Thelema

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The Unicursal Hexagram, one of the common symbols of Thelema

Thelema (/θəˈliːmə/; Koine Greek: [θélima]) is primarily a philosophical law, which has been adopted as a central tenet by some religious organizations. The law of Thelema is "Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law. Love is the law, love under will." The law of Thelema was developed by Aleister Crowley, the early 20th-century British writer and ceremonial magician.^[1] He believed himself to be the prophet of a new age, the Æon of Horus, based upon a spiritual experience that he and his wife, Rose Edith, had in Egypt in 1904.^[2] By his account, a possibly non-corporeal or "praeterhuman" being that called itself Aiwass contacted him and dictated a text known as The Book of the Law or Liber AL vel Legis, which outlined the principles of Thelema.^[3] An adherent of Thelema is a Thelemite.
The Thelemic pantheon includes a number of deities, primarily a trinity adapted from ancient Egyptian religion, who are the three speakers of The Book of the Law: Nuit, Hadit and Ra-Hoor-Khuit. Crowley described these deities as a "literary convenience".^[4] The religion is founded upon the idea that the 20th century marked the beginning of the Aeon of Horus, in which a new ethical code would be followed; "Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law". This statement indicates that adherents, who are known as Thelemites, should seek out and follow their own true path in life, known as their True Will^[5] rather than their egotistic desires.^[6] The philosophy also emphasizes the ritual practice of Magick.
The word thelema is the English transliteration of the Koine Greek noun θέλημα: "will", from the verb θέλω: to will, wish, purpose. As Crowley developed the religion, he wrote widely on the topic, producing what are collectively termed the Holy Books of Thelema. He also included ideas from occultism, Yoga and both Eastern and Western mysticism, especially the Qabalah.^[7]

Thelema Category:Thelema
Core topics
The Book of the Law Aleister Crowley True Will 93 Magick
Mysticism
Thelemic mysticism Great Work Holy Guardian Angel The Gnostic Mass
Thelemic texts
Works of Crowley Holy Books of Thelema Thelemite texts
Organizations
A∴A∴ Ecclesia Gnostica Catholica (EGC) Ordo Templi Orientis (OTO) The Open Source Order of the Golden Dawn (OSOGD) Typhonian Order (TO)
Deities
Nuit Hadit Horus Babalon Chaos Baphomet Choronzon Ankh-f-n-khonsu Aiwass Ma'at
Related topics
Stele of Revealing Abrahadabra Unicursal hexagram Abramelin oil Thoth tarot deck
v t e

Contents

• 1 Historical Precedents
  • 1.1 François Rabelais
  • 1.2 Francis Dashwood and the Hellfire Club
• 2 Aleister Crowley
  • 2.1 The Book of the Law
  • 2.2 True Will
  • 2.3 Cosmology
  • 2.4 Magick and ritual
  • 2.5 Ethics
• 3 Contemporary Thelema
  • 3.1 Diversity of Thelemic thought
  • 3.2 Thelemic Holidays
  • 3.3 Contemporary Thelemic literature
  • 3.4 Thelemic organizations
  • 3.5 Thelema and the British justice system
• 4 See also
• 5 References
• 6 Sources
• 7 Further reading
• 8 External links

Historical Precedents

The word θέλημα (thelema) is rare in classical Greek, where it "signifies the appetitive will: desire, sometimes even sexual",^[8] but it is frequent in the Septuagint.^[8] Early Christian writings occasionally use the word to refer to the human will,^[9] and even the will of God's opponent, the Devil,^[10] but it usually refers to the will of God.^[11] One well-known example is in the "Lord's Prayer" (Matthew 6:10), “Your kingdom come. Your will (Θελημα) be done, On earth as it is in heaven.” It is used later in the same gospel (26:42), "He went away again a second time and prayed, saying, "My Father, if this cannot pass away unless I drink it, Your will be done." In his 5th-century Sermon on 1 John 4:4-12, Augustine of Hippo gave a similar instruction:^[12] "Love, and what you will, do." (Dilige et quod vis fac).^[13]
In the Renaissance, a character named "Thelemia" represents will or desire in the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili of the Dominican monk Francesco Colonna. The protagonist Poliphilo has two allegorical guides, Logistica (reason) and Thelemia (will or desire). When forced to choose, he chooses fulfillment of his sexual will over logic.^[14] Colonna's work was a great influence on the Franciscan monk François Rabelais, who in the 16th century, used Thélème, the French form of the word, as the name of a fictional abbey in his novels, Gargantua and Pantagruel.^[15] The only rule of this Abbey was "fay çe que vouldras" ("Fais ce que tu veux", or, "Do what thou wilt"). In the mid-18th century, Sir Francis Dashwood inscribed the adage on a doorway of his abbey at Medmenham,^[16] where it served as the motto of The Hellfire Club.^[16] Rabelais' Abbey of Thelema has been referred to by later writers Sir Walter Besant and James Rice, in their novel The Monks of Thelema (1878), and C.R. Ashbee in his utopian romance The Building of Thelema (1910).

François Rabelais

Main article: François Rabelais

François Rabelais

François Rabelais was a Franciscan and later a Benedictine monk of the 16th century. Eventually he left the monastery to study medicine, and moved to the French city of Lyon in 1532. There he wrote Gargantua and Pantagruel, a connected series of books. They tell the story of two giants—a father (Gargantua) and his son (Pantagruel) and their adventures—written in an amusing, extravagant, and satirical vein.
Most critics today agree that Rabelais wrote from a Christian humanist perspective.^[17] The Crowley biographer Lawrence Sutin notes this when contrasting the French author's beliefs with the Thelema of Aleister Crowley.^[18] In the previously mentioned story of Thélème, which critics analyze as referring in part to the suffering of loyal Christian reformists or "evangelicals"^[19] within the French Church,^[20] the reference to the Greek word θέλημα "declares that the will of God rules in this abbey".^[21] Sutin writes that Rabelais was no precursor of Thelema, with his beliefs containing elements of Stoicism and Christian kindness.^[18]
In his first book (ch. 52-57), Rabelais writes of this Abbey of Thélème, built by the giant Gargantua. It is a classical utopia presented in order to critique and assess the state of the society of Rabelais' day, as opposed to a modern utopian text that seeks to create the scenario in practice.^[22] It is a utopia where people's desires are more fulfilled.^[23] Satirical, it also epitomises the ideals considered in Rabelais' fiction.^[24] The inhabitants of the abbey were governed only by their own free will and pleasure, the only rule being "Do What Thou Wilt". Rabelais believed that men who are free, well born and bred have honour, which intrinsically leads to virtuous actions. When constrained, their noble natures turn instead to remove their servitude, because men desire what they are denied.^[15]
Some modern Thelemites consider Crowley's work to build upon Rabelais' summary of the instinctively honourable nature of the Thelemite. Rabelais has been variously credited with the creation of the philosophy^[25] of Thelema, as one of the earliest people to refer to it,^[26] or with being "the first Thelemite".^[27] However, the current National Grand Master General of the U.S. Ordo Templi Orientis Grand Lodge has stated:

Saint Rabelais never intended his satirical, fictional device to serve as a practical blueprint for a real human society ... Our Thelema is that of The Book of the Law and the writings of Aleister Crowley^[28]

Aleister Crowley wrote in The Antecedents of Thelema, (1926), an incomplete work not published in his day, that Rabelais not only set forth the law of Thelema in a way similar to how Crowley understood it, but predicted and described in code Crowley's life and the holy text that he claimed to have received, The Book of the Law. Crowley said the work he had received was deeper, showing in more detail the technique people should practice, and revealing scientific mysteries. He said that Rabelais confines himself to portraying an ideal, rather than addressing questions of political economy and similar subjects, which must be solved in order to realize the Law.^[29]
Rabelais is included among the Saints of Ecclesia Gnostica Catholica, along with others such as Virgil, Catullus, Algernon Charles Swinburne, and William Blake.^[30]

Francis Dashwood and the Hellfire Club

Portrait of Francis Dashwood, 15th Baron le Despencer, by William Hogarth from the late 1750s

Sir Francis Dashwood adopted some of the ideas of Rabelais and invoked the same rule in French, when he founded a group called the Monks of Medmenham (better known as The Hellfire Club).^[16] An abbey was established at Medmenham, in a property which incorporated the ruins of a Cistercian abbey founded in 1201. The group were known as the Franciscans, not after Saint Francis of Assisi, but after its founder, Francis Dashwood, 15th Baron le Despencer. John Wilkes, George Dodington and other politicians were members.^[16] There is little direct evidence of what Dashwood's Hellfire Club practiced or believed.^[31] The one direct testimonial comes from John Wilkes, a member who never got into the chapter-room of the inner circle.^[31][32] He describes the group as hedonists who met to "celebrate woman in wine", and added ideas from the ancients just to make the experience more decadent.^[33]
In the opinion of Lt. Col. Towers, the group derived more from Rabelais than the inscription over the door. He believes that they used caves as a Dionysian oracular temple, based upon Dashwood’s reading of the relevant chapters of Rabelais.^[34] Sir Nathaniel Wraxall in his Historical Memoires (1815) accused the Monks of performing Satanic rituals, but these claims have been dismissed as hearsay.^[31] Gerald Gardner and others such as Mike Howard^[35] say the Monks worshipped "the Goddess". Daniel Willens argued that the group likely practiced Freemasonry, but also suggests Dashwood may have held secret Roman Catholic sacraments. He asks if Wilkes would have recognized a genuine Catholic Mass, even if he saw it himself and even if the underground version followed its public model precisely.^[36]

Aleister Crowley

Main article: Aleister Crowley

Aleister Crowley (1875–1947) was an English occultist and writer. In 1904, Crowley claimed to have received The Book of the Law from an entity named Aiwass, which was to serve as the foundation of the religious and philosophical system he called Thelema.^[3][37]

