The Curriculum

The course of the A∴A∴ as Crowley designed it: one system, three orders, eleven grades, each grade a definite attainment proved by a definite test. Nothing is altered here. The aspirant climbs the Tree of Life grade by grade, and at every rung the Order demands two things: the work done, and the record of it in writing.

Three rules govern the whole course. The aspirant works alone, and knows only the one above him and the one below him in the chain. No payment is taken for initiation, instruction, or advancement, ever. And no attainment is recognized until it is demonstrated under examination: what the Order certifies, it has seen.

The Student

Before oaths, knowledge. The Student must be of full age, obtains the books below, studies them for not less than three months, and writes to secretary@thebookofthelaw.com for the examination: written, closed-book, and graded without mercy, for mercy in examinations cheats only the candidate. Passing, he is read the History Lection, Liber LXI, and may be admitted a Probationer. Every book on the list can be read free at the links.

1. The Equinox, Vol. I — the Order’s own encyclopaedia of official instruction.
2. 777 — the tables of correspondence: the dictionary of the language the rituals speak.
3. Konx Om Pax — four essays on the course of initiation.
4. Tannhäuser, The Sword of Song, Time, Eleusis — from the Collected Works: the doctrine in poetry and essay.
5. The Book of Lies — the wisdom of the grades above, sealed in jokes.
6. Raja Yoga, Swami Vivekananda — the science of concentration, plainly taught.
7. The Shiva Samhita or The Hathayoga Pradipika — the body’s discipline at its source.
8. The Tao Teh King and the writings of Kwang Tze — the Way that cannot be spoken, spoken best.
9. The Spiritual Guide, Miguel de Molinos — the quietist map of the same country by another road.
10. Dogme et Rituel de la Haute Magie (part II), Éliphas Lévi — the bridge from the old magic to the new.
11. The Goetia — evocation, with the preliminary invocation the Order prefers.
12. The Book of the Sacred Magic of Abramelin the Mage (II, III) — the classic operation of the Holy Guardian Angel, which the whole system refines.

The First Order: G.D.

0°=0□ Probationer

His oath: to obtain a scientific knowledge of the nature and powers of my own being. One year. He receives Liber LXI and the secret holy book Liber LXV, begins such practices as he prefers, and keeps an exact written record, that the Order may judge not his opinions but his work. The diary is the first instrument of the Work, and the only one that cannot lie to him.

Liber LXI · Liber LXV · Liber IX (E) · Liber VI (O) · Liber CC (Resh) · the record

1°=10□ Neophyte

His oath: to obtain control of the nature and powers of my own being. Received in ceremony, he must attain perfect control of the astral plane: to travel in the Body of Light, to test every vision, to banish every deceit. He is examined in Liber VI, theoretically and practically, and in the Four Powers of the Sphinx. He constructs the magic Pantacle.

Liber VI (O) · the astral record · the Pantacle

2°=9□ Zelator

His oath: to obtain control of the foundations of my own being. The foundation is Yesod, and the Order does not blush at what that means: the sexual force among the rest, mastered, not mortified. He receives Liber CCXX, Liber XXVII, and Liber DCCCXIII, achieves complete success in Asana and Pranayama, proved under test, takes up the yoke of Liber III (Jugorum) with the razor at his arm, forges the magic Dagger, and begins the study of the formula of the Rosy Cross.

Liber CCXX · Liber XXVII · Liber DCCCXIII · Liber III (Jugorum) · Liber IX (E) · Liber CCVI (RV) · the Dagger

3°=8□ Practicus

His oath: to obtain control of the vacillations of my own being. The intellectual training completed. He masters the Qabalah of Liber DCCLXXVII until number and word are one language, is examined in geomancy, astrology, and the Tarot, practices the meditative expansion of consciousness, and casts the magic Cup.

Liber DCCLXXVII · Liber XVI (Turris) · Liber DXXXVI · the Cup

4°=7□ Philosophus

His oath: to obtain control of the attractions and repulsions of my own being. The moral training completed. He perfects devotion by a formal operation of Bhakti-Yoga under Liber CLXXV, practices the construction of talismans and the evocation of spirits, cuts the magic Wand, and is tested, without warning, in his devotion to the Order.

Liber CLXXV (Astarte) · talisman and evocation · the Wand

— Dominus Liminis

His oath: to obtain control of the aspirations of my own being. On the threshold of the Veil. Mastery of Pratyahara and Dharana: the senses withdrawn, the mind held to one point, every weapon and power of the First Order gathered into a single flame of aspiration toward the Angel, and he lights the magic Lamp. Here too the solitary formula of the O.T.O.’s VIII° has its place, taught in the degree’s own paper, De Nuptiis Secretis Deorum cum Hominibus: the whole force of life consecrated, alone, to the one aspiration.

Liber CCCXLI (HHH) · Liber Mysteriorum · De Nuptiis Secretis Deorum cum Hominibus · the collected disciplines · the Lamp

The Second Order: R.C.

5°=6□ Adeptus Minor (Without)

His oath: to attain the Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel. The Great Work itself, and the sole task of the grade: by the operation of Abramelin, by Liber DCCC, or by the method the Angel himself appoints. He wears the Probationer’s white with the Eye of Horus set in the pentagram, for the end of the road is the beginning glorified.

Liber DCCC (Samekh) · the Abramelin operation · Liber LXV lived, not read

5°=6□ Adeptus Minor (Within)

Admitted Within to the College of the Holy Ghost, the Adept takes up the formula of the Rosy Cross, worked now under the Angel’s own direction: the paired sexual formula, the same the O.T.O. guards as its IX°, the marriage of opposites in which the Rosy Cross is not a symbol but an operation. The A∴A∴ requires membership in no other body; the two Orders guard one science, taught from two directions. Here the golden robe replaces the white.

the formula of the Rosy Cross · the instruction of the College

6°=5□ Adeptus Major

General mastery of practical Magick: the Adept under his Angel’s direction rules the forces of his own sphere and begins to rule circumstance. To this grade belong the papers of the O.T.O.’s IX°, Liber Agape and De Arte Magica: the paired formula worked to its full power.

the formulae of The Equinox · Liber Agape · De Arte Magica

7°=4□ Adeptus Exemptus

Perfection of all these matters, sealed by a thesis: a contribution to the knowledge of the Order which the whole of his attainment stands behind. Then the choice that admits no third way: cling to what he has and rot into a Brother of the Left Hand Path, or strip himself of all he has and is, and take the Oath of the Abyss. In preparation he works Liber CMXIII (ThIShARB), the way backwards through his own incarnations.

the thesis · Liber CMXIII (ThIShARB) · the Oath of the Abyss

The Third Order: S.S.

8°=3□ Magister Templi

Born a Babe of the Abyss where every reason perished, the Master’s business is to tend his garden of disciples and to attain a perfect understanding of the Universe: every event a particular dealing of God with his soul. To this grade belongs the secret the O.T.O. seals as its XI°: the formula of the Eye of Horus, worked per vas nefandum, whose generation is not of bodies and is therefore wholly of the will.

Liber VII (Lapidis Lazuli), the birth-words of a Master of the Temple · Liber CDXVIII · the garden