(MY THANKS TO THE INTERNATIONAL OTO FOR PERMISSION TO USE THE FULL TEXT OF LIBER AL LEGIS IN THIS WORK)

Thelema - a brief introduction
The religion known as Thelema was founded in 1904 by the English poet and mystic Aleister Crowley (1875 - 1947). The most important book of the Thelemic canon is Liber AL vel Legis, sub figura CCXX, commonly called The Book of The Law. The contents of this book are rather cryptic, and Crowley has prepared a number of commentaries for clarification, such as The Law is for All. Each individual is expected to interpret the book for themselves, but are enjoined from promoting their personal interpretations to others.

The theology of Thelema postulates all manifested existence arising from the interaction of two cosmic principles: the infinitely extended, all-pervading Space-Time Continuum; and the atomic, individually expressed Principle of Life and Wisdom. The interplay of these Principles gives rise to the Principle of Consciousness which governs existence. In the Book of the Law, the divine Principles are personified by a trinity of ancient Egyptian Divinities: Nuit, the Goddess of Infinite Space; Hadit, the Winged Serpent of Light; and Ra-Hoor-Khuit (Horus), the Solar, Hawk-Headed Lord of the Cosmos.

(For more on Thelema and the Book of the Law, please go to www.thelema.co.uk from which site this brief text was taken.)

The Book of the Law - background
Crowley wrote the Book of the Law on the 8th, 9th and 10th April 1904, between the hours of noon and 1:00pm. The Book was dictated to Crowley by an entity calling itself Aiwass, the minister of Hoor-paar-kraat (one of the forms of the Egyptian god Horus). He describes the “Voice of Aiwass” as coming from over his left shoulder, as if the speaker were standing in the corner of the room. The voice was said to be passionate, of deep timbre, and musical, without any recognizable accent.

Although he did not look around the room, Crowley had the impression that Aiwass was a body of “fine matter” like a “veil of gauze.” He further describes Aiwass as 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” (Crowley, 1997).

Crowley also makes it very clear that it was not “automatic writing,” but that the experience was exactly like an actual voice speaking to him. This is evidenced by several errors that the scribe actually had to inquire about. He does admit to the possibility that Aiwass was a manifestation of his own subconscious. But even were this so, he claimed that the message imparted by Aiwass was so beyond human experience or knowledge that it necessitated a praeternatural intelligence that only a god could possess.

(text taken from www.thelemapedia.org, another great source of reliable information on Crowley and Thelema.)