The Book of the Law

Main article: The Book of the Law

Crowley's system of Thelema begins with The Book of the Law, which bears the official name Liber AL vel Legis. It was written in Cairo, Egypt during his honeymoon with his new wife Rose Crowley (née Kelly). This small book contains three chapters, each of which he claimed to have written in exactly one hour, beginning at noon, on April 8, April 9, and April 10, 1904. Crowley claims that he took dictation from an entity named Aiwass, whom he later identified as his own Holy Guardian Angel.^[38] Disciple, author, and onetime Crowley secretary Israel Regardie prefers to attribute this voice to the subconscious, but opinions among Thelemites differ widely. Crowley claimed that "no forger could have prepared so complex a set of numerical and literal puzzles" and that study of the text would dispel all doubts about the method of how the book was obtained.^[39]
Besides the reference to Rabelais, an analysis by Dave Evans shows similarities to The Beloved of Hathor and Shrine of the Golden Hawk,^[40] a play by Florence Farr.^[41] Evans says this may result from the fact that "both Farr and Crowley were thoroughly steeped in Golden Dawn imagery and teachings",^[42] and that Crowley probably knew the ancient materials that inspired some of Farr's motifs.^[43] Sutin also finds similarities between Thelema and the work of W. B. Yeats, attributing this to "shared insight" and perhaps to the older man's knowledge of Crowley.^[44]
Crowley wrote several commentaries on The Book of the Law, the last of which he wrote in 1925. This brief statement called simply "The Comment" warns against discussing the book's contents, and states that all "questions of the Law are to be decided only by appeal to my writings" and is signed Ankh-af-na-khonsu.^[45]

True Will

Main article: True Will

According to Crowley, every individual has a True Will, to be distinguished from the ordinary wants and desires of the ego. The True Will is essentially one's "calling" or "purpose" in life. Some later magicians have taken this to include the goal of attaining self-realization by one's own efforts, without the aid of God or other divine authority. This brings them close to the position that Crowley held just prior to 1904.^[46] Others follow later works such as Liber II, saying that one's own will in pure form is nothing other than the divine will.^[47] Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law for Crowley refers not to hedonism, fulfilling everyday desires, but to acting in response to that calling. The Thelemite is a mystic.^[46] According to Lon Milo Duquette, a Thelemite is anyone who bases their actions on striving to discover and accomplish their true will,^[48] when a person does their True Will, it is like an orbit, their niche in the universal order, and the universe assists them.^[49] In order for the individual to be able to follow their True Will, the everyday self's socially-instilled inhibitions may have to be overcome via deconditioning.^[50][51] Crowley believed that in order to discover the True Will, one had to free the desires of the subconscious mind from the control of the conscious mind, especially the restrictions placed on sexual expression, which he associated with the power of divine creation.^[52] He identified the True Will of each individual with the Holy Guardian Angel, a daimon unique to each individual.^[53] The spiritual quest to find what you are meant to do and do it is also known in Thelema as the Great Work.^[54]

The Stèle of Revealing, depicting Nuit, Hadit as the winged globe, Ra-Hoor-Khuit seated on his throne, and the creator of the Stèle, the scribe Ankh-af-na-khonsu

Cosmology

Thelema draws its principal gods and goddesses from Ancient Egyptian religion. The highest deity in the cosmology of Thelema is the goddess Nuit. She is the night sky arched over the Earth symbolized in the form of a naked woman. She is conceived as the Great Mother, the ultimate source of all things.^[55] The second principal deity of Thelema is the god Hadit, conceived as the infinitely small point, complement and consort of Nuit. Hadit symbolizes manifestation, motion, and time.^[55] He is also described in Liber AL vel Legis as "the flame that burns in every heart of man, and in the core of every star".^[56] The third deity in the cosmology of Thelema is Ra-Hoor-Khuit, a manifestation of Horus. He is symbolized as a throned man with the head of a hawk who carries a wand. He is associated with the Sun and the active energies of Thelemic magick.^[55] Other deities within the cosmology of Thelema are Hoor-paar-kraat (or Harpocrates), god of silence and inner strength, the brother of Ra-Hoor-Khuit,^[55] Babalon, the goddess of all pleasure, known as the Virgin Whore,^[55] and Therion, the beast that Babalon rides, who represents the wild animal within man, a force of nature.^[55]

Magick and ritual

Main articles: Magick (Aleister Crowley) and Thelemic mysticism

Thelemic magick is a system of physical, mental, and spiritual exercises which practitioners believe are of benefit.^[57] Crowley defined magick as "the Science and Art of causing Change to occur in conformity with Will",^[58] and spelled it with a 'k' to distinguish it from stage magic. He recommended magick as a means for discovering the True Will.^[59] Generally, magical practices in Thelema are designed to assist in finding and manifesting the True Will, although some include celebratory aspects as well.^[60] Crowley was a prolific writer, integrating Eastern practices with Western magical practices from the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn.^[61] He recommended a number of these practices to his followers, including basic yoga; (asana and pranayama);^[62] rituals of his own devising or based on those of the Golden Dawn, such as the Lesser ritual of the pentagram, for banishing and invocation;^[60] Liber Samekh, a ritual for the invocation of the Holy Guardian Angel;^[60] eucharistic rituals such as The Gnostic Mass and The Mass of the Phoenix;^[60] and Liber Resh, consisting of four daily adorations to the sun.^[60] Much of his work is readily available in print and online. He also discussed sex magick and sexual gnosis in various forms including masturbatory, heterosexual, and homosexual practices, and these form part of his suggestions for the work of those in the higher degrees of the Ordo Templi Orientis.^[63] Crowley believed that after discovering the True Will, the magician must also remove any elements of himself that stand in the way of its success.^[64]

The qabalistic tree of life, important in the magical order A∴A∴ as the degrees of advancement in are related to it.

The emphasis of Thelemic magick is not directly on material results, and while many Thelemites do practice magick for goals such as wealth or love, it is not required. Those in a Thelemic magical Order, such as the A∴A∴, or Ordo Templi Orientis, work through a series of degrees or grades via a process of initiation. Thelemites who work on their own or in an independent group try to achieve this ascent or the purpose thereof using the Holy Books of Thelema and/or Crowley's more secular works as a guide, along with their own intuition. Books and papers detailing the rituals of Ordo Templi Orientis of the past do appear or come up for sale second-hand, but the modern organisation seeks to prevent them being sold, using the successful legal argument that such works violate their copyright.^[65] The papers they seek to protect include those containing instructions detailing the sexual rituals of the later degrees.^[66]
One goal in the study of Thelema within the magical Order of the A∴A∴ is for the magician to obtain the knowledge and conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel: conscious communication with their own personal daimon, thus gaining knowledge of their True Will.^[67] The chief task for one who has achieved this goes by the name of "crossing the abyss";^[68] completely relinquishing the ego. If the aspirant is unprepared, he will cling to the ego instead, becoming a Black Brother. Rather than becoming one with God, the Black Brother considers his ego to be god.^[69] According to Crowley, the Black Brother slowly disintegrates, while preying on others for his own self-aggrandisement.^[70]
Crowley taught skeptical examination of all results obtained through meditation or magick, at least for the student.^[71] He tied this to the necessity of keeping a magical record or diary, that attempts to list all conditions of the event.^[72][73] Remarking on the similarity of statements made by spiritually advanced people of their experiences, he said that fifty years from his time they would have a scientific name based on "an understanding of the phenomenon" to replace such terms as "spiritual" or "supernatural". Crowley stated that his work and that of his followers used "the method of science; the aim of religion",^[74] and that the genuine powers of the magician could in some way be objectively tested. This idea has been taken on by later practitioners of Thelema, chaos magic and magick in general. They may consider that they are testing hypotheses with each magical experiment. The difficulty lies in the broadness of their definition of success,^[75] in which they may see as evidence of success things which a non-magician would not define as such, leading to confirmation bias. Crowley believed he could demonstrate, by his own example, the effectiveness of magick in producing certain subjective experiences that do not ordinarily result from taking hashish, enjoying oneself in Paris, or walking through the Sahara desert.^[76] It is not strictly necessary to practice ritual techniques to be a Thelemite, as due to the focus of Thelemic magick on the True Will, Crowley stated "every intentional act is a magickal act".^[77]

Ethics

Liber AL vel Legis does make clear some standards of individual conduct. The most primary of these is "Do what thou wilt" which is presented as the whole of the law, and also as a right. Some interpreters of Thelema believe that this right includes an obligation to allow others to do their own wills without interference,^[78] but Liber AL makes no clear statement on the matter. Crowley himself wrote that there was no need to detail the ethics of Thelema, for everything springs from "Do what thou Wilt".^[79] Crowley wrote several additional documents presenting his personal beliefs regarding individual conduct in light of the Law of Thelema, some of which do address the topic interference with others: Liber OZ, Duty, and Liber II.
Liber Oz enumerates some of the rights of the individual implied by the one overarching right, "Do what thou wilt". For each person, these include the right to: live by one's own law; live in the way that one wills to do; work, play, and rest as one will; die when and how one will; eat and drink what one will; live where one will; move about the earth as one will; think, speak, write, draw, paint, carve, etch, mould, build, and dress as one will; love when, where and with whom one will; and kill those who would thwart these rights.^[80]
Duty is described as "A note on the chief rules of practical conduct to be observed by those who accept the Law of Thelema."^[81] It is not a numbered "Liber" as are all the documents which Crowley intended for A∴A∴, but rather listed as a document intended specifically for Ordo Templi Orientis.^[81] There are four sections:^[82]

• A. Your Duty to Self: describes the self as the center of the universe, with a call to learn about one's inner nature. Admonishes the reader to develop every faculty in a balanced way, establish one's autonomy, and to devote oneself to the service of one's own True Will.
• B. Your Duty to Others: An admonishment to eliminate the illusion of separateness between oneself and all others, to fight when necessary, to avoid interfering with the Wills of others, to enlighten others when needed, and to worship the divine nature of all other beings.
• C. Your Duty to Mankind: States that the Law of Thelema should be the sole basis of conduct. That the laws of the land should have the aim of securing the greatest liberty for all individuals. Crime is described as being a violation of one's True Will.
• D. Your Duty to All Other Beings and Things: States that the Law of Thelema should be applied to all problems and used to decide every ethical question. It is a violation of the Law of Thelema to use any animal or object for a purpose for which it is unfit, or to ruin things so that they are useless for their purpose. Natural resources can be used by man, but this should not be done wantonly, or the breach of the law will be avenged.

