Aleister Crowley, "Hymn to Lucifer" (undated) and The Book of Thoth (1944)

This chapter studies Aleister Crowley’s undated poem “Hymn to Lucifer” and an extract from The Book of Thoth (1944), which deals with the tarot card The Devil. “Hymn to Lucifer” alludes to the state of humankind in the Garden of Eden before the fall, a condition that is described in negative terms and portrayed as restrictive and stagnant. Even if it happens at the price of death, the Devil represents the possibility for humankind to leave the stagnation of Eden. The view of the Devil, especially in the guise of Lucifer, as the revealer of knowledge has been regarded as one of the classical elements of Romantic Satanism. Meanwhile, The Book of Thoth is a manual designed to give an account of Crowley’s interpretation of the significance of the tarot deck as well as to instruct its readers in a divinatory use of the cards. In The Book of Thoth, the Devil card is said to represent “creative energy in its most material form” and the connection that exists between the card, the Devil as a spiritual entity or principle and the creative force is possibly the main theme of the text.