Nuit (alternatively Nu, Nut, or Nuith) is a goddess in

Thelema Thelema () is a Western esoteric and occult social or spiritual philosophy and new religious movement founded in the early 1900s by Aleister Crowley (1875–1947), an English writer, mystic, occultist, and ceremonial magician. The word ' ...

, the speaker in the first Chapter of ''

The Book of the Law ''Liber AL vel Legis'' (), commonly known as ''The Book of the Law'', is the central sacred text of Thelema. Aleister Crowley said that it was dictated to him by a beyond-human being who called himself ' Aiwass'. Rose Edith Kelly, Crowley's ...

'', the sacred text written or received in 1904 by

Aleister Crowley Aleister Crowley (; born Edward Alexander Crowley; 12 October 1875 – 1 December 1947) was an English occultist, ceremonial magician, poet, painter, novelist, and mountaineer. He founded the religion of Thelema, identifying himself as the pr ...

. Based on the Ancient Egyptian

sky goddess The sky often has important religious significance. Many religions, both polytheistic and monotheistic, have deities associated with the sky. The daytime sky deities are typically distinct from the nighttime ones. Stith Thompson's ''Motif-I ...

Nut, who arches over her husband/brother,

Geb Geb was the Egyptian god of the earth and a mythological member of the Ennead of Heliopolis. He could also be considered a father of snakes. It was believed in ancient Egypt that Geb's laughter created earthquakes and that he allowed crops to ...

(

Earth god An Earth god is a deification of the Earth associated with a figure with chthonic or terrestrial attributes. In Greek mythology, the Earth is personified as Gaia, corresponding to Roman Terra. Egyptian mythology have the sky goddesses, Nut a ...

). She is usually depicted as a naked woman who is covered with stars.

Goddess of Thelema

Within this system, she is one-third of the triadic cosmology, along with

Hadit Hadit (sometimes Had) refers to a Thelemic deity. Hadit is the principal speaker of the second chapter of ''The Book of the Law'' (written or received by Aleister Crowley in 1904). Descriptions Hadit identifies himself as the point in the ...

(her masculine counterpart), and Ra-Hoor-Khuit, the Crowned and Conquering Child. She has several titles, including " Our Lady of the Stars", and "Lady of the Starry Heaven". In ''

'' she says of herself: "I am Infinite Space, and the Infinite Stars thereof", and in other sections she is called "

Queen of Heaven Queen of Heaven ( la, Regina Caeli) is a title given to the Virgin Mary, by Christians mainly of the Catholic Church and, to a lesser extent, in Anglicanism, Lutheranism, and Eastern Orthodoxy. The Catholic teaching on this subject is express ...

," and "Queen of Space." Nuit is symbolized by a sphere whose circumference is nowhere and whose center is everywhere, whereas Hadit is the infinitely small point at the center of this sphere. According to Thelemic doctrine, it is the interaction between these two cosmic principles that creates the manifested universe similar to the

gnostic Gnosticism (from grc, γνωστικός, gnōstikós, , 'having knowledge') is a collection of religious ideas and systems which coalesced in the late 1st century AD among Jewish and early Christian sects. These various groups emphasized p ...

syzygy. Some quotes from the first two chapters of ''The Book of the Law'' (''Liber AL vel Legis''): *"Every man and every woman is a

star A star is an astronomical object comprising a luminous spheroid of plasma (physics), plasma held together by its gravity. The List of nearest stars and brown dwarfs, nearest star to Earth is the Sun. Many other stars are visible to the naked ...

." (AL I:3). *"Come forth, o children, under the stars, & take your fill of love!" (AL I:12). *"Since I am Infinite Space, and the Infinite Stars thereof, do ye also thus. Bind nothing!" (AL I:22). *"Then the priest answered & said unto the Queen of Space, kissing her lovely brows .. (AL I:27). *"For I am divided for love's sake, for the chance of union." (AL I:29). *"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!" (AL I:33). *"Invoke me under my stars! Love is the law, love under will. .. (AL I:57). *"I give unimaginable joys on earth: certainty, not faith, while in life, upon death; peace unutterable, rest, ecstasy; nor do I demand aught in sacrifice." (AL I:58). *"I am the blue-lidded daughter of Sunset; I am the naked brilliance of the voluptuous night-sky." (AL I:64). *"In the sphere I am everywhere the centre, as she, the circumference, is nowhere found." (AL II:3). The following are quotes from Crowley's commentaries to ''The Book of the Law''. * "Note that Heaven is not a place where Gods Live; Nuit is

Heaven Heaven or the heavens, is a common religious cosmological or transcendent supernatural place where beings such as deities, angels, souls, saints, or venerated ancestors are said to originate, be enthroned, or reside. According to the belie ...

, itself." * "Nuit is All that which exists, and the condition of that existence. Hadit is the Principle which causes modifications in this Being. This explains how one may call Nuit Matter, and Hadit Motion." * "It should be evident that Nuit obtains the satisfaction of Her Nature when the parts of Her Body fulfill their own Nature. The sacrament of life is not only so from the point of view of the celebrants, but from that of the divinity invoked."

References

Citations

Works cited

* *

External links

* {{Thelema series Magic goddesses Mother goddesses Night goddesses Sky and weather goddesses Stellar goddesses Thelema

Goddess of Thelema

See also

References

Citations

Works cited

Further reading

External links