THE LAW OF THELEMA

   
Uwe Nolte: Erzengel Michael (Archangel Michael)

       
by Alexander Duncan

Editor’s Note: Aleister Crowley (1875 – 1947) contributed greatly to the "magical revival,” as it has been called, during the first half of the 20th Century. His written works have had a profound effect on the practice of Magick. In addition, Satanism, as currently practiced by the Church of Satan and similar groups, have relied heavily on a sensationalistic interpretation of his writings. There are even marks of his influence in the writings of Gerald Gardner, the individual most responsible for the recreation of Wicca circa 1950.

Unfortunately, many conservative Christian authors have associated Crowley's beliefs and practices with Mediaeval Satanism. The latter was a form of Satan worship that did not exist in reality. The Christian church invented it in order to provide the theological and legal justification for the Witch burnings of Western Europe. Because of this association, most of the writings by Fundamentalist and other Evangelical Christians about the Law of Thelema and Crowley are hopelessly inaccurate, and may be safely ignored.

The following accurate material was provided by Alexander Duncan, B.A. (Hon.) (Dept. of English, York University, North York, Ontario, Canada) Permission to copy, reproduce, or distribute this material is freely granted provided there is no charge and the name and e-mail address of the author is included in every copy. Alexander Duncan can be contacted by email at sethian@rogers.com .

Quotation: "In the beginning doth the Magus speak Truth, and send forth Illusion and Falsehood to enslave the soul. Yet therein is the Mystery of Redemption." (Aleister Crowley, Liber B vel Magi, sub Figura I, v. 1)

Summary Overview: The Law of Thelema was revealed to the world by a praeterhuman Intelligence calling himself Aiwass in Cairo, Egypt in March and April, 1904 e.v. Aiwass appeared first to Rose Edith Kelly nee Crowley, in an altered state of consciousness (ASC), and subsequently to the British poet and magical adept, Aleister Crowley (born in Leamington, England on October 12, 1875 e.v.). Aiwass proceeded to demonstrate his objective existence independently of the psyches of both Crowley and Rose, by leading them to the stele of Ankh-af-na-khonsu, a Theban Egyptian priest of the 8th century B.C.E., in the Boulak Museum, where they had never been. He then dictated a sacred text to Crowley called the Book of the Law. For five years thereafter Crowley resisted the Law of Thelema and the mission of Thelemic prophet laid upon him by Aiwass, regarding the Cairo Working, as it is called, as an "astral vision" (i.e., a purely imaginative – but not "imaginary" – experience). However, Crowley’s subsequent attainment of the grade of Master of the Temple in the Supreme College of the Great White Brotherhood resulted in his acceptance of the Law of Thelema and of his own prophetic role as described in the Book of the Law. Crowley proclaimed himself as the prophet of a new eon for humanity for the first time in his long mystical poem, Aha! (1909), which has been compared in beauty and profundity to the Bhagavad-Gita. Thereafter he signed his correspondence and formal instructions with the two main slogans of the Book of the Law, “Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law” and “Love is the law, love under will.”

Crowley founded a magical society, the A. ..A. .., took over the leadership of another, the O.T.O., and wrote a series of formal instructions promulgating the Law of Thelema, as well as teaching Scientific Illuminism and Magick. Many of these formal instructions were published during his lifetime in his Equinox periodical and elsewhere. Crowley believes that the Law of Thelema resolves all spiritual quandaries, harmonizes science and religion, and supersedes all historical dispensations, establishing a new cultural epoch for humanity, which he calls the New Aeon of Horus, the Crowned and Conquering Child. According to Crowley, the New Aeon will endure for at least several hundred years, possibly for as long as two thousand years.

During his lifetime Crowley succeeded in attracting a small following, mainly in Germany and America, of no more than one or perhaps two hundred souls (counting all those who adhered to Crowley at any time, for any length of time; a much smaller number remained faithful to Crowley at the end of his life). Crowley lost many followers due to his troublesome personality and libertine lifestyle, especially after he came to the attention of the British tabloid press following the First World War. After his death, Crowley left behind him a disorganized and demoralized O.T.O. movement which has since split up into several competing factions, notably the American Caliphate founded by McMurtry, the Swiss O.T.O. founded by Metzger, the English O.T.O. under the leadership of Kenneth Grant, and a Brazilian O.T.O. founded by Marcelo Ramos Motta. A very few members of the original A. ..A. .. also carried on the work in a very limited way, but the A. ..A. .. organization qua organization did not survive Crowley, at least not openly.

A larger number of revivals of the O.T.O., A. ..A. .., and other self-professed Thelemic groups, without any clear historical link to Crowley, with various, sometimes divergent points of view, have also come into existence since a revival of interest in Crowley’s work associated with the counterculture revolution of the 1960s and 1970s. Today the Law of Thelema has attracted several thousand adherents worldwide, as well as a larger following of curiosity seekers, including several prominent rock stars. The Law of Thelema has a strong presence on the Internet, and many of Crowley’s writings are available online. Crowley first editions are in demand, and fetch high prices in the rare book market.

Introduction – History: The Law of Thelema, also called Scientific Illuminism and Magick (spelled with a terminal 'k' to distinguish the authentic science of the Magi from sleight of hand), originated in the Cairo Working. At the time, Crowley interpreted the Cairo Working as an astral vision. At this time, Crowley was a Minor Adept of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. The Golden Dawn was the most distinguished occult society of recent times, which included such luminaries as the poet William Butler Yeats and the Buddhist bhikkhu, Allan Bennett (Bhikkhu Ananda Metteyya). Thus, at the time of the Cairo Working Crowley was an advanced experimental occultist in his own right, although Rose, who was pregnant with their only child, had no experience as a clairvoyant. Crowley was also a published and fairly well known minor poet of controversial verse, yogi, world-class traveler and mountaineer, pornographer, drug taker, and wealthy libertine.

Crowley’s father, Edward Crowley, used the leisure that the small brewing fortune that he inherited from his father provided him to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ according to the fundamentalist teachings of the Plymouth Brethren sect. Crowley reacted against this fundamentalist and evangelical upbringing but his interest in religion, which, despite his promiscuous lifestyle, was serious and sincere, persisted. Because of his wife's and his contact with Aiwass, Aiwass dictated to Crowley a sixty-five-page document, called the Book of the Law, in length about equal to Lao-tse’s Tao-te ching. Crowley came to regard the Book of the Law as having nothing whatever to do with himself, despite the similarity of style and sentiment to Crowley's previously published writings (despite these similarities, the Book of the Law is also very different, being far more disorganized and ecstatic than anything Crowley produced before or after, and referring to events in Crowley’s future that subsequently occurred). During this dictation Crowley "saw" Aiwass, who appeared as an Assyrian or Persian aristocrat with veiled eyes. Crowley also stated that Aiwass’ English was devoid of any accent.

The Book of the Law is written in a flamboyant style, punctuated by innumerable exclamation points as well as powerful passages of real sublimity, profundity, and beauty, addressing a host of real spiritual problems, and prophesying various events, most notably the advent of the Second World War in the 1940s, which was fulfilled thirty-five years later. The Book of the Law is both a radical postmodernist critique and an endorsement of religion, which claims to go beyond all previous historical dispensations and reveal to humanity nothing less than the basis of a new spiritual epoch, the New Aeon of Horus, the Crowned and Conquering Child.

In Egyptian mythology, Horus is the son of Isis, the Great Mother goddess, and Osiris, the Dying God. After Osiris is slain by his murderous brother Set, Horus rises up against Set and assumes the throne and place of his father, Osiris. In the Thelemic exegesis, Horus represents the inauguration of a new spiritual way, which will be preceded by a transitional period of unprecedented disaster and suffering (Set), in the very beginning of which we are now (Crowley believed that this period would last several centuries, and would ultimate in the destruction of Judaeo-Christian civilization, which he identified with Osiris, the Dying God).

In fact the Book of the Law is heavily indebted to various literary precedents, including the Judaeo-Christian apocalyptic writings, Gnosticism, Zoharic Cabala, magic, the Enochian writings of Dee and Kelly, the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, Hindu and Buddhist Tantra, Taoism, and even Vodou, and, more recently, the writings of Francois Rabelais, Max Stirner, Friedrich Nietzsche, and others. The word "Thelema" is derived from the Greek ?e??µa, meaning "will," and is believed to conceal various symbolic allusions in the letters and their numerical values (like Hebrew and Arabic, Greek letters are also numbers). Will is preeminently, however, not free, but true, thus raising the Law of Thelema above simple libertarianism.

Schools: Thelemites are divided into two main spiritual schools or orders, the A...A... (Astrum Argentium, or Silver Star), and the O.T.O. (Ordo Templi Orientis, or Order of the Temple of the Orient) (there are at least two more Thelemic organizations authorized by Crowley, viz., the L.I.L. and the G.B.G., and a few that appeared posthumously, but the former are the main ones).

