Top Ten Times Aleister Crowley Has Been Referenced in Music
Who is Aleister Crowley?Aleister Crowley (10/12/1875 - 12/1/1947) sometimes dubbed "The Wickedest Man in the World" and "The Beast 666" was a English occultist, ceremonial magician, author, poet, freemason and mountaineer. He identified himself as a prophet and founded the religion of Thelema. The religion/philosophy emphasizes the ritual practice of Magick. Super weird dude who claimed to be able to communicate with beings from other dimensions, extraterrestrials, the dead and other entities through rituals, magik, sex and drug use. He also believed in human sacrifices and "sex magik".
I don't follow or believe in (for the most part) Crowley's teachings or practices but I read on him for years cause I find him interesting. I made this list cause I thought it was interesting that so many musicans admire or even follow his teachings (not that it's a bad thing, just whatev's ya know?) Other musicians who admire of have mentioned Aleister Crowley : The Red Hot Chili Peppers (John Frusciante), Tool, Mudvayne, Rob Zombie, The Police (Sting), Ministry, and Hall and Oates (Daryl Hall....I know, right? Lol) to name a few.
Also please note I don't think he's "evil" or "Satanic" nor do I admire him. It is what it is and nothing more.
Mr. Crowley is Aleister Crowley. Ozzy is a known admirer of Crowley and once called Crowley, "A phenomenon of his time."
Aleister Crowley is among their "hero's" on the album cover.
John Lennon - "the whole Beatle idea was to do what you want … do what thou wilst, as long as it doesn't hurt somebody"
The band poses with a statue of Aleister Crowley's bust on the back album cover. Crowley was really into numerology (part of the occult) so I find it interesting that he's on the "13" cover.
Note: 11, 22, 33, and 13 are very significant and important numbers in numerology.
Based (loosely) on the Aleister Crowley novel by the same name.
"we've referred to things like the tarot and ideas of people like Aleister Crowley" - Bruce Dickinson 1984.
A song that seems to be about the occult. "Crowley" and the "Golden Dawn" are referenced in the song's opening lines.
Note: "Golden Dawn" was a "magical" society that Aleister Crowley was a member of along with the others mentioned in the song (Winston Churchill, Heinrich Himmler and Juan Pujol)
According to whom were Winston Churchill and the others members of this society?
Thelema is a religion ( some say philosophy) created by Aleister Crowley. It is based on his writings titled "The Book of Law". Crowley claims he was contacted by a "praeterhuman" being named "Aiwass" who dictated the text. I find his drawing of what "Aiwass" looked liked to be very interesting.
"We're gonna ride to the abbey of Thelema
To the abbey of Thelema
Blood is pavement"
Note: This song is the 13th and final song from the album Portrait of an American Family.
The Boleskine House. Jimmy Page is most likely the biggest admirer of Crowley on this list.
Jimmy Page - "I feel Aleister Crowley is a misunderstood genius of the 20th century. It is because his whole thing was liberation of the person, of the entity and that restrictions would foul you up, lead to frustration which leads to violence, crime, mental breakdown, depending on what sort of makeup you have underneath. The further this age we're in now gets into technology and alienation, a lot of the points he's made seem to manifest themselves all down the line... I'm not saying it's a system for anybody to follow. I don't agree with everything but I find a lot of it relevant and it's those things that people attacked him on, so he was misunderstood... I'm not trying to interest anyone in Aleister Crowley any more than I am in Charles Dickens. All it was, was that at a particular time he was expounding a theory of self-liberation, which is something which is so important. He was like an eye to the world, into the forthcoming situation. My studies have been quite intensive, but I don't particularly want to go into it because it's a personal thing and isn't in relation to anything apart from the fact that I've employed his system in my own day to day life... The thing is to come to terms with one's free will, discover one's place and what one is, and from that you can go ahead and do it and not spend your whole life suppressed and frustrated. It's very basically coming to terms with yourself."
He combined Anton LaVey (founder of The Church of Satan) and Aleister Crowley's names for his alias.
One of Stiv Bators' (The Dead Boys) side projects. "Do As Thou Wilt" is known as the law of the Thelema.
