There is an awful lot of obscure material though - not to mention having to trawl through any references that might also be lengthy. Refer to The Book of Law? IMO it is as cryptic as the Book of Thoth... Liber777, pretty clear, but there are pages of it.Even basic statements like " do what thy wilt should be the whole of the Law or love is the law love under will! Have a lot to them. What is your will? Do you know what you will actually is to be able to do it? Complex, yes, and what does it mean 'at all' if you have not explored Thelema, the philosophy at the heart of the Thoth and Crowley?
I didn't say that
no background was necessary, but these topics can be explored, to a certain degree, without belonging to an initiatory order or even practicing magick. It would help, of course, but depending on the stage you are in your studies it isn't strictly necessary. But studying the book is an exercise in patience, because although everything is explained somewhere, it does indeed entail a great deal of trawling. The subject of Will is explained in a short and concise way in
Duty, and there are many other sources, both primary and secondary, that discuss it. The Book of Law has two separate commentaries by Crowley, any number of secondary commentaries as well as a completed study group here in the forum. Enochian, too, has never been more accessible.
All these things can be studied, which is why it is important to go slowly. DuQuette gives a preliminary background on all of it, including topics such as Will and rudimentary explanations of things like DWTW, and then someone can go on to the Book of Thoth with a basic understanding of the ideas of the deck and some basic Qabalah. Those things get you started, but even that isn't enough, and through reading and studying the book it is possible to gain some understanding of the deck but only over time and old-fashioned study. It has nothing to do with intelligence, but often when people say the book is impenetrable it is because they just read it, and didn't actually study it. When I was studying the deck intensively I spend between three and six months on every Major, not letting go until I got it, relatively speaking. Granted, I work in a job in which I have a lot of free time on my hands so I was able to spend four hours a day on it until my brain turned to mush, but really if I can do it anyone can. If you read the book and come across something you don't understand, Google it, and don't move on until the point is cleared up.
This is assuming one has the basics of Qabalah and rudimentary astrology which are the symbolic languages through which Crowley expresses himself. Those things can also be learned and the'yre not that difficult in themselves. You can know basic Qabalah in a month, enough to get you started.
Incidentally why are some people including yourself on this forum using the 93 or 93/93 Thelemite greetings when they are not Thelemites? Is this another obscure mystery?
In Greek Gematria 93 is the value of both Thelema (Will) as well as Agapé (Love). The greeting is from the Book of Law, and one of the basic tenets of Thelema, "Love is the law, love under will." It basically encourages whoever you say it to, to practice their Will freely. I'm not a Thelemite, strictly speaking, and used it only in the forum guidelines, because it's cool.
There also appears to be woven in material regarding the initiatory degrees of levels in GD/Crowley's orders. These are in the cards, as far as I am aware.
Yes, admittedly there are references to things a layman may not be privvy to. Those things, if you don't belong to an order or practice magick in some way, you won't get. The general structure and initiatory steps are also in books, and can be found. Some things he does say that nobody who isn't at whatever level will understand, but they're relatively few in number and are more or less aimed for the advanced student. That's fine, most of the book is for what Crowley considered a beginner, which isn't really someone who approaches the book with no background whatsoever.
In fact I would argue that the Book of Thoth has never been easier than it is today. "Trawling" today means looking up stuff, although it might be a relatively slow and diligent process. In Crowley's day it meant spending years shut up in libraries digging up books that weren't available in any case. How would someone living anywhere except a big city like London ever find the Book of Abramelin or any other of the obscure books Crowley references? It would have been beyond impossible. Today I may not understand it, but it is still only a few clicks away.