The Book of the Law

This book or "poetic essay" is quite ingenious if you're reading it from an experienced spiritual vantage point; (therefore I would say this book is not ideal for total beginners of the Path, but this is subjective of course). The style & quality definitely feels like channeled material, as Crowley alleges it to be, and if it's not, it's quite impressive -- and beneficial nonetheless.

• It's split up into 3 thematic sections, narrated by 3 different entity-characters: Nuit, Hadit, & Ra-Hoor-Khuit.
The overall theme consists of overthrowing the old paradigm of self-repression based on dogmatic beliefs about life. With specific regard to the audience of ‘enlightened readers’, its overall message overthrows misguided beliefs about the Spiritual Path, and replaces them with a lucrative appealing alternative; SELF-WORTH -- and an absence of arbitrary, self-imposed limitations about what should or shouldn't be done. (Obviously, this does not entail doing away with discernment & empathy)

• Besides material that can be used to cultivate insights, there are a lot of impenetrable Mysteries/puzzles, and obscure allusions. But, that makes it fascinating. As well as frustrating.

• With a lot of the passages that seem to be saying something “controversial” at a glance, one can perceive the hidden/metaphorical meaning behind it. However there were some aspects of Ra-Hoor-Khuit’s section to which i had difficulty doing so, and so they seemed arbitrarily bizarre and disturbing. But perhaps the purpose in this case was to deter (“turn away”) people who up until this point didn't possess the proper discernment to extract the true value of all that was said thus far... Kind of like a final checkpoint. Whatever it means, I was incapable of benefiting from it, so I simply moved on.

ONLY COMPLAINT: Very short for the price - I would have liked a version that provided a preface with more complete expository insight, and also some essential insights into the meaning of the material. Instead, the other half of the book has facsimiles (as advertised) of Aleister Crowley's handwritten copy of the book, which personally doesn't provide me with any extra value at all...
5 stars for the value of the material itself; as for the overall product, it would benefit from some revamping, so people can get the most out of the text, without having to undergo unnecessary & laborious external research efforts. (perhaps a more “complete” edition exists like I suggested, but if so I couldn't find it in search results. Maybe I suck.)

-Paul

I used this to cram for both finals and for the Bar, and I can attest that I would not have graduated magna cum laude without it. The tight, dedicated bursts of legal wit resonated so well that case history for decades past came to be almost rote, as if I hadn't studied any actual legal text in my life.

Highly recommended for any legal professional, The Book of the Law sells 93 times more than any competing legal tome.

meaning those who find in all laws the flaws of the rule of the particular over the general, and understand the ways of the flesh in it's strength and peculiar weakness--and lack compassion in the degree required to see man for the creature he is and can be. Yes--I'm skeptical of the origins, and recognize Crowley for the mage and social scholar he was. Nonetheless, the book stands the test of time in that it did create a dedicated following, and has lead the way for other thinkers. Yes--Rabelais and the Hellfire Club are part of the inspiration--as are Tantra, Egyptian mythology, Origen (every man and woman is a star), the Book of Revelations, Babylonian myth, the politics of the new (twentieth) century, the astrological import of the equinox of the gods--look, read into it what you must. But recognize what is "the flame that burns in every heart of man, and in the core of every star." You are earth, water, fire, air, and more, and you may not even know--still, you want to know because?
One may understand best through this book and Experience. Solve et coagula. And things like that.

I've read all the reviews for this book (posted here) and in the face of its criticism and its praise (which I won't add anything too) I will say this:
This book (love it or hate it) is the prinicipal text of one of the major branches of modern western mysticism, and that is Thelema. It is everywhere on the internet and is regarded as sacred or holy in a vast number of occult orders and lodges.
Any serious student of the occult or western mysticism or "The Western Tradition" is remiss if they do not have a copy of this book in their library and have not at least read it a couple of times.

Everything that glitters
From what I've read of Crowley it seemes like he was fairly certain of a couple of things. The first being that this book was his most significant or seminal work. The second being that he was 666, and not just any devil or demon but the official biblical Beast. So if Crowley is 666, then would it not be unreasonable to suspect that this book is perhaps not the blueprint for heaven on earth or man's ascension to the higher realms that a lot of these reviews seem to be making it out to be?
Crowley and this book might be inspiration for a lot of great musicians and Hollywood, but if it was also the inspiration for people like Hitler and Manson (not to say Manson wasn't a victim of bad PR) then it would seem a fair question.
I'm not not talking about petty morals here. I'm talking about where the 20th century is ending up. Granted a lot of the book is just a restatement of Old Testament bloodlust, and the rule of the strong has always pretty much been the law. Still what little promise there was of a great society or some kind of real equality was pretty much finished off by the hedonistic, ethic-less corporate culture that reached its full stature in this century. What the CIA did abroad the PR industry and Hollywood did at home and abroad.
I don't think I am misreading this book. Joyously stomping out your enemies, cooking them and eating them, it's all in there.
And the author does take credit for a couple of the high points of this century. "I am the warlord of the `40s and the `80s cower before me and are abased". The `40s speak for themselves and the `80s really did seem to ring the moral death knell for Western civilization and I don't just mean the freebase cocaine and bad music. I'm talking Reaganomics and a corporate readjustment that began and foreshadowed the phenomenal upward concentration of wealth and power. So now as the nitwit brings us ever closer to WW III and global ecological disaster it becomes ever clearer where the Gipper was actually steering the old ship of state in that glorious decade.
Not that the book seems anymore prescient or whacked out than the Bible, the Torah or Dianetics, and its not that I don't have sympathy for the guy. I pretty much agree with his views on the major religions, and if I'd been raised Plymouth brethren as was he I might think I was the devil too. But I still have to question is the bloodlust just an unhappy childhood or something worse?

This is an attractive, nicely bound volume. Its first fifty pages contain a typeset statement of "The Law". Its remaining pages contain a handwritten facsimile of The Law.
Like any statement of ethics, portions of The Law are difficult to understand. Most puzzling is that upon completion, the reader learns that the page fifty discussion stands alone. The first forty-nine pages' discussion are superceded by page fifty.
Each reader must judge why the author chose this presentation method. Each reader also must judge the validity of The Law.

This book is very powerful and mystical. You must prepare your mind, body, and soul for this book before diving in. Do your research, get the whole story so your mind can prepare for the information you are about to read and allow yourself to be able to truly process it in the manner with which it was written.

Deeply profound.

Read the Book...
Love the Book...
Be the Book...

Regardless if you are a Thelemite or not, there is much to think about in this key Occult text. While sometimes vague (out of necessity) , there is much room for further contemplation.
Any student of any area of the occult should have at least become somewhat familiar with this.

The first time you read this book, you won't understand much. Crowley is very much like Taoist philosophy, in the sense that you should get your own meaning out of it, and try to interpret the book in your own way. This thing rules! Its a shame that its so short, and somewhat difficult to understand, but after a few read throughs, it will unfold in many interesting ways.