The Book of Lies
by Aleister Crowley
This edition of Aleister Crowley’s sly, witty, and instructive collection of paradoxes includes rarely published commentary by the author himself.
Written by the famed English occultist Aleister Crowley, The Book of Lies was first published in 1913. But later, around 1921, Crowley wrote a separate text of short commentary on each of the chapters to assist the reader in the qabalistic interpretation. That commentary is included in this edition from Weiser Books.
The book includes 91 chapters, each of which consists of one page of text. The chapters consist of rituals, instructions, obscure allusions, and cryptograms. The subject of each chapter is generally determined by its number and its corresponding qabalistic meaning.
“Sometimes the text is serious and straightforward,” writes Crowley “sometimes its obscure oracles demand deep knowledge of the Qabalah for interpretation, others contain obscure allusions, play upon words, secrets expressed in cryptogram, double or triple meaning which must be combined in order to appreciate the full flavour; others again are subtly ironical or cynical. At first sight the book is a jumble of nonsense intended to insult the reader. It requires infinite study, sympathy, intuition and initiation. Given this I do not hesitate to claim that in none other of my writings have I given so profound and comprehensive an exposition of my philosophy.”
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Paperback Edition
196 pages. Glossy printed card cover.
ISBN: 978-0-87728-516-8
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Press, reviews, endorsements
Understanding Aleister Crowley’s The Book of Lies by the Thelemic Union channel - watch on YouTube here
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About the Author
The late Aleister Crowley (1875-1947) was an occultist, ceremonial magician, prolific writer, philosopher and mountaineer. In his youth, Crowley joined the occult organisation The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn (1887-1903), where he received much of his training in theurgy and ceremonial magic. In 1904, Crowley established his own religion, Thelema (Greek for "the will”), for which he had reportedly received a divine revelation from an angel. Crowley believed that humans should strive to overcome both their desires and their socially-instilled inhibitions in order to find out the true purpose of their respective lives. Crowley had been dubbed “the wickedest man in the world” and “a man we’d like to hang” by the British press during the first half of the 20th century. A controversial figure, nevertheless, his influence on Western occultism cannot be easily overstated.