The A...A... is a temporal manifestation of the Great White Brotherhood, and not necessarily the only one, one of the three fundamental spiritual schools of humanity, the others being the Black School, associated mainly with Buddhism and Gnosticism, and the Yellow School, associated mainly with Taoism. In addition to the White, Black, and Yellow Schools, there is a fourth group called the Black Brotherhood, not to be confused with the Black School, whose adherents consist of high ranking adepts who, through fear and selfishness, failed to transcend the limitations of the human personality and hence “fall back into” or “remain in” the abyss, where they morally disintegrate. The Black Brothers are at odds with all true spiritual schools, and seek to dominate the human race, subjecting them for their own purposes. They are closely associated with the exoteric systems based on priest craft and rules, which almost completely reject the pursuit of personal spiritual experience in favour of a rule-based ethic of obedience, conformity, and vicarious salvation. The Black Brothers interfere with human history in pursuit of their own agenda, precipitating wars, chaos, and social strife, promoting authoritarianism, materialism, rationalism, industrialism, urbanism, scientism, and collectivism, and repressing all authentic spirituality in the pursuit of global domination and the subjection of the human race. The White School is also involved in human history, much more so than either the Black or Yellow Schools, which avoid worldly involvements. Many of the greatest historical spiritual teachers, as well as many artistic and scientific geniuses, have actually been Secret Chiefs of the Great White Brotherhood, who have entered into incarnation in order to help guide humanity towards the realization of the ultimate goal, the attainment of universal enlightenment. Aleister Crowley himself claimed to be a Secret Chief of the White School, and not a Black Brother, although in a moment of pique he described himself as a "black magician."

The A...A... is divided into ten grades, plus four intermediate grades (shown below in square brackets), divided into three orders, which altogether comprise a complete system of spiritual attainment, as follows (from highest to lowest):

The Order of the Silver Star (The S.S.) Ipsissimus 10° = 1?

Magus 9° = 2?

Magister Templi 8° = 3?

[The Link—Babe of the Abyss]

The Order of the Rose-Cross (The R.C.) Adeptus Exemptus 7° = 4?

Adeptus Major 6° = 5?

Adeptus Minor (“without” and “within”) 5° = 6?

[The Link—Dominus Liminis]

The Order of the Golden Dawn (The G.D.) Philosophus 4° = 7?

Practicus 3° = 8?

Zelator 2° = 9?

Neophyte 1° = 10?

[The Link—Probationer 0° = 0?]

[Student]

The ten main grades correspond to the Cabalistic Tree of Life, a diagram that represents the correspondence between macrocosm and microcosm, reality and consciousness.

As in the A...A..., the O.T.O. is divided into three sets of three grades, the three main grades being (from lowest to highest) the Man of Earth, Lover, and Hermit, based on the grades described in the Book of the Law. However, unlike the A...A..., these grades are ritually conferred in the style of Freemasonry and correspond to increasing degrees of intelligence not tied to actual magical or mystical tasks or attainments.

Practices: The Law of Thelema is a system of experiential spirituality. This means that Thelemites engage in various spiritual practices in order to realize the truth of the spiritual life in and for themselves. The ultimate goal of the spiritual life is to identify with and actually become a spiritual being, free of the constraints and constrictions of conditioned existence. The state of being a spiritual being is an ecstatic, powerful state of union with everything (Thelemic "compassion"). The Law of Thelema also teaches that all religions are variations of one fundamental underlying spiritual truth, which become fragmented into different religious traditions as a result of variations of place, time, and degree of realization and mutual isolation and hostility as, with the passage of time, religions become increasingly diversified and exclusive. Religions thus harden into increasingly exoteric systems, based on devotion to priest craft and rules, in which individual spiritual experience is increasingly repressed in favour of an official orthodoxy, ultimately the prerogative of the Black Brothers, which becomes increasingly metaphorical and vicarious. Thus, the Law of Thelema rejects “religiosity” altogether, and actively seeks to destroy it, since the religious attitude in this sense is harmful to the spiritual life and impedes, blocks, restricts, and interferes with real spiritual progress. Consequently, Thelemites incorporate practices from all religious traditions without distinction, in order to reconstitute the primordial tradition that underlies them all. Crowley compared this process to recombining the colours of the spectrum into white light. This reconstruction is the special task of Scientific Illuminism, which is one aspect of the Law of Thelema, the operative branch of which is Magick.

Spiritual practices are pursued in the context of various systems of attainment, which are appropriate to different types of aspirant, differentiated by race, culture, personal psychology, and degree of realization or "grade." Consequently, not all practices are suitable for all aspirants at all stages of development. Recognizing which practices are suitable to which aspirants at different stages of their spiritual development is the special skill of a spiritual master.

In the system of the A...A..., the grades correspond to specific tasks and corresponding attainments, arranged in an hierarchy. Many of these tasks and attainments have become the special study of parapsychology and transpersonal psychology in recent years. In the system described by Crowley, these are the main attainments of the Outer Order (collated from the three main documents describing these attainments, Liber XIII, Liber CLXV, and "One Star in Sight"):

¨ The Neophyte formulates the Body of Light (popularly known today as "astral projection").

¨ The Zelator masters Hatha Yoga, specifically, Asana and Pranayama, resulting in the experience of “psychic opening.”

¨ The Practicus achieves Kundalini Awakening, so-called (see Lee Sanella, The Kundalini Experience).

¨ The Philosophus masters Rising on the Planes (popularly known as the "out of body experience" or "OBE").

¨ The Dominus Liminis acquires the power of mental Concentration (ekagrata).

¨ The Adeptus Minor attains the Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel, so-called, corresponding to the Hindu trance-state known as Atmadarshana, but with important differences as well.

The work of an aspirant to the A...A... is so subtle and advanced that it is beyond the ability of most people, although a few aspirants attained high grades in the A...A... during Crowley’s lifetime. The tests, some of which are published, which Crowley applied to aspirants in order to qualify were very stringent, and Crowley did not grant grades casually. For example, one has to "astral travel" through an abstract symbol that one has never seen before and describe a vision the character of which is consistent with the symbol's meaning in order to pass the test for "rising on the planes."

Crowley was promoted to the leadership of the English branch of the O.T.O. in 1912 e.v., and he used this order ever afterwards as a vehicle for popularizing the Law of Thelema, as well as the practice of the Supreme Secret of the O.T.O. During his lifetime, this secret was zealously guarded, although it is not always discreetly hinted at in the esoteric literature of the day and by Crowley himself. However, since Crowley’s death the cat has long been out of the bag. The Supreme Secret of the O.T.O. is nothing other than the use of sex in the pursuit of spiritual enlightenment, equivalent in fact to a Western Tantra. Sex is, of course, the single most powerful psycho-physiological energy in man, so pressing it into the service of spiritual development is a natural evolution, once one overcomes the restriction of shame. From the Tantric point of view, sexual abstinence is really a form of "sex magick," so-called, since sexual abstinence modifies the sexual instinct. Exotericism sees in sexual abstinence the rejection of sexuality per se as contrary to the spiritual life, but the Tantric view is more subtle and profound. Rather than rejecting sex, the Tantric practitioner seeks to sublimate the sexual energy, inhibiting its outflow so that the energy accumulates in the brain, its original source, where it induces the state of illumination (the physiological precursor of enlightenment). Once one realizes that this is how sexual abstinence actually works, the possibility of a contrary methodology presents itself to the discerning consciousness. Instead of repressing the sexual energy, one can intensify it to the point where the sheer excess of sexual arousal causes the energy to ascend the spine and, once again, "illuminate" the brain. In the latter case, however, the body is also "illuminated." Thus, the formulae of sexual abstinence and orgiastic excess are realized to be essentially identical, variations of the same underlying energy-economy.

The members of the O.T.O. are encouraged to engage in practical experimentation, and many members pursue various tasks connected with the Great Work. This is especially true of the followers of Kenneth Grant, who has created a system of Thelemic attainment strongly suggestive of Vodou, the primal religion of Africa and humanity, since, according to current archaeological research, humanity originated in Africa.

In addition to the major tasks of the Great Work described above, committed Thelemites are enjoined to engage in a number of regular daily practices that have the effect of disciplining and directing the mind and regulating one’s life according to objective natural cycles. These include (based on the Official Publications of the A...A...):

¨ A short reminder of one’s dedication to the Great Work, spoken before meals.

¨ Rituals of purification and empowerment, performed at the beginning and end of each day (see Liber V, XXV, and XXXVI).

¨ A daily eucharist (see Liber XLIV).

¨ The adoration of the Sun, followed by one hour of meditation, repeated four times daily; thus, the truly committed Thelemite, like the followers of the Sant Mat, meditates four hours per day (see Liber CC).

¨ Adoration of one’s Star, performed as it rises above the horizon (see Liber CMLXIII)

In addition to the foregoing, members of the O.T.O. observe the Gnostic Mass (see Liber XV), in which the Supreme Secret is rehearsed and an eucharist consumed by the celebrants, and various visualization practices. The Book of the Law also refers to the spiritual use of drugs, which informed the spiritual practice of many significant spiritual teachers before their criminalization, including Georges Ivanovitch Gurdjieff (according to Timothy Leary), Julius Evola, Aldous Huxley and others. Drugs are also an integral part of many different South American aboriginal shamanic cultures. The traditional cultures of the Quiches, Incans, Mayans, and Aztecs bears many striking affinities to the Law of Thelema, more so even than Africa.

