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William Wynn Westcott to F.L. Gardner
397 Camden Road, London, N.
5 Apr. 1912.
Dear Bro. Gardner,
I have been thinking o f what may happen to my occult properties after my death. The Soc[ietas] Ros[icruciana in Anglia] things will go of course to the Secretary General. I will let [Thomas H.] Pattinson and [Bogdan E.J.] Edwards have my Theosoph[ical] papers and the Order of Light and Sat B'hai and Order of Perfection papers. Under an old promise Mathers is to have on demand an iron box containing copies of the G.D. [Golden Dawn] [Grade] Rituals 0°=0° to 5°=6° and side Lectures; they are alone in a box for him at Rosic[rucian] Library and he is to have nothing else.
I think it likely that at my death Mathers [MacGregor Mathers] and Innes [J.W. Brodie-Innes]; [Aleister] Crowley and Co.; and Waite [Arthur Edward Waite], [Dr. R.W.] Felkin and Co. may each make claims on my G.D. properties and may each make public claims derogatory to my historical interests in the G.D. and Isis [Urania] Temple. So as you have copies of all Rituals, I propose that all these G.D. papers shall go to [Dr. W.] Hammond for preservation—whereby you or [Thomas Henry] Pattinson or Felkin may be able to refer for information in case my doings are attacked.
Mathers is the only person alive who has any knowledge of the starting of the Isis Urania Temple and he has made and no doubt will make false claims of proprietorship of the G.D. Hermetic Society because of his vanity, and because I resigned all offices of the Society in 1897—I think it was. I have Cypher Rituals, early Rituals in English, diagrams—a volume of historical data from 1897 and a volume of moneys expended from 1887—many letters from Mathers, especially 2 asking leave to help me in the G.D. [Grade] Rituals translation and literature—these latter he would give his soul to get hold of and shall not get. There are also letters from the first 30 G.D.'s who asked for the 5°=6°, each expressing approval of the G .D. system and several German letters re: G.D. I want all these kept for my protection. I want you if alive and well after my death to use these to protect my claims—if any false claims are made about them.
About 1886 A.F.A. Woodford gave me Hermetic teaching and old MSS. information of G.D. [Grade Rituals] 0°=0° to 4°= 7°. Mathers helped me write these up—and Woodman as S.[upreme] M.[agus of the S.R.I.A.] agreed to 1st Principal of the Isis (Urania) Temple. We 3 were co-equal by my wish—and this lasted until he died in 1891 . Then Mathers brought from Paris the 5°=6° and said it was the continuation of my G.D. [Grade Ritual] 4°=7° and I carried 5°=6° on in England until M.[athers] became so eccentric that I resigned in 1897.
I make no claim to the 5°=6° Ritual authorship but I do claim right and precedence in the origin of the G.D. [Grade Rituals] 0°=0° to 4°= 7° derived from Woodford. I started the Isis [Urania] Temple. I paid Mathers to translate and write out the Rituals from my original Cypher drafts. I paid for the Isis [Urania] Warrant, and paid M. for writing it—and I won't have him say he got the G.D. from his ancestor in Pondicherry, as he now pretends.
I propose to give the original Cyphers to Brit[ish] Museum after my death.
Law affairs may yet arise between Mathers, Crowley or their enemies and so it is not safe to get rid of anything so long as M. lives.
I think you understand my meaning and perhaps will agree.
You might put this in an envelope addressed to me in case you die before me: if not do as I wish.
Yours sincerely,
Wynn Westcott
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