Home · Book Reports · 2017 · The Book of the Law - Liber AL Vel Legis Sub Figura CCXX as Delivered by XCIII = 418 to DCLXVI

Published: March 23, 2017

Tags: Culture · Occult · Oligarchy · Propaganda · Psyop

Author :: Aleister Crowley

Publication Year :: 1904

Read Date :: 2017-03-23

Source :: Aleister_Crowley_- Book_of_the_Law.pdf

The book in...

One sentence:

Crowley channeled some gods in Egypt, but it feels like an encrypted message.

Five sentences:

The text contains many numbers, mentions mathematical operations and an equation; it feels like encryption. At one point there is a 'random' string of characters and numbers, 4 6 3 8 A B K 2 4 A L G M O R 3 Y X 24 89 R P S T O V A L. Some of the main recurring themes deal ambiguously with hedonism and anti-reason. Additionally, death is worshipped alongside ideals such that compassion is a weakness and the weak should be crushed. It seems to portend the decline into narcissistic consumer culture quite well.

designates my notes. / designates important.

This book was used as part of a recruitment “game” by Cicada 3301 (hacker group).
It was the book used as a book cypher in the game. The clue was ~“a book that should be destroyed after first reading” or similar.
Upon first read it seems like a cryptographic text. Lots of numbers and talk of mathematical operations and equations. (not to mention the “random” letters and numbers)

CHAPTER 1

Help me, o warrior lord of Thebes, in my unveiling before the Children of men!
Let my servants be few & secret: they shall rule the many & the known.
Come forth, o children, under the stars, & take your fill of love!
I am above you and in you. My ecstasy is in yours. My joy is to see your joy.
The key of the rituals is in the secret word which I have given unto him.
I am Nuit, and my word is six and fifty.
Divide, add, multiply, and understand.
This is the creation of the world, that the pain of division is as nothing, and the joy of dissolution all.
But she said: the ordeals I write not: the rituals shall be half known and half concealed: the Law is for all.
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.
The word of Sin is Restriction. O man! refuse not thy wife, if she will! O lover, if thou wilt, depart! There is no bond that can unite the divided but love: all else is a curse. Accursèd! Accursèd be it to the æons! Hell.
Nothing is a secret key of this law. Sixty-one the Jews call it; I call it eight, eighty, four hundred & eighteen.
But they have the half: unite by thine art so that all disappear.

There is a word to say about the Hierophantic task. Behold! there are three ordeals in one, and it may be given in three ways. The gross must pass through fire; let the fine be tried in intellect, and the lofty chosen ones in the highest. Thus ye have star & star, system & system; let not one know well the other!

Expect him not from the East, nor from the West; for from no expected house cometh that child. Aum! All words are sacred and all prophets true; save only that they understand a little; solve the first half of the equation, leave the second unattacked. But thou hast all in the clear light, and some, though not all, in the dark.
My number is 11, as all their numbers who are of us. The Five Pointed Star, with a Circle in the Middle, & the circle is Red. My colour is black to the blind, but the blue & gold are seen of the seeing. Also I have a secret glory for them that love me.