Sacred Texts: The Book of the Law was written when Aleister Crowley was a Minor Adept of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. Subsequently he underwent an experience, called the "ordeal of the abyss," similar to the "dark night of the soul" of the mystics, in which he completely annihilated his human personality and achieved an extreme state of "psychic opening." He became completely open and receptive to the influx of the divine consciousness, an intense, intuitive, transrational, and ecstatic state of self-perfection and realization of reality in its fundamental and ultimate aspects. In this state, intermittently over a period of five years, Crowley wrote a series of books, ranging in length from several hundred to several thousand words, concerning which he declares that they are beyond rational criticism, i.e., absolutely and indubitably true. These books were written "automatically," i.e., without rational reflection, in a state of trance. These works constitute the revelatory foundation of the Law of Thelema, and are referred to, including the Book of the Law, as the Holy Books of Thelema. In order of writing, they are:

Liber AL vel Legis (1904 e.v.)

Liber Liberi vel Lapidis Lazuli (1907 e.v.)

Liber Cordis Cincti Serpente (ibid)

Liber Stellae Rubeae (ibid)

Liber Porta Lucis (ibid)

Liber Tau vel Kabbalae Trium Literarum (ibid)

Liber Trigrammaton (ibid)

Liber Ararita (1907 or 1908 e.v.)

Liber Arcanorum t?? Atu t?? Tahuti, etc. (1907 and 1911 e.v.)

Liber B vel Magi (1911 e.v.)

Liber Tzaddi vel Hamus Hermeticus (1911 e.v.)

Liber Cheth vel Vallum Abiegni (1911 e.v.)

Liber A’ash vel Capricorni Pneumatici (1911 e.v.)

In addition to the foregoing, Crowley wrote (or, rather, dictated to his disciple and lover, the poet Victor Neuburg, in an ASC) The Vision and the Voice. The Vision and the Voice (properly, Liber XXX Aerum vel Saeculi) is a series of visions based on the Enochian magical workings of famed Elizabethan scholar John Dee and his skryer Edward Kelley, to which Crowley tracesthe beginning of the process culminating in the advent of the New Aeon in 1904 e.v. Crowley claimed to be Edward Kelley’s reincarnation. All but the first two visions were received in the Sahara Desert in 1909 e.v., to which he ascribed a combined classification, viz., A-B, Class 'A' being a "holy book" as discussed above, and Class 'B' an ordinary work of rational scholarship. A prefatory note to The Treasure House of Images, published in The Equinox in 1910 e.v., was assigned the 'A' classification. Liber NU and Liber HAD also contain instructions received directly from V.V.V.V.V., Crowley's motto as a Master of the Temple of the A...A..., which are presumably also Class 'A,' since V.V.V.V.V. corresponds to Crowley’s neschamah, the soul in its static aspect.

Finally, in 1925 e.v., after a hiatus of more than a decade, Crowley penned the last and the shortest of the Holy Books of Thelema, a short preamble to the Book of the Law of only 77 words (plus 27 words of quotation from the Book of the Law), in which both the study and discussion of the Book of the Law are specifically and absolutely prohibited. Most Thelemites today follow Crowley’s lead in interpreting The Comment to mean that no one may publicly interpret the Law of Thelema, and that those who do so are to be shunned, despite the fact that the prohibition is only applied to the text of the Book of the Law itself, and not any other holy book. Consequently, little critical literature on the Law of Thelema (as distinct from biography) has appeared since Crowley’s death in 1947 e.v., the only notable exception being the writings of Kenneth Grant (most importantly, The Magical Revival, Aleister Crowley and the Hidden God, and Hecate’s Fountain). However, Grant and his followers are shunned as heretics by many Thelemites, especially the followers of the American Caliphate, who accuse him of collaborating with John Symonds. Symonds, who many Thelemites believe exploited the “old man” for personal profit and gain by hypocritically maneuvering himself into the position of Crowley's literary executor, is the author of several extremely hostile biographies of Aleister Crowley, as well as the co-editor with Kenneth Grant of a number of Crowley's writings. In his final Crowley biography, King of the Shadow Realm, Symonds claims that Crowley was actually psychotic (similar assertions are sometimes made about Carl Gustav Jung as well, and are clearly ideologically motivated).

The Holy Books of Thelema are remarkable by any standard, especially the two longest books, Liber Cordis Cincti Serpente and Liber Liberi vel Lapidis Lazuli, although personal hostility towards Crowley has caused them not to be as widely regarded as they should. Except the Book of the Law, the Holy Books of Thelema represent the high water mark of Aleister Crowley's literary career for sustained philosophical sublimity, lyric and symbolic beauty, and structural elegance. Often obscure, they are nevertheless potent and profound testaments to the ecstatic integrity of Aleister Crowley’s spiritual realization. Liber Cordis Cincti Serpente is an account of the Attainment of the Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel. Crowley also wrote a long and interesting commentary on this particular holy book. Liber Liberi vel Lapidis Lazuli describes the Ordeal of the Abyss from an universal perspective, whereas The Vision and the Voice documents Crowley’s own attainment of this grade as well as offering innumerable insights into the Law of Thelema and the New Aeon in general. These two attainments, the Angel and the Abyss, constitute the two critical events in the life of the adept in Crowley's system, by which the aspirant becomes a Major Adept and a Master of the Temple respectively, and have considerable resonance with the perennial philosophy from which all authentic spiritual insights derive.

Another holy book, Liber Cheth vel Vallum Abiegni, describes the grade of Babe of the Abyss, and Liber B vel Magi describes the grade of Magus. Liber Porta Lucis and Liber Tzaddi vel Hamus Hermeticus describe Crowley’s mission as Thelemic prophet and the task of initiation in the New Aeon. Liber Tau vel Kabbalae Trium Literarum explains the ordeals of the grades. Liber Ararita is a description of the spiritual path in extremely subtle and abstract language. Liber Trigrammaton describes the process of cosmic devolution. Liber Arcanorum interprets the Tarot trumps as an initiatory sequence. Liber A'ash and Liber Stellae Rubeae offer practical instruction in sexual Tantra.

Liber AL vel Legis, the Latin rendering of the "Book of the Law," is of course Aiwass' proclamation of the advent of the New Aeon and its essential formulae (even although Crowley had not crossed the abyss when Aiwass revealed the Book of the Law, he classifies it as an holy book because it represents the dictation of Aiwass himself, who holds the rank of Ipsissimus, i.e., the highest possible grade. Crowley himself only attained this grade seventeen years later, in 1921 e.v., at which time he and Aiwass became one being: thus the relationship with the Holy Guardian Angel represents in the Thelemic view a kind of spiritual marriage).

Holy Days: Part of the spiritual discipline of a Thelemite consists in the coordination of his personal, individual, terrestrial life with the great cosmic cycles that regulate the life of the earth and humanity. Accepting the Law of Thelema is itself such an act of coordination or alignment with the cosmic cycle known as the precession of the equinoxes. Crowley implies that the New Aeon of Horus, the Crowned and Conquering Child, which began with the self-revelation of Aiwass at the Vernal Equinox, 1904 e.v., corresponds to the advent of the astrological Age of Aquarius. By aligning one’s personal life with the universal life mediated by these cycles one becomes a vehicle of the manifestation of the universal life, thus making oneself a channel of higher spiritual forces which in turn accelerate one’s natural spiritual evolution and affect the karma of the planet.

Other cycles with which the Thelemite aligns his life are the diurnal motion of the Sun, specifically, sunrise, noon, sunset, and midnight; the diurnal rising of the star or constellation rising in his horoscope; the diurnal rising of the lunar orb; the monthly lunar cycle, especially the new and full moons; the monthly entry of the sun into the signs of the zodiac; the annual solar cycle of the equinoxes and solstices; and an annual calendar of holy days prescribed in the Book of the Law, as follows:

¨ The First Night of the Prophet and His Bride, corresponding to the consummation of the marriage of Aleister Crowley and Rose Edith Crowley on August 12, 1903 e.v.;

¨ The Writing of the Book of the Law, on April 8, 9, and 10, 1904 e.v.; and

¨ The Supreme Ritual, commemorating the successful Invocation of Horus on March 20, 1904 e.v.

All these times are celebrated by means of rituals, in which energy is generated, and feasts, in which energy is both discharged and absorbed. In addition, Aiwass’ directs that the birth, puberty, and death of Thelemites and their children are to be celebrated. Many Thelemites also observe the "quarter-days" of the Wiccan religion, viz., Samhain (November 1 eve), Imbolc (February 1 eve), Beltaine (May 1 eve), and Lammas (August 1 eve). Finally, the Book of the Law alludes to a mysterious feast of Tahuti, which has never been satisfactorily explained.

The Problem of Aleister Crowley’s Reputation: Many criticisms of the Law of Thelema are based on a moral critique of the personal character and conduct of Aleister Crowley. These accusations generally resolve themselves into seven basic assertions: that he was a pornographer, traitor, sexual deviant, sado-masochist, womanizer, drug addict/alcoholic, or even psychotic. Each of these accusations can be discussed in the context of the evidence. It is certainly true that Crowley published or wrote pornographic poems and stories, and was extremely interested in extreme sexual experimentation; that he wrote apparently pro-German propaganda in America during the First World War; that he engaged in sexual relationships with both men and women; that he engaged in physically and psychologically abusive sexual relationships; that he professed contempt for women; that he drank heavily and became severely addicted to heroin in middle-age; and that he experienced ASCs, generally induced rather than spontaneous.

