The Law Of Thelema

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I have decided to try to again study the Book of the Law, the central text of Thelema. I've decided to read through it at least once without any of the commentary. I have read some of it before with the commentary, but it felt like I was reading so much commentary compared to the text itself that I wasn't in touch with it being a text in and of itself, and I was just reading Crowley. So, I want to try reading it by itself at least once. I decided to start with the second chapter, about Hadit, because when I have partially studied it for a limited time before, I would always start at the beginning and so what I have studied of it thus far has been mostly centered on that first chapter. I'll share in this OP my notes on it, and will post further ones. Curious to see if there is any interest in this on the forums.

Hadit is always the doer, the very center, the absolute subject.

v. 7: “I am the Magician…” possibly with at least partial reference to the Tarot card.

v. 9: “Remember all ye that existence is pure joy; that all the sorrows are but as shadows; they pass and are done; but there is that which remains.”

Hadit can be called had for short. Yet..

v. 15: “My number is 9 by the fools; but with the just I am eight, and one in eight…the Empress and the King are not of me.”

Two interesting things about this. First of all, the spelling of Had is heh daled, which is 5 + 4, which is 9. Also, if we take the King to be the Tarot card Emperor, albeit with the traditional attribution, the letters are daled heh, which are actually the letters of had, and therefore also equal 9.

The next verse reads…

“I am the Empress and the Hierophant. Thus eleven, as my bride is eleven”

Well, if you take the numeration of the Hebrew letters corresponding to these tarot cards, which are daled and vav, you get 10. If you take them according to the number of the card itself, 3 and 5, you get 8, which in the previous verse Hadit says that is his number with the just.

As for the 11. His bride is Nuit, Nu for short. Nu is nun vav, which numerically is 56. According to one kabbalistic method you can add these numbers together, which would give you 11. Now normally you would break that down into 2, so I’m not sure if that is the meaning, but it is the only thing I can think of for the time.

v. 24: “Behold! these be grave mysteries; for there are also of my friends who be hermits. Now think not to find them in the forest or on the mountain; but in beds of purple, caressed by magnificent beasts of women with large limbs, and fire and light in their eyes, and masses of flaming hair about them; there shall ye find them. Ye shall see them at rule, at victorious armies, at all the joy; and there shall be in them a joy a million times greater than this.”

I cannot help but be reminded of the attitude given in the Bhagavad Gita here.

v. 27: “He shall fall down into the pit called Because, and there he shall perish with the dogs of Reason.”

Perhaps describing pre-planned actions and words, not going with the follow, inner-dualities, as the true ‘evil.’

v. 30: “If Will stops and cries Why, invoking Because, the Will stops and does naught.”

I think this is very informative as to the nature of the Will and perhaps how it is that either we do not fulfill our Will or we are not aware that we are fulfilling our Will.

v. 46-47: “Dost though fail? Art thou sorry? Is fear in thy heart?

Where I am these are not.”

I think this is informative to the overall nature of the idea being presented. Living absolutely in what is taking place, exerting yourself fully into the actions that occur. Not taking any thoughts or worries about the past or future with you.

a reply to: TheJourney

am running out of time today so will read your post with interest as it is a subject that fascinates me and now that the physicists are showing us more about ourselves we seem to be at a learning stage again about what our qualities and skills actually are. Today we are such workhorses we don't have time to think quietly and deeply about many of the things that interest us. Will return to your thread when I can, thanks for sharing your notes.

Here are notes I took while reading through chapter 1.

v. 1: "The manifestation of Nuit."
Nuit is manifested, whereas Hadit is never known.(see chapter 2 v. 4: "Yet she shall be known and I never.")
v. 3: "Every man and every woman is a star."
Every individual is a central point, creating a system based on it, with that being its common element. As the Sun defines the solar system, objects rotating around it, it is the same within the center of your consciousness. Just as the Universe consists of endless stars, all able to have their own system without interfering with one another, so it is with us when we are aligned with our true Will. Every indidivual has their own unique and natural path, defined by their Will, and thes pathways are by their nature harmonious with one another.

v. 4: "Every number is infinite; there is no difference."
Everything is a manifestation of the infinite, and in a sense is that infinte, and in that sense there is no difference.
v. 6: "Be thou Hadit, my secret center, my heart and my tongue!"
Hadit is the secret, unknowable center. He is always the center. He is the heart and tongue of nuit, which I think can be interpreted to mean Nuit experiences herself and expresses herself through Hadit.

