Thelema

Liber AL vel Legis
sub figura CCXX
as delivered by XCIII = 418 to DCLXVI
Chapter I
1. Had! The manifestation of Nuit.
2. The unveiling of the company of heaven.
3. Every man and every woman is a star.
4. Every number is infinite; there is no difference.
5. Help me, o warrior lord of Thebes, in my unveiling before the Children of men!
6. Be thou Hadit, my secret centre, my heart & my tongue!
7. Behold! it is revealed by Aiwass the minister of Hoor-paar-kraat.
8. The Khabs is in the Khu, not the Khu in the Khabs.
9. Worship then the Khabs, and behold my light shed over you!
10. Let my servants be few & secret: they shall rule the many & the known.
11. These are fools that men adore; both their Gods & their men are fools.
12. Come forth, o children, under the stars, & take your fill of love!
13. I am above you and in you. My ecstasy is iÎn yours. My joy is to see your joy.
14. Above, the gemmed azure is
The naked splendour of Nuit;
She bends in ecstasy to kiss
The secret ardours of Hadit.
The winged globe, the starry blue,
Are mine, O Ankh-af-na-khonsu!
15. Now ye shall know that the chosen priest & apostle of infinite space is the
prince-priest the
Beast; and in his woman called the Scarlet Woman is all power given. They shall gather
my
children into their fold: they shall bring the glory of the stars into the hearts of men.
16. For he is ever a sun, and she a moon. But to him is the winged secret flame, and to
her the
stooping starlight.
17. But ye are not so chosen.
18. Burn upon their brows, o splendrous serpent!
19. O azure-lidded woman, bend upon them!
20. The key of the rituals is in the secret word which I have given unto him.
21. With the God & the Adorer I am nothing: they do not see me. They are as upon the
earth; I
am Heaven, and there is no other God than me, and my lord Hadit.
22. Now, thereËfore, I am known to ye by my name Nuit, and to him by a secret name
which I
will give him when at last he knoweth me. Since I am Infinite Space, and the Infinite
Stars
thereof, do ye also thus. Bind nothing! Let there be no difference made among you
between any
one thing & any other thing; for thereby there cometh hurt.
23. But whoso availeth in this, let him be the chief of all!
24. I am Nuit, and my word is six and fifty.
25. Divide, add, multiply, and understand.
26. Then saith the prophet and slave of the beauteous one: Who am I, and what shall be
the sign?
So she answered him, bendingdown, a lambent flame of blue, all-touching, all
penetrant, her
lovely hands upon the black earth, & her lithe body arched for love, and her soft feet not
hurting
the little flowers: Thou knowest! And the sign shall be my ecstasy, the consciousness of
the
continuity of existence, the omnipresence of my body.
27. Then the priest answered & said unto the Queen of Space, kissing her lovely
browÛs, and the
dew of her light bathing his whole body in a sweet-smelling perfume of sweat: O Nuit,
continuous one of Heaven, let it be ever thus; that men speak not of Thee as One but as
None;
and let them speak not of thee at all, since thou art continuous!
28. None, breathed the light, faint & faery, of the stars, and two.
29. For I am divided for love's sake, for the chance of union.
30. This is the creation of the world, that the pain of division is as nothing, and the joy of
dissolution all.
31. For these fools of men and their woes care not thou at all! They feel little; what is, is
balanced by weak joys; but ye are my chosen ones.
32. Obey my prophet! follow out the ordeals of my knowledge! seek me only! Then the
joys of
my love will redeem ye from all pain. This is so: I swear it by the vault of my body; by my
sacred heart and tongue; by all I can give, by all I desire of ye all.
33. Then the priest fell into a deep trance or swoon, & said unto the Queen of Heaven;
Write
unto us˜ the ordeals; write unto us the rituals; write unto us the law!
34. But she said: the ordeals I write not: the rituals shall be half known and half
concealed: the
Law is for all.
35. This that thou writest is the threefold book of Law.
36. My scribe Ankh-af-na-khonsu, the priest of the princes, shall not in one letter change
this
book; but lest there be folly, he shall comment thereupon by the wisdom of
Ra-Hoor-Khuit.
37. Also the mantras and spells; the obeah and the wanga; the work of the wand and
the work of
the sword; these he shall learn and teach.
38. He must teach; but he may make severe the ordeals.
39. The word of the Law is THELEMA.
40. Who calls us Thelemites will do no wrong, if he look but close into the word. For
there are
therein Three Grades, the Hermit, and the Lover, and the man of Earth. Do what thou
wilt shall
be the whole of the Law.
41. The word of Sin is Restriction. O man! refuse not thy wife, if she will! O lover, if thou
wilt,
depart! There is no bond that caÚn unite the divided but love: all else is a curse.
Accursed!
Accursed be it t