CHAPTER 2

For I am perfect, being Not; and my number is nine by the fools; but with the just I am eight, and one in eight: Which is vital, for I am none indeed. The Empress and the King are not of me; for there is a further secret.
I am The Empress & the Hierophant. Thus eleven, as my bride is eleven.
These are dead, these fellows; they feel not. We are not for the poor and sad: the lords of the earth are our kinsfolk.
We have nothing with the outcast and the unfit: let them die in their misery. For they feel not. Compassion is the vice of kings: stamp down the wretched & the weak: this is the law of the strong: this is our law and the joy of the world. Think not, o king, upon that lie: That Thou Must Die: verily thou shalt not die, but live. Now let it be understood: If the body of the King dissolve, he shall remain in pure ecstasy for ever. Nuit! Hadit! Ra-Hoor-Khuit! The Sun, Strength & Sight, Light; these are for the servants of the Star & the Snake.
I am the Snake that giveth Knowledge & Delight and bright glory, and stir the hearts of men with drunkenness. To worship me take wine and strange drugs whereof I will tell my prophet, & be drunk thereof! They shall not harm ye at all. It is a lie, this folly against self. The exposure of innocence is a lie. Be strong, o man! lust, enjoy all things of sense and rapture: fear not that any God shall deny thee for this.
Behold! these be grave mysteries; for there are also of my friends who be hermits. Now think not to find them in the forest or on the mountain; but in beds of purple, caressed by magnificent beasts of women with large limbs, and fire and light in their eyes, and masses of flaming hair about them; there shall ye find them. Ye shall see them at rule, at victorious armies, at all the joy; and there shall be in them a joy a million times greater than this. Beware lest any force another, King against King! Love one another with burning hearts; on the low men trample in the fierce lust of your pride, in the day of your wrath. Ye are against the people, O my chosen!
There is great danger in me; for who doth not understand these runes shall make a great miss. He shall fall down into the pit called Because, and there he shall perish with the dogs of Reason.
Now a curse upon Because and his kin!
May Because be accursèd for ever!
If Will stops and cries Why, invoking Because, then Will stops & does nought.
If Power asks why, then is Power weakness.
Also reason is a lie; for there is a factor infinite & unknown; & all their words are skew- wise.
Enough of Because! Be he damned for a dog!
Yea! deem not of change: ye shall be as ye are, & not other. Therefore the kings of the earth shall be Kings for ever: the slaves shall serve. There is none that shall be cast down or lifted up: all is ever as it was. Yet there are masked ones my servants: it may be that yonder beggar is a King. A King may choose his garment as he will: there is no certain test: but a beggar cannot hide his poverty.
Strive ever to more! and if thou art truly mine—and doubt it not, an if thou art ever joyous!—death is the crown of all.
Ah! Ah! Death! Death! thou shalt long for death. Death is forbidden, o man, unto thee.
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.
Aye! listen to the numbers & the words:
4 6 3 8 A B K 2 4 A L G M O R 3 Y X 24 89 R P S T O V A L. What meaneth this, o prophet? Thou knowest not; nor shalt thou know ever. There cometh one to follow thee: he shall expound it. But remember, o chosen one, to be me; to follow the love of Nu in the star- lit heaven; to look forth upon men, to tell them this glad word.
Lift up thyself! for there is none like unto thee among men or among Gods! Lift up thyself, o my prophet, thy stature shall surpass the stars. They shall worship thy name, foursquare, mystic, wonderful, the number of the man; and the name of thy house 418.

CHAPTER 3

There is division hither homeward; there is a word not known. Spelling is defunct; all is not aught. Beware! Hold! Raise the spell of Ra-Hoor-Khuit!
Mercy let be off: damn them who pity! Kill and torture; spare not; be upon them!
That stélé they shall call the Abomination of Desolation; count well its name, & it shall be to you as 718.
Set up my image in the East: thou shalt buy thee an image which I will show thee, especial, not unlike the one thou knowest. And it shall be suddenly easy for thee to do this.
The best blood is of the moon, monthly: then the fresh blood of a child, or dropping from the host of heaven: then of enemies; then of the priest or of the worshippers: last of some beast, no matter what.
There cometh a rich man from the West who shall pour his gold upon thee.
From gold forge steel!
I am the warrior Lord of the Forties: the Eighties cower before me, & are abased. I will bring you to victory & joy: I will be at your arms in battle & ye shall delight to slay. Success is your proof; courage is your armour; go on, go on, in my strength; & ye shall turn not back for any!
This book shall be translated into all tongues: but always with the original in the writing of the Beast; for in the chance shape of the letters and their position to one another: in these are mysteries that no Beast shall divine. Let him not seek to try: but one cometh after him, whence I say not, who shall discover the Key of it all. Then this line drawn is a key: then this circle squared in its failure is a key also. And Abrahadabra. It shall be his child & that strangely. Let him not seek after this; for thereby alone can he fall from it.
Now this mystery of the letters is done, and I want to go on to the holier place.
I am in a secret fourfold word, the blasphemy against all gods of men.
The fool readeth this Book of the Law, and its comment; & he understandeth it not.
Let him come through the first ordeal, & it will be to him as silver.
Through the second, gold.
Through the third, stones of precious water.
Through the fourth, ultimate sparks of the intimate fire.
Paste the sheets from right to left and from top to bottom: then behold!