v. 12-13: "Come forth, o children, under the stars, and take your fill of love!
I am above you and in you. My ecstasy is in yours. My joy is to see your joy."
The infinite experiences itself through centers, or Nuit experiences herself through Hadit. The true individual is the center of conscoiusness, and thus the infinite experiences ecstasy and joy when we do. This is also the nature of love, because our joy and the joy of All are united. And it is for this reason that every man and woman is a star, whose orbits of Will are in natural harmony.

v. 22: "Since I am Infinite Space, and the Infinite Stars thereof, do ye also thus. Bind nothing! Let there be no difference made among you between any one thing and any other thing; for thereby cometh hurt."
v. 26: "And the sign shall be my ecstasy, the consciousness of the continuity of existence, the omnipresence of my body."
v. 27: "O Nuit, continuous one in Heaven, let it be ever thus; that men speak not of Thee as One but as None; and let them speak not of thee at all, since thou art continuous!"
v. 29-30: For I am divided for love's sake, for the chance of union.
This is the creation of the world, that the pain of division is as nothing, and the joy of dissolution all."
v. 32: "Seek me only! Then the joys of my love will redeem ye from all pain. This is so: I swear it by the vault of my body; by my sacred heart and tongue; by all I can give, by all I desire of ye all."
v. 41: "The word of Sin is Restriction. O man! Refuse not thy wife, if she will! O lover, if thou wilt, depart! There is no bond that can unite the divided but love: all else is a curse. Accursed! Accursed be it to all the aeons! Hell."

v. 42-44: "...thou hast no right but to do thy will.
Do that, and no other shall say nay.
For pure will, unassuaged of purpose, delivered from the lust of result, is every way perfect."
Again referring to the concept that every individual is a star, and when the individual is aligned with his true Will he is naturally in harmony with All. In fact, you have no right to do anything other than your true will. In other words, everything you do that is not your true will throws you out of alignment with your natural path, and in this way all disharmony is created.
It also refers again to this idea of absolute exertion and wholeness in action, without seeking some particular result, or having some particular reason for doing it. We must align with our true will, and act in this way.
v. 46: "Nothing is a secret key of this law. Sixty-one the Jews call it; I call it eight, eighty, four hundred and eighteen."
The Jews call it sixty-one because the Hebrew word for nothing is ayin, aleph-yud-nun, 1-10-50, 61. I for the time do not know the meaning of the rest of the numbers.

v. 48: "My prophet is a fool with his one, one, one; are not they the Ox, and none by the Book?"
Clearly an allusion to the Tarot card fool. The hebrew letter corresponding to this card is aleph, which has a value of one. Also, the letter aleph as a word signifies an ox. 'the Book' is a reference to the Tarot as the Book of Thoth, the Fool card having a value of 0. This verse could perhaps be shedding some light on the apparent incongruity created with the hebrew letters being laid over the tarot cards, because aleph is 1, yet is the fool, who has a value of 0. Thus the next letter, having a value of 2, is assigned to the tarot card 1, etc. It may shed some light on that, and also relate it to other things in the Book of the Law, but I can't interpret it right now.

v. 51-53: "Also, take your fill and will of love as ye will, when, where and with whome ye will! But always unto me.
...if the ritual be not ever unto me: then expect the direful judgments of Ra Hoor Khuit!
But ecstasy be thine and joy of earth: ever To me! To me!"
Emphasizing that in order to have the bliss of the Infinite, everything we do must be dedicated to the Infinite. Also, Ra Hoor Khuit is one aspect of the Son, speaker of chapter 3.
v. 60: "My number is 11," as discussed in the notes on chapter 2. I realized another meaning could be the pentagram and the hexagram, representative of the microcosm and the macrocosm, man and the divine. This is 5 and 6, which is 11.

Let's revisit a couple verses from chapter 2, which I addressed in the original post.
V. 27: "He shall fall down into the pit called Because, and there he shall perish with the dogs of Reason."
V. 30: "If Will stops and cries Why, invoking Because, the Will stops and does naught.