Strictly speaking, however, the truth or falsehood of any of these claims is unrelated to the truth or falsehood of the Law of Thelema, just as the truth or falsehood of the Tractatus Philosophicus is unrelated to the fact that Wittgenstein was an homosexual. As every first year philosophy student learns, truth or falsehood is not a moral quality or a function of the personal psyche, and it is quite possible for a morally mean or even psychologically dysfunctional person to experience and express insights that are both beautiful and true. The history of Western civilization provides numerous examples, many of whom are studied in universities. Crowley himself regards the pursuit of spiritual realization as a science, in which moral considerations are either secondary or entirely irrelevant. Crowley himself writes, "Since the ultimate truth of teleology is unknown, all codes of morality are arbitrary. Therefore the student has no concern with ethics as such." Philosophically, then, Aleister Crowley is an amoralist.

Nevertheless, the Law of Thelema does imply an ethical teaching. The doctrine of the Black Brothers itself implies a kind of moral judgement. The essential ethical teaching of the Law of Thelema is that each and every individual has an absolute and inalienable right to pursue his own True Will without restriction by others, and that no one has the ethical or moral right or duty to compel another to pursue any other path, or even the capacity to criticize them. A Thelemite who knows his True Will can however guide others in accordance with universal principles, but the relationship should not be one of imitation. If Aleister Crowley violated his own or any other individual’s True Will at any time, he simply violated his own law and paid the karmic price, but this does not invalidate the Law itself.

Great art and true philosophies are both created by scoundrels, but we balk when a scoundrel creates a true religion. The imitative tendency, which Crowley despised, is deep. Since imitating the moral example of a founder is not the ethical teaching of the Law of Thelema, every Thelemite is free to imitate Aleister Crowley's personal lifestyle or not as they choose, although Crowley himself advises against it, warning that those who try to do so will be possessed or obsessed by the "vision of the demon Crowley" (Crowley, who was an amateur artist, even drew a sketch of this particular demon). Unfortunately, as the history of the Law of Thelema shows with great clarity, Crowley’s advice was accurate, and numerous heedless Thelemites have been devoured as a result.

The True Will represents the inertia of the universe, and is irresistible (if not, that simply proves that it is not the True Will). However, no one may restrict the True Will of another, unless another chooses, without coercion, to be so restricted.

Aleister Crowley should be understood as a natural phenomenon, without moral judgement. A prophet is himself merely a symptom of the zeitgeist. A storm is not "evil." Aleister Crowley was a storm, which may yet sink the ship of the Judaeo-Christian civilization that he despised.

Further Reading: All of the following books are available in print (based on a search of Amazon.com.) They are written by Aleister Crowley unless otherwise noted: 777 and Other Qabalistic Writings Aha! Book Four Commentaries on the Holy Books and Other Papers De Arte Magica Do What Thou Wilt(Lawrence Sutin) Gems from the Equinox Konx Om Pax Liber Aleph vel CXI: The Book of Wisdom or Folly Little Essays towards Truth Magick Magick in Theory and Practice Magick without Tears Portable Darkness: An Aleister Crowley Reader The Book of Lies The Book of the Law The Book of Thoth The Confessions of Aleister Crowley The Equinox (Vol. I, Nos. 1 – 10) The Equinox (Vol. III, No. 1) The Equinox of the Gods The Holy Books of Thelema The Law Is for All The Legend of Aleister Crowley (P.R. Stephenson) The Revival of Magick and Other Essays The Vision and the Voice The Works of Aleister Crowley

Copyright © 2002 by the author, Alexander Duncan, B.A. (Hon.), York University. See the note at the top of the article for restrictions on use. Originally published here: 2002-JUL-21 Latest update: 2002-JUL-21

LIBER LEGIS

(With Commentary)

PART ONE:

1: HAD! THE MANIFESTATION OF NUIT.

Nuit is matter, Hadit is motion...Had is Set, Satan, Sat ("being")

2: THE UNVEILING OF THE COMPANY OF HEAVEN.

3: EVERY MAN AND EVERY WOMAN IS A STAR.

Man is the middle kingdom. The great kingdom is heaven, with each star as a unit; the little kingdom is the molecule, with each electron as a unit...each "star" is the center of the universe to itself. [The progress of atom or monad through incarnations:]

Evil is only an appearance because, like "good", it cannot affect the substance itself, but only multiply its combinations... A male star is built from the center outwards, a female star from the circmference inwards. TYhis is what is meant when we say that woman has no soul.

4: EVERY NUMBER IS INFINITE; THERE IS NO DIFFERENCE.

"The center is everywhere and the circumference nowhere."

Each "star" is connected directly with every other star, and space being without limit...any one star is as much the center as any other.

6: BE THOU HADIT, MY SECRET CENTER, MY HEART AND MY TONGUE!

"He is almost the :"unconscious" of Freud, unknown, unaccountable, the silent spirit...It commands with absolute authority when it appears at all, despite conscious reason and judgment.

It seems as if this great division [between Nut and Had], which has wrought such appalling havoc upon earth, were orignally no more than a distinction adopted for convenience.

8: THE KHABS IS IN THE KHU, NOT THE KHU IN THE KHABS.

The unititiate is a "dark star", and the Great Work for him is to make his veils transparent by "purifying" them. This "purification" is really "simplification"; it is not that the veil is dirty, but that the complexity of its folds make it opaque...Everything is in itself perfect, but when things are muddled, they become "evil". ..we are warned against the idea of a Pleroma, a flame of which we are sparks, and to which we return when we "attain". That would indeed be to make the whole curse of separate existence ridiculous, a senseless and inexcusable folly...The idea of incarnations "perfecting" a thing originally perfect by definition is imbecile.

If we adore form, it becomes opaque to being and may soon prove false to itself.

10: LET MY SERVANTS BE FEW AND SECRET; THEY SHALL RULE THE MANY AND THE KNOWN.

12: THESE ARE FOOLS THAT MEN ADORE; BOTH THEIR GODS AND THEIR MEN ARE FOOLS.

12: COME FORTH, O CHILDREN, UNDER THE STARS, AND TAKE YOUR FILL OF LOVE!

13: I AM ABOVE YOU AND IN YOU. MY ECSTASY IS IN YOURS. MY JOY IS TO SEE YOUR JOY....

15: THE BEAST; AND IN HIS WOMAN CALLED THE SCARLET WOMAN IS ALL POWER GIVEN. THEY SHALL GATHER MY CHILDREN INTO THEIR FOLD; THEY SHALL BRING THE GLORY OF THE STARS INTO THE HEARTS OF MEN.

16: FOR HE IS EVER A SUN, AND SHE A MOON. BUT TO HIM IS THE WINGED SECRET FLAME, AND TO HER THE STOOPING STARLIGHT.

21: WITH THE GODS AND THE ADORER I AM NOTHING; THEY DO NOT SEE ME. THEY ARE AS UPON THE EARTH;I AM HEAVEN, AND THERE IS NO OTHER GOD THAN ME AND MY LORD HADIT.

22: ...BIND NOTHING! LET THERE BE NO DIFFERENCE MADE AMONG YOU BETWEEN ANY ONE THING AND ANY OTHER THING! FOR THEREBY THERE COMETH HURT.

26: ...AND THE SIGN SHALL BE MY ECSTASY, THE CONSCIOUSNESS OF THE CONTINUITY OF EXISTENCE, THE OMNIPRESENCE OF MY BODY.

27: ...LET IT BE EVER THUS: THAT MEN SPEAK NOT OF THEE AS ONE BUT AS NONE; AND LET THEM NOT SPEAK OF THEE AT ALL, SINCE THOU ART CONTINUOUS!

28: NONE BREATHED THE LIGHT, FAINT AND FAERY, OF THE STARS, AND TWO.

29: FOR I AM DIVIDED FOR LOVE'S SAKE, FOR THE CHANCE OF UNION.

30: THIS IS THE CREATION OF THE WORLD, THAT THE PAIN OF DIVISION IS AS NOTHING, AND THE JOY OF DISSOLUTION ALL.

All this talk about "suffering humanity" is principally drivel based on the error of transferring one's own psychology to one's neighbour....It is necessary that we stop, once for all, this ignorant meddling with other people's business. Each individual must be left free to follow his own path! ...the original brand of American freedom - which was really freedom - contained the precept to leave other people severely alone, and thus assured the possibility of expansion of his own lines to every man.

"Law" in Greek, is NOMOK from NEMO and means strictly "anything assigned, that which one has in use or possession"; hence "custom, usage," and also "a musical strain". Hebrew: THORA: "the Gate of the Kingdon" and "Book of Wisdom".

...magick is the art of life itself.

Remember also that unless you know what your True Will is, you may be devoting the most laudable energies to destroying yourself...

Remember that magick is the art of life, therefore of causing change in accordance with will; therefore its law is 'love under will," and its every movement is an act of love.

40: WHO CALLS US THELEMITES WILL DO NO WRONG, IF HE LOOK BUT CLOSE INTO THE WORD. FOR THERE ARE THEREIN THREE GRADES, THE HERMIT, AND THE LOVER, AND THE MAN OF EARTH. DO WHAT THOU WILT SHALL BE THE WHOLE OF THE LAW.