In Liber II: The Message of the Master Therion, the Law of Thelema is summarized succinctly as "Do what thou wilt—then do nothing else." Crowley describes the pursuit of Will as not only with detachment from possible results, but with tireless energy. It is Nirvana but in a dynamic rather than static form. The True Will is described as the individual's orbit, and if they seek to do anything else, they will encounter obstacles, as doing anything other than the will is a hindrance to it.^[83]

Contemporary Thelema

Diversity of Thelemic thought

The core of Thelemic thought is "Do what thou wilt". However, beyond this, there exists a very wide range of interpretation of Thelema. Modern Thelema is a syncretic philosophy and religion,^[84] and many Thelemites try to avoid strongly dogmatic or fundamentalist thinking. Crowley himself put strong emphasis on the unique nature of Will inherent in each individual, not following him, saying he did not wish to found a flock of sheep.^[85] Thus, contemporary Thelemites may practice more than one religion, including Discordianism, Wicca, Gnosticism, Satanism, Setianism and Luciferianism.^[84] Many adherents of Thelema, none more so than Crowley, recognize correlations between Thelemic and other systems of spiritual thought; most borrow freely from the methods and practices of other traditions, including alchemy, astrology, qabalah, tantra, tarot divination and yoga.^[84] For example, Nu and Had are thought to correspond with the Tao and Teh of Taoism, Shakti and Shiva of the Hindu Tantras, Shunyata and Bodhicitta of Buddhism, Ain Soph and Kether in the Hermetic Qabalah.^{[86][87][88][89]}
There are some Thelemites who do accept The Book of the Law in some way but not the rest of Crowley's "inspired" writings or teachings. Others take only specific aspects of his overall system, such as his magical techniques, ethics, mysticism, or religious ideas, while ignoring the rest. Other individuals who consider themselves Thelemites regard what is commonly presented as Crowley's system to be only one possible manifestation of Thelema, creating original systems, such as those of Nema and Kenneth Grant.^{[citation needed]} And one category of Thelemites are non-religious, and simply adhere to the philosophical law of Thelema.

Thelemic Holidays

The Book of the Law gives several holy days to be observed by Thelemites. There are no established or dogmatic ways to celebrate these days, so as a result Thelemites will often take to their own devices or celebrate in groups, especially within Ordo Templi Orientis. These holy days are usually observed on the following dates:

• March 20. The Feast of the Supreme Ritual, which celebrates the Invocation of Horus, the ritual performed by Crowley on this date in 1904 that inaugurated the New Aeon.

• March 20/March 21. The Equinox of the Gods, which is commonly referred to as the Thelemic New Year (although some celebrate the New Year on April 8). Although the Equinox and the Invocation of Horus often fall on the same day, they are often treated as two different events. This date is the Autumnal Equinox in the Southern Hemisphere.

• April 8 through April 10. The Feast of the Three Days of the Writing of the Book of the Law. These three days are commemorative of the three days in the year 1904 during which Aleister Crowley wrote the Book of the Law. One chapter was written each day, the first being written on April 8, the second on April 9, and the third on April 10. Although there is no official way of celebrating any Thelemic holiday, this particular feast day is usually celebrated by reading the corresponding chapter on each of the three days, usually at noon.

• June 20/June 21. The Summer Solstice in the Northern Hemisphere and the Winter Solstice in the Southern Hemisphere.

• August 12. The Feast of the Prophet and His Bride. This holiday commemorates the marriage of Aleister Crowley and his first wife Rose Edith Crowley. Rose was a key figure in the writing of the Book of the Law.

• September 22/September 23. The Autumnal Equinox in the Northern Hemisphere and the Vernal Equinox in the Southern Hemisphere.

• December 21/December 22. The Winter Solstice in the Northern Hemisphere and the Summer Solstice in the Southern Hemisphere.

• The Feast for Life, celebrated at the birth of a Thelemite and on birthdays.

• The Feast for Fire/The Feast for Water. These feast days are usually taken as being when a child hits puberty and steps unto the path of adulthood. The Feast for Fire is celebrated for a male, and the Feast for Water for a female.

• The Feast for Death, celebrated on the death of a Thelemite and on the anniversary of their death.^[90]

Contemporary Thelemic literature

Aleister Crowley was highly prolific and wrote on the subject of Thelema for over 35 years, and many of his books remain in print. During his time, there were several who wrote on the subject, including U.S. O.T.O. Grand Master Charles Stansfeld Jones, whose works on Qabalah are still in print, and Major-General J.F.C. Fuller.
Jack Parsons was a scientist researching the use of various fuels for rockets at the California Institute of Technology, and one of Crowley's first American students, for a time leading the Agape Lodge of the Ordo Templi Orientis for Crowley in America. He wrote several short works during his lifetime, some later collected as Freedom is a Two-edged Sword. He died in 1952 as a result of an explosion, and while not a prolific writer himself, has been the subject of two biographies; Sex and Rockets by John Carter, and Strange Angel by George Pendle.

The Lamen and trademark of the Ordo Templi Orientis, a Thelemic organization

Since Crowley's death in 1947, there have been other Thelemic writers. These include Israel Regardie, who not only edited many of Crowley's works, but wrote a biography of him, The Eye in the Triangle, and penned many books on ritual and Qabalah, such as the Garden of Pomegranates, Golden Dawn, Middle Pillar, and The Tree of Life. Kenneth Grant wrote numerous books on Thelema and the occult, such as The Magical Revival, Aleister Crowley and the Hidden God, Outside the Circles of Time, and Hecate's Fountain. Lon Milo DuQuette's books are mostly dedicated to analyzing and exploring Crowley's system, including such books as Understanding Aleister Crowley's Thoth Tarot, The Chicken Qabalah of Rabbi Lamed Ben Clifford, The Magick of Aleister Crowley, and The Key to Solomon's Key.
Other notable contemporary writers who address Thelema include Allen H. Greenfield, J. Daniel Gunther, Christopher Hyatt, Gerald Del Campo, Richard Kaczynski, Marcelo Ramos Motta, Jason Augustus Newcomb, Rodney Orpheus, Phyllis Seckler, David Shoemaker, James Wasserman, Sam Webster, and Robert Anton Wilson. There are also numerous journals which print original Thelemic writing.

Thelemic organizations

Several modern organizations of various sizes claim to follow the tenets of Thelema. The two most prominent are both organizations that Crowley headed during his lifetime: the A∴A∴, an Order founded by Crowley, based on the grades of the Golden Dawn system; and Ordo Templi Orientis, an order which initially developed from the Rite of Memphis and Mizraim in the early part of the 20th century, and which includes Ecclesia Gnostica Catholica as its religious arm.
Since Crowley's death in 1947, other organizations have formed to carry on his initial work, for example, the College of Thelema, the Temple of Thelema, the College of Thelema of Northern California, the Temple of the Silver Star, the Typhonian Order of Kenneth Grant, the Order of Thelemic Knights, and The Open Source Order of the Golden Dawn. Other groups of widely varying character exist which have drawn inspiration or methods from Thelema, such as the Illuminates of Thanateros and the Temple of Set. Some groups accept the Law of Thelema, but omit certain aspects of Crowley's system while incorporating the works of other mystics, philosophers, and religious systems. The Fraternitas Saturni (Brotherhood of Saturn), founded in 1928 in Germany, accepts the Law of Thelema, but extends it with the phrase "Mitleidlose Liebe!" ("Compassionless love!"). The Thelema Society, also located in Germany, accepts Liber Legis and much of Crowley's work on magick, while incorporating the ideas of other thinkers, such as Friedrich Nietzsche, Charles Sanders Peirce, Martin Heidegger and Niklas Luhmann. Horus-Maat Lodge combines the ideas of the occultist Nema with those of Crowley.
Thelemites can also be found in other organizations. The president of the Church of All Worlds, LaSara Firefox, identifies as a Thelemite. A significant minority of other CAW members also identify as Thelemites.^[84]

Thelema and the British justice system

In May 2009 Thelema was recognised by Her Majesty's Court Service in the United Kingdom as a religion, as it has both a "Holy Book" (The Book of the Law) and deity (primarily for the purposes of the oath, Nuit) as required in law. John Mitchell of Seaford, East Sussex was on Jury Service at Lewes Crown Court and after providing information to Justice Richard Brown, the Senior Recorder for East Sussex – mainly Liber AL and the article "Your Duty to Mankind," gained recognition of Thelema as a valid religion. The article, "Your Duty to Mankind," states that:

Crime being a direct spiritual violation of the Law of Thelema, it should not be tolerated in the community. Those who possess the instinct should be segregated in a settlement to build up a state of their own, so to learn the necessity of themselves imposing and maintaining rules of justice. All artificial crimes should be abolished. When fantastic restrictions disappear, the greater freedom of the individual will itself teach him to avoid acts, which really restrict natural rights. Thus real crime will diminish automatically.

Mitchell demonstrated that Thelema was a religion and created an oath that could be used instead of the affirmation: "I swear upon Nuit and by my own True Will, that I will faithfully try the defendant and give a true verdict according to the evidence."
The swearing of the oath was first used after the sitting Judge, Justice Tain, ruled it was acceptable; after some confusion due to the regular court ushers being on holiday, word had not got to the judge before the case started, causing a delay in proceedings while the legal technicalities were sorted out. The stand-in court officer had a copy of the letter from Justice Brown, saying Mitchell could use the oath and swear on Liber AL. Justice Tain ruled that if this is the case, HMCS should be notified so this sort of thing does not happen again to avoid embarrassment for Thelemites who are called up to jury service. ^[91]

See also

• Bacchanalia
• Brethren of the Free Spirit
• Libri of Aleister Crowley
• Wiccan Rede
• Works of Aleister Crowley

