The Book of the Law - by Debbie Elliott

Aleister Crowley, born Edward Alexander Crowley, was an English occultist, philosopher, ceremonial magician, poet, painter, novelist, and mountaineer.
door Tsenne Kikke - vrijdag 21 april 2023 14:40

It was on the 8th the 9th and the 10th of April in 1904 that “The Book of the Law” was written, its author none other than the infamous Aleister Crowley.

Aleister Crowley (12 October 1875 – Hastings, 1 December 1947), regarded by many as a black magician, wore many hats that included being an occultist. He was born in 1875 and as a young man he became known for being a great chess player as well as a competent mountaineer. He is best known for his books and workings on magic, and he specified that his dabbling in magic was different from all the other witches and magicians of that time. His form of magic was special even in the spelling-magick with a 'k'.

He married Rose Edith Kelly on the 12th of August 1903. They had their honeymoon in Egypt. The marriage was to last only a few years but Rose in the early years, was a big influence on his magical path. In 1904 their honeymoon took them to Egypt where they began to encounter high strangeness.

In Cairo at noon on each of the three days Crowley performed a magical ritual that put him in touch with an entity named 'Aiwass'. Originally the magical ritual was an attempt to invoke the God Horus, the Egyptian God that is the son of Osiris and Isis. The ritual Crowley was performing was to help him come into contact with his holy guardian Angel. To Aleister Crowley this was one’s higher self - or, as he termed it one’s ‘silent self’, yet later in his life he changed his thought and stated instead that this holy guardian Angel was indeed another being independent of oneself yet attached to one. This entity may be anyone or anything that now resided in different realms but that entity was there to help guide one if one was attuned to it like a holy guardian Angel watching over you.

“It should never be forgotten for a single moment that the central and essential work of the Magician is the attainment of the Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel. Once he has achieved this he must of course be left entirely in the hands of that Angel, who can be invariably and inevitably relied upon to lead him to the further great step - crossing of the Abyss and the attainment of the grade of Master of the Temple.”

Aleister Crowley completed this magical working and was able to make contact with this entity named Aiwass who dictated to him ‘The Book of the Law’ also known as 'Liber Al vel Legis'. The books were written as three chapters titled with Egyptian gods names.

Nuit – The goddess of the night and starry heavens

Hadit – which represents eternal energy, the infinite motion of things, the central core of all

Ra Hoor Khuit – the God of War and vengeance.

Aiwass dictated the book to Aleister Crowley approaching him from behind his left shoulder. The voice was “of deep timbre, musical and expressive, its tones solemn, voluptuous, tender, fierce or aught else as suited the moods of the message. Not bass - perhaps a rich tenor or baritone.” wrote Crowley and added that the voice was of not “native or foreign accent.’”

And Crowley described this being thus: “(Aiwass) seemed to be a tall, dark man in his thirties, well-knit, active and strong, with the face of a savage king, and eyes veiled lest their gaze should destroy what they saw. The dress was not Arab; it suggested Assyria or Persia, but very vaguely.

Crowley did consider that Aiwass was but a representative of his subconscious, yet he also doubted this. He writes: “Of course I wrote them, ink on paper, in the material sense; but they are not My words, unless Aiwaz be taken to be no more than my subconscious self, or some part of it: in that case, my conscious self being ignorant of the Truth in the Book and hostile to most of the ethics and philosophy of the Book, Aiwaz is a severely suppressed part of me.”

Crowley originally published ‘The Book of the Law’ in 1912 in the journal ‘The Equinox’, a journal published by Crowley, that was also written mostly by Crowley, and mainly promoted Crowley and his fictional writing and poetry as well as his magical works.

Crowley, at times, seemed unsure about the book. “I was trying to forget the whole business….The fact of the matter was that I resented The Book of the Law with my whole soul. For one thing, it knocked my Buddhism completely on the head. … I was bitterly opposed to the principles of the Book on almost every point of morality. The third chapter seemed to me gratuitously atrocious.”

Despite his moaning about the book and its creation, Crowley still found time to write two commentaries on it. Crowley wrote: “The Book of the Law annoyed me; I was still obsessed by the idea that secrecy was necessary to a magical document, that publication would destroy its importance. I determined, in a mood which I can only describe as a fit of ill temper, to publish The Book of the Law, and then get rid of it for ever.”

Yet ‘The Book of the Law’, due to its popularity, has been reprinted many times and is still read today by occultists, magicians and those intrigued in the writings of the man known as ‘The Beast’.

"Vind mensen, die in zichzelf zowel de motivatie als de aangeboren drijfveer hebben om aan hun Innerlijke Zelf te werken, en we zullen hen gidsen."

- DIMschool vzw, de énige gespecialiseerd in Zelfkennis, zijnde: het kennen van het Zelf -
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