The legendary occultist Edward Alexander Crowley was born on October 12th, 1875 in Warwickshire England. He was raised in a wealthy Christian setting in which he hated so much that he would rebel at every opportunity. His family forced their religion on him immensely, pushing away what would of been naturally appealing to him. He was interested at a young age in finding his path to God but that was spoiled by his father. He even eventually changed his name to Aleister to avoid further comparisons to him. Crowley's preferences were met when in 1886 his father died of poor health.
As an only child, Crowley was the devil himself in his mother's eyes. She even nick-named him "The Great Beast" in reference to the Book of Revelations. Although he did very well in school, he was considered an outcast and continued to explore the opportunities for mischief and self-gratification. Having sex with his house maid when he was 14 and delving into hallucigenic drugs, Crowley always seemed to push his mother to the limit. Through his experimentation he discovered that spiritual enlightenment is possible through the use of psylocibin and LSD. With those results he moved to attend Cambridge University where he began to study mysticism, alchemy, magic, and religion. This new found fascination inspired him to start writing poetry, and in 1898 Crowley's first book Aceldama was published. .
That same year he left school and moved to Zermatt, where he would meet other occultists such as S.L. MacGregor Mathers. Within the next few months he was an initiated first degree Neophyte of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn and took the magical name Frater Perdurabo. He accelerated quickly through the hierarchy over the next six months and shortly after that he was expelled for sharing the order's secrets. .
From then on Crowley would travel the world in search of adventure and knowledge. He would continue to practice his magic and his writing while walking across China and climbing Chogo Ri in the Himalayan Mountains.