While many people mark marriage as a turning point in their lives, few it was because they met their spirit guide. Well, Alexander Crowley did, and surprisingly, his wife Rose agreed. Amongst the tombs of Egypt, he not only found his spirit guide, Aiwaz but also his “Great Work,” awakening himself and others to one’s own unique True Will. While this took the form of hedonism, and it was most certainly known for that,¹ its real goal was letting people find their ultimate destiny. For as he famously wrote, Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.

According to his own account, Edward Alexander Crowley was born on October 12, 1875 at Royal Leamington Spa, England, at 11:42 GMT. But like his self-created name “Aleister,” I believe he changed the chart too, to be what he wanted to be — not what fate or luck had dictated.

The Thoth Tarot

Still, his tarot deck, the Thoth Tarot, is nonpareil.  Dark, abstract it is the antithesis of Arthur Waite and Pamela Colman-Smith pictogramic Rider-Waite Tarot. Instead, he used the Italian Tarot of the Master and the French Marseilles as his basis — both rather symbolic and heavily esoteric. The artist Lady Frieda Harris and Crowley’s Israel Regardie², then his personal secretary , are depicted on the deck’s Nine of Disks, titled Gain.

It was unsurprisingly unpopular. It took on a cultish mystique for many years, circulating in small occult bookstores in cheap forsaken parts of the city. But then, for the longest time, that was the only way to get a tarot deck at all.

                Those lines say so much

Of Marc Edmund Jones’s four departments, only the Line of Efficiency is the most prominent. This square dominates Master Theron’s chart because it is also the closest square aspect in his chart and so becomes his Dynamic Aptitude. This angle gives a “particular dramatization” to his affairs with a strong need to be “different” and striking.

His early writing partner, Evangeline Adams, does not have this department, and thus, the difference between the two suggests the real reason for their astrological writings to have such splendid success: a marriage of practicality and elan.

His Line of Vitality is trine. This is the angle between the two Luminaries, suggesting a creative tone of self-expression and supporting the Line of Efficiency. The Line of Culture, Neptune in relationship to Uranus lies in opposition. As the two oppose each other, this slanting shows his awareness of his sensitivity to his surroundings. The most salient episode In Crowley’s life that this angle manifests itself is not only by his automatic writing (a method similar to free-writing) but also by his receptivity to the Egyptian god Thoth’s healing spirit in the Cairo Museum of Antiquities (now the Egyptian Museum of Antiquities at Cairo) during his honeymoon.

The fourth and final line is the Line of Personality, or Jupiter’s slanting to Saturn. In Crowley’s chart they are square but sextile in his mentor-writing partner, Evangeline Adams chart. His square suggests an offhand and careless attitude towards his work, while her sextile brings an almost obsessive concern with the work having to be perfect. It is this aspect that obviously caused the break in the writing relationship, as this would be hard to harmonize.

                        What’s his type?

Aleister is a seesaw planetary pattern. According to Marc Edmund Jones, that is the most common type. Robert Jansky, a great admirer of Jones though never a member of the Sabian Assembly, re-termed this to “hourglass,” which we think is a far better description.                          

On September 23, 1930, at 6:36pm AC fakes his own suicide at Boca de Inferno, Cascais, Portugal: he has the Galactic Center in the eighth, which is sextile his natal sun. But the progressed chart is rather startling in that his natal GC is exact to the progressed as Pluto. It would seem Crowley was emulating Osiris and dying only to be born again. The passed noted by Portuguese poet Fernando Pessoa shows up at 01 Sagittarius conjunct his natal Part of Fortune at 00 Sagittarius. It would seem Crowley believed this was his destiny and so made it true.

Footnotes

Like his mentor, Regardie changed his name from Francis Israel Regardie to just Israel. He was of Jewish descent though he rejected that tradition and religion and embraced Thelema..

Marc Jones outlines the four departments in the Guide to Horoscope Interpretation, page 151. They provide a shortcut for how a person interacts with his environment. Neither Pluto nor Mercury are in departments. Jones called them “supernumeraries” or extras. Mercury, and the two luminaries, appear in his Mental Chemistry aspect.

Crowley’s grandson is jazz pianist Eric Muhler. It’s uncanny how Mr. Muhler resembles the old sod.

This site, Ghost Blooms, discusses Crowley’s Cambridge years complete with his poetry and lots of modern-day pictures.

Bibliography:

• McClung, G. K.  Hyperion Symbols.  Barnes and Noble sells the eBook. It is far cheaper than the paperback edition; there is no hardcover available.
• Jones, Marc Edmund.  How to learn Astrology.  Stanwood, WA:  Sabian Publishing Society,  c. the late Mrs. Delphine Norwood/ Dromenon LLC., Chicago, Illinois. This book is rare and out of print.
•  Jones, Marc. Edmund.  The Guide to Horoscope Interpretation.  Philadelphia: MacKay Publishing, 1941. Available for purchase here.

We constantly vet our essays for thoroughness and errors. This one was reviewed on 4 December 2025.

1. The Beatniks, Jack Keruoac and William Burroughs, of the 1950’s often referred to Crowley’s inspiration while the Hippies of the 1960’s openly manifested his Moonchild manifesto. ↩︎
2. . ↩︎