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 [[File:Aleister Crowley.jpg|350px|thumb|Aleister Crowley]]
-'''Aleister Crowley''', born '''Edward Alexander Crowley''' (12 October 1875 – 1 December 1947) was an English [[occultist]], [[ceremonial magic]]ian, poet, painter, novelist, and mountaineer. He founded the religion of [[Thelema]], identifying himself as the prophet entrusted with guiding humanity into the Æon of Horus in the early 20th century.
+'''Aleister Crowley''', born '''Edward Alexander Crowley''' (12 October 1875 – 1 December 1947) was an English [[occultist]], [[magician]], poet, painter, novelist, and mountaineer. He founded the religion of [[Thelema]], identifying himself as the prophet entrusted with guiding humanity into the Æon of Horus in the early 20th century.
 A prolific writer, he published widely over the course of his life.
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 In August 1898, Crowley was in Zermatt, Switzerland, where he met the chemist Julian L. Baker, and the two began discussing their common interest in alchemy. Back in London, Baker introduced Crowley to George Cecil Jones, Baker's brother-in-law and a fellow member of the occult society known as the [[Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn]], which had been founded in 1888. Crowley was initiated into the Outer Order of the Golden Dawn on 18 November 1898 by the group's leader, [[Samuel Liddell MacGregor Mathers]]. The ceremony took place in the Golden Dawn's Isis-Urania Temple held at London's Mark Masons Hall, where Crowley took the magical motto and name ''Frater Perdurabo'', which he interpreted as "I shall endure to the end".
-Crowley moved into his own luxury flat at 67–69 Chancery Lane and soon invited a senior Golden Dawn member, Allan Bennett, to live with him as his personal magical tutor. Bennett taught Crowley more about ceremonial magic and the ritual use of drugs, and together they performed the rituals of the [[Goetia]], until Bennett left for South Asia to study Buddhism. In November 1899, Crowley purchased [[Boleskine House]] in Foyers on the shore of Loch Ness in Scotland. He developed a love of Scottish culture, describing himself as the "Laird of Boleskine", and took to wearing traditional highland dress, even during visits to London. He continued writing poetry, publishing ''Jezebel and Other Tragic Poems'', ''Tales of Archais'', ''Songs of the Spirit'', ''Appeal to the American Republic'', and ''Jephthah'' in 1898–99; most gained mixed reviews from literary critics, although ''Jephthah'' was considered a particular critical success.
+Crowley moved into his own luxury flat at 67–69 Chancery Lane and soon invited a senior Golden Dawn member, Allan Bennett, to live with him as his personal magical tutor. Bennett taught Crowley more about [[ritual magic|ceremonial magic]] and the ritual use of drugs, and together they performed the rituals of the [[Goetia]], until Bennett left for South Asia to study Buddhism. In November 1899, Crowley purchased [[Boleskine House]] in Foyers on the shore of Loch Ness in Scotland. He developed a love of Scottish culture, describing himself as the "Laird of Boleskine", and took to wearing traditional highland dress, even during visits to London. He continued writing poetry, publishing ''Jezebel and Other Tragic Poems'', ''Tales of Archais'', ''Songs of the Spirit'', ''Appeal to the American Republic'', and ''Jephthah'' in 1898–99; most gained mixed reviews from literary critics, although ''Jephthah'' was considered a particular critical success.
 Crowley soon progressed through the lower grades of the Golden Dawn, and was ready to enter the group's inner Second Order. He was unpopular in the group; his bisexuality and libertine lifestyle had gained him a bad reputation, and he had developed feuds with some of the members, including W. B. Yeats. When the Golden Dawn's London lodge refused to initiate Crowley into the Second Order, he visited Mathers in Paris, who personally admitted him into the Adeptus Minor Grade. A schism had developed between Mathers and the London members of the Golden Dawn, who were unhappy with his autocratic rule. Acting under Mathers' orders, Crowley—with the help of his mistress and fellow initiate Elaine Simpson—attempted to seize the Vault of the Adepts, a temple space at 36 Blythe Road in West Kensington, from the London lodge members. When the case was taken to court, the judge ruled in favour of the London lodge, as they had paid for the space's rent, leaving both Crowley and Mathers isolated from the group.
 ===Mexico, India, Paris, and marriage: 1900–1903===
-In 1900, Crowley travelled to Mexico via the United States, settling in Mexico City and starting a relationship with a local woman. Developing a love of the country, he continued experimenting with ceremonial magic, working with [[John Dee]]'s [[Enochian]] invocations. He later claimed to have been initiated into Freemasonry while there, and he wrote a play based on Richard Wagner's ''Tannhäuser'' as well as a series of poems, published as Oracles (1905). Eckenstein joined him later in 1900, and together they climbed several mountains, including Iztaccihuatl, Popocatepetl, and Colima, the latter of which they had to abandon owing to a volcanic eruption. Leaving Mexico, Crowley headed to San Francisco before sailing for Hawaii aboard the ''Nippon Maru''. On the ship, he had a brief affair with a married woman named [[Mary Alice Rogers]]; saying he had fallen in love with her, he wrote a series of poems about the romance, published as ''Alice: An Adultery'' (1903).
+In 1900, Crowley travelled to Mexico via the United States, settling in Mexico City and starting a relationship with a local woman. Developing a love of the country, he continued experimenting with [[ritual magic|ceremonial magic]], working with [[John Dee]]'s [[Enochian]] invocations. He later claimed to have been initiated into Freemasonry while there, and he wrote a play based on Richard Wagner's ''Tannhäuser'' as well as a series of poems, published as Oracles (1905). Eckenstein joined him later in 1900, and together they climbed several mountains, including Iztaccihuatl, Popocatepetl, and Colima, the latter of which they had to abandon owing to a volcanic eruption. Leaving Mexico, Crowley headed to San Francisco before sailing for Hawaii aboard the ''Nippon Maru''. On the ship, he had a brief affair with a married woman named [[Mary Alice Rogers]]; saying he had fallen in love with her, he wrote a series of poems about the romance, published as ''Alice: An Adultery'' (1903).
 Briefly stopping in Japan and Hong Kong, Crowley reached Ceylon, where he met with Allan Bennett, who was there studying [[Shaivism]]. The pair spent some time in Kandy before Bennett decided to become a [[Buddhism|Buddhist monk]] in the [[Theravada]] tradition, traveling to Burma to do so. Crowley decided to tour India, devoting himself to the [[Hindu]] practice of Rāja [[yoga]], from which he claimed to have achieved the spiritual state of dhyana. He spent much of this time studying at the Meenakshi Temple in Madura. He contracted malaria, and had to recuperate from the disease in Calcutta and Rangoon. In 1902, he was joined in India by Eckenstein and several other mountaineers: Guy Knowles, H. Pfannl, V. Wesseley, and Jules Jacot-Guillarmod. Together, the Eckenstein-Crowley expedition attempted K2, which had never been climbed. On the journey, Crowley was afflicted with influenza, malaria, and snow blindness, and other expedition members were also struck with illness. They reached an altitude of 20,000 feet (6,100 m) before turning back.