug experiences. Yet like Leary's, Crowley's method fell short of objectivity and has received little "scientific" attention outside the circle of Thelema's practitioners.
Crowley's magical and initiatory system has amongst its innermost reaches a set of teachings on sex "magick." He frequently expressed views about sex that were radical for his time, and published numerous poems and tracts combining pagan religious themes with sexual imagery both heterosexual and homosexual.
Sex Magick is the use of the sex act—or the energies, passions or arousal states it evokes—as a point upon which to focus the will or magical desire for effects in the non-sexual world. In this, Crowley was inspired by Paschal Beverly Randolph, an American author writing in the 1870s who wrote (in his book "Eulis!") of using the "nuptive moment" (orgasm) as the time to make a "prayer" for events to occur. While Randolph was interested in both the male and female partners, Crowley's version of sex magick was a male-centered activity and the female partner played a passive role.
In 1934 Crowley was declared bankrupt after losing a court case in which he sued the artist Nina Hamnett for calling him a Black Magician in her 1932 book, Laughing Torso. The evidence against him must have been overwhelming, and it is difficult to see why he ever took the case to court.