|
|
|
|
- Crowley climbs the Pic
Coolidge (12,385 feet), crossed the Brθche de la Meije
(11,014 feet), returned to the Aiguille de la Za, and
traversed Mont Collon (11,932 feet).
[56]
- Crowley leaves his rooms
in 16 St. John's Street, Cambridge, in 1897 and moves to 35
Sidney Street.
[287] |
|
|
|
|
|
Saturday, 16
January 1897 |
|
Saturday, 20
February 1897 |
|
|
Location: The Hoop
Hotel, Cambridge, England.
- Crowley
wins his match as the University of Cambridge Chess Club
plays against the City of London Chess Club at the Hoop
Hotel.
[Cambridge
Review]
|
|
|
|
|
|
Thursday, 25
February 1897 |
|
Saturday, 27
February 1897 |
|
|
- Crowley spends the summer
in St. Petersburg, Russia, ostensibly as language training
for his proposed career in the diplomatic service.
[238] |
|
|
|
|
|
|
- On his return from Russia,
Crowley stops in Berlin, and attends the Berlin Chess
Conference which took place from 13 September to 4 October
1897. His experience there completely turns him off his
goal of becoming a chess-master. As he relates in his
Confessions:
"I had hardly entered the
room where the masters were playing when I was seized with
what may justly be described as a mystical experience. I
seemed to be looking on at the tournament from outside
myself. I saw the mastersone, shabby and blear-eyed;
another, in badly fitting would-be respectable shoddy; a
third, a mere parody of humanity, and so on for the rest.
These were the people to whose ranks I was seeking
admission. 'There, but for the grace of God, goes Aleister
Crowley,' I exclaimed to myself with disgust, and then and
there I registered a vow never to play another serious game
of chess."
[56]
|
|
|
|
|
|
Wednesday, 1
September 1897 |
|
Saturday, 11
September 1897 |
|
|
|
|
|
News Related to Crowley:
-
Lancet |
|
|
|
- Crowley has an
existential crisis in which he ponders what he will have to
show for his life when he dies. He is thinking that his
possible career in the diplomatic service would quickly be
forgotten as would his poetry. He comes to the conclusion
that only spiritual pursuits have eternal implications.
[56]
- Crowley takes rooms at 37
Trinity Street prior to meeting
Herbert Charles Pollitt.
[286]
- Crowley meets
Herbert Charles Pollitt in the lodgings of the
president of the Footlights Club and they quickly become
great friends eventually having a sexual relationship.
[56],
[287] |
|
|
|
|
|
|
- Crowley
is 22 years old. |
|
|
|
|
|
Wednesday,
10
November 1897 |
|
|
Location: 37 Trinity
Street, Cambridge.
[286]
- Crowley
attends the evening meeting of the Cambridge Chess
Association at 17, Trinity Street, Cambridge.
[Cambridge
Chronicle]
|
|
|
|
|
|
Saturday, 20
November 1897 |
|
|
Location: 37 Trinity
Street, Cambridge.
[286]
- Crowley
loses his match as the University of Cambridge Chess Club
plays against the Seniors.
[Cambridge
Review]
|
|
|
|
|
|
Thursday, 25
November 1897 |
|
|
Location: 37 Trinity
Street, Cambridge.
[286]
- Crowley seeks the advice
of Professor C. G. Lamb regarding the pitting of his own
spiritual explorations against the accepted Christian God.
[287] |
|
|
|
|
|
Wednesday,
8 December 1897 |
|
|
Location: 37 Trinity
Street, Cambridge.
[286] |
|
|
|
Current Events:
-
Allan Bennett
is 25 years old |
|
|
Location: 37 Trinity
Street, Cambridge.
[286]
- Crowley is in Amsterdam,
Holland.
[56]
- During
the Christmas vacation Crowley corresponds intensely with
Herbert Charles Pollitt, his new-found love.
[303] |
|
|
|
|
|
Thursday, 23
December 1897 |
|
Saturday, 25
December 1897 |
|
|
Location: 37 Trinity
Street, Cambridge.
[286]
- In 1896, at the stroke
of midnight, Crowley made the decision to study mysticism and
occultism. Crowley recalls that "I was awakened, to the
knowledge that I possessed a magical means of becoming
conscious of and satisfying a part of my nature which had up
to that moment concealed itself from me. It was an
experience of horror and pain, combined with a certain
ghostly terror, yet at the same time it was the key to the
purest and holiest spiritual ecstasy that exists." This
experience is repeated almost to the minute in 1897.
[286]
- Crowley is "admitted to
permanent office in the Temple midnight."
[286] |
|
|
|
|
|
