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Page 1 of 31996 · PDF PAGE 166
…e” when one recognizes anyone as a potential king by accepting his hospitality. An alternative meaning is “in their honour.” 40. But the work of the comment? That is easy; and Hadit burning in thy heart shall make swift and secure thy pen. 41. Establish at thy Kaaba a clerk-house: all must be done well and with business way. 42. The ordeals thou shalt oversee thyself, save only the blind ones. Refuse none, but thou shalt know & destroy the traitors. I am Ra-Hoor-Khuit; and I am powerful to protect my servant. Success is thy proof: argue not; co…
1996 · PDF PAGE 215
…o drink at them, it is the Law to give. Then they shall chance to abide in this bliss or no; it is no odds. Do this quickly! 40. But the work of the comment? That is easy; and Hadit burn ing in thy heart shall make swift and secure thy pen. 41. Establish at thy Kaaba a clerk-house: all must be done well and with business way. 42. The ordeals thou shalt oversee thyself, save only the blind ones. Refuse none, but thou shalt know & destroy the trai tors. I am Ra-Hoor-Khuit; and I am powerful to protect my servant. Success is thy proof: argue not…
1996 · PDF PAGE 147
…n the larger scale, all Life being Magick, all Death Mysticism. Then why is Death “forbidden”? All things are surely lawful. But we must work without “lust of result,” taking everything as it comes without desire indeed, but with all manner of delight! Let thy Love-Madrigal to Death, thy Mother-Mistress, ripple and swell throughout the years, with all the Starry Heaven for thine Orchestra; but do not imagine that to attain Her is the sole satis faction. It is the yearning itself that is Beatitude. It may seem that in this verse the word “Death…
1996 · PDF PAGE 305
…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 improbable means of communication as difficult to accept as most intelligent readers will today. Yet he could not ignore it or its message, and eventually concluded that it stood as conclusive proof of the underlying assumption of all religion — that …
1996 · PDF PAGE 107
…infinity made manifest, mood after mood, by her magick to mould him when his passion makes molten her metal. Thus then must every Artist work. First, he must find himself. Next, he must find the form that is fitted to express himself. Next, he must love that form, as a form, adoring it, understanding it, and mastering it with most minute attention, until it (as it seems) adapts itself to him with eager elasticity, and answers accurately and aptly, with the unconscious automatism of an organ perfected by evolution, to his most subtle suggestion,…
1996 · PDF PAGE 8
…E. M. Butler, April 1, 1946, unpublished. Crowley arranged for John W. (Jack) Parsons of the American o.T.o. to commission the editorial work on the commentaries, on behalf of the Order. This accomplished, he then introduced Wilkinson to Eliza M. Butler of Newnham College, Cambridge, an academic acquaintance.3 His letter of introduction, though half-joking, reveals his attitude to the work: Some 25 years ago I wrote a Commentary on The Book of the Law — over a quarter of a million words of the most tur gid and incomprehensible hogwash ever pen…
1996 · PDF PAGE 134
…of hierarchy. There is an external hierarchy, of course, but that is only a matter of convenience. 66. Write, & find ecstasy in writing! Work, & be our bed in working! Thrill with the joy of life & death! Ah! thy death shall be lovely: whoso seeth it shall be glad. Thy death shall be the seal of the promise of our agelong love. Come! lift up thine heart & rejoice! We are one; we are none. Commentary: The first part of this text appears to be a digression in the nature of a prophecy. The word “Come!” is a summons to reenter the full Trance. Its …
1996 · PDF PAGE 75
76 The Law is for All The second paragraph is perhaps in answer to some unspoken thought of my own that my work was accomplished. No: though I be “of the princes” with the right to enter into my reward, it is my destiny to continue my Work.1 1 “assuage thee”: satisfy thine aspiration to attainment, “absolve thee”: relieve thee from further duty. 54. Change not as much as the style of a letter; for behold! thou, o prophet, shalt not behold all these mysteries hidden therein. Commentary: The subject changes most abruptly, perhaps answering some u…
1996 · PDF PAGE 151
…nx, the trembling hollow reed which needs but Breath to fill the world with Music, attracts Pan, the Goat-God of Ecstatic Lust, by whose Work the glory of Summer is established anew. It is obvious that “The length of thy longing” varies with the number of potentialities to be satisfied. In other words, the more complex the Khu of the Star, the greater the man, and the keener his sense of his own imperfections of the scope of his work, and of his need to achieve it. 75. Aye! listen to the numbers & the words: 76. 4638ABK24ALGMOR3YX24 89RPSTOV A …
1996 · PDF PAGE 38
… thereupon by the wisdom of Ra-Hoor-Khu-it. [See The Comment on page 284.] 37. Also the mantras and spells; the obeah and the wanga; the work of the wand and the work of the sword; these he shall learn and teach. Commentary: Each star is unique, and each orbit apart; indeed, that is the cornerstone of my teaching, to have no stan dard goals or standard ways, no orthodoxies and no codes. The stars are not herded and penned and shorn and made into mutton like so many voters! I decline to be bellwether, who am born a Lion! I will not be collie, w…
1996 · PDF PAGE 200
…here be folly, he shall comment thereupon by the wisdom of Ra-Hoor-Khu-it. 37. Also the mantras and spells; the obeah and the wanga; the work of the wand and the work of the sword; these he shall learn and teach. 38. He must teach; but he may make severe the ordeals. 39. The word of the Law is OeXrjfia. 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.
