With his Inner Order, A.’.A.’., Aleister Crowley departed from teachings of The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. In particular, he proved that it is possible for a human being to cross the Abyss in the flesh.
Before founding the A.’.A.’. with George Cecil Jones [Frater D.D.S.], the latter man told Crowley they’d have to get authority from the Secret Chiefs. Jones told Crowley that he’d have to be “invited” to be sure that the Chiefs welcomed their new Order.
In his Confessions, Crowley writes, “In the month of December the Secret Chiefs formally invited me, through G.R. Frater D.D.S., to take my place officially in the Third Order.”
What form did this invitation take? What did Crowley tell Jones that convinced him that the Chiefs approved of their bold, new venture?
With the intent of helping humanity take “the next step”, Crowley had been invoking his Angel forcefully many times a day. On April 24, 1906, Crowley received a vision in which the Chiefs welcomed him into the Order of the Silver Star. At the same time, he learned of the responsibility that he was to undertake for all humanity’s sake.
Importantly, what convinced Crowley was not that he was being told he was glorious. Any deluded egomaniac can dream that. Rather, it was that They corrected a misapprehension he’d been laboring under. He had been assuming that he would receive knowledge of the Gods. They corrected him. They told him that the Angel is not necessarily fashioned in his image. His role is not to criticize or question or shape the Will in the image of his desire. “I am to invoke often; not to criticize.”
