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Page 1 of 31996 · PDF PAGE 286
… ence lists in which the papers appear. Liber CCXX first appeared in (29), later appearing in (9.j), with principal editions prepared by Crowley issued as (10), (5), and (6). Many other editions appeared after Crowley’s death; (30) and (3) include Liber CCXX and are of particular impor tance. Liber XXXI first appeared in (9.g), later appearing (with the “short” 1-page Comment) as (1) and in (10); it first appeared with new photography in (4). The Old Commentary first appeared in (9.g), and appears with the New Commentary in (19), (15), and in …
1996 · PDF PAGE 305
$16.95 LIS• Esoteric Philosophy / Religion Aleister Crowley The Law is for All The Authorized Popular Commentary to The Book of the Law Edited by Louis Wilkinson and Hymenaeus Beta Aleister Crowley’s life and thought are inexorably linked with The Book of the Law (Liber AL velLegis sub figura CCXX). He was not the author of this short, prophetic text. He received this visionary work by direct-voice dictation from a preterhuman, possibly discarnate intelligence in Cairo in 1904. Crowley was an intelligent sceptic, and at first found this improba…
1996 · PDF PAGE 9
…sistance, if any, Professor Butler gave to Wilkinson, but he quickly produced a first draft in 1946 e.v. It is reasonable to assume that Crowley reviewed the result, as a copy was found among his papers. Wilkinson made heavy cuts, but his selection brought the work into better balance and focus.1 1 Based on the pagination of the present edition, Chapter I was cut from 114 to 64 pages, Chapter II from 79 to 67 pages, and Chapter III from 49 to 35 pages. 2 It was however uncirculated. See John Cowper Powys, Letters to Louis Wilkinson (London: Vil…
1996 · PDF PAGE 22
…Amalantrah” etc. (Samuel bar Aiwaz)5 identifies them 1 The Proton and the Electron, in a metaphysical sense, suggest close analogies. 2 [Crowley’s diary for 1920 E.v. was published in The Magical Record of the Beast 666, ed. John Symonds and Kenneth Grant (London: Duck worth and Montréal: Next Step/93 Publishing, 1972).] 3 [Crowley, Liber CXI vel Aleph, The Book of Wisdom or Folly. See Works Cited.] 4 [Crowley, “The Soldier and the Hunchback.” See Works Cited.] 5 [Amalantrah is a discarnate adept with whom Crowley was in astral contact. Samuel…
1996 · PDF PAGE 11
12 The Law is for All one-page “Class A” inspired Comment, received by Crowley in 1925, has been added. I wish to thank my friend Oliver Marlow Wilkinson, Louis Wilkinson’s son, for his encouragement and support in seeing his father’s work completed. Thanks are also due to Jack Parsons’ widow, the late Cameron, and Scott Hobbs, executor for Cam eron and the Parsons estate, for the generous gift of the Wilkinson typescript. Thanks are due to Richard W. Gernon ix° o.T.o., who bequeathed a typescript of the commentaries to the Order on his death.…
1996 · PDF PAGE 7
…hrases, a reader’s guide and a small classical dictionary will be useful references for some readers. By Wilkinson’s own account, he and Crowley rarely discussed Magick, but they shared a deep-seated impatience with sexual hypocrisy, and a willingness to openly defy society’s strictures. Wilkinson’s own views are lucidly set out in his introduction to this edition, and they help explain why Crowley made him a member of the ix° of Ordo Templi Orientis, the degree synony mous with sexual magick; honorary or not, it was fully deserved. Wilkinson …
1996 · PDF PAGE 293
…ieties of Religious Experience. London, 1902; rpt. Cambridge, ma: Harvard up, 1985; rev. ed. New York: Random House, 1993. Considered by Crowley to be “valuable as showing the uniformity of mystical attainment.” Jung, Carl Gustav. Psychology of the Unconscious, tr. Beatrice M. Hinkle New York: Moffat, Yard, and London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner, 1916. Revised and reissued as Symbols of Transformation (2nd ed. Princeton, nj: Princeton up, 1970). Lao-tzu. [T<zo Te Ching, in] The Texts of Taoism, Part i, trans. James Legge, Sacred Books of the E…
1996 · PDF PAGE 20
…b figura CCXX,” in OEAHMA [London: pri vately printed for initiates of A.'.A.'., 1909], vol. 3, and The Equinox 1(10) (1913), p. 9.] 2 [Crowley, Liber XXX /Erum ... The Vision and the Voice, 15th /Ethyr. See Works Cited.] 3 [Atu VIII, retitled “Adjustment” in Crowley’s The Book of Thoth (1944).] 21
1996 · PDF PAGE 6
Foreword Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law. The Book of the Law was the foundation of Aleister Crowley’s life’s work, and its commentaries a problem that vexed him for most of his adult life, almost since the book’s reception in 1904 E.v. His basic difficulty with producing a commentary was a lack of objectivity. He was too close to The Book of the Law, on too many levels, to be able to easily write about it, let alone judge what other people might find helpful by way of commentary. He made numerous attempts over the years, only t…
1996 · PDF PAGE 8
…Porson, or by half a dozen others, for that matter? Indeed, the scholar would be delighted; but no-one else would be. Another thing that Crowley has never realised is that readers are not, as a general rule, men and women of leisure and that they want things made reasonably quick and easy for them. He never troubles to condense for their benefit, he never does anything to save them time. In fact, he has never troubled to cultivate a single one of the practical, cunning tricks of the literary trade, and he never had any flair whatever for “what …
