SimonIff.com © 2001 SimonIff.com : all rights reserved : not for reproduction without the permission of SimonIff.com Vigintitresology: The Web of 23     1875 — birth of the ego and body known as Aleister Crowley 23 years later:     1898 — His Initiation into the Golden Dawn, beginning "the whole course of my explorations..." 23 years later:     1921 — The Great Initiation  3 years later:     Winter Solstice, 1923 to Spring Equinox, 1924 — The supreme initiation and attainment of Ipsissimus.  Death of the ego...     "I died" 23 years later:     1947 — Death of the body of Aleister Crowley Bracketing for the moment the 3 years of the Great Initiation as a period of time outside of time, we note that the body of Aleister Crowley lived for 69 years (23 x 3), a fact he surely would have found amusing. Those three years of the Great Initiation deserve closer scrutiny, for they are, in a concentrated form, the mirror image of Crowley's entire life; the years 1921 - 1924 are the microcosmic reflection of the years 1875 - 1947: 2/3rds of the way through his life, in 1921, Crowley began the Great Initiation; 2/3rds of the way through the Great Initiation, in 1923, Crowley began the "supreme initiation"; 1923 was the climactic point of his Magickal life as 1924 -1947 of his physical life. — All that happened to Crowley after the attainment of Ipsissimus in 1924 was more of a period of consolidation and systematization than one of discovery.  In fact, Crowley finished his autohagiography shortly following the year of attainment. The following should bring the period of the Great Initiation into perspective: Home  |  2 0 3  ||  Previous  |  Continue