“The wickedest man in the world.”
– John Bull newspaper

“Was Aleister Crowley a Satanist?

Aleister Crowley was a systematic and scientific explorer of religious practices, techniques, and doctrines. As such, he performed devotional exercises to Satan as well as to Jesus Christ and the Virgin Mary, to various deities from the Egyptian and Hindu pantheons, to Jehovah as well as to Allah, and to the divine personifications that are unique to the system of Thelema. At one time or another Crowley was an Atheist, a Polytheist, a Monotheist, and a Pantheist, a Satanist and a Christian, a Hindu Yogi, a Hebrew Qabalist, a Muslim Mystic, a Buddhist, and a Pagan. In 1904, he became the Prophet of the New Aeon and the founder of the religious, magical, and philosophical movement called Thelema, through his reception of Liber AL vel Legis, the Book of the Law.

Did Crowley really sacrifice children?

No. Crowley never performed or advocated human sacrifice. His much-quoted allusion to frequent “child-sacrifice” (Magick In Theory & Practice, Chapter XII) was a metaphor for a specific practice of sexual magick that did not involve harm to any individual, but diverted the energies of sexuality from physical reproduction to other purposes. The ‘child’ or ‘Bud-Will’ that is sacrificed in such a practice is a particular manifestation of the magician’s Will, and not a physical, human child. Human sacrifice in any form would be incompatible with the principles of Thelema, as a violation of the right of every individual to live as he or she wills.”
-excerpt from F.A.Q about Aleister Crowley & Thelema on the U.S. OTO website