The Law is for All

Foreword 11 Dr. Francis Israel Regardie produced a competing edition the fol­ lowing year that relied on a 1926 typescript entitled “An Extenu­ ation to the Book of the Law”; he was quietly assisted by Gerald Yorke in his work.1 Each edition had its merits, but neither addressed the many editorial inconsistencies that had accumu­ lated in such a complex and technical work, written over many years, especially one that had been shunned by its author. 1 The Law is for All (St. Paul: Llewellyn Publications, 1975); reprinted by New Falcon Publications. Regardie’s title The Law is for All has been retained, not only for the practical reason that this new edition replaces his, but because this title — a line from The Book of the Law— is appro­ priate for a popular edition. Had this edition gone to press as intended, Louis Wilkinson would no doubt have performed another round of editing to resolve remaining problems. I have addressed these by provided annotations to the text for the more obscure references, indicating crossreferences, and adding a list of works cited and two indexes. In order to sidestep interpretive issues, in the text of The Book of the Law itself only proper names have been indexed. Stray cross- references to material omitted by Wilkinson have been removed; a few parenthetical references to published works were dropped to footnotes; a few numbered sections were reformatted; and pas­ sages introducing quotations from Liber Aleph required editing. A complete edition of all of Crowley’s commentaries, intended for scholars and magical students, is in preparation, and will be issued a few years hence by New Falcon Publications. A few additions have been made to the content of this edition. The Book of the Law is given again, without commentary, for convenience. Quotations in the commentaries have been con­ formed to that standard, and cited in the margins. A special index lists citations and quotations of Liber AL in the commentaries. These features are intended to help readers follow Crowley’s dis­ cussion in context. Other additions are a facsimile of the manu­ script (taken from modern photography of the original ms. in the o.T.o. Archives, at 60% of original size), color plates of the Stèle of Revealing, and the text of Crowley’s paraphrase. Finally, the