6.3 Primary Sources: Hierological Texts

Abbreviations for major scriptural and primary-text collections may be given without periods when that is the established convention. This includes canonical and deuterocanonical works of the Christian canon, Dead Sea Scrolls materials, and commonly cited Thelemic texts such as Liber AL vel Legis (AL), Liber Tzaddi (Tza), Liber Cordis Cencti Serpente (Cor), or Liber B (Magi). Other abbreviations should generally retain periods unless a recognized house or scholarly convention dictates otherwise.

Citation punctuation should follow the type of source being cited. Biblical chapter-and-verse references ordinarily use a colon (:), as in Gen 1:1 or John 1:5. Thelemic texts with chapter-and-verse structure should follow the same general pattern, as in AL 1:40. Other ancient, classical, magical, or esoteric texts may be numbered by book, chapter, section, paragraph, line, or fragment, and periods are often clearer for separating those units. Where a discipline, tradition, or edition has an established citation pattern, follow it consistently and record the decision in the project style sheet.

Use verse-segment letters only when the reference requires that level of precision. Do not divide verses unnecessarily.

Proposed abbreviations for the primary Thelemic corpus are found in §6.3.1: Primary Thelemic Texts.

When citing primary sources without reference to chapter or chapter and verse, spell them out in the main text (though omitting the ‘vel' of ‘sub figurâ‘ and final subtitle and roman numeral(s) is acceptable if already cited in full previously). If citing them with chapter or chapter and verse, abbreviate them, except when they appear at the start of a sentence. Citing verses from books without chapters are cited as if there is a single numbered chapter as seen in the fourth example below.

In parentheses and footnotes, always abbreviate primary sources. If an author cites multiple versions, they must specify in brackets the version used for each citation. When the citation appears in parentheses, no comma or brackets are required between the citation and the version abbreviation.

1. AL 1:40c
2. AL 3:37r [ISV]
3. (AL 3:37r OTOV)
4. Tza 1:21

Note: If not citing The Vision and The Voice by page number from a specific resource, it may be cited by aethyr and paragraph.

• VV 8:18