I thought on this a little more and believed that I remembered, and I was correct, that the Hebrew word for 'because' was ki, kaph-yud, which has a numerical value of 30. One thing to consider is that the numerical value of this word 'Because,'being 30, is equivalent to the Hebrew letter lamed, which is the Tarot card adjustment, which is the card representing karma. This may be significant. Now it seems to be somewhat of a theme interspersed throughout the text that 'no' or 'not' may be significant words, probably in reference to duality and separate-existence. Now that word in Hebrew is lo, lamed-vav, which equals 31.

Keeping this in mind, let's look again at chapter 1, verse 46. "Nothing is a secret key to this law"
Now the word for nothing in Hebrew is ayin, aleph-yud-nun, and it has a numerical value of 61. Now the previous 2 significant words looked at, Because and No, had a value of 30 and 31 which one added together gives you 61 the value of nothing. Another thing I think is significant is the Hebrew word for 'I' is ani, aleph-nun-yud, which also has a value of 61. So the word 'self' and 'nothing' have the same numerical value. This would seem to be a sort of validation in gematria of the Buddhist doctrine of no-self.

Another interesting result in gematria that I have come across through this study involves the Hebrew word for all and the Hebrew word for nothing. The Hebrew word for all is kol, kaph-lamed, which is 50. Nothing is ayin, with a value of 61, and when you add them together you get 111. This is the number of aleph, aleph-lamed-fay, which is the letter of the Tarot card the Fool, which is informative.

Also, when you spell Nuit out in full, nun-vav-yud-thau, you get 466. This is equivalent to Olam HaYetzirah, the world of formations, which the Fool is the card of. The letter of the Fool is, again, aleph, and so again the previous gematria of 'All and Nothing' could be seen to apply to Nuit. The credibility of this is added to when you consider that It is repeatedly said that we should call her Nothing, that she is the Qabalistic 0, and the Tarot number of the Fool is 0.

So, there may be little interest, but I actually really am enjoying and I feel benefitting from my study of the book, more than I have in the past. So, here's a bit more I wrote. Hopefully others can join in on the study, but I'm enjoying it regardless.

"...shall the priestess say - and her eyes shall burn with desire as she stands bear and rejoices in my secret temple. To me! To me! Calling forth the flame of the hearts of all in her love-chant." Speaking of the priestess as nude is evidence of it referring at least in part to the Tarot card priestess, who is nude. Her path is gimel, connecting kether to tiphareth, the sun, which represents the heart. Commentary by Crowley connected Khabs, the light/star of man, with the heart, as she does in this verse.

The light of man's true nature as love resides in the heart. It is held in its highest sense, a star in the body of Nuit, through the priestess who connects the light with Kether. In this, the most pure an absolute love is found, which excites the fire of life and passion within Hadit who is the inmost center.

Now there is an interesting paradox that obviously has meaning and is worth looking into. Let's look at the opening verses of chapters 1 and two.
"Had! The manifestation of Nuit."
"Nu! The hiding of Hadit."
Nuit is said to be hidden, yet is also said to be infinitely extended. Hadit is said to be manifested yet also said to be infinitely contracted, or not extended. Nuit is also said to be everywhere the circumference, which is nowhere found. Perhaps this is explained in that Nuit is in a sense All, yet in another sense nothing because she has no distinctions, no separate identity, no discontinuity. Hadit is the flaming core and expression of all individuality. Yet Hadit is never known. Another verse states, with 'she' referring of course to Nuit...
"... as she, the circumference, is nowhere found."

2:2 "I am not extended, and Khabs is the name of my house." So perhaps Khabs is the absolute, unified individual essence, that sense of 'a star.' Nuit and Hadit are the two opposing infinite who's interplay gives finite realities. Hadit is the individuality that exists beyond all conditions. All variation is the process of the self discovery of Nuit as infinite possibilities.

Humorously, I'm guessing you're skipping the part of the commentary about not discussing liber al.

originally posted by: RedCairo
Humorously, I'm guessing you're skipping the part of the commentary about not discussing liber al.

No, I've read that but I imagine it is somewhat facetious, speaking of all the terrible pitfalls that will come down upon any who doesn't read the book once and then throw it away and never discuss it again. Besides, I enjoy discussing philosophy and spirituality, and believe it is more beneficial than not, so yea.