41: THE WORD OF SIN IS RESTRICTION. O MAN, REFUSE NOT THY WIFE, IF SHE WILL! O LOVER, IF THOU WILT, DEPART! THERE IS NO BOND THAT CAN UNITE THE DIVIDED BUT LOVE: ALL ELSE IS A CURSE. ACCURSED! ACCURSED BE IT TO THE AEONS! HELL.

"Do what thou wilt" need not only be interpreted as license or even as liberty. It may, for example, be taken to mean, Do what thou (ateh) wilt; and Ateh is 406 = the sign of the cross. The passage might then be read as a charge to self-sacrifice or equilibrium.

Any thing whatsoever that binds the will, hinders it, or diverts it, is sin. That is, sin is the appearance of the dyad. Sin is impurity.* (*Sin is connected with the root "es," to be...it is "being" as opposed to "becoming". The fundamental idea of wrong is the static as opposed to the dynamic conception of the universe.)

...as an example. There shall be no property in human flesh... Ph-ysi-cal constraint, up to a certain point, is not so seriously wrong; for it has its roots in the original sex-conflict which we see in animals, and has often the effect of exciting love in its highest and noblest shape.

...woman is only chaste when there is nobody around. ...It is well to be noted that the great women of history have exercised unboun-ded freedom in love...Sex is the main expression of the nature of a person; great natures are secxually strong; and the health of any person will depend upon the freedom of that function.

42: LET IT BE THAT STATE OF MANYHOOD BOUND AND LOATHING. SO WITH THY ALL; THOU HAST NO RIGHT BUT TO DO THY WILL.

Interference with the will of another is the great sin, for it predicates the existence of another. In this duality sorrow consists.

A man who is not doing his will is like a man with cancer, an independant growth in him, yet one from which he cannot get free. The idea of self-sacrifice is a moral cancer in exactly this sense.

[The dichotomy of duty and inclination; Stevenson's "mere polity" of many individuals that make up a man.]

But the name of this polity is Choronzon, mob rule.

43: DO THAT, AND NO OTHER SHALL SAY NAY.

44: FOR PURE WILL, UNASSUAGED OF PURPOSE, DELIVERED FROM THE LUST OF RESULT, IS EVERY WAY PERFECT.

We are all members of the Body of God, the Sun; and about our system is the ocean of space...If you are "walking in darkness", do not try to make the sun rise by self-sacrifice, but wait in confi-dence for the dawn, and enjoy the pleasures of the night meanwhi-le.

49: ABROGATE ARE ALL RITUALS, ALL ORDEALS, ALL WORDS AND SIGNS. RA-HOOR-KHIT HATH TAKEN HIS SEAT IN THE EAST AT THE EQUINOX OF THE GODS; AND LET ASAR BE WITH ISA, WHO ALSO ARE ONE. BUT THEY ARE NOT OF ME. LET ASAR BE THE ADORER, ISA, THE SUFFERER; HOOR IN HIS SECRET NAME AND SPLENDOUR IS THE LORD INITIATING.

50: ...THE GROSS MUST PASS THROUGH FIRE; LET THE FINE BE TRIED IN INTELLECT, AND THE LOFTY CHOSEN ONES IN THE HIGHEST. THUS YE HAVE STAR & STAR, SYSTEM & SYSTEM; LET NOT ONE KNOW WELL THE OTHER!

51: [4 gates to the palace etc] AMN. HO! WARRIOR, IF THY SERVANT SINK? BUT THERE ARE MEANS AND MEANS....ALSO TAKE YOUR FILL AND WILL OF LOVE AS YE WILL, WHEN, WHERE AND WITH WHOM YE WILL. BUT ALWAYS UNTO ME.

[The law] has as many rules as there are individuals.

We of Thelema are not the slaves of love...We refuse to accept it as the surrender of the divine to the animal; to us it is the means by which the animal may be made the winged sphinx which shall bear man aloft to the house of the Gods.

...all roads are equally royal, and...the only question..is "Which road is mine?"

Collision is the only crime in the cosmos. ...Every star must calculate its own orbit...To swerve is ultimately impossible; to seek to swerve is to suffer.

...the civilized psychopaths of cities, forced into every kind of excess by the omnipresence of erotic suggestions and the contact of crazed crowds seething with suppressed sexuality...

[On "WHY YE WILL" being left unsaid.] The most important condition of the act, humanly speaking, is that the attraction should be spontaneous and irresistable.

[On the serpent sperm, or "talisman, as indestructible; Lilith as mother of satyrs, elves that "populate those secret places of the earth which are not sensible by the oragns of the normal man." Abuse of the talisman:] Crime and insanity, as well as disease and debility, are constantly seen as the direct result of mis-managing the sexual life. ...Whatever the act which expresses the soul, that act and no other is right. ...One must never forget that a child will be born of that deed...One must make sure that the conscious will is written, on the pure waters of a mind unstirred, in letters of fire, by the sun of the soul. ...The whole man...must give itself utterly in the act of love. It must cease to know itself as anything but the will.

Tolerance itself produces suavity, and suavity soon relieves the strain on tolerance.

We have an art of expression; we are trained to interpret the soul and the spirit in terms of the body. ...it is the organ of the self. It must nevertheless be ordered according to its own laws; those of the mental or moral self do not apply to it.

53: THIS SHALL REGENRATE THE WORLD, THE LITTLE WORLD MY SISTER, MY HEART & MY TONGUE, UNTO WHOM I SEND THIS KISS.

56: ... ALL WORDS ARE SACRED AND ALL PROPHETS TRUE; SAVE ONLY THAT THEY UNDERSTAND A LITTLE...BUT THOU HAST ALL IN THE CLEAR LIGHT, AND SOME, THOUGH NOT ALL, IN THE DARK.

57: INVOKE ME UNDER MY STARS! LOVE IS THE LAW, LOVE UNDER WILL. NOR LET THE FOOLS MISTAKE LOVE; FOR THERE ARE LOVE AND LOVE. THERE IS THE DOVE, AND THERE IS THE SERPENT. CHOOSE YE WELL!

58: I GIVE UNIMAGINABLE JOYS ON EARTH: CERTAINTY, NOT FAITH, WHILE IN LIFE, UPON DEATH: PEACE UNUTTERABLE, REST, ECSTASY; NOR DO I DEMAND AUGHT IN SACRIFCE.

[Crowley's star-sponge vision.] In the world of ideas, each thought possesses a necessary relation with each other thought; each relation is of course a thought in itself; each such ray is itself a star. ...it would appear as if the entire space must be filled up with a homogenous blaze of light. This, however, is not the case. The space is completely full; yet the monads which fill it are perfectly distinct. [On "double-personalities"]

61: ... FOR ONE KISS WILT THOU THEN BE WILLING TO GIVE ALL; BUT WHOSO GIVES ONE PARTICLE OF DUST SHALL LOSE ALL IN THAT HOUR.

[Dust: `perhaps the ego, or central atom']

True religion is intoxification, in a sense...that is, ECSTASY, IS THE KEY TO REALITY.

...there are three Gods whose function is to bring the soul to the realization of its own glory: Dionysus, Aphrodite, Apollo; Wine, Woman, and Song.

PART TWO.

1: NU! THE HIDING OF HAIT.

Every individual manifests the whole; and the whole conceals every individual. The soul interprets the universe; and the universe veils the soul. Nature understands herself by become self-conscious in her units; and the consciousness loses its sense of separeteness by dissolution in Her.

2: ... I AM NOT EXTENDED, AND KHABS IS THE NAME OF MY HOUSE.

Hadit is the "core of every star,".. He is thus the impersonal identity within the individuality of "every man and every woman".

3: IN THE SPHERE I AM EVERYWHERE THE CENTRE, AS SHE, THE CIRCUMFERENCE, IS NOWHERE FOUND.

There is no place whatsoever that is not a centre of light.

4: YET SHE SHALL BE KNOWN & I NEVER.

Hadit is hidden in Nuit, and knows Her, She being an object of knowledge; but He is not knowable, for He is merely that part of Her which She formulates in order that She may be known.

5: BEHOLD! THE RITUALS OF THE OLD TIME ARE BLACK. LET THE EVIL ONES BE CAST AWAY; LET THE GOOD ONES BE PURGED BY THE PROPHET! THEN SHALL THIS KNOWLEDGE GO ARIGHT.

"Sugar is sugar" is obviously not knowledge. But no more is this: "Sugar is a sweet white crystalliner carbohydrate." .."Knowledge" is therefore not a "thing-in-itself"; it is rightly denied a place upon the Tree of Life; it pertains to the Abyss.

..."the rituals of the old time" are no longer valid vehicles. Knowledge cannot "go aright" until they are adapted to the Formula of the New Aeon. Their defects are due principally to two radical errors. (1) The universe was conceived as possessing a fixed centre, or summit; and absolute standard to which all things might be referred; a Unity, or God. (Mystics were angry and bewildered, often enough, when attaining to "union with God" for they found him equally in all.) This led to making a difference betwen one thing and another, and so to the ideas of superiority, of sin, etc, ending by absurdities of all kinds, alike in theology, ethics, and science. (2) The absolute antithesis between the pairs of opposi-tes. ...But each man, while postulating an absolute "God", defined him unconsciously...Thus "God" and "evil" were really expressions of personal prejudice. ..(E.g. rain is "good" or "bad" for the farmer according to the requirement of his crops.)

