𓁧 Wandering Stars

The Threefold Book of Law
 

A Transcription and Rectification of the Original Holograph Manuscript

Edited by R. Shane Clayton in the Public Domain https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/

© 2024/25 Wandering Stars Publishing (excepting Liber Legis itself) All rights reserved.

Introduction

 

The Threefold Book of Law is an “automatic writing,” “channeled text,” “holy book,” or “hoax” — depending on who you talk to — upon which the Western Esoteric Tradition known as “Thelema” is founded. Written down from dictation in 1904, it was first published in 1909 by the infamous English author, mystic, and ceremonial magician Aleister Crowley, who chose “Liber AL vel Legis — The Book of the Law” as the formal title for the book. As for the name of the manuscript itself, the goddess Nuit tells us in the first chapter: “This that thou writest is the threefold book of Law;” while in the third chapter, the god Ra Hoor Khuit says: “… this, the Book of the Law.” We’ll use the former and leave the latter to its OTO publishers.

To avoid confusion and repetition, I’ll refer to “The Threefold Book of Law” as either “The Book of Law” or “Liber Legis” (LL), Latin for Book of Law, in distinction to the official redacted publications.

Indeed, the book is threefold, composed of three chapters written over three consecutive days — April 8, 9, and 10, at 1:00 p.m. in Cairo, Egypt. Each chapter is spoken in the voice of one of three Egyptian god–forms or Neteru, and was written down, Crowley tells us, from what was verbally dictated to him by a shadowy “praeter–human intelligence” he believed to be “Aiwass, the minister of Hoor–paar–kraat,” who is so named in the book. Based upon the events leading up to its writing, the entity, or entities, were presumably “channeled” by his wife, Rose.

The two were in their twenties and on their honeymoon when the remarkable event took place, precipitated by an unusual encounter at Rose’s behest with a 26th Dynasty funerary stele, located in the Egyptian Museum. Featuring depictions of the three gods and a priest, Crowley would subsequently refer to it as “The Stele of Revealing.” (See The Stele of Ankh af na Khonsu.)

These three Egyptian Neteru identify themselves in The Book of Law as 1) the starry sky goddess Nut, written Nuit — The Queen of Space, 2) her lord, the “Great God” B’Hedet, written Hadit — the Winged Globe, and 3) their child, the hawk–headed solar deity Ra Herukhuti, written Ra Hoor Khuit - the noontime form of Ra Horakhty (meaning Horus of the Two Horizons) at the peak of his power as conqueror. Being unfamiliar at that time with these god forms or their anglicized Egyptian names, Crowley wrote down what he heard… spelling notwithstanding, with each god’s name ending with “it.” After all, we still know little about ancient Egyptian pronunciation.

In each of their three short chapters, the deities grant the familiar Egyptian litany of blessings, protection spells, adjurations, prophecy, and warnings, such as we see in the temples, tombs, and magical papyri — but with a Qabalistic spin. The gods also promise the remembrance and accomplishment of the aspirant’s true “Thelema” or “pure will” to all earnest seekers who approach them reverently with an open heart and mind per their writings therein.

“The word of the Law is Thelema. Who calls us Thelemites will do no wrong, if he look but close into the word.” LL III:39,40

In Liber Legis the keyword Thelema is written in the Koine Greek as θέλημα (pronounced the–lee’–ma), a noun meaning "emotional will,” or “to desire, to love, and seek pleasure.” It’s derived from the verb θέλω (thélō or ethélō): "to will, wish, desire,” or more accurately in this case “volition.” The root word ethos is defined as the “guiding belief that influences behavior, emotions, and even morals,” and the English word “ethics” is derived from the related Greek ēthikós, meaning “the expression of one's moral character.”

It appears (rarely) in the Classical Greek writings as related to both divine will and sexual desire. Thelema is also used repeatedly in the Septuagint or Greek Old Testament and the original Greek New Testament writings, pertaining to both human and devilish volition, but usually regarding God’s will or love. (Please see: “Will — Thelema,” a word study from the Greek concordance of the KJV.)

During the later Greek/Macedonian Ptolemaic Dynasties of Late Period Egypt, Thelema was associated with the goddess Ma’at and her Noble Ideals of truth, justice, order, the good, and the beautiful. Ma’at also represents the will to love, one’s heart’s desire for life and life’s joys and pleasures, and the volition to seek after and maintain her Noble Ideals. Ma’at was, therefore, the essence of the law in ancient Egypt, and, according to Nuit, “The word of the law is Thelema. Love is the Law, love under will.” We may assume that this law is a Cosmic one coming as it does from the “Queen of Space,” the Egyptian Goddess representing the Milky Way galaxy — as Egyptologists have recently affirmed.

