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Correspondence from MacGregor Mathers to W.B. Yeats
28, Rue Saint Vincent Buttes Montmartre.
le 12th Janvier 1901.
To Mr. W.B. Yeats
Sir,
I am astonished at your having the impertinence to write me a letter couched in friendly terms, after associating yourself with a set of rascally rebels to thieve by a dishonourable trick the result of my work and labour for years, and property which had been bought and paid for before your name was even mentioned as a candidate for the G.D. [Golden Dawn]. You also formulated the statement before an audience worthy of you that my life's labour and self-sacrifice had been amply paid for by Miss Horniman' s [Annie Horniman] money. I have never offered either myself or the G.D. Wisdom for public sale considering that I could never find in the whole world united, sufficient resources to pay the value either of my own soul on the one hand, or of the knowledge of the MSS. on the other. You have indeed begun well and now it only remains for you to betray your country to the Saxons with whom you seem so proud to associate yourself! After your conduct I have no feeling for you but that of the profoundest contempt and I would not have condescended to notice your communication; were it not for the matter of the persons you mention.
With regard to these persons, viz.:· Swami Vive Ananda, alias Marie Louise of the Commune, alias Mrs. Horos, alias Mrs. Dutton,—alias perhaps Mrs. Johnson! Mr. Theo. Horos, alias Mr. Dutton, [and] Dr. Rose Adams: these three persons came to us sometime ago with an introduction from a well-known person here the Countess de Maffray (whom you very likely met at Mrs. Rowley's when you were accepting my hospitality at 1 Avenue Duquesne). They had taken a large furnished flat at 10 Rue Lauriston. They stated they had come to help us with our Isis movement here.[1] The woman gave me the motto of 'Sapiens dominabitur astris'; and I have yet to learn where she got the knowledge of the Grades up to 5°=6° from, which she then had.[2] She presented the other two to me and vouched for them as 4°=7° [Theo. Horos] and 2°=9° [Dr. R. Adams] in America. They were present at one if not two meetings of Ahathoor Temple[3] (but I think only one); and borrowed some Rituals from me as well as other things and books which they have not yet returned. So far from giving me "hundreds of pounds" (for the Isis movement), it was I who helped them with what little I had, for I offered all three as much hospitality and other help as I could when I saw that getting meals was an object to them. They had to leave Rue Lauriston as their trunks were seized for rent; but a few weeks later they came to Paris and paid enough to take them away. They also called on me several times but I would not receive them.
For the woman; she is probably the most powerful medium living and her mediumship differs from the usual. At times she has been controlled by very great and high forces, but much more frequently evil spirits. For she is frequently a shell without honour, truth, or morality. This is as much as I think fit to say about her with the exception of what I say in the postscript, and that I believe her and her accomplices to be Emissaries of a very powerful secret Occult Order who have been trying for years to break up other Orders and especially my work, and the G.D. as connected therewith.
MacGregor Comte de Glenstrae
I may tell you that on more than one occasion I conversed face to face with the real "Sapiens dominabitur astris" [Anna Sprengel] in this woman; but on another occasion I detected a demoniac simulacrum of that transformation, as since I have detected also on one or two occasions, for the entity of Mrs. Horos has been like a battle ground between two Orders. I have had to fight the most terrible potent adversaries for years, and you and your associates have done everything in your power to try to weaken my hands.
1—In 1901, the Jackson's moved to 99 Gower Street in London and set up a bogus Golden Dawn group. They were using the Neophyte Ceremony to entice young girls for their sexual pleasure and on 26 September 1901 they were arrested. Frank Jackson for rape and Editha Jackson for aiding and abetting him. — [Darcy Küntz]
2. "Fra[ter]: Ć[quo] A[nimo, Charles Rosher] of the G∴D∴ believes that some American members of the Order met Madame Horos in New York, and from them it was that she obtained her knowledge." [The Equinox, Vol. I: No. 3, p. 265n.] — [Aleister Crowley]
3. The three American imposters were introduced at the Ahathoor Temple meeting as being from " tous du Thmes Temple No. 8" . On 9 June 1922 Paul Foster Case wrote to A.E. Waite that "Our confidence had been shaken somewhat, it is true, by the discovery that Mr. George W. Wiggs (Amor Lux et ubor), whom 'S R.[ioghail] M.[o] D.[hream] [Macgregor Mathers] had appointed Group Chief, with Headquarters at Chicago, was sending out Knowledge Lectures to almost anybody who would pay $10; but we thought even that might be remedied in time." He added that "Mr. Wiggs has never been through any ceremony of the Order. He sends all the initiation fees to V[estigia] N[ulla] R[etrorsum] [Moina Mathers], and [he] horrified Mrs. Wise by telling her he thought it a 'poor month' when he did not set 15 to 20 persons to his mail order Rosicrucianism." — [Darcy Küntz]
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