6: I AM THE FLAME THAT BURNS IN EVERY HEART OF MAN, AND IN THE CORE OF EVERY STAR. I AM LIFE, AND THE GIVER OF LIFE, YET THERE-FORE IS THE KNOWLEDGE OF ME THE KNOWLEDGE OF DEATH.

It is..wrong to worship Hadit; one is to be Hadit, and worship Her.

9: REMEMBER ALL YE THAT EXISTENCE IS PURE JOY; THAT ALL THE SORROWS ARE BUT AS SHADOWS; THEY PASS & ARE DONE; BUT THERE IS THAT WHICH REMAINS.

Acquiescence in the order of nature is the ultimate wisdom. One must understand the universe perfectly, and be utterly indifferent to its pressure.

The way of mastery is to break all rules - but you have to know them perfectly before you can do this; otherwise you are not in a position to transcend them.

14: NOW LET THERE BE A VEILING OF THIS SHRINE; NOW LET THE LIGHT DEVOUR MEN AND EAT THEM UP WITH BLINDNESS! FOR I AM PERFECT, BEING NOT; AND MY NUMBER IS NONE BY THE FOOLS; BUT WITH THE JUST I AM EIGHT, AND ONE IN EIGHT: WHICH IS VITAL, FOR I AM NONE INDEED.

18: THESE ARE DEAD, THESE FELLOWS; THEY FEEL NOT. WE ARE NOT FOR THE POOR AND THE SAD: THE LORDS OF THE EARTH ARE OUR KINSFOLK.

19: IS A GOD TO LIKE IN A DOG? NO! BUT THE HIGHEST ARE OF US. THEY SHALL REJOICE, OUR CHOSEN: WHO SORROWETH IS NOT OF US.

20: BEAUTY AND STRENGTH, LEAPING LAUGHTER AND DELICIOS LANGUOR, FORCE AND FIRE, ARE OF US.

21: WE HAVE NOTHING WITH THE OUTCAST AND THE UNFIT: LET THEM DIE IN THEIR MISERY. FOR THEY FEEL NOT. COMPASSION IS THE VICE OF KINGS: STAMP DOWN THE WRETCHED AND THE WEAK: THIS IS THE LAW OF THE STRONG: THIS IS OUR LAW AND THE JOY OF THE WORLD. THINK NOT, O KING, UPON THAT LIE: THAT THOU MUST DIE: VERILY, THOU SHALT NOT DIE, BUT LIVE. NOW LET IT BE UNDERSTOOD: IF THE BODY OF THE KIND DISSOLVE, HE SHALL REMAIN IN PURE ECSTASY FOREVER. NUIT! HADIT! RA-HOOR-KHUIT! THE SUN, STRENGTH & SIGHT, LIGHT; THESE ARE FOR THE SERVANTS OF THE STAR AND THE SNAKE.

[The pride and secret soul of the artist.]

The artist calls our attention away from Nature, whose immensity bewilders us so that she seems incoherent, and unintelligible, to his won interpretation of himself, and his relations with various phenomena of nature expressed in a language more or less common to us all.

22: I AM THEW SNAKE THAT GIVETH KNOWLEDGE AND DELIGHT AND BRIGHT GLORY, AND STIRS THE HEARTS OF MEN WITH DRUNKENESS...[Use of drugs] THE EXPOSURE OF INNOCENCE IS A LIE. BE STRONG, O MAN! LUST, ENJOY ALL THINGS OF SENSE AND RAPTURE: FEAR NOT THAT ANY GOD SHALL DENY THEE FOR THIS.

Hadit now identifies himself with the Kundalini, the central magica-l force in man.

23:I AM ALONE: THERE IS NO GOD WHERE I AM.

The atheism of God. "Allah's the atheist! He owns no Allah" (Bagh-a-Mattar) To admit God is to look up to God, and so not to be God. The curse of duality.

24: BEHOLD! THESE BE GRAVE MYSTERIES; FOR THERE ARE ALSO OF MY FRIENDS WHO BE HERMITS. NOW THINK NOT TO FIND THEM IN THE FORESTS OR ON THE MOUNTAIN; BUT IN BEDS OF PURPLE, CARESSED BY MAGNIFICENT BEASTS OF WOMEN WITH LARGE LIMBS, AND FIRE AND LIGHT IN THEIR EYES, AND MASSES OF FLAMING HAIR ABOUT THEM; THERE SHALL YE FIND THEM... BEWARE LEST ANY FORCE ANOTHER, KING AGAINST KING! LOVE ONE ANOTHER WITH BURNING HEARTS; ON THE LOW MEN TRAMPLE IN THE FIERCE LUST OF YOUR PRIDE, IN THE DAY OF YOUR WRATH.

..we take up arms against falsehood; we cannot help it if that falsehood force the king it has imprisoned to asent to its edicts, even to believe that his interests are those of his oppressor, and to fear truth as once Jehovah did the serpent.

25: YE ARE AGAINST THE PEOPLE, O MY CHOSEN!

26: I AM THE SECRET SERPENT COILED ABOUT TO SPRING; IN MY COILING THERE IS JOY. IF I LIFT UP MY HEAD, I AND MY NUIT ARE ONE. IF I DROOP DOWN MINE HEAD, AND SHOOT FORTH VENOM, THEN IS RAPTURE OF EARTH, AND I AND THE EARTH ARE ONE.

The magical power is universal. The free man directs it as he will. Leave him alone, or he will make you sorry you tried to interfere!

27: THERE IS GREAT DANGER IN ME; FOR WHO DOTH NOT UNDERSTAND THESE RUNES SHALL MAKE A GREAT MISS. HE SHALL FALL DOWN INTO THE PIT CALLED BECAUSE; AND THERE HE SHALL PERISH WITH THE DOGS OF REASON.

I note that Laotze makes no attempt to announce a Tao which is truly free from Teh. Teh is the necessary quality of Tao, even though Tao, withdrawing Teh into itself, seems to ignore the fact.

28: NOW A CURSE UPON BECAUSE AND HIS KIN!

29: MAY BECAUSE BE ACCURSED FOREVER!

30: IF WILL STOPS AND CRIES WHY, INVOKING BECAUSE, THEN WILL STOPS AND DOES NOUGHT.

31: IF POWER ASKS WHY, THEN IS POWER WEAKNESS.

If cause and effect are really inseparable, as they must be by definition, it is mere clumsiness to regard then as separate; they are two aspects of one single idea.

[AL] makes reason the autocrat of the mind. But that very fact emphasizes that the mind should attend to its own business. It should not transgress its limits.

...There is no "reason" why a star should continue in its orbit. Let her rip! ...Power should indeed be absolutely unconscious. Every athlete is aware that his skill, strength, and endurance depend on forbidding mind to meddle with muscle.

32: ALSO REASON IS A LIE; FOR THERE IS A FACTOR INFINITE & UNKNOWN, & ALL THEIR WORDS ARE SKEW-WISE.

The factor..is the unconscious will.

There are just as many odd numbers as there are numbers altogether.

Reason is no more than a set of rules developed by the race.

We cannot move the upper jaw; it does not follow that the idea of motion is ridiculous. The limitation hints rather that there may be an infinite variety of structures which the jaw cannot imagine.

33: ENOUGH OF BECAUSE! BE HE DAMNED FOR A DOG!

The only because in the lover's litany is "because I love you."

The secret of magick is to "enflame oneself in praying."

36: THERE ARE RITUALS OF THE ELEMENTS AND FEASTS OF THE TIMES.

The fear of death is one of the great weapons of tyrants, as well as their scourge; and it distorts our whole outlook upon the universe.

45: THERE IS DEATH FOR THE DOGS.

[Some] die in the real sense of the word...there is not enough body to them..to carry on the individuality. There is no basis for the magical memory if one's incarnation holds nothing worth remembe-ring.

46: DOST THOU FAIL? ART THOU SORRY? IS FEAR IN THINE HEART?

47: WHERE I AM THESE ARE NOT.

48: PITY NOT THE FALLEN. I AM NOT FOR THEM. I CONSOLE NOT. I HATE THE CONSOLED AND THE CONSOLER.

52: THERE IS A VEIL: THAT VEIL IS BLACK. IT IS THE VEIL OF THE MODEST WOMAN; IT IS THE VEIL OF SORROW, & THE PALL OF DEATH: THIS IS NONE OF ME. TEAR DOWN THAT LYING SPECTRE OF THE CENTURIES: VEIL NOT YOUR VICES IN VIRTUOUS WORDS: THESE VICES ARE MY SERVICE; YE DO WELL, & I WILL REWARD YOU HERE AND HEREAFTER.

Two-thirds of modern misery springs from woman's sexual dissatisfaction.

There are a number of people of shallow wit who do not believe in magick. This is doubtless partly due to the bad presentation of the subject by pervious masters. I have identified magick with the art of life. The transcendental superstructure will not overburden those who have laid this right foundation.

