Aleister Crowley (Edward Alexander Crowley) was born 12 October in the same year as the foundation of the Theosophical Society (1875), at Leamington Spa at 11.30pm. He was therefore a Libran with Pisces moon and Leo rising. Contrary to popular legend, he died on the 1st December 1947. ....
The myth of the magus has grown to prodigious proportions in the half century or more since the old man’s death. Crowley is now firmly established in the popular
mind as a folk hero (or anti hero?), transmogrified to an icon on a
spectrum somewhere between ’the sandman’ (Clive Barker version) and ’the
gringe’.To many, Crowley’s magick (I am using the archaic form of the term as popularized by AC for technical reasons), provides a neat dividing line between some kind of urban high magical tradition and the supposedly more earth centred styles of neo-paganism. The truth is, as always, a lot more complex. Crowley’s magick draws all of it’s power from nature.....
Crowley spent all of his moderately long life exploring countless dramatic astral and mundane landscapes in search of gnosis. It’s a shame he wasn’t a good enough travel writer to communicate fully in his many books the real majesty of nature. He seemed to go everywhere, from the deepest jungles to the highest mountains of the earth. An account from Jan Fries’ book Visual Magick, amply demonstrates that Crowley never quite lost the taste for the great outdoors and the spirits of nature. In 1925 the mage took the leadership of the ’Fraternitas Saturni on a long walk up the garden path and into the forest. Whenever Uncle Aleister noticed a remarkable plant, stone or tree, he graciously lifted his hat to greet it. This bizarre behaviour apparently astonished his fellows. ...
The whole incident including a rather nice ritual is to be found in an article on ’Pentagramme Magick’ in Praxis (1963).
Towards the end of his life Crowley began to lose interest in the Ordo Templi Orientis and other organizations he had fashioned as potential vehicles for the dissemination of the great work. He met Gerald Gardner and together they may have devised a plan to transform the OTO into a more popular witchcraft cult. Gardner duly bought a charter and rose rapidly through the grades, even travelling to America to meet other OTO initiates. Fred Lamond, one of Gardners first acolytes, recalls that American adept Jack Parsons looked very favourably on the idea of a new witch cult"
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10 Facts About the Great Beast Aleister Crowley
Bibliotecapleyades (tons of information)