The Book of Lies

This edition of Aleister Crowley’s witty and instructive collection of paradoxes includes commentary by the author rarely found in other publications of the work.

Written by the famed English occultist Aleister Crowley, The Book of Lies was first published in 1913. The book includes 93 chapters, 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 qabalistic meaning.

Around 1921, Crowley wrote a short commentary about each chapter, assisting the reader in the qabalistic interpretation. That commentary is included in this edition from Weiser Books.

“Sometimes the text is serious and straightforward,” writes Crowley of The Book of Lies, “sometimes its obscure oracles demand deep knowledge of the Qabalah for interpretation, others contain obscure allusions, play upon words, secrets expressed in cryptogram, double or triple meaning which must be combined in order to appreciate the full flavour; others again are subtly ironical or cynical. At first sight the book is a jumble of nonsense intended to insult the reader. It requires infinite study, sympathy, intuition and initiation. Given these I do not hesitate to claim that in none other of my writings have I given so profound and comprehensive an exposition of my philosophy.”