Divinity Atlas

Sacred Correspondences
Sources

Liber AL vel Legis (The Book of the Law)

Citation Formats

General Reference

APA Style

BibTeX

Liber AL vel Legis, The Book of the Law, is Aleister Crowley's own founding scripture of Thelema, received by him at Cairo in 1904 and stating the tradition's central formula, Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law, along with the word of the aeon, Abrahadabra. This record holds it exactly as what it is: a movement's own foundational document, cited here as Thelema's own account of its origin and teaching rather than as independent evidence that anything described in its reception actually occurred. Its authority is that of primary scripture within the tradition it founded, checkable directly against the text itself for what Thelema teaches and claims about its own beginning. Use it to establish what Thelema's own founding text states; a claim about the book's historical reception, its influence on later occultism, or an outside assessment of the events surrounding its writing needs a dedicated scholarly history addressing that question, since this primary text speaks only for itself.

Facts
Citation
Author
Aleister Crowley
Publisher
O.T.O. (Ordo Templi Orientis)
The 1938 first printed edition, London, a limited stapled booklet of 250 copies; per AbeBooks and Biblio first-edition listings. This is the PUBLICATION date; this entry's already-attested 1904 year is the Cairo reception date and is left untouched, the same edition-versus-composition separation as the Ramayana entry.
Publication Year
1904
URL
https://archive.org/details/CrowleyTheBookOfTheLaw
Source Type
primary-text
Assessment
Reliability Tier
3
Aleister Crowley's own founding scripture of Thelema, received at Cairo in 1904, cited as the tradition's own foundational document rather than as independent evidence for the events surrounding its reception.
Notes
The founding text of Thelema, received by Crowley at Cairo in 1904, and the source of Abrahadabra as the word of the aeon. Cited as the tradition own document.
Cross-Tradition Connections

Associated With

Cairo, Cities

This source names Cairo directly: "of Thelema, received by him at Cairo in 1904 and stating the tradition's central formula, Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law, along with the word of the aeon, Abrahadabra."

Source Liber AL vel Legis (The Book of the Law)Aleister Crowley
Claims Backed By This Source (41 claims)

This source backs 41 claims across the atlas. As facts: 26 well-attested. As cited relationships: 7 holds. Plus 8 entities citing it as a general reference with no single fact or relationship attached.

Disposition By Topic

  • Mantras, 18 claims: 10 well-attested, 5 holds, 3 general references.
  • Sources, 9 claims: 8 well-attested, 1 holds.
  • Scriptures & Texts, 5 claims: 3 well-attested, 1 holds, 1 general references.
  • Articles, 3 claims: 3 well-attested.
  • Religions, 3 claims: 2 well-attested, 1 general references.
  • Tarot, 2 claims: 2 general references.
  • Tree of Life Paths, 1 claims: 1 general references.
Comments (0)
No comments yet. Be the first to share a thought.
Reader Challenges (0 open reader challenges)
No disputes yet. Spotted an error or a better source? Open the first one.

View At A Past Year

The atlas records no dated fact of its own for this entry, so there is no other year to choose.