Defining moment

The Book of the Law 8 April 1904

While in Cairo, where he and his wife Rose invoke ancient Egyptian deities and study Islamic mysticism, Crowley hears a disembodied voice, delivering messages to him over a period of three days. The voice claims to be Aiwass, the messenger of Horus, also known as Hoor-paar-kraat. Crowley writes down these messages and collates them into his book Liber L Vel Legis, or The Book of the Law.

In this volume he writes that the human race is poised to enter a new aeon of existence and that its prophet, unsurprisingly, is Crowley himself. His infamous slogan of ‘Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law’ is introduced here, and the book becomes the basis of his new religion – Thelema.