Aleister Crowley
The Book of the Law is a text that Aleister Crowley wrote and from which he drew his claim to be a prophet entrusted with guiding humanity into the Æon of Horus.
Crowley was born on 12 October 1875 in Leamington Spa and was a citizen of the United Kingdom. He was educated at Trinity College and went on to work across a striking range of pursuits, serving as an occultist, poet, novelist, playwright, painter, mountaineer, astrologer, and chess player. He wrote in English, and in addition to The Book of the Law he authored The Book of Lies and the novel Moonchild. He also founded the religion of Thelema and identified himself as a prophet entrusted with guiding humanity into the Æon of Horus.
Crowley died on 1 December 1947 in Hastings. The religion of Thelema, which he founded, stands as one of the concrete outcomes of his work, and The Book of the Law remains the text most directly tied to that founding.
Quotes by Aleister Crowley
Aleister Crowley's insights on:
I've often thought that there isn't any 'I' at all; that we are simply the means of expression of something else; that when we think we are ourselves, we are simply the victims of a delusion.
Astrology has no more useful function than this, to discover the inmost nature of a man and to bring it out into his consciousness, that he may fulfill it according to the law of light.
May the New Year bring you courage to break your resolutions early. My own plan is to swear off every kind of virtue, so that I triumph even when I fall.
Until you’ve got your mouth full of cocaine, you don’t know what kissing is. One kiss goes on from phase to phase like one of those novels by Balzac and Zola and Romain Rolland and D. H. Lawrence and those chaps. And you never get tire. You’re on fourth speed all the time, and the engine purrs like a kitten, a big white kitten with the stars in its whiskers.
I’ve often thought that there isn’t any “I” at all; that we are simply the means of expression of something else; that when we think we are ourselves, we are simply the victims of a delusion.
And allow me again to assure you that when you’ve got yourself going, doing your True Will, you won’t find you have any time to get bored.
I’ve written this to keep from crying. But I am crying, only the tears won’t come.