References

1. Jump up ^ Moore, John S. Aleister Crowley as Guru in Chaos International, Issue No. 17.
2. Jump up ^ Christopher Penczak. Ascension Magick. Llewellyn. p. 41. ISBN 0-7387-1047-4.
3. ^ Jump up to: ^{a b} Wilson, Robert Anton. The Illuminati Papers. And/Or Press, 1980. ISBN 1-57951-002-7
4. Jump up ^ Crowley, Aleister (1976). The Book of the Law. Red Wheel/Weiser, LLC. p. Page 7. ISBN 978-0-87728-334-8.
5. Jump up ^ Orpheus, Rodney. Abrahadabra. Weiser, 2005, ISBN 1-57863-326-5, p.64
6. Jump up ^ Penczak, Christopher. The Temple of High Witchcraft, Llewellyn, 2007. ISBN 073871165 p.53
7. Jump up ^ Crowley, Aleister.Aleister Crowley, Liber XIII vel Graduum Montis Abiegni: A Syllabus of the Steps Upon the Path, Hermetic webssite, retrieved July 7, 2006.
8. ^ Jump up to: ^{a b} Gauna, Max. The Rabelaisian Mythologies, pp. 90-91. Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 1996. ISBN 0-8386-3631-4
9. Jump up ^ e.g. John 1:12-13
10. Jump up ^ e.g. 2 Timothy 2:26
11. Jump up ^ Pocetto, Alexander T. Rabelais, Francis de Sales and the Abbaye de Thélème, retrieved July 20, 2006.
12. Jump up ^ Sutin, p. 127.
13. Jump up ^ The Works of Saint Augustine: A New Translation for the 21st Century, (Sermons 148-153), 1992, part 3, vol. 5, p. 182. ISBN 1-56548-007-4
14. Jump up ^ Salloway, David. Random Walks, p. 203. McGill-Queen's Press, 1997. ISBN 0-7735-1679-4
15. ^ Jump up to: ^{a b} Rabelais, François. Gargantua and Pantagruel. Everyman's Library. ISBN 978-0-679-43137-4
16. ^ Jump up to: ^{a b c d} Encyclopædia Britannica (1911). Buckingham,
17. Jump up ^ Bowen, Barbara. Enter Rabelais, Laughing, p. 2. Vanderbilt University Press, 1998. ISBN 0-8265-1306-9.
18. ^ Jump up to: ^{a b} Sutin, Lawrence. Do What Thou Wilt: A Life of Aleister Crowley, p. 126. New York, NY: St. Martin's Griffin, 2002. ISBN 978-0-312-28897-6.
19. Jump up ^ "Rabelais, like his protectress Marguerite de Navarre, was an evangelical rather than a Protestant", definition follows. Catharine Randall, "Reformation," The Rabelais Encyclopedia, edited by Elizabeth Chesney Zegura. p. 207. Greenwood Press, Westport, CT. 2004. ISBN 0-313-31034-3
20. Jump up ^ E. Bruce Hayes, "enigmatic prophecy" entry in The Rabelais Encyclopedia p. 68.
21. Jump up ^ Marian Rothstein, "Thélème, ABBEY OF" entry in The Rabelais Encyclopedia p. 243.
22. Jump up ^ Stillman, Peter G. "Utopia and Anti-Utopia in Rousseau's Thought" in Rubin & Stroup (1999), p. 60
23. Jump up ^ Stillman, Peter G. "Utopia and Anti-Utopia in Rousseau's Thought" in Rubin & Stroup (1999), p. 70
24. Jump up ^ Rothstein, Marian. "Androgyne, Agape, and the Abbey of Thélème" (PDF) p. 17, n. 23, in French Forum, V. 26, No. 1.
25. Jump up ^ Thelema is seen by some neutral parties as a philosophy, and not a religion. See Crowley, Aleister. Little Essays Toward Truth,p. 61-62 New Falcon Publications; 2 Rev Sub edition (May 1, 1996) ISBN 1-56184-000-9 ("These and similar considerations lead to certain types of philosophical skepticism. Neschamic conceptions are nowise exempt from this criticism, for, even supposing them identical in any number of persons, their expression, being intellectual, will suffer the same stress as normal perceptions. [...] But none of this shakes, or even threatens, the Philosophy of Thelema. On the contrary, it may be called the Rock of its foundation."); See also Thelemapedia, "Arguments against Thelema being a religion" available at: http://www.thelemapedia.org/index.php/Arguments_against_Thelema_being_a_religion
26. Jump up ^ Edwards, Linda. A Brief Guide to Beliefs: Ideas, Theologies, Mysteries, and Movements, p 478. Westminster John Knox Press, 2001. ISBN 0-664-22259-5.
27. Jump up ^ Rabelais: The First Thelemite
28. Jump up ^ National Grand Master General Sabazius X°. Address delivered by National Grand Master General Sabazius X° to the Sixth National Conference of the U.S. O.T.O. Grand Lodge, August 10, 2007
29. Jump up ^ Aleister Crowley, 1926, "The Antecedents of Thelema," in The Revival of Magick, edited by Hymenaeus Beta & R. Kaczynski.
30. Jump up ^ Crowley, Aleister. Liber XV, The Gnostic Mass.
31. ^ Jump up to: ^{a b c} Grand Lodge of British Columbia and Yukon. The Hell-fire Clubs, retrieved July 22, 2006
32. Jump up ^ Philip Coppens (2006). Hell, no damnation. Retrieved July 21, 2006.
33. Jump up ^ quoted in Sainsbury (2006), p.111
34. Jump up ^ Towers (1987) quoted in Coppens (2006)
35. Jump up ^ Howard, Mike. The Hellfire Club, retrieved July 22, 2006
36. Jump up ^ Willens, Daniel. The Hell-Fire Club: Sex, Politics, and Religion in Eighteenth-Century England in Gnosis, summer 1992. Retrieved July 22, 2006
37. Jump up ^ Crowley, Aleister. "De Lege Libellum", in The Equinox III(1) (Detroit: Universal, 1919).
38. Jump up ^ Crowley, Aleister. The Equinox of the Gods. New Falcon Publications, 1991. ISBN 978-1-56184-028-1
39. Jump up ^ Crowley, Aleister. "The Equinox of the Gods - Chapter 7". The Equinox of the Gods. Hermetic.com. Retrieved 18 November 2012.
40. Jump up ^ Farr, F., & Shakespear, O. The Beloved of Hathor and the Shrine of the Golden Hawk. Croydon. Farncombe & Son. Dating uncertain, approx. 1902
41. Jump up ^ Evans, Dave. Aleister Crowley and the 20th Century Synthesis of Magick, p. 10, pp. 26-30. Hidden Publishing, Second Revised Edition, 2007. ISBN 978-0-9555237-2-4
42. Jump up ^ Dave Evans, "Strange distant Gods that are not dead today", p. 5.
43. Jump up ^ Evans, Strange Gods p3
44. Jump up ^ Sutin pp 68, 137–138
45. Jump up ^ Crowley, Aleister. Liber AL vel Legis
46. ^ Jump up to: ^{a b} Frater U.D. High Magic: Theory & Practice. Llewellyn Worldwide, 2005. p. 214. ISBN 0-7387-0471-7
47. Jump up ^ "But the Magician knows that the pure Will of every man and every woman is already in perfect harmony with the divine Will; in fact they are one and the same" -DuQuette, Lon Milo. The Magick of Aleister Crowley: A Handbook of the Rituals of Thelema, p. 12. Weiser, 2003. ISBN 1-57863-299-4.
48. Jump up ^ Duquette, Lon Milo, Angels, demons & gods of the new millennium, Weiser, 1997, ISBN 1-57863-010-X, p.3
49. Jump up ^ Duquette, Lon Milo, The Magick of Aleister Crowley, Weiser, 2003, ISBN 1-57863-299-4, p. 12
50. Jump up ^ Morris, Brian. Religion and anthropology, Cambridge University Press, 2006, ISBN 0-521-85241-2, p. 302
51. Jump up ^ Harvey, Graham. Listening People, Speaking Earth, C. Hurst & Co., 1997, ISBN 1-85065-272-4 p. 98
52. Jump up ^ Sutin, p. 294.
53. Jump up ^ Hymenaeus Beta (ed.) in Crowley, Aleister. The Goetia: The Lesser Key of Solomon the King, p. xxi. Red Wheel, 1995. ISBN 0-87728-847-X
54. Jump up ^ Kraig, Donald Michael. Falorio, Linda. Nema. Tara. Modern Sex Magick, 1998, Llewellyn, ISBN 1-56718-394-8, p. 44
55. ^ Jump up to: ^{a b c d e f} Orpheus, Rodney. Abrahadabra: Understanding Aleister Crowley's Thelemic Magick, pp. 33-44. Weiser, 2005. ISBN 1-57863-326-5
56. Jump up ^ Crowley, Aleister. Liber AL vel Legis, II,6.
57. Jump up ^ DuQuette, Lon Milo in Orpheus, Rodney. Abrahadabra, p. 1
58. Jump up ^ Crowley, Aleister. Magick, Book 4, Introduction to Part III
59. Jump up ^ Gardner, Gerald Brosseau. The Meaning of Witchcraft, p. 86. Red Wheel, 2004. ISBN 1-57863-309-5
60. ^ Jump up to: ^{a b c d e} DuQuette, Lon Milo. The Magick of Thelema
61. Jump up ^ Pearson, Joanne. A Popular Dictionary of Paganism, p. 44. Routledge, 2002. ISBN 0-7007-1591-6
62. Jump up ^ Orpheus, pp. 9-16, 45-52
63. Jump up ^ Urban, Hugh. Magia Sexualis: Sex, Magic, and Liberation in Modern Western Esotericism. University of California Press, 2006. ISBN 0-520-24776-0
64. Jump up ^ Crowley, Aleister. Magick, Book 4
65. Jump up ^ Ordo Templi Orientis (2008-06-17). "News from International Headquarters". Retrieved 2009-08-05.
66. Jump up ^ Kraig, Donald Michael. Falorio, Linda. Nema. Tara. Modern Sex Magick, 1998, Llewellyn, ISBN 1-56718-394-8, p.319
67. Jump up ^ Whitcomb, Bill. The Magician's Companion. Llewellyn, 1993, ISBN 0-87542-868-1, p.51
68. Jump up ^ Whitcomb, Bill. The Magician's Companion. Llewellyn, 1993, ISBN 0-87542-868-1 p.483
69. Jump up ^ Kaczinski, Richard. Wasserman, James. Weiser Concise Guide to Aleister Crowley Weiser, 2009. ISBN 1-57863-456-3, p.41
70. Jump up ^ Cavendish, Richard. The Black Arts, Taylor & Francis, 1977, ISBN 0-330-25140-6, p.130
71. Jump up ^ Crowley, Aleister. Liber O, I.2-5
72. Jump up ^ Liber E vel Exercitiorum, section I in its entirety.
73. Jump up ^ Wasserman, James. Aleister Crowley and the Practice of the Magical Diary. Weiser, 2006. ISBN 1-57863-372-9
74. Jump up ^ Crowley, Aleister. Liber ABA (Magick (Book 4) Part 1 (written 1912-1913)
75. Jump up ^ Luhrmann, Tanya. Persuasions of the witch's craft, p. 124. Harvard University Press, 1991. ISBN 0-674-66324-1
76. Jump up ^ Crowley, John St. John, entries for 2.5 and 2.22 on the Eleventh Day.
77. Jump up ^ Kraig, Donald Michael. Modern Magick, Llewellyn, 1988, ISBN 0-87542-324-8 p.9
78. Jump up ^ Suster, Gerald. The legacy of the beast W.H. Allen, 1988, ISBN 0-491-03446-6 p.200
79. Jump up ^ Crowley, Aleister. Symonds, John. Grant, Kenneth. The confessions of Aleister Crowley Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1979, p.400
80. Jump up ^ Crowley, Aleister. Liber OZ
81. ^ Jump up to: ^{a b} Crowley, Aleister. Magick, Book 4, Appendix I: "Official Instructions of the O.T.O", p. 484
82. Jump up ^ Crowley, Aleister. Duty.
83. Jump up ^ Crowley, Aleister. Liber II: The Message of the Master Therion
84. ^ Jump up to: ^{a b c d} Rabinovitch, Shelley; Lewis, James. The Encyclopedia of Modern Witchcraft and Neo-Paganism,, pp. 267–270. Citadel Press, 2004. ISBN 0-8065-2406-5
85. Jump up ^ Crowley, Aleister. The Confessions of Aleister Crowley, ch. 66
86. Jump up ^ Orpheus, p. 124 (Qabalah) and p. 131 (on Liber 777).
87. Jump up ^ Suster, p. 184 for Nuit and Tao, p. 188 for Hadit, Kether and Tao Teh, p. 146 & 150 for link to Tantra.
88. Jump up ^ Jonathan Bethel & Michael McDaniel, Kundalini Rising - A Comparative Thesis on Thelema and Kashm, retrieved March 23, 2009.
89. Jump up ^ Crowley, Aleister. "777 Revised" in The Qabalah of Aleister Crowley. New York: Samuel Weiser, 1973. ISBN 0-87728-222-6
90. Jump up ^ Chappel, V. "Thelemic Calendar and Holidays". Thelema 101. Retrieved 2 May 2011.
91. Jump up ^ John Mitchell, "Thelema in Court", Sorath Shemesh Lodge OTO, Hastings, Vol. II No. 2 January 2010.

