''The Law is for All'' is a collection of Aleister Crowley's commentary on ''

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 central sacred text of

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 ' ...

. It was edited to be a primer of sorts into Crowley's general interpretations about the sometimes opaque text of Liber Legis. For this reason, the book omits many of the more complex qabalistic explanations that lean heavily on an understanding of

gematria Gematria (; he, גמטריא or gimatria , plural or , ''gimatriot'') is the practice of assigning a numerical value to a name, word or phrase according to an alphanumerical cipher. A single word can yield several values depending on the cipher ...

and

The Tree of Life ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...

. As the original editor, Louis Wilkinson, wrote in his introduction (p. 17):

The aim of the ''Commentary on the Book of the Law'' is to guide the reader along the path of the discovery of his own true will, in accordance with which, and only in accordance with which, he can rightly think and act. This is why "Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law." Only by doing so will you be shown your own true thought and life.

Crowley's long expository was written prior to the final

Comment Comment may refer to: * Comment (linguistics) or rheme, that which is said about the topic (theme) of a sentence * Bernard Comment (born 1960), Swiss writer and publisher Computing * Comment (computer programming), explanatory text or informa ...

that now is appended to ''The Book of the Law''.

Provenance

Most of Crowley's commentaries were written between 1919 and 1922, and were edited by a trusted friend, Louis Wilkinson, at Crowley's request. A first draft was completed in 1946, and it is believed that Crowley reviewed it, since a copy was found among his final possessions; however, his death in 1947 put a hold on its publication. The original manuscript was eventually published under the name ''Magical and Philosophical Commentaries on the Book of the Law'', edited by John Symonds and

Kenneth Grant Kenneth is an English given name and surname. The name is an Anglicised form of two entirely different Gaelic personal names: ''Cainnech'' and '' Cináed''. The modern Gaelic form of ''Cainnech'' is ''Coinneach''; the name was derived from a byna ...

. The next year,

Israel Regardie Francis Israel Regardie (; né Regudy; November 17, 1907 – March 10, 1985) was a British-American occultist, ceremonial magician, and writer who spent much of his life in the United States. He wrote fifteen books on the subject of occultism. Bo ...

published a competing edition based on a 1926 manuscript. Both editions were cumbersome and neglected to address numerous inconsistencies within the complex collection of notes. The 1996 "popular edition" of ''The Law is for All'' was edited by

Hymenaeus Beta The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , ''asteriskos'', "little star", is a typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a heraldic star. Computer scientists and mathematicians often voc ...

based upon the final Wilkinson manuscript.

Editions

* * *

Provenance

Editions

See also