Aleister Crowley

[Jim Eshelman]

Aleister Crowley originally gave his birthtime as "between 11 PM and midnight." The best practice is to start with 11:30 PM and go from there. (The horoscope he gave in Equinox of the Gods, though self-flattering, isn't within the originally stated time and shouldn't be taken seriously.)

Based on events in his life, I suspect the actual time is about 7 minutes later than this chart - but I give it here without molestation.



Notice that the most important (closest) aspect structure is the exact Saturn-Uranus opposition trine-sextile the Sun (which is the only planet on an angle). In crude terms, just as Jupiter-Uranus gives a need to be "uniquely good," Saturn-Uranus gives a need to be "uniquely bad" - and here that was tied into his primary ego-structure. So, barring such later life developments as, say, psychological maturity, we'd expect a self-centered egoist with an ego-investment in being uniquely bad. (Obviously there's more to it than that!)

Actually, there's another angular planet - Jupiter squares the Ascendant, i.e., is on the true Nadir of the chart. But if his time is a little later, this may affect that a bit (while bringing the Sun closer to the angle).

[Jim Eshelman]

Here is the chart for what I believe is the single most important minute in Aleister Crowley's life: the minute that the dictation of his channeled work, Liber Legis finished. In other words, it is the moment that The Book of the Law was complete.



This might be worth study in its own right as the birth chart of Liber L. I'm more interested, at the moment, in looking at the impact of the event on Crowley. Having already identified his Saturn-Uranus opposition )(and its trine-sextile to the Sun) as the most important structure in his horoscope, note that transiting Saturn (25 Cap 32) on this event had just entered the 1° orb of conjunction with natal Saturn (26 Cap 31) - it was formally his Saturn return! (One day earlier, it wasn't yet in orb.) This would be expected to be the stage of life when this entire pattern is set off (not to mention other maturations arising out of the Saturn Return).

Then, the Sun had reached 26 Pis 45 - April 10 was the day of Sun opposite natal Sun (his Demi-Solar Return) and doing its share of triggering the whole event. In other words (Saturn having alraedy set the general period of life), this identifies the day when the key aspect structure of his horoscope would be set off.

Finally, transitting Moon had reached 26 Cap 27 conjunct his natal Saturn within 4' of arc (8 minutes of time) and completing the entire pattern to the hour (and nearly the minute).

The only way the timing could have been more finely chissled would be if the climax came 36 minutes later (at 1:36 PM) when the Moon-Saturn conjunction reached the Descendant (and, therefore, his natal Uranus was rising opposite his natal Saturn on the Descendant). Who knows how those 36 minutes were spent? Likely they weren't inconsequential. One wishes for a more careful post-game interview to see exactly what was going on 36 minutes later.

In any case... this one event triggers the key part of Crowley's horoscope to the season, the day, and the hour - and nearly the minute. Whatever he was doing, it was in man respects the most significant hour of his life.

There are some other interesting aspects. The Book itself was born with a Mercury-Mars conjunction in Aries at the Midheaven. Pluto was 0°00' from exact trine to Saturn in that hour. The Midheaven opposed Crowley's Jupiter the minute the Book was completed (which may have been the exact timing detail for him). Mars exactly conjoined Crowley's natal Neptune, a psychologically inflaming (actually, a bit hysterial-making!) for the last day's dictation when his mind was flooded with the Vision of Horus that admittedly blew him the {bonk} away.

For Secondary Progressions, the most important thing is probably that progressed Jupiter - moving bare minutes of arc per year - was only 0°01' from exact conjunction with natal Mercury - not bad for getting the most important book of one's life.

[Jim Eshelman]

(Responding to a questin about source of birth data and which time zone is correct.)

That's not very far apart - a degree or two in the angles.

In the Confessions, AC gave his birth as between 11 AM and midnight. This would, therefore, be Class A data with a plus-minus 30 minute range, that normally would be displayed for 11:30 pm. I did some light rectification work and think it's about 11:35. I don't remember which of the two I put in V&V.

He gave a different chart in Equinox of the Gods, something IIRC between 10:30 and 11:30. I'm sure it was him shoving the time back to give the TZ Leo Asc he wanted, since it's later than Confessions, excessive precise for a time known to the hour, and shows off his solar-beastly self-image. (Too bad he didn't live in a time when people knew that simply having Sun on IC was enough to give those traits.He could have merely celebrated that the Sun of midnight is ever the Sun.)