1996 · PDF PAGE 31
…thout whose sphere is Light or “God.” Our minds and bodies are veils of the Light within. The uninitiate is a “Dark Star,” and the Great Work for him is to make his veils transparent by “puri fying” them. This “purification” is really “simplification”; it is not that the veil is dirty, but that the complexity of its folds makes it opaque. The Great Work therefore consists principally in the solution of complexes. Everything in itself is perfect, but when things are muddled, they become “evil.” (This will be understood better in the Light of “T…
1996 · PDF PAGE 161
…k has destroyed the eyesight, putrefied the mind, and deluded the passions, of the multitude.) For machines are dodges for avoiding Hard Work; and Hard Work is the salvation of the race. In The Time Machine, H.G. Wells draws an admirable picture of a dichotomized humanity, one branch etiolated and inane, the other brutalized and automatic. Machines have already nearly completed the destruction of individual craftsmanship. A man is no longer a worker, but a machine-feeder. The product is standardized; the result mediocrity. Nobody can obtain Wha…
1996 · PDF PAGE 10
…year that relied on a 1926 typescript entitled “An Extenu ation to the Book of the Law”; he was quietly assisted by Gerald Yorke in his work.1 Each edition had its merits, but neither addressed the many editorial inconsistencies that had accumu lated in such a complex and technical work, written over many years, especially one that had been shunned by its author. 1 The Law is for All (St. Paul: Llewellyn Publications, 1975); reprinted by New Falcon Publications. Regardie’s title The Law is for All has been retained, not only for the practical…
1996 · PDF PAGE 7
…gree synony mous with sexual magick; honorary or not, it was fully deserved. Wilkinson was a fair and perceptive critic of his friend’s work. The following assessment shows at once why Crowley chose Wilkinson as his editor, and explains the problems encountered in editing the present book: He has no “vulgar sense”; having written for so long out of the ken of the general reader, he has forgotten that the gen eral reader is not a specialist. The result is that, even in his lighter work, there are often certain references and words which the ge…
1996 · PDF PAGE 9
… 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: Village Press, 1974), p. 192n. 3 An exemplary executor, Wilkinson managed the English side of Crow ley’s complex affairs virtu…
1996 · PDF PAGE 302
…dence of 43 freedom of 174-177 oppression of, by men 42,53,172- 178,180-181 political power of 128 souls of 172.180 wonder, vision of 79 work, value of 162 World War I 188 yoga 46,116 yoni 29 Zeus 30 Zeus Arrhenothelus 30 zodiac 93 double loop in the 78
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 163
…strong in war. 29. Moreover, be they long kept, it is better; for they swell with my force. All before me. 30. My altar is of open brass work: bum thereon in silver or gold!
1996 · PDF PAGE 213
…strong in war. 29. Moreover, be they long kept, it is better; for they swell with my force. All before me. 30. My altar is of open brass work: burn thereon in silver or gold! 31. There cometh a rich man from the West who shall pour his gold upon thee. 32. From gold forge steel! 33. Be ready to fly or to smite! 34. But your holy place shall be 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…