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Correspondence from MacGregor Mathers to Florence Farr
Without Prejudice.
N.B.—Read this letter carefully before showing any part of it to anyone!
87, Rue Mozart, Auteuil, Paris,
16 February 1900.
C[ara] et V[ery] H[onoured] Soror S.S.D.D.,
My time is just now so enormously occupied with the arrangements for the Buildings and Decorations of the Egyptian Temple of Isis in Paris, as well as other matters, that I must write as briefly as possible.
(a) I have never wished to interfere in your private affairs, but if you choose to bring mine into a discussion in a Second Order Meeting, the matter concerns me as well as yourself.
(b) As you did not date your letter to me, and as I received it on the 13th January, 1900, it was difficult for me to conceive that it had been written after instead of before the meeting on the twelfth. I possess a copy of the minutes of that meeting.
(c) I refuse definitely to dose Isis-Urania Temple, and am prepared to receive the Resignations from their offices of those chiefs who no longer wish to serve as such. I can understand in your case that in addition to your somewhat heavy work in the Second Order, holding office in Isis [Urania] has been an additional load.
(d) Now, with regard to the Second Order, it would be with the very greatest regret both from my personal regard for you, as well as from the occult standpoint that I should receive your Resignation as my Representative in the Second Order in London; but I cannot let you form a combination to make a schism therein with the idea of working secretly or avowedly under "Sapere Aude," [William Wynn Westcott] under the mistaken impression that he received an Epitome of the Second Order work from G[reatly] H[onoured) Soror, "Sapiens Dominabitur Astris [Fraulein Sprengel]." For this forces me to tell you plainly (and, understand me well, I can prove to the hilt every word which I here say and more, and were I confronted with S.A. [Sapere Aude], I should say the same), though for the sake of the Order, and for the circumstance that it would mean so deadly a blow to S.A. 's reputation, I entreat you to keep this secret from the Order, for the present, at least, though you are at perfect liberty to show him this if you think fit, after mature consideration.
(e) He has NEVER been at any time either in personal or in written communication with the Secret Chiefs of the Order, he having either himself forged or procured to be forged the professed correspondence between him and them, and my tongue having been tied all these years by a previous Oath of Secrecy to him, demanded by him, from me, before showing me what he had either done or caused to be done or both. You must comprehend from what little I say here, the extreme gravity of such a matter, and again I ask you, both for his sake and that of the Order, not to force me to go farther into the subject.
I again reiterate that every atom of the knowledge of the Order has come through me alone from 0°-0° [Neophyte] to 5°=6° [Adeptus Minor] inclusive, and that it is I alone who have been and am in communication with the Secret Chiefs of the Order.
I may further incidentally remark that "Sapiens Dominabitur Astris" is now in Paris,[1] and aiding me with the Isis movement.
Lastly, I again ask you to consider well this letter, and not to put me in such a position that I shall be compelled to act publicly.
Yours in fraternity and sincerity,
Deo Duce Comite Ferro, 7°=4°, Chief of the Second Order.
1—"Soror Sapiens Dominabitur Astris" (Mrs. Editha Jackson; a.k.a., Mme Horos) was an imposter who convinced MacGregor Mathers that she was the "real" S.D.A.
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