The Book of The Law

The Book Of The Law

Liber AL vel Legis is the central sacred text of Thelema, written by Aleister Crowley, who claimed it was dictated to him by a discarnate entity named "Aiwass".

The full title of the book is Liber AL vel Legis, sub figura CCXX, as delivered by XCIII=418 to DCLXVI, and it is commonly referred to as The Book of the Law. Through the reception of this book, Crowley proclaimed the arrival of a new stage in the spiritual evolution of humanity, to be known as the "Æon of Horus". The primary precept of this new aeon is the charge to "Do what thou wilt".

The book contains three chapters, each of which was written down in one hour, beginning at noon, on 8 April 9 April, and 10 April in Cairo, Egypt, in the year 1904. Crowley says that the author was an entity named Aiwass, whom he later referred to as his personal Holy Guardian Angel (analogous to but not identical with "Higher Self"). Biographer Lawrence Sutin quotes private diaries that fit this story, and writes that "if ever Crowley uttered the truth of his relation to the Book," his public account accurately describes what he remembered on this point. Occultist and former student of Crowley, Israel Regardie argued that Aiwass was an unconscious expression of Crowley's personality and that the book reflected Crowley's moral and religious values. Stylistic similarities between the Book of the Law and Crowley's other writings have also been noted.

Crowley himself wrote "Certain very serious questions have arisen with regard to the method by which this Book was obtained. I do not refer to those doubts --real or pretended --which hostility engenders, for all such are dispelled by study of the text; no forger could have prepared so complex a set of numerical and literal puzzles"

The original title of the book was Liber L vel Legis. Crowley retitled it Liber AL vel Legis in 1921, when he also gave the handwritten manuscript its own title, Liber XXXI.

(the full technical title of the manuscript is: "AL (Liber Legis), The Book of the Law, sub figura XXXI, as delivered by 93 - עויז - ΑιϜασς - 418 to תריון - ΤΟ ΜΕΓΑ ΘΗΡΙΟΝ 666".)

The book is often referred to simply as Liber AL, Liber Legis or just AL, though technically the latter two refer only to the manuscript.