1996 · PDF PAGE 10
…umbered sections were reformatted; and pas sages introducing quotations from Liber Aleph required editing. A complete edition of all of Crowley’s commentaries, intended for scholars and magical students, is in preparation, and will be issued a few years hence by New Falcon Publications. A few additions have been made to the content of this edition. The Book of the Law is given again, without commentary, for convenience. Quotations in the commentaries have been con formed to that standard, and cited in the margins. A special index lists citati…
1996 · PDF PAGE 292
Works Cited 291 35 The Bible. Crowley notes that “The Hebrew and Greek Originals are of Qabalistic value. It contains also many magical apologues, and recounts many tales of folk-lore and magical rites.” 36 Blake, William. The Marriage of Heaven & Hell. London, c. 1790- 93; facs. ed., London and New York: Oxford up, 1975. In Blake’s Complete Writings, ed. Geoffrey Keynes (London and New York: Oxford up, 1974). Crowley noted that “the Writings of William O’Neill (Blake) [are] invaluable to all students.” 37 Carroll, Lewis. Alice in Wonderland. A…
1996 · PDF PAGE 288
… of a criticism of Bernard Shaw’s preface to Andro- cles and the Lion.” Published as (12). Also in (9.1). Published Editions by Aleister Crowley 1 Crowley, Aleister. AL, Liber Legis (The Book of the Law) sub fig ura XXXI. Tunis: privately printed, 1926. 2 ------------ . nwa [Berashith]. An Essay on Ontology with some Remarks on Ceremonial Magic. Paris: privately printed, 1903. In (7). 3 ------------ . Book 4. Frater Perdurabo and Soror Virakam [pseuds. for Crowley and Mary Desti Sturges], 2 vol. Part 1. Mysticism. London: Wieland, 1912. Part 2…
1996 · PDF PAGE 27
…t was republished in as Chapter 6 of “Genesis Libri AL” in The Equinox of the Gods (Book 4, Part /V).] 3 [Ouarda the Seer was Rose Edith Crowley (1874-1932), Crowley’s first wife and the first of a series of Scarlet Women. She assisted with the reception of The Book of the Law.] The unveiling is the Proclamation of the Truth previously explained, that the Body of Nuit occupies Infinite Space, so that every Star thereof is Whole in itself, an independent and absolute Unit. They differ as Carbon and Calcium differ, but each is a sim ple “immorta…
1996 · PDF PAGE 169
…nse of the obligation “reason ing” creatures have to God, with a sense of a debt to be discharged.] 2 [Four, not six, in the context of Crowley’s present discussion.] 3 [Crowley’s usual authority for etymology was Walter Skeat, who gives *mer (not *mr) as the “Indogermanic” (Indoeuropean) root underly ing death-words, giving as an example the Sanskrit mr-ta. Skeat was actually skeptical of a connection between death and sea, deriving the latter from the Teutonic root *mari (in “modern” Indoeuropean, *mori). Cf. Skeat, Etymological Dictionary;…
1996 · PDF PAGE 150
… complain that I must go into the fight unfurnished? 1 [Joseph Smith (1805-1844), Mormon prophet who produced The Book of Mormon (1830); Crowley admired his accomplishments.] 2 In previous notes. See also the essay “Time”: Crowley, Collected Works, Vol. II, pp. 267-82. 74. The length of thy longing shall be the strength of its glory. He that lives long & desires death much is ever the King among the Kings. Commentary: One'does not need to be constantly popping in and out of Trance. One ought to do both actions with ever- increasing length and s…
1996 · PDF PAGE 111
…lf is unrighteous? 1 [Matthew Arnold, Literature and Dogma: An Essay Towards a Better Apprehension of the Bible (1896), p. 348; emphasis Crowley’s. See also Crowley, Book 4, Part III, rev. ed., p. 141.]
1996 · PDF PAGE 97
…6) put his writing hand (with which he had signed his recantation and confes sion) into the fire, saying “this hand hath offended.”] 2 [Crowley gave “me” as capitalized in the Tss., but it is uncapitalized in both Liber CCXX and the ms. Here and on p. 99 below the commen tary has been conformed to Liber CCXX (giving “me” rather than “Me”). Crowley’s theories relating to capitalization are affected.] 12. Because of me in Thee which thou knewest not. Commentary: The use of capitals “me”1 2 and “Thee” empha sizes that Hadit was wholly manifeste…
1996 · PDF PAGE 13
…cations of the validity of these communications: the Commentary on verse nine teen of the third Chapter.1 1 [See pp. 157-161 below.] 2 [Crowley considered the number 31 to yield three keys to Liber Legis: the word al (a =1, l = 30; Heb. bx, “god”), la (Heb. xb, “not”), and a third key involving the formula shT = ©. 93 is the numeration of thelema (Grk. deXrjgia, “will”) and agape (Grk. ayairr], “love”), as well as the name Aiwaz in Hebrew (FTP). See Crowley, Book 4, Parts I-IV, rev. ed., passim.] One of the first and most important points to b…
1996 · PDF PAGE 12
…ears and hand. His mind is certainly superior to my own in knowledge and in power, for He has dominated me and taught me ever since.1 1 [Crowley, Commentary to AL 111:19, p. 161 below.] 2 [Quotations from Liber Legis are cited by chapter and verse in the margins throughout this edition, except when occurring in that section of the Commentary where the verse quoted is the subject.] But the writer from this dictation was not, at the time, in sympathy with this “intelligence.” Aiwaz, in fact, was dictating to a hostile scribe; to one who was force…