The Book of Lies (Crowley) |
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Author | |
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Country | United Kingdom |
Language | English |
Genre | |
Publication date | 1912 |
Media type | Print (Paperback) |
Pages | 200 pp |
The Book of Lies (full title: Which is also Falsely Called BREAKS. The Wanderings or Falsifications of the One Thought of Frater Perdurabo, which Thought is itself Untrue. Liber CCCXXXIII [Book 333]) was written by English
The book consists of 91 chapters,[2][3] each of which consists of one page of text. The chapters include a question mark, poems, rituals, instructions, and obscure allusions and cryptograms. The subject of each chapter is generally determined by its number and its corresponding
Several chapters and a photograph in the book reference
The title page contains the following quotation from Tennyson:
"Break, break, break
At the foot of thy stones, O Sea!
And I would that I could utter
The thoughts that arise in me!"[4]
An explanation of the title on the facing page ends with the sentence, "There is no joke or subtle meaning in the publisher's imprint."[4] This seems to be[
This might have been a veiled warning about what will follow, but is actually the first lie in the book; occult historian Francis King has carefully determined the date on the imprint is inaccurate by at least a year.[5]
In his
[Reuss] said that since I was acquainted with the supreme secret of the Order, I must be allowed the IX° and obligated in regard to it. I protested that I knew no such secret. He said, "But you have printed it in the plainest language." I said that I could not have done so because I did not know it. He went to the bookshelves and, taking out a copy of The Book of Lies, pointed to a passage in the despised chapter. It instantly flashed upon me. The entire symbolism, not only of freemasonry but of many other traditions, blazed upon my spiritual vision. From that moment the O.T.O. assumed its proper importance in my mind. I understood that I held in my hands the key to the future progress of humanity.[6]
Aleister Crowley sometimes said[7] that this could not have happened the way he remembered it, since The Book of Lies had not yet come out when he joined the O.T.O. As previously mentioned, however, Wilson claims that the book lies about its publication date.
Assuming this event did take place, readers have suggested various possible chapters that might contain the secret. Wilson points to Chapter 69, "The Way to Succeed—and the Way to Suck Eggs!" (sucking seed and sucking eggs referring to