The Book of the Law From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Book of the Law,orLiber AL vel Legis AuthorCountryLanguageGenre(s)Publication dateMedia type
Liber AL vel Legis is the central sacred text of
Thelema, written by
Aleister Crowley in
Cairo,
Egypt in the year 1904. Its full title 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.
Liber AL vel Legis contains three chapters, each of which was written down in one hour, beginning at noon, on 8 April, 9 April, and 10 April.
[2] Crowley claims that the author was an entity named
Aiwass, whom he later referred to as his personal
Holy Guardian Angel(or "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.
[3]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 the title
Liber XXXI.
[4] 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.
[5]
According to Crowley,
[6] the story began on 16 March 1904, when he tried to "shew the
Sylphs" by means of a ritual to his wife,
Rose Kelly.
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
Horusby name as the one waiting for him. Crowley, still skeptical, asked her
numerous questions about Horus, which she answered accurately — without
having any prior study of the subject. 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.
[7] The final proof was Rose's identification of Horus in the
stele of Ankh-ef-en-Khonsu, then housed in the
Bulaq Museum (inventory number 666) but now in the
Egyptian Museum of Cairo (number A 9422). The stela was subsequently known to practitioners 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.
Crowley went to great pains to argue that Aiwass was an objectively
separate being from himself, possessing far more knowledge than he or
any other human could possibly have. As Crowley writes in his
Confessions: "I was bound to admit that Aiwass had shown a knowledge of the Cabbala immeasurably superior to my own"
[3] and "We are forced to conclude that the author of
The Book of the Lawis an intelligence both alien and superior to myself, yet acquainted
with my inmost secrets; and, most important point of all, that this
intelligence is discarnate."
Aleister Crowley
Aleister Crowley (pronounced
/ˈkroʊli/; 12 October 1875 – 1 December 1947), born
Edward Alexander Crowley, and also known as both
Frater Perdurabo and
The Great Beast, was an influential
English occultist,
mystic and
ceremonial magician, responsible for founding the religious philosophy of
Thelema. He was a member of the esoteric
Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, as well as a co-founder of the
A∴A∴ and eventually a leader of
Ordo Templi Orientis (O.T.O.). He is known today for
his magical writings, especially
The Book of the Law,
the central sacred text of Thelema, although he also wrote widely on
other subjects, including a large amount of fiction and poetry.
Crowley was also a
hedonist,
bisexual,
recreational drug experimenter, and
social critic.
[1] In many of these roles he "was in revolt against the moral and religious values of his time", espousing a form of
libertinism based upon the rule of "Do What Thou Wilt".
[2]Because of this, he gained widespread notoriety during his lifetime,
and was denounced in the popular press of the day as "the wickedest man
in the world."