The Encyclopedia Of Demons And Demonology

44 crossroads
and demons. She has repressed this ability, and now he
reawakens her to it. She takes him to meet Balthazar, a
half-breed who is conspiring with the demon MAMMON
to conquer the Earth, a task he can do only with the help
of the Spear of Destiny. Mammon takes POSSESSION of
Angela.
Constantine struggles in vain to exorcize Angela. Gabriel
appears, bitter and disillusioned with humanity, and
says she will release Mammon into the world. Constantine
slashes his wrists, knowing that Lucifer will appear
to collect his soul. When the DEVIL appears, time stops.
Lucifer is enraged at Mammon’s plans and sends the demon
back to hell. He burns Gabriel’s wings and the angel
is reduced to a human state.
Lucifer removes the cancer from Constantine’s lungs
and abducts him to hell. Constantine is saved by Divine
Light as a reward for his sacrifice of himself. He is returned
to Earth and to Angela. The Spear of Destiny appears,
and Gabriel taunts Constantine to kill her with it.
Instead, he punches her in the face.
Constantine gives the spear to Angela and quits smoking,
now in command of his fate.
crossroads A place of magical power especially for
conjuring spirits and DEMONs. The junctions of roads,
where forces of energy cross, have been considered to
have magical significance since ancient times.
Crossroads are haunted by demons, FAIRIES, and evil
spirits who lie in wait for unwary travelers and lead them
astray. Crossroads are where witches and sorcerers gather
for SABBATs, according to lore. Grass will not grow at
crossroads where demons have danced.
Some magical rituals are performed at crossroads,
such as necromancy, the appearance of the GOLD-FINDING
HEN, conjurations of spirits and demons, and sacrifices
of animals. Crossroads also are places of confusion, and
lore holds that one can evade evil spirits by running into
a crossroads.
Crowley, Aleister (1875–1947) English magician and
occultist. Aleister Crowley was adept at dealing with
spirits, including powerful DEMONs. Flamboyant and
controversial, he practiced outrageous magic of sex,
drugs, and sacrifice, yet made significant contributions
to magic.
Life
He was born Edward Alexander Crowley on October 12,
1875, in Leamington Spa, Warwickshire. His father was
a wealthy brewer and a “Darbyite” preacher, a member
of a fundamentalist sect known as the Plymouth Brethren
or Exclusive Brethren. Crowley’s parents raised him
in an atmosphere of repression and religious bigotry. He
rebelled to such an extent that his mother called him
“the Beast” after the Antichrist, a name he delighted
in using later in life, calling himself “the Beast of the
Apocalypse.”
Crowley was drawn to the occult and was fascinated
by BLOOD, torture, and sexual degradation; he liked to
fantasize being degraded by a “Scarlet Woman.” He combined
these interests in a lifestyle that shocked others and
reveled in the attention he drew. He was in his teens when
he adopted the name Aleister.
In 1887, Crowley’s father died and he was sent to a
Darbyite school in Cambridge. His unhappy experiences
there at the hands of a cruel headmaster made him hate
the Darbyites.
Crowley studied for three years at Trinity College at
Cambridge but never earned a degree. He wrote poetry,
engaged in an active bisexual sex life, and pursued his
occult studies—the Great Work—the latter of which was
inspired by The Book of Black Magic and of Pacts by AR-
THUR EDWARD WAITE and The Cloud upon the Sanctuary
by Carl von Eckartshausen. In his first volume of poetry,
published in 1898, Crowley foreshadowed his occult excesses
with his statement that God and Satan had fought
many hours over his soul. He wrote, “God conquered—
now I have only one doubt left—which of the twain was
God?”
Crowley was in his third year at Trinity when he
formally dedicated himself to magick, which he spelled
with a k to “distinguish the science of the Magi from
all its counterfeits.” He also pledged to “rehabilitate” it.
He saw magic as the way of life, a path of self-mastery
achieved with rigorous discipline of the will illumined by
imagination.
After leaving Trinity, Crowley took a flat in Chancery
Lane, London. He named himself Count Vladimir and
pursued his occult activities full-time. Stories of bizarre
incidents circulated, perhaps fueled in part by Crowley’s
mesmerizing eyes and aura of supernatural power. A
ghostly light reportedly surrounded him, which he said
was his astral spirit. One of his flat neighbors claimed
to be hurled downstairs by a malevolent force, and visitors
said they experienced dizzy spells while climbing the
stairs or felt an overwhelming evil presence.
In 1898, Crowley went to Zermatt, Switzerland, for
mountain climbing. He met Julian Baker, an English occultist,
who in turn introduced Crowley back in London
to George Cecil Jones, a member of the Hermetic Order
of the Golden Dawn. At Jones’ invitation, Crowley was
initiated into the order on November 18, 1898. He took
the magical motto Frater Perdurabo (I will persevere). He
used other names, among them Mega Therion (the Great
Wild Beast), which he used when he later attained the
rank of Magus.
Crowley was already skilled in magic when he joined
the Golden Dawn, and its First Order bored him. He received
instruction from Allan Bennett, whom he met in
1899, and Samuel Liddell Macgregor Mathers, one of the
founders of the Golden Dawn. Mathers taught Crowley
Abremalin magic from an old manuscript, The Sacred
Magic of Abra-Melin the Mage, which Mathers had trans-