Sources

• Free Encyclopedia of Thelema (2005). Thelema. Retrieved March 12, 2005.
• Thelemapedia. (2004). Thelema. Retrieved April 15, 2006.

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press

Further reading

• Del Campo, Gerald. Rabelais: The First Thelemite. The Order of Thelemic Knights.
• Melton, J. Gordon (1983). "Thelemic Magick in America". Alternatives to American Mainline Churches, ed. Joseph H. Fichter. Barrytown, NY: Unification Theological Seminary.
• Starr, Martin P. (2004) A Hundred Years Hence: Visions of a Thelemic Future (Conference Paper presented at the Thelema Beyond Crowley )
• Starr, Martin P. (2003). The Unknown God: W.T. Smith and the Thelemites. Bolingbrook, IL: Teitan Press.
• van Egmond, Daniel (1998). "Western Esoteric Schools in the Late Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries". In: van den Broek, Roelof and Hanegraaff, Wouter J.: Gnosis and Hermeticism From Antiquity To Modern Times. Albany: State University of New York Press.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Thelema.

• Thelema 101 – a complete introduction to the spiritual philosophy of Thelema
• Thelema at the Internet Sacred Texts Archive – a collection of texts on the topic of Thelema
• Thelema For Beginners – a resource of quotations and links on basic topics related to Thelema
• The Law of Thelema – by Alexander Duncan
• Thelema on the Open Directory Project
• The Journal of Thelemic Studies
• The Scarlet Letter

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The Book of the Law

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This article is about the book by Aleister Crowley. For the scripture of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (Strangite), see Book of the Law of the Lord. For the ancient Chinese legal work, see Book of Law.

The Book of the Law, or Liber AL vel Legis
Author	Aleister Crowley, Aiwass
Country	Egypt
Language	English
Genre	Thelema, philosophy
Publication date	1904

Religious texts
Analects (Confucianism) Aqdas (Baha'i) Avesta (Zoroastrianism) Bible (Christianity) Book of Mormon (LDS) Book of Shadows (Wicca) Dianetics (Scientology) Guru Granth Sahib (Sikhism) Intelligent Design (Raelism) Kojiki (Shinto) Kalpa Sūtra (Jainism) Liber AL vel Legis (Thelema) Mabinogion (Druidry) Ofudesaki (Tenrikyo) Quran (Islam) Satanic Bible (LaVeyan Satanism) Science and Health (Christian Science) Tao Te Ching (Taoism) Torah (Judaism) Tripiṭaka (Buddhism) Vedas (Hinduism)
v t e

Liber AL vel Legis (Latin pronunciation: [ˈliːber ˈaɫ weɫ ˈleɡis])^{[citation needed]} is the central sacred text of Thelema, written by Aleister Crowley, who claimed it was dictated to him by a discarnate entity named Aiwass. However, the three chapters are largely written in the first person by the Thelemic deities Nuit, Hadit, and Ra-Hoor-Khuit respectively, rather than by Aiwass.
The full title of the book is Liber AL vel Legis, sub figura CCXX, as delivered by XCIII=418 to DCLXVI,^[1] and it is commonly referred to as The Book of the Law. Through the reception of this book, Crowley proclaimed the arrival of a new stage in the spiritual evolution of humanity, to be known as the "Æon of Horus".^[2][3][4] The primary precept of this new aeon is the charge to "Do what thou wilt".
The book contains three chapters, each of which was alleged to be written down in one hour, beginning at noon, on 8 April 9 April, and 10 April in Cairo, Egypt, in the year 1904.^[5] Crowley says that the author was an entity named Aiwass, whom he later referred to as his personal Holy Guardian Angel (analogous to but not identical with "Higher Self"). Biographer Lawrence Sutin quotes private diaries that fit this story, and writes that "if ever Crowley uttered the truth of his relation to the Book," his public account accurately describes what he remembered on this point.^[6] Occultist and former student of Crowley, Israel Regardie argued that Aiwass was an unconscious expression of Crowley's personality and that the book reflected Crowley's moral and religious values.^[7] Stylistic similarities between the Book of the Law and Crowley's other writings have also been noted.^[7][8][9]
Crowley himself wrote "Certain very serious questions have arisen with regard to the method by which this Book was obtained. I do not refer to those doubts—real or pretended—which hostility engenders, for all such are dispelled by study of the text; no forger could have prepared so complex a set of numerical and literal puzzles[...]"^[5]
The original title of the book was Liber L vel Legis. Crowley retitled it Liber AL vel Legis in 1921, when he also gave the handwritten manuscript its own title, Liber XXXI.^[10]
(the full technical title of the manuscript is: "AL (Liber Legis), The Book of the Law, sub figura XXXI, as delivered by 93 – עיוז – ΑιϜασς – 418 to תריון – ΤΟ ΜΕΓΑ ΘΗΡΙΟΝ 666".)
The book is often referred to simply as Liber AL, Liber Legis or just AL, though technically the latter two refer only to the manuscript.

Contents

• 1 The writing of Liber Legis
  • 1.1 The summons
  • 1.2 The writing
  • 1.3 Changes to the manuscript
  • 1.4 The speakers
• 2 Interpretation of Liber Legis
  • 2.1 On the symbology of the "New Aeon of the Child"
  • 2.2 On the Qabalah of the Book of the Law
  • 2.3 On the Prophecy of the Book
• 3 The Comment
  • 3.1 Michael Aquino's Commentary
• 4 Skeptical interpretations
• 5 Editions
• 6 The Book of the Law in Popular Culture
• 7 See also
• 8 Further reading
• 9 Notes
• 10 External links

The writing of Liber Legis

The Stele of Revealing (Bulaq 666): Nuit, Hadit as the winged solar disk, Ra Hoor Khuit seated on his throne, and the stele's owner, Ankh-af-na-khonsu

The summons

According to Crowley,^[11] the story began on 16 March 1904, when he tried to "shew the Sylphs" by use of the Bornless Ritual to his wife, Rose Edith Kelly, while spending the night in the King's Chamber of the Great Pyramid of Giza. Although she could see nothing, she did seem to enter into a light trance and repeatedly said, "They're waiting for you!" Since Rose had no interest in magic or mysticism, he took little interest. However, on the 18th, after invoking Thoth (the god of knowledge), she mentioned Horus by name as the one waiting for him. Crowley, still sceptical, asked her numerous questions about Horus, which she answered accurately supposedly without having any prior study of the subject:

1. Force and Fire (I asked her to describe his moral qualities.)
2. Deep blue light. (I asked her to describe the conditions caused by him. This light is quite unmistakable and unique; but of course her words, though a fair description of it, might equally apply to some other.)
3. Horus. (I asked her to pick out his name from a list of ten dashed off at haphazard.)
4. Recognized his figure when shown. (This refers to the striking scene in the Boulak Museum, which will be dealt with in detail.)
5. Knew my past relations with the God. (This means, I think, that she knew I had taken his place in temple (See Equinox Vol. I, No. II, the Neophyte Ritual of the G.D.) etc., and that I had never once invoked him.)
6. Knew his enemy. (I asked, "Who is his enemy?" Reply, "Forces of the waters—of the Nile." She knew no Egyptology—or anything else.)
7. Knew his lineal figure and its colour. (A 1/84 chance.)
8. Knew his place in temple. (A 1/4 chance, at the least.)
9. Knew his weapon (from a list of 6.)
10. Knew his planetary nature (from a list of 7 planets.)
11. Knew his number (from a list of 10 units.)
12. Picked him out of (a)Five, (b)Three indifferent, i,e, arbitrary symbols. (This means that I settled in my own mind that say D of A,B,C,D, and E should represent him and that she then said D.)

We cannot too strongly insist on the extraordinary character of this identification.
Calculate the odds! We cannot find a mathematical expression for tests 1,2,4,5, or 6, but the other 7 tests give us: 1/10 x 1/84 x 1/4 x 1/6 x 1/7 x 1/I0 x 1/15 = 1/21,168,000
Twenty-one million to one against her getting through half the ordeal!^[5]

Crowley also gives a different chronology, in which an invocation of Horus preceded the questioning. Lawrence Sutin says this ritual described Horus in detail, and could have given Rose the answers to her husband's questions.^[12]
As part of his 'test' for Rose, Crowley claimed they visited the Bulaq Museum (even though that museum had been closed in 1902), where Crowley asked her to point out an image of Horus. Much to Crowley's initial amusement, she passed by several common images of the god, and went upstairs. From across the room^[5] Rose identified Horus on the stele of Ankh-ef-en-Khonsu, then housed under inventory number 666 (since moved to the Egyptian Museum of Cairo, number A 9422). The stela would subsequently be known to Thelemites (adherents of Thelema) as the "Stele of Revealing."
On 20 March, Crowley invoked Horus, “with great success.” Between 23 March and 8 April, Crowley had the hieroglyphs on the stele translated. Also, Rose revealed that her "informant" was not Horus himself, but his messenger, Aiwass.
Finally, on 7 April, Rose gave Crowley his instructions—for three days he was to enter the "temple" and write down what he heard between noon and 1:00 p.m.

