Inventing a Modern Ritual Magic Text: Assembling and Dis(a)ssembling Liber Israfel
Magic, Ritual, and Witchcraft September 1, 2022 M. Fletcher
Liber Israfel, an invocation of the Egyptian god Thoth, is a key text in Aleister Crowley's literary corpus, forming the basis of a theory of magical invocation in his work Magick in Theory and Practice and used extensively in his personal magical practice. A precursor of Liber Israfel played a role in events leading to the reception of The Book of the Law, the founding text of Thelema. Despite its significance, the text has received little scholarly attention. While it is recognized as indebted to a ritual by Crowley's mentor Allan Bennett, a comprehensive analysis of its iterative composition is lacking.