In The Temple of Solomon The King Aleister Crowley sets the scene for the Reception of Liber AL:
“I shall make what I may call an inventory of the furniture of the Temple, the circumstances of the case. I shall describe the conditions of the phenomenon as if it were any other unexplained event in Nature.
1. The time.
Chapter 1 was written between Noon and 1 p.m. on April 8, 1904.
Chapter II between Noon and 1 p.m. on April 9, 1904.
Chapter III between Noon and 1 p.m. on April 10, 1904.
The writing began exactly on the stroke of the hour, and ended exactly an hour later ; it was hurried through, with no pauses of any kind.
2. The place.
The city was Cairo.
The street, or rather streets, I do not remember. There is a `Place’ where four or five streets intersect; it is near the Boulak Museum, but a fairly long way from Shepherd’s. The quarter is fashionable European. The house occupied a corner. I do not remember its orientation; but, as appears from the instructions for invoking Horus, one window of the temple opened to the East or North. The apartment was of several rooms on the ground floor, well furnished in the Anglo-Egyptian style. It was let by a firm named Congdon & Co.
The room was a drawing-room cleared of fragile obstacles, but not otherwise prepared to serve as a temple. It had double doors, opening on to the corridor to the North and a door to the East leading to another room, the dining-room, I think. It had two windows opening on the Place, to the South, and a writing table against the wall between them.”
If you’d like to celebrate the Reception of Liber AL and don’t have a copy of Liber AL vel Legis to read from, here’s the text of Chapter 2: http://lib.oto-usa.org/libri/liber0220.html#chap2
there’s a tool bar on the left and by hitting “Next Page” you can flip through the entire chapter