The writing

Crowley said he wrote The Book of the Law on 8, 9 and 10 April 1904, between the hours of noon and 1:00 pm, in the flat where he and his new wife were staying for their honeymoon, which he described as being near the Boulak Museum in a fashionable European quarter of Cairo, let by the firm Congdon & Co. The apartment was on the ground floor, and the "temple" was the drawing room.
Crowley described the encounter in detail in The Equinox of the Gods, saying that as he sat at his desk in Cairo, the voice of Aiwass came from over his left shoulder in the furthest corner of the room. This voice is described as passionate and hurried, and was "of deep timbre, musical and expressive, its tones solemn, voluptuous, tender, fierce or aught else as suited the moods of the message. Not bass—perhaps a rich tenor or baritone."^[13] Further, the voice was devoid of "native or foreign accent".
Crowley also got a "strong impression" of the speaker's general appearance. Aiwass had a body composed of "fine matter," which had a gauze-like transparency. Further, he "seemed to be a tall, dark man in his thirties, well-knit, active and strong, with the face of a savage king, and eyes veiled lest their gaze should destroy what they saw. The dress was not Arab; it suggested Assyria or Persia, but very vaguely."^[13]
Despite initially writing that it was an "excellent example of automatic writing,"^[14] Crowley later insisted that it was not just automatic writing (though the writing included aspects of this, since when Crowley tried to stop writing he was compelled to continue. The writing also recorded Crowley's own thoughts). Rather he said that the experience was exactly like an actual voice speaking to him. This resulted in a few transcription errors, about which the scribe had to later inquire.

Note, moreover, with what greedy vanity I claim authorship even of all the other A∴A∴ Books in Class A, though I wrote them inspired beyond all I know to be I. Yet in these Books did Aleister Crowley, the master of English both in prose and in verse, partake insofar as he was That. Compare those Books with The Book of the Law! The style [of the former] is simple and sublime; the imagery is gorgeous and faultless; the rhythm is subtle and intoxicating; the theme is interpreted in faultless symphony. There are no errors of grammar, no infelicities of phrase. Each Book is perfect in its kind.
I, daring to snatch credit for these [...] dared nowise to lay claim to have touched The Book of the Law, not with my littlest finger-tip.^[15]

He also admits to the possibility that Aiwass may be identified with his own subconscious, although he thought this was unlikely:

Of course I wrote them, ink on paper, in the material sense; but they are not My words, unless Aiwaz be taken to be no more than my subconscious self, or some part of it: in that case, my conscious self being ignorant of the Truth in the Book and hostile to most of the ethics and philosophy of the Book, Aiwaz is a severely suppressed part of me. Such a theory would further imply that I am, unknown to myself, possessed of all sorts of praeternatural knowledge and power.^[13]

Crowley's former secretary Israel Regardie, on the other hand considered this statement by Crowley to be no real objection to Aiwass being a part of Crowley's unconscious mind, claiming that:

It can safely be said that current psychological theory would agree that any one person is possessed of all sorts of knowledge and power of which he is totally unconscious... Both Freudian and Jungian theory are on the side of such an assumption...^[7]

In his introduction to his edition of The Law is for All, Israel Regardie stated:

It really makes little difference in the long run whether The Book of the Law was dictated to [Crowley] by a preterhuman intelligence named Aiwass or whether it stemmed from the creative deeps of Aleister Crowley. The book was written. And he became the mouthpiece for the Zeitgeist, accurately expressing the intrinsic nature of our time as no one else has done to date.^[16]

Crowley himself was initially opposed to the book and its message. "I was trying to forget the whole business."

The fact of the matter was that I resented The Book of the Law with my whole soul. For one thing, it knocked my Buddhism completely on the head. ... I was bitterly opposed to the principles of the Book on almost every point of morality. The third chapter seemed to me gratuitously atrocious.^[17]

Shortly after making a few copies for evaluation by close friends, the manuscript was misplaced and forgotten about. It would be several years before it was found, and the first official publication occurred in 1909.

The Book of the Law annoyed me; I was still obsessed by the idea that secrecy was necessary to a magical document, that publication would destroy its importance. I determined, in a mood which I can only describe as a fit of ill temper, to publish The Book of the Law, and then get rid of it for ever.^[18]

Changes to the manuscript

The final version of Liber Legis includes text that did not appear in the original writing, including many small changes to spelling. In several cases, stanzas from the Stele of Revealing were inserted within the text. For example, chapter 1, page 2, line 9 was written as "V.1. of Spell called the Song" and was replaced with:

Above, the gemmèd azure is
The naked splendour of Nuit;
She bends in ecstasy to kiss
The secret ardours of Hadit.
The wingèd globe, the starry blue,
Are mine, O Ankh-af-na-khonsu!

On page 6 of chapter 1, the following is in the original manuscript:

And the sign shall be my ecstasy, the consciousness of the continuity of existence, the unfragmentary non-atomic fact of my universality. along with a note: Write this in whiter words But go forth on.

This was later changed to:

And the sign shall be my ecstasy, the consciousness of the continuity of existence, the omnipresence of my body. (AL I:26)^[19]

Again in chapter 1, on page 19, Crowley writes, (Lost 1 phrase) The shape of my star is—. Later, it was Rose who filled in the lost phrase:

The Five Pointed Star, with a Circle in the Middle, & the circle is Red. (AL I:60)

Chapter 2 has very few changes or corrections. Chapter 3 has a few spelling changes, and includes large chunks inserted from Crowley's paraphrase of The Stele of Revealing.
The phrase “Force of Coph Nia”, which is found in chapter 3, on page 64 (verse 72), was filled in by Rose Kelly because that place in the manuscript had been left incomplete as not having been properly heard by Crowley during the supposed dictation.^[20] Israel Regardie proposed that Coph Nia could have been intended to represent Ain Soph, the Cabalistic phrase for Infinity, and that Rose might not have known that Hebrew letters are written from right to left or their meaning.^[7]

The speakers

Although the "messenger" of Liber AL was Aiwass, each chapter is presented as an expression of one of three god-forms: Nuit, Hadit, and Ra-Hoor-Khuit.
The first chapter is spoken by Nuit, the Egyptian goddess of the night sky, called the Queen of Space. Crowley calls her the "Lady of the Starry Heaven, who is also Matter in its deepest metaphysical sense, who is the infinite in whom all we live and move and have our being."^[21]
The second chapter is spoken by Hadit, who refers to himself as the "complement of Nu," his bride. As such, he is the infinitely condensed point, the center of her infinite circumference. Crowley says of him, "He is eternal energy, the Infinite Motion of Things, the central core of all being. The manifested Universe comes from the marriage of Nuit and Hadit; without this could no thing be. This eternal, this perpetual marriage-feast is then the nature of things themselves; and therefore, everything that exists is a "crystallisation of divine ecstasy", and "He sees the expansion and the development of the soul through joy."^[21]
The third chapter is spoken by Ra-Hoor-Khuit, "a god of War and of Vengeance", also identified as Hoor-paar-kraat, the Crowned and Conquering Child.
Crowley sums up the speakers of the three chapters thus, "we have Nuit, Space, Hadit, the point of view; these experience congress, and so produce Heru-Ra-Ha, who combines the ideas of Ra-Hoor-Khuit and Hoor-paar-Kraat."^[22]
The book also introduces:

• The Beast (The Great Beast 666, TO MEGA THERION, Aleister Crowley) See Therion (Thelema)
• The Scarlet Woman, also known as Babalon, the Mother of Abominations
• Ankh-af-na-khonsu (the historical priest associated with the Stele of Revealing)

Interpretation of Liber Legis

Thanks in large part to The Comment, interpretation of the often cryptic text is generally considered by Thelemites a matter for the individual reader. Crowley wrote about Liber AL in great detail throughout the remainder of his life, apparently attempting to decipher its mysteries.

The mysterious 'grid' page of Liber AL's manuscript. "for in the chance shape of the letters and their position to one another: in these are mysteries that no Beast shall divine. ... Then this line drawn is a key: then this circle squared in its failure is a key also. And Abrahadabra."

The emancipation of mankind from all limitations whatsoever is one of the main precepts of the Book.^[23]

Aiwass, uttering the word Thelema (with all its implications), destroys completely the formula of the Dying God. Thelema implies not merely a new religion, but a new cosmology, a new philosophy, a new ethics. It co-ordinates the disconnected discoveries of science, from physics to psychology, into a coherent and consistent system. Its scope is so vast that it is impossible even to hint at the universality of its application.^[23]

On the symbology of the "New Aeon of the Child"

The child is not merely a symbol of growth, but of complete moral independence and innocence. We may then expect the New Aeon to release mankind from its pretence of altruism, its obsession of fear and its consciousness of sin. It will possess no consciousness of the purpose of its own existence. It will not be possible to persuade it that it should submit to incomprehensible standards; it will suffer from spasms of transitory passion; it will be absurdly sensitive to pain and suffer from meaningless terror; it will be utterly conscienceless, cruel, helpless, affectionate and ambitious, without knowing why; it will be incapable of reason, yet at the same time intuitively aware of truth. I might go on indefinitely to enumerate the stigmata of child psychology, but the reader can do it equally for himself, and every idea that comes to him as characteristic of children will strike him as applicable to the events of history since 1904, from the Great War to Prohibition. And if he possess any capacity for understanding the language of symbolism, he will be staggered by the adequacy and accuracy of the summary of the spirit of the New Aeon given in The Book of the Law.^[23]

On the Qabalah of the Book of the Law

The general method that Crowley used to interpret the obscurities of Liber AL was the Qabalah, especially its numerological method of gematria. He writes, "Many such cases of double entendre, paronomasia in one language or another, sometimes two at once, numerical-literal puzzles, and even (on one occasion) an illuminating connexion of letters in various lines by a slashing scratch, will be found in the Qabalistic section of the Commentary."^[13] In Magick Without Tears he wrote:

Now there was enough comprehensible at the time to assure me that the Author of the Book knew at least as much Qabalah as I did: I discovered subsequently more than enough to make it certain without error that he knew a very great deal more, and that of an altogether higher order, than I knew; finally, such glimmerings of light as time and desperate study have thrown on many other obscure passages, to leave no doubt whatever in my mind that he is indeed the supreme Qabalist of all time.^[24]

He considered the various gematria values of certain key words and phrases, overlapping between the English, Greek, and Hebrew languages, as evidence of the Book's praeterhuman origin.

