Ordo Templi Orientis

Liber LXV

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*Liber Cordis Cincti Serpente* (LXV, "The Book of the Heart Girt with a Serpent") is a sacred text within Thelema, the occult religious system developed by Aleister Crowley in the early 20th century. It belongs to a genre of mystical scripture — structured as a series of numbered verses and visionary dialogues — that blends poetry, prophetic utterance, and esoteric instruction in the tradition of Gnostic and Hermetic sacred writing. The work centers on a series of exchanges between the divine figure Adonai and the mystic adept (designated V.V.V.V.V.), tracing the soul's union with the divine through imagery drawn from Egyptian mythology (Osiris, Isis, Khem, Hathor), Qabalah, and alchemical symbolism. Its central argument is that spiritual attainment requires the dissolution of the self — the adept must yield, descend into abasement and darkness, and ultimately merge with the divine serpent-force in order to achieve transcendent unity. Distinctively, the text insists that religious and spiritual truths are necessarily plural and partial ("the colours are many, but the light is one"), that action and joy should supersede intellectual analysis ("Reap thou, and rejoice!"), and that conventional moral categories must be inverted or transcended on the path to initiation. It would appeal most to readers interested in Western esotericism, Thelemic theology, or the literary and symbolic language of early 20th-century occultism.

Liber LXV

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