The Book of the Law (Technically Called Liber AL vel Legis Sub Figura CCXX As Delivered by XCIII = 418 to DCLXVI).
Kings Beach, CA: Thelema Publications, 1981. Fifth Thelema Publications Edition. Hardcover. Small octavo (6.25 x 5.44 inches). 64pp. Red treated cloth with gilt titles on spine & upper board. Printed on pale yellow paper stock, yellow endpapers. The 1981 Thelema Publications edition of "The Book of the Law." The 1981 edition was the final printing of the book to be undertaken by Helen Parsons Smith (1910 - 2003), ex-wife of Jack Parsons and W. T. Smith, and long-time member of Agape Lodge of the OTO, under her Thelema Publications imprint. The content is based upon that of the earlier Thelema Publications editions, which are in turn drawn from the 1942 US edition but with some of the features of the 1938 UK edition. Curiously the two page statement on the O.T.O. at the rear of the earlier editions, that was split into two halves so as to also create a new "Preface" for the 1976 Thelema Publications edition, has been reunited as a single entity at the end of the book, and the "Preface" dispensed with. For the rest the contents reproduce the Introduction, text of "The Book of the Law" (Liber CCXX), and "Tunis Comment" as per the corrected 1942 US edition, with the exception that the words "Democracy Dodders" that were omitted from the Introduction have been restored, and the O.T.O. dove and chalice lamen and the eleven-fold cross and facsimile "Baphomet" signature that were printed facing the title page of the 1938 UK edition (and that of the present edition) are repeated on a page facing the end of the Introduction. A short colophon, adding "The Ordo Templi Orientis / Post Office Box 2303 / Berkeley, California 94702 / U.S.A." has been added at the end of the "O.T.O." section. An additional page with the diagram "A few indications for the student of the line to be adopted in his elucidation of Liber AL," from "The Equinox of the Gods," on the recto and a blank verso, ends the book. There were two main issues of this 1981 cloth-bound edition, which are most readily distinguishable from one another by their size: this is the smaller of the two. Gilt to spine a bit faded, very light rubbing to corners and spine ends, otherwise a tight, clean VG+ copy. Item #59535
ISBN: 0913576271
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