... it claims to be the statement of transcendental truth, and to have overcome the difficulty of expressing such truth in human language by what really amounts to the invention of a new method of communicating thought, not merely a new language, but a new type of language; a literal and numerical cipher involving the Greek and Hebrew Cabbalas, the highest mathematics etc. It also claims to be the utterance of an illuminated mind co-extensive with the ultimate ideas of which the universe is composed.^[23]

How could he prove that he was in fact a being of a kind superior to any of the human race, and so entitled to speak with authority? Evidently he must show KNOWLEDGE and POWER such as no man has ever been known to possess.
He showed his KNOWLEDGE chiefly by the use of cipher or cryptogram in certain passages to set forth recondite facts, including some events which had yet to take place, such that no human being could possibly be aware of them; thus, the proof of his claim exists in the manuscript itself. It is independent of any human witness. The study of these passages necessarily demands supreme human scholarship to interpret— it needs years of intense application. A great deal has still to be worked out. But enough has been discovered to justify his claim; the most sceptical intelligence is compelled to admit its truth. This matter is best studied under the Master Therion, whose years of arduous research have led him to enlightenment. On the other hand, the language of most of the Book is admirably simple, clear and vigorous. No one can read it without being stricken in the very core of his being.
The more than human POWER of Aiwass is shewn by the influence of his Master, and of the Book, upon actual events: and history fully supports the claim made by him. These facts are appreciable by everyone; but are better understood with the help of the Master Therion.^[25]

The existence of true religion presupposes that of some discarnate intelligence, whether we call him God or anything else. And this is exactly what no religion had ever proved scientifically. And this is what The Book of the Law does prove by internal evidence, altogether independent of any statement of mine. This proof is evidently the most important step in science that could possibly be made: for it opens up an entirely new avenue to knowledge. The immense superiority of this particular intelligence, AIWASS, to any other with which mankind has yet been in conscious communication is shown not merely by the character of the book itself, but by the fact of his comprehending perfectly the nature of the proof necessary to demonstrate the fact of his own existence and the conditions of that existence. And, further, having provided the proof required.^[23]

On the Prophecy of the Book

Crowley would later consider the subsequent events of his life, and the apparent fulfilment of certain 'predictions' of the book, as further proof:

The author of The Book of the Law foresaw and provided against all such difficulties by inserting in the text discoveries which I did not merely not make for years afterwards, but did not even possess the machinery for making. Some, in fact, depend upon events which I had no part in bringing about.^[23]

One such key event was Charles Stansfeld Jones claiming the grade of Magister Templi, which Crowley saw as the birth of his 'Magical Son'. Crowley believed that Jones later went on to "discover the Key of it all" as foretold in the book (II:76, III:47). Crowley believed that Jones' discovery of the critical value of 31 gave Crowley further insight into his qabalistic understanding and interpretation of the book. Upon receiving notification of this discovery, Crowley replied:

\ = 418. "Thou knowest not." Your key opens Palace. CCXX has unfolded like a flower. All solved, even II.76 & III.47. Did you know Π = 3.141593? And oh! lots more!^[26]

The Comment

Based on several passages, including: "My scribe Ankh-af-na-khonsu, the priest of the princes, shall not in one letter change this book; but lest there be folly, he shall comment thereupon by the wisdom of Ra-Hoor-Khuit" (AL I:36), Crowley felt compelled to interpret AL in writing. He wrote two large sets of commentaries where he attempted to decipher each line.
However, he was not satisfied with these attempts. In 1912, he prepared AL and his current comments on it for publication in The Equinox, I(7). He recalls in his confessions (p. 674) that he thought the existing commentary was "shamefully meagre and incomplete." He later explains, "I had stupidly supposed this Comment to be a scholarly exposition of the Book, an elucidation of its obscurities and a demonstration of its praeterhuman origin. I understand at last that this idea is nonsense. The Comment must be an interpretation of the Book intelligible to the simplest minds, and as practical as the Ten Commandments."^[27] Moreover, this Comment should be arrived at "inspirationally," as the Book itself had been.^[28]
Years later in 1925 while in Tunis, Tunisia, Crowley received his inspiration. He published the Comment in the Tunis edition of AL, of which only 11 copies were printed, and^[29] what was to become called simply The Comment (which is also called the Short Comment or Tunis Comment), and signed it as Ankh-f-n-khonsu (lit. "He Lives in Khonsu"—a historical priest who lived in Thebes in the 26th dynasty, associated with the Stele of Revealing). It advises the reader that the "study" of the Book is forbidden and states that those who "discuss the contents" are to be shunned. It also suggests that the book be destroyed after first reading.
Crowley later tasked his friend and fellow O.T.O. member Louis Wilkinson with preparing an edited version of Crowley's commentaries which was published some time after Crowley's death as The Law is for All.^[30]

Michael Aquino's Commentary

Michael Aquino of the Temple of Set produced a commentary on the Book of the Law based on a Setian perspective.^[31] Aquino's commentary is based on concepts introduced in The Book of Coming Forth by Night, a text that Aquino claimed was divinely inspired by the Egyptian god Set. Aquino stated that the commentary is based on "the perceptual vantage-point of the Aeon of Set as opposed to that of the Aeon of Horus." Aquino claimed that Crowley incorrectly identified the deities depicted on the Stele of Revealing as belonging to the "Osirian triad" (i.e. Osiris, Isis, and Horus the Younger) whereas they are actually associated with the Theban Sun-cult associated with Horus the Elder. In Egyptian mythology, Horus the Younger was the enemy of Set, whereas Horus the Elder, also known as "Harwer" was actually closely associated with Set and was also cast as "the champion of Set in the Osirian mythos".^[31]

Skeptical interpretations

Crowley's former secretary Israel Regardie argued in his biography of Crowley, The Eye in the Triangle, that Aiwass was an unconscious expression of Crowley's personality.^[7] Regardie stated that although Crowley initially regarded Aiwass as one of the secret chiefs, years later he came to believe that Aiwass was his own Holy Guardian Angel. Regardie argued: “If Aiwass was his own Higher Self, then the inference is none other than that Aleister Crowley was the author of the Book, and that he was the external mask for a variety of different hierarchical personalities ... The man Crowley was the lowest rung of the hierarchical ladder, the outer shell of a God, even as we all are, the persona of a Star ... He is the author of The Book of the Law even as he is the author of The Book of the Heart Girt with a Serpent and Liber Lapidis Lazuli, and so forth ... these latter books reveal a dialogue between the component parts of Crowley. It seems to me that basically this Liber Legis is no different.” Regardie also noted resemblances between the Book of the Law and these latter holy books, such as the inclusion of “rambling, unintelligible” passages, “some repugnant to reason by their absurdity, and their jarring goatish quality”. In 1906 Crowley wrote: "It has struck me – in connection with reading Blake that Aiwass, etc. "Force and Fire" is the very thing I lack. My "conscience" is really an obstacle and a delusion, being a survival of heredity and education." Regardie considered this an “illuminating admission” and argued that due to Crowley’s early religious training he developed an overly rigid superego or conscience. When he rebelled against Christianity, “he must have yearned for qualities and characteristics diametrically opposed to his own. In The Book of the Law the wish is fulfilled.” The Book of the Law was therefore a “colossal wish-fulfilment.” Regardie noted that the Book’s rejection of Judaeo-Christian mores was completely in accord with Crowley’s own moral and religious values and that in this sense “it is his Book”. Furthermore, although Crowley claimed to have initially objected to the Book's contents, Regardie said that he could not see what a person like Crowley would possibly object to. Regardie referred to Crowley's 1909 statement: “I want blasphemy, murder, rape, revolution, anything, bad or good, but strong,” and pointed out that the Book of the Law delivered all these things.
He also argued that Rose's ability to answer Crowley's questions about Horus and the Qabala was not as remarkable as Crowley claimed. Rose had been married to Crowley for two years at this point and Regardie stated that Crowley may well have used Rose as a 'sounding board' for many of his own ideas. Therefore she may not have been as ignorant of magick and mysticism as Crowley let on.^[7]
Charles R. Cammell, author of Aleister Crowley: The Man, the Mage, the Poet^[32] also believed the Book was an expression of Crowley's personality:

The mind behind the maxims is cold, cruel and relentless. Mercy there is none, nor consolation; nor hope save in the service of this dread messenger of the gods of Egypt. Such is Liber Legis in letter and spirit; and as such, and in consideration of its manner of reception, it is a document of curious interest. That it is in part (but in part only) an emanation from Crowley's unconscious mind I can believe; for it bears a likeness to his own Daemonic personality.^[7]

Journalist Sarah Veale has also argued that Aiwass was an externalised part of Crowley's psyche, and in support of this hypothesis quotes Crowley himself as saying:

Ah, you realize that magick is something we do to ourselves. But it is more convenient to assume the objective existence of an angel who gives us new knowledge than to allege that our invocation has awakened a supernormal power in ourselves." (Kaczynski, 542).^[8]

Veale also pointed out the similarity in rhythmic style between The Book of the Law and some of Crowley's own non-channelled writings. In Magick in theory and practice, Crowley claimed that invoking the "barbarous names" in iambic tetrameter was very useful. Many of his own poems are written in iambic tetrameter, such as this excerpt from “The Riddle,” a poem to his former lover, Jerome Pollitt:

Habib hath heard; let all Iran
who spell aright from A to Z
Exalt thy fame and understand
with whom I made a marriage-bed

Veale states that there are other similarities in writing styles besides the use of the same poetic meter. The fact that a supposedly discarnate intelligence just happened to have the same writing style as Crowley, suggests that Aiwass may have just been part of Crowley's unconscious mind after all.
Scholar Joshua Gunn also argued that the stylistic similarities between the Book and Crowley's poetic writings were too great for it to be anything other than Crowley's work:

Although Crowley sincerely believed that The Book of the Law was inspired by superhuman intelligences, its clichéd imagery, overwrought style, and overdone ecophonetic displays are too similar to Crowley's other poetic writings to be the product of something supernatural.^[9]

Editions

• 1925 Tunis edition, only 11 copies printed
• Ordo Templi Orientis, London, 1938, privately issued (US edition 1942, although dated 1938)
• Weiser Books (Reissue edition; May 1987; ISBN 0-87728-334-6)
• Weiser Books (100th Anniversary edition; March 2004; ISBN 1-57863-308-7)
• Thelema Media (100th Anniversary edition; (leather bound limited edition: 418 copies); March 2004; ISBN 1-932599-03-7)
• Mandrake of Oxford (April 1992; paperback; ISBN 1-869928-93-8)

Liber AL is also published in many books, including:

