Aleister Crowley and Thelema Trivia Quiz

Answer: Edward Alexander Crowley

Crowley was named Edward Alexander, and his family gave him the nickname Alick (which he detested) in his childhood. He adopted the name Aleister in his teens.

Answer: Love is the law, love under will.

The response to the greeting "Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law" is "Love is the law, love under will." Crowley used this when meeting someone, to open and close letters, to open and close lectures, etc. In these lamentably hasty days, especially in electronic media, many Thelemites use the number 93 as shorthand, in place of these sentences, for reasons based on the gematria, or "numerology," of certain key words.

All of the responses in this question, as well as the greeting itself, are from the Book of the Law.

Answer: Thelema and Agape

Thelema (Will) and Agape (Love) both have a value of 93 according to the numeric value assigned to the Greek letters with which they are spelled. Thelema refers to the word "Will" in "Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law." Agape to the word "Love" in "Love is the law, love under will."

Answer: The Book of the Law

On three successive days - April 8, 9, and 10 - in 1904, Crowley received a chapter of the Book of the Law. These were dictated to him by Aiwass, and each chapter represents the utterance of a particular Egyptian God: Nuit, Goddess of the Night Sky, on the first day; Hadit, symbolized by the Winged Disk, on the second; Ra Hoor Khuit, a form of the hawk-headed God Horus, on the third.

Answer: False

OTO was founded in the early 20th century (1900 or 1904) by a German esoteric Mason named Karl Kellner. Kellner was succeeded by Theodor Reuss as head of the Order. Crowley became a member around 1910, but in 1912, having discovered the central secret of the Order by his own researches, he was advanced to the highest degree by Reuss, and chartered to open and direct a section of the Order in Great Britain.

It is now common knowledge that the secret in question was the magical nature of sex, and the use of sex to perform magick (which was a hotter topic, to be sure, in the early 20th century than it is today). Crowley became head of the entire OTO in the 1920's, though there is controversy as to how legitimate that succession was. Be that as it may, Crowley rewrote the initiation rituals of the OTO to teach and to advance the Law of Thelema, and that remains the function of the Order today.

Answer: Mindlessly reacting to the actions of others.

In "Magick In Theory and Practice," Crowley writes that he adopted the archaic spelling of the word to distinguish it from less exalted forms of magic (meaning both stage magic and illusions, and occultism aimed at petty or base ends). He refers to it as a system for achieving full awareness of one's existence as a spiritual being.

In the same work, He further posits that "Any willed act can be a magical act." Blowing one's nose, he writes, requires the proper circumstances, i.e. that you have a nose which is capable of being blown, and the proper materials, and that you will to combine these elements to blow your nose. Conjuring up a thunderstorm requires the same basics, though it is technically more challenging, to be sure.

A popular song can be a potent conjuration to find gold (royalties) or love (if you sing it to the right person) or to sway the mind of a whole nation! But magick always operates by combining the proper talents of the magician and the proper elements in the environment, under the direction of the Will.

Answer: Priest, Priestess, Deacon, Positive Child, Negative Child.

The Gnostic Mass requires a Priest, a Priestess, a Deacon, and if doing it "by the book," two "Children" who represent the positive and negative forces of Creation. Note that this is positive and negative as in yin and yang. Also known as Liber XV (Book 15), Crowley wrote it while travelling in Russia, inspired by the Orthodox liturgy, though it more closely resembles the Catholic and Anglican Masses than the Liturgy of St John Chrysostom celebrated by the Russian Orthodox church. Many local OTO bodies celebrate the Gnostic Mass as a public ritual, open to all, on a regular basis.

Arguably, one must also have a congregation of one or more persons present, for "The People" have defined roles to play in the Gnostic Mass as well.

Answer: The Book of Thoth

The Book of Thoth is another name for the Tarot, referring to its mythical origins with the ancient Egyptians and their God of Wisdom, Thoth. Crowley adopted the title for this magnum opus, and the Crowley-Harris Tarot, or "Thoth Deck" is one of the most popular tarot decks in the world, along with the famous Rider Tarot deck (often called the Rider-Waite deck) designed some years earlier by Arthur Edward Waite and Pamela Colman Smith. Both decks draw some of their designs from the specifications of the Tarot laid down for magicians in the Golden Dawn, though each has its own unique design elements.

