Sobre el promedio general de todas las parroquias 1. En los jóvenes de las parroquias las variables que hacen

Aleister Crowley (1875–1947) was born to privilege in Warwickshire, England. He attended public (tuition-charging) schools and studied at Trin- ity College. Crowley’s enviable position as the heir to his family’s brewery fortune allowed him to follow any path he saw fit. He chose mountaineering, esoteric studies, poetry, (bi)sexual excess, and drug experimentation. A prolific

writer and born adventurer, he traveled widely in search of arcane knowledge and higher mountains. He also became extraordinarily notorious for his per- sonal conduct and sexual profligacy and cultivated a reputation as “the wick- edest man in the world.”41

Crowley became a member of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, a highly influential occult order, in 1898. His membership brought him into contact with S. L. MacGregor Mathers, W. B. Yeats, and other prominent occultists, propelling him to further travel and studies of tantric yoga, Bud- dhism, meditation, and ceremonial magic. Crowley’s most famous work, The

Book of the Law, was written in Cairo in 1904 while he was traveling under

the name “Chioa Khan,” literally “Great Beast.” Over a three-day period, a spirit named Aiwass, apparently an emissary of the Egyptian god Horus, dictated its 220 verses to the scribe-priest Crowley. Dense, cryptic, allusive, and frequently incomprehensible (even Crowley battled to interpret it), the work is considered a sacred text of Thelema, the label Crowley appropriated for his system of occult philosophy. The name came from François Rabelais, Renaissance individualist writer, as did the work’s central dictum, “Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.”42

In 1914 Crowley became the head of the Ordo Templi Orientis (Ancient Order of Oriental Templars), a magical society that claimed the heritage of a number of esoteric orders, including the Knights Templar. At this point, he adopted the magical name of the Knights Templar’s purported idol, Ba- phomet. The order’s propensity to include sex in rituals suited Crowley per- fectly. Sexual magic became increasingly important to his system, as he saw it as a way to harness physical and psychological energy, both internal and external. The Book of the Law strongly advocates sexual liberation, for male and female alike. Numerous passages address the nature of the so-called Scar- let Woman, through whom whoredom—in Crowley’s eyes badly defamed by the Book of Revelation eighteen centuries earlier—will be redeemed. “Let her work the work of wickedness! Let her kill her heart! Let her be loud and adulterous! Let her be covered with jewels, and rich garments, and let her be shameless before all men!”43 _{In practice, these sex magic explorations led to}

one of his most notorious acts: the 1921 ritual in which Crowley persuaded his Scarlet Woman, at the time Leah Hirsig, to have sex with a he-goat. The goat, however, did not perform, but Crowley substituted and the animal’s throat was slit to complete the ceremony.

The system of magic that emerged from this life of study was dubbed “Magick,” a synthesis of Eastern and Western mystical and esoteric traditions. Equally importantly, it was a quasi-scientific approach to spirituality and magic, with his ideas frequently presented in seemingly scientific language. The best example is his highly influential Magick in Theory and Practice (1930). “MAGICK is the Science and Art of causing Change to occur in conformity

with Will.”44 _{With a strong focus on spiritual enlightenment, Crowley be-}

lieved in advancement through the magical orders by development of will- power, self-control, meditation, and prayer. The central Thelemic creeds remained “Do what thou wilt” and “Love is the law, love under will.”45

Crowley’s philosophizing was not limited to only mystical and magic( k)al concerns. He had an aristocratic social outlook, and often echoed Nietzsche and other radical social critics strongly, particularly in his calls for a revalu- ation of all values and contempt for Christian slave morality. He had a dis- missive attitude toward traditional moral limitations, writing to a friend in 1905, “I want blasphemy, murder, rape, revolution, anything, bad or good, but strong.”46 _{The Book of the Law is repeatedly punctuated by a disdain for}

humanitarian virtues—“Mercy let be off; damn them who pity! Kill and tor- ture; spare not; be upon them!”47_{—that later found voice in stock social Dar-}

winist and anti-Christian rhetoric:

Nature’s way is to weed out the weak. This is the most merciful way, too. At pres- ent all the strong are damaged, and their progress hindered by the dead weight of the weak limbs and the missing limbs, the diseased limbs and the atrophied limbs. The Christians to the lions!

We must go back to Spartan ideas of education; and the worst enemies of humanity are those who wish, under pretext of compassion, to continue its ills through the generations. The Christians to the lions!48

While no satanist himself—he abjured black magic and stood too far outside the Christian tradition to be any kind of devil-worshipper—Crowley prefigures the modern Satanist in a number of ways: his contempt for Christian piety, pity, and sexual repression; the focus on sexual freedom and sexual magic; strong el- ements of social Darwinism; use of ceremonial magic and ritual; and emphasis on attaining higher levels of consciousness. Combined with his quasi-scientific (effectively demystifying) explanations of magical theory, Crowley’s legacy proved a potent mix that is second only to LaVey in its influence on modern Satanism. His prolific writings, at once abstruse and open to interpretation, continue to attract attention, and his position as a widely reviled figure both in life and death has only strengthened his appeal to self-conscious outsiders. A strong dose of notoriety does one’s legacy wonders.