The Ape of Thoth

A Thelemic Text Daemon

Version 1.5

Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law

The 'Ape of Thoth' (APE for short) is a general-purpose text search engine whose database consists of Thelemic Holy Books and other important verse-based works by Aleister Crowley. The search methods provide instant access to works such as Liber AL vel Legis, Liber Cordis Cincti Serpente, and many other documents. As an added bonus, the infamous Book of the Inlaws is included.

The interface to the server is simple enough that anyone with web access can include the searcher on their page and the data format makes maintenance of the text database relatively easy.

For more details about this server, take a look at the following pages:

Although not the most efficient way of viewing a web document, the APE is capable of rendering a document in its entirety. To view one of the available documents, use the following form:

View the text:

The APE can also extract a single verse or a range of verses from any of the supported texts. Of course, this feature only works on a single text or a single chapter of a multiple-chapter text, and only if the verses are numbered. To try this out, use the following form:

View the following verse(s):
from the text:

The APE can also search any of the available documents. This search is done on a per-verse basis so the output will always contain the complete text of the matched verse. Do not use quotes or wildcard characters in the search phrase. To search for word fragments, simply make sure the 'whole words' box is unchecked. To search for a phrase, select the 'phrase' option. To begin your search, use the following form:

Search for:
in the text:
any of the above words all of the above words
none of the above words as a complete phrase
Case sensitive Whole words only Use compact display

One of the methods of divination frequently practiced by Crowley is called bibliomancy. The basic idea is to draw a word at random from a book and to derive divinatory meaning from the word selected. The APE can aid in the process of bibliomancy by randomly selecting one word from a random passage taken from one or more of the available texts. Try the following form to have the APE choose your random word:

Draw from the text:

And finally, the APE can produce an on-the-fly concordance of your favorite text or any range of verses therein. From the concordance page, you can then select any word as a search key and see all the places where that word appears in the selected text. Do not use quotes or wildcard characters in the search phrase. The concordance function always matches both complete and partial words. Try it now, if you dare:

Compile the following verse(s):
for words containing:
Case sensitive Split hyphenated words
from the text:

The 'Ape of Thoth' script was written by Joe Larabell (hanuman@larabell.org).