Answer: Aleister Crowley

King Lamus and Simon Iff (along with the younger magician Cyril Grey, the protagonist of "Moonchild") were all based on Crowley himself. "Moonchild" is famously a roman a clef, with characters based on actual people known to Crowley. Douglas, the main villain, is based on Mathers. Gates, the poet and black magician who opposes Cyril Grey, was Yeats (Yeats and Crowley despised each other). Edwin Arthwaite, another of the black lodge, is a parody of A. E. Waite complete with a stinging satire on Waite's notoriously pedantic writing style.

The Mahathera Phang is erstwhile Golden Dawn adept and Buddhist monk Alan Bennett, one of the few friends with whom Crowley never had a falling out.

Answer: Memory of past incarnations.

Liber Thisharb (intended to evoke the Hebrew word berashith - "In the beginning" - the first word of the Book of Genesis) provided several meditation techniques by which a magician could recall his earlier incarnations. Today this kind of work is called "past life regression." A Thelemic magician, like a Buddhist mystic, is seeking to transcend karma, the cycle of cause and effect which directs his life, willy nilly. Crowley regarded the ability to recall past lives, and understand how they had contributed to one's present incarnation, as a crucial tool in achieving the enlightenment needed to take control of the cycle or rebirth and to do one's True Will. Crowley felt that the proper role of a magician was as a bodhisattva - one who achieves enlightenment but continues to incarnate in order to help others achieve that same realization.

Answer: John St. John

John St. John is the title of an excerpt from Crowley's voluminous magical diaries, detailing a magical working he performed in Paris. Perdurabo (Latin: "I will endure unto the end") was the motto he adopted on his initiation as a Neophyte in the Golden Dawn. VVVVV (for Vi Veri Vniversum Vivi Vincit, Latin: "I have, while living, conquered the Universe with Truth") was the name he adopted when he attained, in his view, the grade of Master of the Temple. To Mega Therion (Greek: The Great Wild Beast, referring to the Book of Revelation) was the name he adopted when he attained the grade of Magus, one who speaks the Word of an Aeon, the guiding spiritual principle for a period of human history: in this case, the Word was Thelema.

Answer: The Scarlet Woman

The Book of the Law states "...and in his woman, called the Scarlet Woman, is all power given." Thus, the woman who was Crowley's chief magical partner at a given time was called The Scarlet Woman. She is indeed related to the figure of Babalon, who represents the Female principle in Thelema, as Therion, the Beast, represents the Male principle. Notable Scarlet Women in Crowley's life include Rose, as aforesaid, Leila Waddell, Leah Hirsig, Roddie Minor, Mary d'Este Sturges and several others.

Answer: ...himself/herself.

If there is one recurrent theme in Thelemic teaching, it is the sovereignty of the individual: "Do what THOU wilt shall be the whole of the Law". Yet this freedom requires the sternest self-discipline. Crowley continuously pointed out that "Do what thou wilt" was not the same as "Do anything you want." The realization of the True Will - why one is in this incarnation at this time, what one's particular role in the Universe is - was the goal of all the magical study, mystical training, and mental exercise prescribed for students of Thelema.

Answer: Aeon of Osiris

Crowley took his imagery from Egyptian religion, and so posited the Aeon of Osiris, a period of patriarchal religion, where God or the Gods acted as stern father figures, preceded the Aeon of Horus, when individuals learn and grow by the direction of their own Wills.

The Aeon of Isis, a matriarchal period, preceded the Aeon of Osiris. While these Aeons don't map to actual history, they do reflect three primary views of how different religions perceive divinity and the role of humans.

Answer: John Dee (Elizabethan magician and scholar)

Crowley believed that he was Edward Kelley, Dee's associate in alchemical and magical workings, rather than Dee himself. He claimed that he had previously been Eliphas Levi (real name: Alphonse Louis Constant), who died six months before Crowley's birth in 1875, and that he reincarnated so quickly to continue Levi's work of making the secrets of magick available to all.

He was, as Alexander VI, charged with bringing the mysteries of paganism into public view within the Renaissance Church, and as Cagliostro his task was to spread illumination in the period leading up to the Enlightenment.