Defining moment

Crowley turns to the occult 1897

While at Cambridge, Crowley lives a dissipated life, exploring sexual liaisons with male and female partners. He also becomes an expert mountain climber, travelling to the

Alps with his friend Oscar Eckenstein and making the first unguided ascent of the Mönch peak. However, a previous – and undefined – mystical experience that he underwent in Stockholm in 1896 had set him on an esoterically spiritual path, and after a trip to Russia he suffers a short-lived period of illness. This leads Crowley to consider the reality of death and to dismiss all human endeavour as meaningless – and, although a diplomatic career is beckoning, he determines to pursue his burgeoning interest in occult matters.