It was when this honeymoon was in Cairo that the young buddhist's wife wanted to see evidence of magick. Crowley decided to invoke the sylphs for his wife. She claimed she saw nothing. However, she began telling him "they're here" and mumbling something about a child. He couldn't imagine what she was talking about, so the next day when she continued, he invoked Thoth, the Egyptian god of knowledge, to make sense of it. There was no immediate result, but on the third day, Rose decides that the Egyptian god Horus is speaking through her. Crowley, in an attempt to prove her wrong, carries her to the Bulaq Museum in Cairo and she promptly points out a funerary tablet labeled Stele 666 and the figure of Horus as Ra-Hoor-Khuit.
For the next three weeks, Crowley had the stele translated by the assistant curator to the museum. At the end of that time, he invoked Horus and was told to enter the temple at exactly noon on April 8th, 9th, and 10th, writing down what was given to him. On each of the three days, he was given a new chapter to a book by Aiwass, whom Crowley began to consider his Holy Guardian Angel. The three chapters formed a book which became known as The Book of the Law. This became the foundation of a new philosophy called Thelema.
The first chapter is written as if spoken by Nuit, the goddess of space. It describes worship directed towards the infinite. The second chapter is written as if spoken by Hadit, the infinitesimal point and the consort of Nuit. It sets up timed religious observances as well as further codes of conduct. The third chapter is spoken as if by Horus, the crowned and conquering child, the synthesis of the two. This chapter takes on a war-like tone and finishes up the instructions on conduct as well as giving tasks for the future.
At first, since it clashed with Crowley's Buddhist leanings, he rejected the Book of the Law, primarily because of the wording of the third chapter. However, he eventually began to see the sense of it and started the first thelemic order, the order of the silver star or Argentum Astrum (A.: A.:) in 1907. He also, per the instructions in the book, began working on commentaries to the Book of the Law, setting himself up as the prophet of the New Aeon or age. He began devoting himself to the promulgation of the Law of Thelema by writing many poems and books as well as other activities.
It was one of these writings that caused him to be contacted by a man named Theodor Reuss in 1913. Reuss claimed that Crowley had published the secret of the pseudo-masonic order called the Ordo Templi Orientis (OTO) and demanded he be initiated into it, taking oaths to protect the secret. After proof of his publishing of the secret, Crowley relented and was initiated. The very next year he advanced to tenth degree in that order and became head of Great Britian and Ireland for the order.
The next year, Crowley traveled to Moscow and, after attending a Orthodox mass, sat down to write the Gnostic Mass, a Mass incorporating not only the ideals of Thelema, but also the secret of the OTO. It was his goal to provide a religion for the new aeon, incorporating the philosophy in symbol suitable for public performance. Through the use of theater and song, it would proclaim the Law for all.
In 1922, Crowley became the head of the OTO, the first old aeon organization to accept the Law of Thelema and its precepts. He spent the rest of his life traveling and sharing this Law with the world, not only through his own association, but with numerous books, poems, and articles. At the age of 71, Aleister Crowley, with his son Ataturk at his side, succumbed to his Greater Feast and died. His ashes were buried near a tree on the property of Karl Germer, a holocaust survivor, and his successor to the OTO.
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