Me, Myself and I: Crowley’s Own World

From his Leo ascendant, the lord of the sign sits in Libra conjunct with Venus in the 4th house. This is a highly sexual person. He was wanted balance and peace, but was willing to fight to make it happen. He was very proud of his home and ethnic roots. Pleasure and enjoyment was what his entire life revolved around. He wanted a creative, artistic and meaningful place as his home, something aesthetically pleasing and balanced (Libra).

Mercury in the 4th house shows that he was intensely interested in staying at home and digging into occult knowledge. Jupiter shows he wanted to expand his knowledge of hidden mysteries. With that said, he could have also been a great government employee. Leo isn’t just a dramatic arts performer. Leos seldom are. Actually, they are, more often than not, administrators for large corporations or for government agencies. Crowley did apply to be a spy for the UK government, but was promptly rejected.

Seeking Pleasure and Indulgence: Venus conjunct Ascendant Lord

This is a person whose entire life would entail pleasure-seeking and trying to balance their inner-world with their outer-world, often at the expense of both reputation and the ability to meet one’s daily responsibilities with routine success. Crowley always had issues with commitment. He routinely had multiple lovers at once. He had a karma that caused him to choose be put into circumstances where he would have to choose between three of them, suffering from indecision (classic Libra). Since the Sun is burning his 4th house, he felt that enough was never enough in life. Despite the fact that he was well taken care of with a trust fund that his wealthy Victorian family left him, he was still searching for greener pastures.

Venus also rules legacies. Anyone with a powerful Venus will live on after they physically die. As the chart shows, Crowley’s Venus is very strong, both in directional strength, being situated in the 4th house, and in essential dignity, resting in the ever-objective sign of Libra. There was an abundance of comfort in his life but none of these were totally satisfying. He wanted to explore far off places and discover new beliefs and cultures: 9th house Rahu.

North Node/Rahu in the 9th House: Seeking a New Belief System

Hitler had the exact same placement. Remember that he created his own cult. He, like Crowley, had the north node in the 9th house. These people can often create their own religious faith or cult. They desperately want to explore the “bigger” things in life: faith, meaning and philosophical understanding. In Aries, they are truly aggressive and unrelenting in their world-view — it can be good or bad. The negative polarity of this aspect leads to the development of extremist beliefs.

Crowley’s true destiny was to heal people through his teachings and philosophies. He may not have fully embodied this goal during his incarnation. We just don’t know the whole story. We weren’t physically there to witness how he treated others in private. Based on what historians and documentaries have told us, he lived a selfish lifestyle, disregarding the needs of others in favor of his own obsessions.

Venus: His Soul Planet

His soul needed to experience the highest and most sublime form of beauty, happiness and bliss from the source of creation, not just from the “crude” sensual experiences of life: sex and food. Since there was too much identification with the ego and identity (he was an ego-maniac by the way) it put a veil in front of his eyes, deterring him from finding the truest expression of love and peace. Neptune opposed his Venus. He was a dreamer and poet, the eternal romantic, up until reality set in, as it so inevitably does.

All in all, this is a highly charming, creative and attractive person who has a great understanding of social graces. He was constantly seeking love and intimacy with women, and sometimes men. Venus is in the 8th sign from his moon. Emotionally, he had to go deep into sensual and sexual experiences to feel emotionally secure. This also reveals more of a psychological proclivity towards enjoyment and peace of mind through engaging with the unknown or mysterious parts of life.

Uranus in the Ascendant: The Flamboyant Rebel

Uranus isn’t the best planet to have in your ascendant, frankly. These people are always trying to buck the system and go against the grain. It’s advised that these people NEVER go into the military: too many rules and too much structure. I have this placement. So, I would know. On the positive end, it can give a person the gift of sight, visions of the third eye chakra or sudden genius spiritual insights. It can give a tendency towards homosexuality or just odd experimentation with sex.

Crowley did partake in some downright strange sexual magick practices. He also had a gay Jewish lover who took mescaline and got involved in satanic rituals with Crowley.

