''Liber Aleph vel CXI: The Book of Wisdom or Folly'' is the title of ''
The Equinox'', volume III, number VI, 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 prop ...
. The book is written in the form of an
epistle to his magical son,
Charles Stansfeld Jones, Frater Achad, whom Crowley later doubted as being his true magical son, asserting that Achad had in fact gone insane, citing as evidence Achad's "upending the tree of life" in his ''Q.B.L., or The Bride's Reception'', the first of Achad's major qabalistic works.
The book consists of 208 short epistles on the philosophy 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 ...
, Crowley's own ethical system of occult magic. Though the book was not published until some time after its writing in 1918, it is considered one of the forefront commentaries on Crowley's teachings. The arcane style was probably either inspired by the short epistolary style of
Heinrich Agrippa's ''De Occulta Philosophia'' or the introduction to ''
The Book of the Sacred Magic of Abramelin the Mage'' which sees the author, Abraham the Jew, bequeathing the book to his son Lameck in the same hereditary spirit that this book claims. Even the titles of each epistle are given in Latin, and its often medieval guise of dealing with subject matters, such as the effects of "melancholy bile", can be considered another of Crowley's great examples of using ancient texts as templates.
The concept of the book is based on a passage from ''
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 ...
'' ''(Liber AL vel Legis)'', the central text of Thelema, and states what appears to be a prophecy of later knowledge and secrets of the new
Aeon of Horus being taught to a "magical son". At first Crowley thought this was a reference to a child he was to bear with his wife Rose Kelly, though after the death of their first-born (who had turned out to be a daughter) Crowley took the passage in its metaphorical sense of a young student who would inherit his teachings. Up to 1919, Crowley believed that Frater Achad was this Magical Child.
The number 111 given to the title refers to the numerical value of the Hebrew letter
Aleph
Aleph (or alef or alif, transliterated ʾ) is the first letter of the Semitic abjads, including Phoenician , Hebrew , Aramaic , Syriac , Arabic ʾ and North Arabian 𐪑. It also appears as South Arabian 𐩱 and Ge'ez .
These let ...
spelt in full which in
Hermetic teachings corresponds to the first
Tarot
The tarot (, first known as '' trionfi'' and later as ''tarocchi'' or ''tarocks'') is a pack of playing cards, used from at least the mid-15th century in various parts of Europe to play card games such as Tarocchini. From their Italian roots ...
trump ''The Fool''. The 111, added to Crowley's own number 666, produced the number of this magical son, 777.
Editions
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Notes
External links
*
Liber ALEPH vel CXI' at
Internet Sacred Text Archive
Thelemite texts
Works by Aleister Crowley
Letters (message)
{{Thelema-stub