The Book of Lies (Crowley)

"The Book of Lies" (full title: "Which is also Falsely Called BREAKS. The Wanderings or Falsifications of the One Thought of Frater Perdurabo, which Thought is itself Untrue. Liber CCCXXXIII [Book 333] " ) was written by Aleister Crowley and first published in 1913. Crowley describes it: "This book deals with many matters on all planes of the very highest importance. It is an official publication for Babes of the Abyss, but is recommended even to beginners as highly suggestive."Fact|date=February 2008

The book consists of 93 chapters, each consisting of one page of text of various kinds, including poems, rituals, instructions, and obscure allusions and cryptograms. The subject of each chapter is generally determined by its number and its corresponding Qabalistic meaning. Around 1921, Crowley added a short commentary to each chapter, assisting the reader in the Qabalistic interpretation.

Details

The title page contains the following quotation from Tennyson, since it "amused" Crowley to quote Tennyson:

""Break, break, break"":At the foot of thy stones, O Sea!""And I would that I could utter"":The thoughts that arise in me!"Crowley, Aleister (1978). "The Book of Lies". New York: Samuel Weiser.

An explanation of the title on the facing page ends with the sentence, "There is no joke or subtle meaning in the publisher's imprint." This seems to be an ironic joke-reference to the fact that every word on the frontispiece apart from the name of the publishing-house had been subjected to tortuous qabalistic self-exegesis, yet according to Robert Anton Wilson,

This might have been a veiled warning about what will follow, but is actually the first lie in the book; occult historian Francis King has carefully determined the date on the imprint is inaccurate by at least a year. [Wilson, Robert Anton. "", prologue. ISBN 1-56184-003-3]

In his "Confessions", Crowley discusses how the book was to lead to his joining Ordo Templi Orientis. He wrote each chapter at lunch or dinner "by the aid of Dionysos," with one chapter that was especially troubling. He eventually was able to get it written after much effort, but he remained dissatisfied and angry with it. Not too long after it had been published, he was visited by Theodor Reuss, then head of O.T.O. (an organization Crowley thought was little more than a repository of certain secrets of Freemasonry).

[Reuss] said that since I was acquainted with the supreme secret of the Order, I must be allowed the IX° and obligated in regard to it. I protested that I knew no such secret. He said, "But you have printed it in the plainest language." I said that I could not have done so because I did not know it. He went to the bookshelves and, taking out a copy of "The Book of Lies", pointed to a passage in the despised chapter. It instantly flashed upon me. The entire symbolism, not only of freemasonry but of many other traditions, blazed upon my spiritual vision. From that moment the O.T.O. assumed its proper importance in my mind. I understood that I held in my hands the key to the future progress of humanity. [Crowley, Aleister. " [http://www.hermetic.com/crowley/confess/index.html The Confessions of Aleister Crowley] ", pp. 708-709. Penguin, 1989. ISBN 978-0140191899]

Aleister Crowley sometimes saidFact|date=February 2008 that this could not have happened the way he remembered it, since "The Book of Lies" had not yet come out when he joined the O.T.O. As previously mentioned, however, Wilson claims that the book lies about its publication date.

Assuming this event did take place, readers have suggested various possible chapters that might contain the secret. Wilson points to Chapter 69, "The Way to Succeed—and the Way to Suck Eggs!" (sucking seed and sucking eggs referring to mutual oral sex), while Crowley's book "De Arte Magica" names Chapter 36, "The Star Sapphire", a ritual related chapter.Facts|date=February 2008

The book is generally regarded as Crowley's funniest.

Editions

*Original limited edition, 1913 (or, if a lie, probably 1912)
*Red Wheel Weiser, June 1970. ISBN 0-87728-018-5
*Weiser Books, reprint edition, June 1986. ISBN 0-87728-516-0

ee also

*Works of Aleister Crowley

References

External links

*Online edition of " [http://www.drizzle.com/~slmndr/uncle_al/lies/title.html The Book of Lies] ".