Avatars of Crowley

Ah, I found this footnote in Chapter 10 (6=5 chapter) of The Mystical & Magical System of the A.'.A.'. - Having written, "Crowley’s own 6=5 process is virtually undocumented," I added the footnote: 

We do, however, have information from Crowley’s diaries about his recollections of the half dozen or so prior incarnations during which he struggled with the Adeptus Major Grade. The record develops some interesting points. These can be summarized here only in the briefest way....

By the early 16th century, the being who later would incarnate as Aleister Crowley had attained to the 5=6 Grade of Adeptus Minor. The record then documents an incarnation as Edward Kelley (1555-1595), John Dee’s psychic assistant in bringing forth the Enochian system of magick. Kelley was strongly drawn to magick powers, and so sought to push ahead (prematurely) to 6=5.

Furthermore, Kelley apparently did not embrace the new teachings the Enochian angels had conveyed to him, which were, in part, an early disclosure of the Law of Thelema. As a result of this, he stepped back a grade in his next incarnation where, as a frail and malformed young man (subjected to ill health and abuse), he nonetheless lived a profoundly mystical life, obtaining a very high and pure mystical attainment by age 22. There then followed two incarnations of failing in his attempt to assimilate the Geburah level of attainment.

First, he was a Russian called Father Ivan, profoundly steeped in magick, but laden with extreme vices, abusive of his magick powers, subject to rages, and author of horrible cruelties – all being extreme imbalances of the Gebu-ran energies. Following this, he was a Heinrick van Dorn, an incarnation only partially remembered for reasons reportedly involving "some serious magical error connected with the grade of Adeptus Major," an abuse of black magical forces "in an entirely futile way. It is a tale of grimoires and vain evil rites, of pacts at which Satan was mocked, and crimes unworthy even of witches," Crowley wrote. He hanged himself at about age 27.

Following this suicide, he "passed through a dreadfully dark purgation," also described as "a profound horror and gloom."

Upon completing this cleansing, he was born as Cagliostro (1748-1795). His karma having been equilibrated by his purgatory, Cagliostro reached a "very full" attainment of the 6=5 Grade. His blind spot in that incarnation, in his celebration of his mighty attainment, appears to have been a failure to see that something entirely Other lay beyond the Second Order – "not knowing or caring about the Abyss above me." After Cagliostro, he incarnated as Eliphas Levi (1810-1875) who comfortably reattained the Adeptus Major Grade (summarizing his knowledge in The Dogma & Ritual of High Magic), then attaining the 7=4 Grade of Exempt Adept before his death.