Prophet

== Thelema ==
{{main|Thelema}}
[[File:Aleister Crowley, Magus.png|thumb|right|alt=Crowley wearing ceremonial garb|Crowley as Prophet of the [[Aeon (Thelema)#Aeon_of_Horus|Aeon of Horus]] with the [[Stele of Revealing]] and ''[[The Book of the Law]]'', 1912]]

[[Aleister Crowley]] (1875–1947) was an English [[occult]]ist, philosopher, [[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. A prolific writer, he published widely over the course of his life.

According to Crowley's later statements, on 8 April he heard a disembodied voice identifying itself as that of [[Aiwass]], the messenger of Horus, or [[Heru-ra-ha|Hoor-Paar-Kraat]]. Crowley said that he wrote down everything the voice told him over the course of the next three days, and titled it ''Liber AL vel Legis'' or ''[[The Book of the Law]]''.{{sfnm|1a1=Booth|1y=2000|1pp=184–88|2a1=Sutin|2y=2000|2pp=122–25|3a1=Kaczynski|3y=2010|3pp=127–29}} The book proclaimed that humanity was entering a new [[Aeon (Thelema)|Aeon]], and that Crowley would serve as its prophet. It stated that a supreme moral law was to be introduced in this Aeon, "Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law," and that people should learn to live in tune with their Will. This book, and the philosophy that it espoused, became the cornerstone of Crowley's religion, [[Thelema]].{{sfnm|1a1=Booth|1y=2000|1pp=184–88|2a1=Sutin|2y=2000|2pp=125–33}}

In 1924, Crowley traveled to [[Tunisia]] for a magical retreat in [[Nefta]], where he also wrote ''To Man'' (1924), a declaration of his own status as a prophet entrusted with bringing Thelema to humanity.{{sfnm|1a1=Booth|1y=2000|1pp=412–17|2a1=Sutin|2y=2000|2pp=319–20|3a1=Kaczynski|3y=2010|3pp=413–15|4a1=Churton|4y=2011|4pp=287–88}} Crowley believed that the twentieth century marked humanity's entry to the Aeon of Horus, a new era in which humans would take increasing control of their destiny. He believed that this Aeon follows on from the Aeon of Osiris, in which paternalistic religions like Christianity, Islam, and Buddhism dominated the world, and that this in turn had followed the Aeon of Isis, which was maternalistic and dominated by goddess worship.{{sfnm|1a1=Drury|1y=2012|1p=210|2a1=Doyle White|2y=2016|2p=3}} He believed that Thelema was the proper religion of the Aeon of Horus,{{sfn|Asprem|2013|p=88}} and also deemed himself to be the prophet of this new Aeon.{{sfn|Djurdjevic|2014|p=51}}

Thelema revolves around the idea that human beings each have their own [[True Will]] that they should discover and pursue, and that this exists in harmony with the Cosmic Will that pervades the universe.{{sfnm|1a1=Hutton|1y=1999|1p=174|2a1=Drury|2y=2012|2p=209}} Crowley referred to this process of searching and discovery of one's True Will to be "the [[Great Work (Thelema)|Great Work]]" or the attaining of the "[[Bornless Ritual|knowledge and conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel]]".{{sfn|Asprem|2013|pp=88–89}} His favoured method of doing so was through the performance of the Abramelin operation, a ceremonial magic ritual obtained from a 17th-century grimoire.{{sfn|Asprem|2013|p=89}} The moral code of "Do What Thou Wilt" is believed by Thelemites to be the religion's ethical law, although the historian of religion Marco Pasi noted that this was not [[anarchistic]] or [[libertarian]] in structure, as Crowley saw individuals as part of a wider societal organism.{{sfn|Pasi|2014|p=49}}