56: BEGONE! YE MOCKERS; EVEN THOUGH YE LAUGH IN MY HONOUR YE SHALL NOT LAUGH LONG: THEN WHEN YE ARE SAD KNOW THAT I HAVE FORSAKEN YOU.

The god...wants no reference, but identity.

57: HE THAT IS RIGHTEOUS SHALL BE RIGHTEOUS STILL; HE THAT IS FILTHY SHALL BE FILTHY STILL.

We are infinitely tolerant, save of intolerance...It is impossible to alter the ultimate nature of any being.

58: YEA! DEEM NOT OF CHANGE: YE SHALL BE AS YE ARE, & NOT OTHER. THEREFORE THE KINGS OF THE EARTH SHALL BE KINGS FOR EVER: THE SLAVES SHALL SERVE. THERE IS NONE THAT SHALL BE CAST DOWN OR LIFTED UP: ALL IS EVER AS IT WAS. YET THERE ARE MASKED ONES MY SERVANTS: IT MAY BE THAT YONDER BEGGAR IS A KING. A KING MAY CHOOSE HIS GARMENT AS HE WILL; THERE IS NO CERTAIN TEST; BUT A BEGGAR CANNOT HIDE HIS POVERTY.

Thus the vast bulk of humanity is obsessed by an abject fear of freedom...those people who cannot bear to imagine the horrors that would result if they were free to do their own wills. The sense of sin, shame, self-distrust, this is what makes folk cling to Christanity-slavery.

Men should not be taught to read or write unless they exhibit capacity or inclination...We should recognize the fact that the vast majority of human beings have no ambition beyond more ease and animal happiness...We do not insist on trying to train sheep to hunt foxes or lecture on history.

59: BEWARE THEREFORE! LOVE ALL, LEST PERCHANCE IS A KING CONCEALED! SAY YOU SO? FOOL! IF HE BE A KING, THOU CANST NOT HURT HIM.

60: THEREFORE STRIKE HARD AND LOW, AND TO HELL WITH THEM, MASTER!

61: THERE IS A LIGHT BEFORE THINE EYES, O PROPHET, A LIGHT UNDESIRED, MOST DESIRABLE.

63: THOU ART EXHAUST IN THE VOLUPTUOUS FULLNESS OF THE INSPIRATION; THE EXPIRATION IS SWEETER THAN DEATH, MORE RAPID AMD LAUGHTERFUL THAN A CARESS OF HELL'S OWN WORM.

70: THERE IS HELP AND HOPE IN OTHER SPELLS. WISDOM SAYS: BE STRONG! THEN CANST THOU BEAR MORE JOY. BE NOT ANIMAL; REFINE THY RAPTURE! IF THOU DRINK, DRINK BY THE EIGHT AND NINETY RULES OF ART: IF THOU LOVE, EXCEED BY DELICACY; AND IF THOU DO AUGHT JOYOUS, LET THERE BE SUBTLETY THEREIN!

The end justifies the means...There is obviously a limit, where "the means" in any case are such that their use blasphemes "the end".

This being understood, then, we cannot call any passion good or bad absolutely, any more than we can call Knight to King's Fifth a good or bad move in chess without study of the position.

71: BUT EXCEED! EXCEED!

The key of evolution is right variation.

72: STRIVE EVER TO MORE! AND IF THOU ART TRULY MINE - AND DOUBT IT NOT, AND IF THOU ART EVER JOYOUS! - DEATH IS THE CROWN OF ALL.

...for a life which has fulfilled all its possibilities ceases to have a purpose; death is its diploma, so to speak.

[Three-fold symbol of Scorpio:]

the serpent that renews itself by shedding its skin, that is crowned and hooded, that moves by undulations like light, that gives man wisdom at the price of toil, suffering and mortality; and the eagle that soars, its lidless eyes bent boldly upon the sun. Death is, to the initiate, an inn by the wayside; it offers refres-hment, repose, and advise as to his plans for the morrow.

73: AH! AH! DEATH! DEATH! THO SHALT LONG FOR DEATH. DEATH IS FORBIDDEN, O MAN, UNTO THEE.

74: THE LENGTH OF THY LONGING SHALL BE THE STRENGTH OF ITS GLORY. HE THAT LIVES LONG AND DESIRES DEATH MUCH IS EVER THE KING AMONG THE KINGS.

... all life being magick, all death, mysticism.

77: O BE THOU PROUD AND MIGHTY AMONG MEN!

78: ...THEY SHALL WORSHIP THY NAME, FOURSQUARE, MYSTIC, WONDERFUL, THE NUMBER OF THE MAN AND THE NAME OF THY HOUSE 418.

79: THE END OF THE HIDING OF HADIT; AND BLESSING & WORSHIP TO THE PROPHET OF THE LOVELY STAR!

PART THREE

1: ABRAHADABRA;THE REWARD OF RA-HOOR KHUT.

2: THERE IS A DIVISION HITHER HOMEWARD; THERE IS A WORD NOT KNOWN. SPELLING IS DEFUNCT; ALL IS NOT AUGHT. BEWARE! HOLD! RAISE THE SPELL OF RA-HOOR-KHUIT!

3: NOW LET IT FIRST BE UNDERSTOOD THAT I AM A GOD OF WAR AND OF VENGEAN-CE. I SHALL DEAL HARDLY WITH THEM.

...merely one who shall cause men to do their own wills by going as Gods do, instead of trying to check the irresistable course of nature. [Island, weapons etc] This is a practical instruction; and as a "military secret" is not in any way whatsoever to be disclosed. I say only that the plans are complete, and that the first nation to accept the Law of Thelema shall, by my counsel, become the sole mistress of the world.

11: LET THE WOMAN BE GIRT WITH A SWORD BEFORE ME: LET THE BLOOD FLOW TO MY NAME. TRAMPLE DOWN THE HEATHEN; BE UPON THEM, O WARRIOR, I WILL GIVE YOU OF THEIR FLESH TO EAT!

16: DEEM NOT TOO EAGERLY TO CATCH THE PROMISES; FEAR NOT TO UNDERGO THE CURSES. YE, EVEN YE, KNOW NOT THIS MEANING ALL.

17: FEAR NOT AT ALL; FEAR NEITHER MAN, NOR FATES, NOR GODS, NOR ANYTHING. MONEY FEAR NOT, NOR LAUGHTER OF THE FOLK FOLLY, NOR ANY POWER IN HEAVEN OR UPON THE EARTH, OR UNDER THE EARTH. NUT IS YOUR REFUGE AS HADIT YOUR LIGHT; AND I AM THE STRENGTH, FORCE, VIGOUR OF YOUR ARMS.

18: MERCY LET BE OFF: DAMN THEM WHO PITY! KILL AND TORTURE; SPARE NOT; BE UPON THEM!

There is a DEFINITE PSYCHOLOGICAL PHENOMENON which accompanies any important discovery. It is like first love, at first sight, to the one; like the recognition of a law of nature, to the other....the right key opens the safe in a second, so simply and smoothly as to make it ridiculous to doubt that the lock was made by a master-smith to respond to that key and no other.

20: WHY? BECAUSE OF THE FALL OF BECAUSE, THAT HE IS NOT THERE AGAIN.

22: THE OTHER IMAGES GROUP AROUND ME TO SUPPORT ME: LET ALL BE WORSHIPPED, FOR THEY SHALL CLUSTER TO EXALT ME. I AM THE VISIBLE OBJECT OF WORSHIP; THE OTHERS ARE SECRET.

Our religion, therefore, for the people, is the cult of the Sun, who is our particular star of the Body of Nuit, from who, in the strictest scientific sense, come this earth, a chilled spark of Him, and all our light and life.

34: BUT YOUR HOLY PLACE SHALL STAND UNTOUCHED THROUGHOUT THE CENTURIES: THOUGH WITH FIRE AND SWORD IT BE BURNT DOWN & SHATTERED, YET AN INVISIBLE HOUSE THERE STANDETH, AND SHALL STAND UNTIL THE FALL OF THE GREAT EQUINOX; WHEN HRUMACHIS SHALL ARISE AND THE DOUBLE-WANDED ONE ASSUME MY THRONE AND PLACE. ANOTHER PROPHET SHALL ARISE, AND BRING FRESH FEVER FROM THE SKIES; ANOTHER WOMAN SHALL AWAKE THE LUST AND WORSHIP OF THE SNAKE; ANOTHER SOUL OF GOD AND BEAST SHALL MINGLE IN THE GLOBED PRIEST; ANOTHER SACRIFICE SHALL STAIN THE TOMB; ANOTHER KING SHALL REIGN; AND BLESSING NO LONGER BE POURED TO THE HAWK-HEADED MYSTICAL LORD!

[The three ages] ..the Equinox of Osiris; when sorrow and death are the principal objects of man's thought, and his magical formula is that of sacrifice.

37: UNITY UTTERMOST SHOWED! I ADORE THE MIGHT OF THY BREATH,

SUPREME AND TERRIBLE GOD, WHO MAKEST THE GODS AND DEATH

TO TREMBLE BEFORE THEE: - I, I ADORE THEE!

APPEAR ON THE THRONE OF RA! OPEN THE WAYS OF THE KHU!

LIGHTEN THE WAYS OF THE KA! THE WAYS OF THE KHABS RUN THROUGH

TO STIR ME OR STILL ME! AUM! LET IT FILL ME!