But all of that aside, this placement can show a grand creative vision for one’s path in life and the ability to access hidden stores of power. This person cannot work for someone else. Uranus in the 1st house natives must find a way to be an entrepreneur or take a unique approach to their entire life path, especially their career. Crowley certainly did…

Mars exalted in the 6th house: Defeating One’s Enemies with Grace

This person was a fighter, but he was still Libra. He didn’t like engaging in battles with others. When he did, he won. He knew how to pick fights well. He defeated all of his enemies, but had to deal with enemies throughout his entire career (suffering psychic attacks from occult persons). In general, the planets of grit and determination were strong in his chart. Saturn and Venus had the strongest directional strength, whereas the Sun had the weakest. His ego was out of control because he did not know the true self.

His Mars was super-powered in the 6th house of enemies. His Saturn had a strong directional strength in the 7th house, while retrograde and at home in the sign of Aquarius. He reincarnated in order to burden an old karma that was left incomplete in a past life. This karmic duty had to do with burdening a relationship with a significant other, likely an older partner who had a hell of a lot of eccentric qualities to them. Relationships had strong boundaries.

Relationships were pretty serious, cold and inflexible. It was as if they restricted his ability to dig deeper into the mysteries with his mind. He would get involved in relationships, sure. But it was always on his terms and his rules. He had to sacrifice a lot every time he entered into a long-term commitment. With a strong Saturn, he could do make it work. There was a saturnian structure to his marriage, which was delayed until midlife. Saturn square Mercury can often give a fearful anxiety around relating and befriending others, especially one’s own family members: cousins, uncles, etc.

The only major drawback in this chart was having a slightly weakened Sun. This caused him to seek too much validation through his relationships and get caught up in pleasure-seeking. It made him slightly too dependent on others for validation. His father was a forceful man who got into conflict with Crowley.

Planets in Angles Push a Person to Make an Impact on the World!

Crowley had eight planets in angles. The external planets, Neptune, Pluto and Uranus are situated in the external houses: Ascendant and 10th. The planets of strength, sacrifice and power, the Sun and Saturn, are in the internal and personal houses: the 4th and 7th house. This is far more than the average person. This means that, in his own weird way, he was destined to make a powerful impact on this world. Most of these planets, however, were situated in the fourth house. This isn’t considered a public or “fame-oriented” house, but one of privacy and seclusion.

Moon in Pisces: The Dreamer & Seeker

As we might expect of someone involved in the occult, he was emotionally drawn towards deep mystical experiences, delving into other realms beyond the senses. Moon in Pisces is in its late degrees here. He was emotionally drawn to alternative beliefs and spiritual knowledge.

He was born right before the full moon, when the lunar cycle was waxing towards an awakened final state. Since the 12th house of imagination, foreign lands, sexual pleasure, prison and unconscious states is ruled by this moon, it shows that this area of life was highly auspicious for him. He had the opportunity to travel to a foreign land and access a new spiritual or religious belief system (9th house Moon). Well, if you read his biography this did, in fact, happen!

Mars Square Venus: Cutting Apart Relationships

He was known to destroy and hurt the relationships that he started. Mars is known for destroying and cutting things in order to make them better. His Mars was in a tight square to the Sun and Venus, hurting these two planets.

Mercury and Jupiter in the 10th from Saturn: Karma of Dedication

His karma was to discipline his emotional self and devote his intense yearning towards the discovery of hidden information and knowledge, so as to share it with the world. Mercury and Jupiter, planets which are associated with learning and knowledge, are in the 10th sign from Saturn. The 10th sign from any planet shows where our true actions are.

Uranus is, for example, in the 10th sign from his Jupiter and Mercury, both in an angle (powerful). This shows that he must undergo a uniquely creative path to acquire wisdom and understanding of the hidden forces in this realm. This chart shows a lot of potential to rise above the attachment to the lower-realms, the material and sensual, in order to break forth into a new, fresh and uplifting stage of consciousness (North Node Aries).