• The Equinox (III:10). (2001). York Beach, Maine: Samuel Weiser. ISBN 0-87728-719-8
• The Holy Books of Thelema (Equinox III:9). (1983). York Beach, Maine: Samuel Weiser. ISBN 0-87728-579-9
• Magick: Liber ABA, Book Four, Parts I–IV. (1997). York Beach, Maine: Samuel Weiser. ISBN 0-87728-919-0

And at least one out-of-print audio version common on eBay:

• The Book of the Law Vondel Park Audio Book 2003

The Book of the Law in Popular Culture

• Toyah Willcox took the name of her 1983 album Love Is the Law from The Book of the Law.
• The title of the song The Whole of the Law by The Only Ones is taken from The Book of the Law verse I:40 which reads in part "Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law" and from II:60 which reads "There is no law beyond Do what thou wilt."
• Blues musician Graham Bond was highly influenced by Thelema and by the Book of the Law. The title of his 1969 album Love is the Law is taken from Liber AL, and other albums such as Holy Magick (1970) and We Put Our Magick on You demonstrate the influence of Crowley and Thelema, as do the names of his bands such as Graham Bond Initiation and Magus.
• A song by The Church,"Song in Space", from their 2003 album Forget Yourself, includes the line "They say that in the future, every man and woman will be a star" which references The Book of the Law I:3 ("Every man and woman is a star"). This reflects the interest of Steve Kilbey in Thelema.
• The song Firm Hand on the 1996 Carcass album Swansong is taken from The Book of the Law verse I:57, "Love is the law, love under will." with the first Love replaced by Hate.
• The 1993 movie Ruby Cairo features a scene in which a copy of The Book of the Law is discussed by the characters, though this has little bearing on the rest of the plot.
• The book is mentioned in the seventh volume of the Japanese light novel series A Certain Magical Index; here, it is regarded as one of the many 'Grimoires', forbidden magical books. The book is written in an indecipherable code, with the volume involving attempts to rescue or kill a character said to be able to decipher it. While both Aleister Crowley and Aiwass are featured in the light novel series, neither are heavily involved with the book (although it being written by Crowley and dictated by Aiwass is hinted at on various occasions).

See also

• English Qabalah

Further reading

• Cornelius, J. Edward, et al. The Desk Reference: A Guide to the Works of Edward Aleister Crowley
• Crowley, Aleister (December 1996). The Law is for All: The Authorized Popular Commentary of Liber Al Vel Legis sub figura CCXX, The Book of the Law. Louis Wilkinson (ed.). Thelema Media. ISBN 0-9726583-8-6.
• Crowley, Aleister (May 2004). The Book of the Law (Centennial ed.). Red Wheel/Weiser. ISBN 1-57863-308-7.
• Thelemapedia. (2004). The Book of the Law. Retrieved on 26 April 2006.
• Holograph manuscript of the Title Page.^[14] Retrieved on 1 December 2008.

Notes

1. Jump up ^ CCXX is 220, XCIII is 93, and DCLXVI is 666. This is a way of saying that the book was delivered by Aiwass (whose number is both 93 and 418) to Crowley, who identified with The Beast 666. 220 refers to the book itself, which has 220 verses.
2. Jump up ^ Liber AL vel Legis OTO, London, 1938. Introduction, IV.
3. Jump up ^ Crowley, Aleister (1989). "49". The Confessions of Aleister Crowley: An Autohagiography. London: Arkana. p. 399. ISBN 978-0-14-019189-9. Retrieved 9 December 2012. "I may now point out that the reign of the Crowned and Conquering Child is limited in time by The Book of the Law itself. We learn that Horus will be in his turn succeeded by Thmaist, the Double-Wanded One; she who shall bring the candidates to full initiation, and though we know litter of her peculiar characteristics, we know at least that her name is justice."
4. Jump up ^ Crowley, Aleister (1936). "8". The Equinox of the Gods. ISBN 1-56184-028-9. Retrieved 9 December 2012. "In this revelation is the basis of the future Aeon ... The new Aeon is ... of Horus"
5. ^ Jump up to: ^{a b c d} Crowley, Aleister. The Equinox of the Gods.
6. Jump up ^ Sutin, Lawrence. Do What Thou Wilt 2000. p. 122-140, 312
7. ^ Jump up to: ^{a b c d e f g} Regardie, Israel (1982). "Chapter 15. The Book of the Law". The Eye in the Triangle: an Interpretation of Aleister Crowley. New Falcon Publications. pp. 473–494.
8. ^ Jump up to: ^{a b} The Morton Smith-Aleister Crowley Connection, Part II, Invocatio, a blog mostly about western esotericism, 8 August 2011
9. ^ Jump up to: ^{a b} Gunn, Joshua (2011). Modern occult rhetoric : mass media and the drama of secrecy in the twentieth century. University of Alabama Press. pp. 91–92. ISBN 9780817356569.
10. Jump up ^ Hymenaeus Beta in Crowley, Aleister, Magick: Liber ABA, p. 753, n. 3
11. Jump up ^ (Crowley 1974, ch.6)
12. Jump up ^ Sutin, Lawrence. Do What Thou Wilt 2000. p. 120
13. ^ Jump up to: ^{a b c d} (Crowley 1974, ch.7)
14. ^ Jump up to: ^{a b} "The Holograph Manuscript of Liber AL vel Legis". Lib.oto-usa.org. Retrieved 8 January 2010.
15. Jump up ^ The Equinox of the Gods, p. 106
16. Jump up ^ Crowley, Aleister (1983). The Law is for All: an extended commentary on The Book of the Law. Regardie, Israel (ed.) (2nd ed.). Phoenix, Arizona: Falcon Press. ISBN 978-0-941404-25-9.
17. Jump up ^ The Confessions of Aleister Crowley, ch 50
18. Jump up ^ The Confessions of Aleister Crowley, ch 60"
19. Jump up ^ In his Commentaries, Crowley writes: "This phrase was totally beyond the comprehension of the scribe, and he said mentally—with characteristic self-conceit—'People will never be able to understand this.' Aiwass then replied, 'Write this in whiter words. But go forth on.' He was willing that the phrase should be replaced by an equivalent, but did not wish the dictation to be interrupted by a discussion at the moment. It was therefore altered (a little later) to 'the omnipresence of my body.' It is extremely interesting to note that in the light of the cosmic theory explained in the notes to verse 3 and 4, the original phrase of Aiwass was exquisitely and exactly appropriate to his meaning."
20. Jump up ^ Crowley, Aleister (1996). The Law is for All. Thelema Media. ISBN ISBN 0-9726583-8-6 Check |isbn= value (help).
21. ^ Jump up to: ^{a b} (Crowley, The Law of Liberty)
22. Jump up ^ (Crowley 1985, Lecture 2)
23. ^ Jump up to: ^{a b c d e f} The Confessions of Aleister Crowley, ch. 49
24. Jump up ^ MWT Chapter IV. online version. Retrieved 7 June 2009.
25. Jump up ^ The Book of the Law, introduction
26. Jump up ^ Liber 31
27. Jump up ^ Confessions, p. 849
28. Jump up ^ The Confessions of Aleister Crowley, p. 840
29. Jump up ^ in the Tunis edition of AL, of which only 11 copies were printed
30. Jump up ^ Crowley, Aleister (December 1996). The Law is for All: The Authorized Popular Commentary of Liber Al Vel Legis sub figura CCXX, the Book of the Law. Louis Wilkinson (ed.). Thelema Media. ISBN 0-9726583-8-6.
31. ^ Jump up to: ^{a b} Aquino, Michael (1 May 2010). "Appendix 5: ‘’The Book of the Law’’ – Commentary". The Temple of Set (Draft 11 ed.). pp. 216–251.
32. Jump up ^ The Art of the Law: Aleister Crowley’s Use of Ritual and Drama Justin Scott Van Kleeck

External links

Wikisource has the complete text of: The Book of the Law

• O.T.O. scans of the Crowley handwritten manuscript of The Book of the Law
• The Book of the Law complete text of the book
• The Old and New Commentaries to Liber AL vel Legis by Aleister Crowley
• The Book of the Law full text of the book, examines the original text with changes
• Raiders of the Lost Basement on the finding, identification, and restoration to O.T.O. of the handwritten manuscript

[hide] v t e Thelema Important elements The Book of the Law (Liber AL vel Legis) Aleister Crowley Thelemic mysticism True Will The Great Work Holy Guardian Angel Abrahadabra Stele of Revealing 93 Aeon of Horus Abyss Magick Thelema and religion The Gnostic Mass Holy Books of Thelema Saints of Ecclesia Gnostica Catholica Godforms Nuit Hadit Ra-Hoor-Khuit Aiwass Babalon Baphomet Chaos Ma'at Choronzon Ankh-af-na-khonsu Organizations A∴A∴ Ecclesia Gnostica Catholica Ordo Templi Orientis Typhonian Order The Open Source Order of the Golden Dawn Personalities Kenneth Anger Allan Bennett Emile Brugsch Mary Butts Marjorie Cameron Aleister Crowley Lon Milo DuQuette J.F.C. Fuller Karl Germer Kenneth Grant Allen Greenfield Lady Frieda Harris Leah Hirsig Christopher Hyatt Hymenaeus Beta Charles Stansfeld Jones George Cecil Jones Carl Kellner Rose Edith Kelly Grady McMurtry Marcelo Ramos Motta Victor Benjamin Neuburg Jack Parsons Israel Regardie Theodor Reuss Wilfred Talbot Smith Leila Waddell (Laylah) James Wasserman Sam Webster Jane Wolfe Thelemite texts Works of Aleister Crowley Libri of Aleister Crowley The Book of the Law (Liber AL vel Legis) The Equinox Liber 777 Magick (Book 4) Confessions The Book of Lies Liber OZ (Liber 77) The Equinox of the Gods The Law is for All Konx om Pax The Book of Thoth The Vision and the Voice Little Essays Toward Truth Eight Lectures on Yoga Magick Without Tears The Blue Equinox Liber Aleph Moonchild Diary of a Drug Fiend White Stains Clouds without Water Collected Works of Aleister Crowley 1905-1907 The Stratagem and other Stories Magick and ritual Magick (Thelema) Oil of Abramelin Cake of Light Bornless Ritual Eroto-comatose lucidity Gematria Thoth tarot deck Mass of the Phoenix Hermetic Qabalah Sex magic Astrology Yoga Obeah and Wanga Babalon Working Ceremonial magic Other topics Unicursal hexagram Body of Light Night of Pan City of the Pyramids Boleskine House Abbey of Thelema Rites of Eleusis Magical formula Categories Thelema Thelemites Thelemite texts

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