38: SO THAT THY LIGHT IS IN ME & ITS RED FLAME IS AS A SWORD IN MY HAND TO PUSH THY ORDER. THERE IS A SECRET DOOR THAT I SHALL MAKE TO ESTABLISH THY WAY IN ALL THE QUARTERS...

42: REFUSE NONE, BUT THOU SHALT KNOW AND DESTROY THE TRAITORS. SUCCESS IS THY PROOF: ARGUE NOT; CONVERT NOT; TALK NOT OVERMUCH! THEM THAT SEEK TO ENTRAP THEE, TO OVERTHROW THEE, THEM ATTACK WITHOUT PITY OR QUARTER; & DESTROY THEM UTTERLY. SWIFT AS THE TRODDEN SERPENT TURN AND STRIKE! BE THOU DEADLIER THAN HE! DRAG DOWN THEIR SOULS TO AWFUL TORMENT: LAUGH AT THEIR FEAR: SPIT UPON THEM!

46: I AM THE WARRIOR LORD OF THE FORTIES: THE EIGHTIES COWER BEFORE ME, AND ARE ABASED...SUCCESS IS YOUR PROOF; COURAGE IS YOUR ARMOUR.

47: THEN THIS LINE DRAWN IS A KEY: THEN THIS CIRCLE SQUARED IN ITS FAILURE IS A KEY ALSO. AND ABRAHADABRA. IT SHALL BE HIS CHILD AND THAT STRANGELY. LET HIM NOT SEEK AFTER THIS; FOR THEREBY ALONE CAN HE FALL FROM IT.

49: I AM IN A SECRET FOURFOLD WORD, THE BLASPHEMY AGAINST ALL GODS OF MEN.

"Do what thou wilt", which is a secret word because its meaning for every man is his own inmost secret. And it is the most profound blasphemy against all "gods of men" because it makes very man his own God.

50: CURSE THEM! CURSE THEM! CURSE THEM!

51: WITH MY HAWK'S HEAD I PECK AT THE EYES OF JESS AS HE HANGS UPON THE CROSS.

Ths it is the eyes of 'Jesus" - his point of view - that must be destroyed; and this POV is wrong because of his magical gesture of self-sacrifice.

52: I FLAP MY WINGS IN THE FACE OF MOHAMMED & AND BLIND HIM.

53: WITH MY CLAWS I TEAR OUT THE FLESH OF THE INDIAN AND BUDDHIST, MONGOL AND DIN.

54: BAHLASTI! OMPEHDA! I SPIT ON YOUR CRAPULOUS CREEDS.

55: LET MARY INVIOLATE BE TORN UPON WHEELS: FOR HER SAKE LET ALL CHASTE WOMEN BE UTTERLY DESPISED AMONG YOU!

But apparently she is all right just so far as she is open, to enter or to leave at one's pleasure, the gateway of eternal life... The great obstacle then is if that door be locked up. Therefore Our Lady must be symbolized as a whore...Now the semen is God...-because he goes in at the door, stays there for a specified period, and comes out again, having flowered, and still bearing in him that seed of going.

Moreover, there is Mary, a blasphemy against Babalon, for she hath shut herself up; and therefore is she the queen of all those wicked devils that walk upon the earth, those that thou sawest even as little black speaks that stained the heaven of Urania. All these are the excrement of Chorozon.

She has been trampled thus through all the ages, and she hath tamed them thus. Her silence was the token of her triumph.

"Mary inviolate" is to be "torn upon wheels" because tearing is the only treatment for her; and RV, a wheel, is the name of the feminine principle. It is her own sisters who are to punish her for the crime of denying her nature.

I see thee, woman; thou standest alone; High Priestess art thou unto love at the altar of life. And man is the victim therein. ...There is a cry in an unknown tongue. It resounds through the temple of the universe; in its one word is death and ecstasy, and thy title of honour, o thou, to thyself High Priestess, Prophetess, Empress, to thyself the Goddess whose name means mother and whore!

56: ALSO FOR BEAUTY'S SAKE AND LOVE'S!

Spontaneity, the most important factor in creation, because it is evidence of the magnetic intensity and propriety of the will to create, depends wholly on the absolute freedom of the agent. ...Practically all men work with fear of result or lust of result, and the "child" is a dwarf or still-born. ..The child of love is a star, even as all are stars; but such a one we especially cherish; it is a trophy of battle fought and won!

57: DESPISE ALSO ALL COWARDS; PROFESSIONAL SOLDIERS WHO DARE NOT FIGHT, BUT PLAY: ALL FOOLS DESPISE!

"Jesus" himself in the legend, "set his face as flint to go to Jerusalem," with the foreknowledge of his fate. But Christians have not emphasized that heroism since the crusades. The sloppy sentimental Jesus of the sunday school is the only survivor; and the war killed him, thank Ares!

...how should a man dare to fight unless his cause be a love mightier than his love of life?

..the "fool"...is an epicene creature, soft an scottish, with an imbecile laugh and a pretty taste in fancy waistcoats. He lacks virility, like the ox ...He is air, formless and incapable of resistance, carrier of sounds which mean nothing to it, swept up into destructive rages of senseless violence from its idleness...We have here a picture of the average man, of a fool. He has no will of his own, is all things to all men, is void, a repeater of words whose sense he knows nought, a drifter, both idle and violent, compact partly of fierce passions that burn up both himself and the other, but mostly of inert and characterless nonentity, with a little heaviness, dullness, and stupefaction for his only positive qualities.

"The proud": these are men who know themselves to be stars, and bend the knee to none. True pride prevents a man from doing aught unworthy of himself.

59: AS BROTHERS FIGHT YE!

[Reference to legends of Cain and Abel etc:] The "elder brother" within us, the Silent Self, must slay the younger brother, the conscious self, and he must be raised again incorruptible.

60: THERE IS NO LAW BEYOND DO WHAT THOU WILT.

Man has the right to kill thoe who would thwart these rights.

61: THERE IS AN END TO THE WORD OF THE GOD ENTHRONED IN RA'S SEAT, LIGHTENING THE GIRDERS OF THE SOUL.

These "girders" imply the skeletal strcture on which the soul is supported, the conditions of its incarnation...therefore limitat- ions to our thoght, as well as supports. In the same way, rails help a train to run easily, but confine it to a definite direction. The "laws" of nature and thought, mathematics, logic, and so on, are "girders" of this sort.

62: TO ME DO YE REVERENCE! TO ME COME YE THROUGH TRIBULATION OF ORDEAL, WHICH IS BLISS.

We have seen that Ra-Hoor-Kuit is in one sense the Silent Self in man, a name of his Khabs, not so impersonal as Hadit, but the first and least untrue formulation of the ego. We are to reverse this self in us, then, not to suppress it and subordinate it. Nor are we to evade it, but to come to it. This is done "through tribulation of ordeal". This tribulation is that experienced in the process called psychoanalysis... - the methods of the magus.

63: THE FOOL READETH THIS BOOK OF THE LAW, AND ITS COMMENT; & HE UNDERSTANDETH IT NOT.

64: LET HIM COME THROUGH THE FIRST ORDEAL, & IT WILL BE TO HIM AS SILVER.

65: THROUGH THE SECOND, GOLD.

66: THROUGH THE THIRD, STONES OF PRECIOUS WATER.

67: THROUGH THE FOURTH, ULTIMATE SPARKS OF THE INTIMATE FIRE.

64: He sees it pure, white and shining, the mirror of his own being that this ordeal has purged of its complexes. To reach this sphere he has to pass throgh a path of darkness where the four elements seem to him to be the universe entire. For how should he know that they are no more than the last of the 22 segments of the Snake that is twined on the Tree?

66: Now to this sphere came he by the Path called the High Priestess; She is his Silent Self, virgin beyond all veils, made free to teach him... And so he knows at last how the soiled harlot's dress was mere disguise; naked in moonlight shines the maiden body.

67: Here is no Path that he may tread, for all is equally every-where; nor is ther any sphere to attain, for measure is now no more.

70: I AM THE HAWK-HEADED LORD OF SILENCE & OF STRENGTH; MY NEMYSIS SHROUDS THE NIGHT-BLUE SKY.

71: HAIL! YE TWIN WARRIORS ABOUT THE PILLARS OF THE WORLD! FOR YOUR TIME IS NIGH AT HAND.

72: I AM THE LORD OF THE DOUBLE WAND OF POWER; THE WAND OF THE FORCE OF COPH NIA - BUT MY LEFT HAND IS EMPTY, FOR I HAVE CRUSHED A UNIVERSE; & NOUGHT REMAINS.

I think "the pillars of the world" mean "the Pillars of Hercules" - about the straits of Gibraltar. And I think the really big war will start there. P.S. Sept 8, 1937, e.v: Can "Twin warriors" imply a CIVIL war? The Spanish troubles started in southern Spain and Morocco.

74: THERE IS A SPLENDOUR IN MY NAME HIDDEN AND GLORIOUS AS THE SUN OF MIDNIGHT IS EVER THE SON.

75: THE ENDING OF THE WORDS IN THE WORD ABRAHADABRA. THE BOOK OF THE LAW IS WRITTEN AND CONCEALED. AUM. H