An accomplished and prolific author and poet, Crowley sorted his works into five main Classes categorizing the writings by how they were either “received” or conceived, and their function as “organs” of his A∴A∴and OTO organizations. Any works that he considered to be a product of his “Knowledge and Conversation of his Holy Guardian Angel” are identified as Class ‘A’ and are referred to as the “Holy Books of Thelema” with “Liber AL vel Legis — The Book of the Law” heading this list.

Following the injunction from Liber Legis itself: "Change not as much as the style of a letter,” he asserts that they are not to be “reproved” or otherwise "tampered with" since, as he tells us, "… they represent the utterance of an Adept entirely beyond the criticism of even the Visible Head of the Organization."

Unfortunately, neither Crowley nor his heirs have obeyed the injunction much with “Liber Al vel Legis.” According to the Neteru, even the book’s prophet was commanded not to change a thing. Meanwhile, those entrusted with formal control of Crowley’s written works argue over “fill me” or “kill me,” offering only edited and redacted publications of “The Book of the Law.”

I and many others feel this is simply untenable, contradicting the plain demands written therein. It’s unfaithful to the spirit and words of the book as a sacred text to edit out anything, and it simply isn’t the same without these sections left intact.  The facsimiles of Crowley’s cursive manuscript being virtually impossible to read, I have sought to remedy the situation with the Wandering Stars edition and publication of “The Threefold Book of Law,” a rectification and transcription of the original handwritten holograph manuscript published per the laws of the Public Domain. Again, the goddess Nuit identifies its title in the writing itself: “This that thou writest is the threefold Book of Law.”

Key to Text in this Edition:

The Wandering Stars edition of “The Threefold Book of Law” and “The Comment” is presented in red and black print, per Liber Legis III:39, “All this and a book to say how thou didst come hither and a reproduction of this ink and paper forever — for in it is the word secret & not only in the English — and thy comment upon this the Book of the Law shall be printed beautifully in red ink and black upon beautiful paper made by hand…”

In the ancient Egyptian “Book of the Dead” and other magic papyri, titles, descriptions, and instructions were written in red hieroglyphs with the body of the text in black, the palettes of the scribes, called " zeha" having both red and black ink wells expressly for that purpose. Following the Egyptian dispensation of the book, the original manuscript of “The Threefold Book of Law” text is set in black using the Goudy Old Style font, including Crowley’s crossed–out redactions likely done at the time of its writing, while Crowley’s insertions in ink are in bold red italics.

Rose’s entries are in bold Gabriola font in the .pdf file (which looks remarkably similar to her handwriting), with their changes or insertions being mostly included in all subsequent print editions. They presumably jotted these down on the manuscript together soon after the reception, amending what Crowley had missed while hurriedly taking the dictation — things they had either remembered, understood, heard, or said.

This includes a passage that Aleister was adjured to clarify later where you can see him struggling to keep up and write down what he was hearing, striking out sentences - with Rose explaining or filling in the blanks later. These are organic and show his more passive and receptive role in contrast to Rose’s active role in the reception of the book, negating assumptions that it all came from Crowley’s mind alone. And again, there are the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd person perspectives throughout.

The penciled page numbers <1> and numbering of verses 1., along with Crowley’s later penciled notes are all in plain red text. Included are my brief notes, such as a translation from Greek or Hebrew, or to explain his shorthand abbreviations and insertions — these are also in red and placed in parentheses. The Egyptian words and names of the gods will be defined and explicated elsewhere in my  article “Thelema - The Egyptian Dispensation.”

Per the instruction of the Neteru in Chapters One and Three, all subsequent print versions were to insert Rose's and Aleister's insertions along with portions of Crowley’s paraphrase of the Stele’ of Revealing, and these are included here in quotations and plain red italics. Compare these to the translation of the Stele text by Dr. Alan Gardiner and Battiscombe Gunn at Wandering Stars’ The Stele of Ankh af an Khonsu.

Lastly, a black–and–white scale photocopy of the holograph manuscript is also included in the complete .pdf collection per the order of Ra Hoor Khuit.

Appended to every published copy of “The Book of the Law” is Crowley’s penultimate comment concerning the book, signed as Ankh–f–n–Khonsu. Nuit identified him by that title in the book, after which Crowley believed himself to be the reincarnation of the long–dead Egyptian priest. The comment, his response to an injunction for him to do so in Liber Legis, is often appropriately called “The Short Comment.”
 

Once you have read this, my work here will be done. My suggestion is to do so, one chapter at a time, ceremoniously, precisely at noon, rising at 1:00 p.m. — ideally, on the auspicious days of April 8, 9, and 10.

LL III:39 continues, “… and to each man and woman that thou meetest, were it but to dine and drink at them, it is the Law to give. Then they shall chance to abide in this bliss or no; it is no odds. Do this quickly!”

 

Liber 'L' vel Legis
The Threefold Book of Law:

Liber 'L' Chapter I
Liber 'L' Chapter II
Liber 'L' Chapter III
The Short Comment