Thelema is a spiritual philosophy ( referred to by some as a religion ) that was developed by the early 20th century British writer and ceremonial magician, Aleister Crowley.

Crowley says that the author was an entity named Aiwass, whom he later referred to as his personal Holy Guardian Angel ( analogous to but not identical with " Higher Self ").

Aleister Crowley, Waite's foe, referred to him as a villainous " Arthwate " in his novel Moonchild and referred to him in his magazine Equinox.

According to Crowley, they were not so much written by him as through him, and are therefore referred to as inspired works.

Crowley also referred to the Left-Hand Path when describing the point at which the Adeptus Exemptus ( such as his old Christian mentor, Macgregor Mathers ) chooses to cross the Abyss, which is the location of Choronzon and the illusory eleventh Sephira, which is Da ' ath or Knowledge.

The oath of the Adeptus Minor includes a provision to " unite myself with my higher and Divine Genius ", a process which is more commonly referred to ( by way of Aleister Crowley ) as Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel.

Crowley was ordained deacon on 28 September or 29 September 1551 by Bishop Ridley, and referred to as " stationer of the Parish of St Andrew, Holborn ".

Throughout his life Fraser had a reputation for his bad temper ; Crowley ( 2000 ) referred to him as a man whose intemperate habits had been town gossip for years.

Early in the 20th century, the British occultist Aleister Crowley created his own version of Abramelin Oil, which he called " Oil of Abramelin ," and sometimes referred to as the " Holy Oil of Aspiration.

The Thoth Tarot is a divinatory tarot deck painted by Lady Frieda Harris according to instructions from Aleister Crowley.

Crowley originally intended the Thoth deck to be a six-month project aimed at updating the traditional pictorial symbolism of the tarot.

Crowley and Harris were meticulous in their work, and Harris painted some of the cards as many as eight times. The current edition of the U. S. Games Systems deck contains two prototypes of The Magus card as painted by Lady Harris, each making use of markedly different style and symbols.

These were never intended to be a part of the deck proper but were completed by Lady Harris but rejected by Crowley.

Neither Harris nor Crowley lived to see the deck published.

They also eventually succeeded in their efforts to find a publisher for the Thoth tarot deck designed by Aleister Crowley.

In the Crowley deck this card is entitled Lust, and receives a different focus, as a sun sign ( zodiac ), namely Leo, implying a potency that is sexual, creative, and intuitive, which are all attributes of the element Fire.

The song was inspired by books about Aleister Crowley which Ozzy Osbourne had read and a deck of tarot cards that were found in the studio.

On 29 May 1942 Crowley wrote to Pearson, the photoengraver of the Thoth deck:

As well as reading books by Crowley, Frieda Harris ' studies of Rudolf Steiner's Anthroposophy were to be a critical aspect in the creation of the Thoth deck.

Crowley's friend Greta Valentine, a London socialite, also knew Harris and it was at Valentine's house in Hyde Park Crescent, London, that Harris and Crowley did much of their work on the Thoth tarot deck.

By Crowley's own admission, the deck was originally intended to be traditional, but Harris encouraged Crowley to commit his occult, magical, spiritual and scientific knowledge to the project.

The Book of Thoth was then published in a 200 copy limited edition, but neither Crowley or Harris lived to see the deck itself printed.

* 1904 – British mystic Aleister Crowley transcribes the first chapter of The Book of the Law.

* 1904 – British mystic Aleister Crowley transcribes the third and final chapter of The Book of The Law.

The most well known version is that written by Gerald Gardner, and includes material paraphrased works by Aleister Crowley, primarily from Liber ALThe Book of the Law ( particularly from Ch 1, spoken by Nuit, the Star Goddess ), and from his Liber XV: the Gnostic Mass as well as Liber LXV ( Liber Cordis Cincti Serpente, or the Book of the Heart Girt with the Serpent ), thus linking modern Wicca irrevocably to the cosmology and revelations of Thelema.

The third paragraph is largely written by Doreen Valiente, with some phrases adapted from The Book of the Law and The Gnostic Mass by Aleister Crowley.

" Crowley describes this process in his Magick, Book 4:

Crowley describes banishing in his Magick, Book 4 ( ch. 13 ):

In Magick, Book 4 ( ch. 13 ), Crowley writes:

Crowley ( Magick, Book 4 ) discusses three main categories of invocation, although " in the great essentials these three methods are one.

Biographer Lawrence Sutin quotes private diaries that fit this story, and writes that " if ever Crowley uttered the truth of his relation to the Book ," his public account accurately describes what he remembered on this point.

A similar phrase, Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law, appears in Aleister Crowley's works by 1904, in The Book of the Law ( though as used by Crowley it is half of a statement and response, the response being " Love is the law, love under will ").

** Aleister Crowley begins writing Liber Al vel Legis, better known as The Book of the Law, a text central to Thelema.

A certain amount of focusing or restricting the mind to some imagined object ( or will ), according to Aleister Crowley, produces mystical attainment or " an occurrence in the brain characterized essentially by the uniting of subject and object " ( Book Four, Part 1: Mysticism ).

* The Book of Thoth, by Aleister Crowley.

It appeared to be a first draft of Gardner's Book of Shadows, and featured sections based upon the rituals of the Ordo Templi Orientis which had been devised by the occultist Aleister Crowley.

She noticed how much of the material in his Book of Shadows was taken not from ancient sources as Gardner had initially claimed, but from the works of the occultist Aleister Crowley, from Aradia, or the Gospel of the Witches, from the Key of Solomon and also from the rituals of Freemasonry.

Parsons adhered to the religion of Thelema, which had been founded in 1904 by the English occultist Aleister Crowley following a spiritual revelation that he had in the city of Cairo, Egypt, when — according to Crowley's own accounts — a spirit being known as Aiwass dictated to him a prophetic text known as The Book of the Law.

was described by Crowley as the " first of the great Old Æon orders to accept The Book of the Law ".

It is the only Holy Book that Aleister Crowley claimed to have had no part in the authorship of.

In Magick ( Book 4 ), Crowley asserted that Baphomet was a divine androgyne and " the hieroglyph of arcane perfection ":

One of those attracted to Spare's work was Aleister Crowley ( 1875 – 1947 ), an occultist who had founded the religion of Thelema in 1904, taking as its basis a new holy text known as The Book of the Law.

Following his experience with Aleister Crowley and other Thelemites, Spare developed a hostile view of ceremonial magic and many of those occultists who practiced it, describing them as " the unemployed dandies of the Brothels " in The Book of Pleasure.

In Magick ( Book 4 ), Part II ( Magick ), Aleister Crowley lists the tools required as a circle drawn on the ground and inscribed with the names of god, an altar, a wand, cup, sword, and pantacle, to represent his true will, his understanding, his reason, and the lower parts of his being respectively.

The title of the album is directly linked to chapter 69 of The Book of Lies, a written work of Aleister Crowley, where he uses the expression " The way to succeed and the way to suck eggs " as a pun for the 69 sex position (" suck seed " and " suck eggs ").

A revised English edition of the Ars Goetia was published in 1904 by magician Aleister Crowley, as The Book of the Goetia of Solomon the King.