In April of 1904 an astonishing event changed the life of Aleister Crowley: poet, mystic and Golden Dawn occultist. While he and his wife, Rose, were vacationing in Egypt a mysterious entity initiated contact with the couple. First the voice moved Rose to lead Crowley to the funerary stele of an ancient Egyptian priest named Ankh-af-na-Khonsu. Later Crowley heard the voice over the course of three days. The voice, which belonged to a divine entity, commanded Crowley to transcribe his words, culminating in a piece of writing called Liber AL vel Legis, sub figura CCXX, or The Book of the Law.
Although Crowley resisted much of the teaching of The Book of the Law for many years, ultimately he accepted the role it assigned to him as Prophet of the New Aeon. The entire process is described in detail in Crowley's Equinox of the Gods and Book 4, Part 4. The Book of the Law is short - only 220 verses in length - but packed full of poetic, cryptic passages filled with Egyptian and apocalyptic Christian symbolism as well as strings of letters and numbers which appear to be an unsolved code.
Like many esoteric scriptures, there are several potential meanings to the verses in Liber AL, often apparently contradictory meanings. Crowley later wrote a short comment which included the line, "All questions of the Law are to be decided only by appeal to my writings, each for himself." This line is generally interpreted to mean that each person must interpret Liber AL for themselves and none other.
In 1922, Crowley became the Outer Head of Order of the group known as Ordo Templi Orientis (Order of the Eastern Templars). Under Crowley's leadership, the O.T.O. adopted The Book of the Law as its holy book and Crowley revised the order's rituals to bring them in line with the teachings of the path of Thelema.
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