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Correspondence from George MacNie Cowie to Aleister Crowley
14 Glenisla Gardens, Edinburgh.
[Undated: circa 1913?]
Care Frater.
Don't wish to bore you—(let bores be inch by inch thrust shrieking into well?) Seem right tho', to report progress, or in this instance perhaps the lack of it. The spirit drove me forth of late, into the wilderness of the Carlton Hotel, ritual practice being thereby utterly stopped and meditation grievously reduced.
The fact was that I vacated my house, in order to have the painters in, and my practice room thoroughly cleansed, painted, and beautified—I had, of course, intended this all along, but its importance, and the reason for it, was driven into me as never before, thro' the coming into possession almost by a seeming accident, of a copy of Dr Dee's 'Actions' which I have been reading with enormous interest—being my first acquaintance with it, direct.
I could have made very little of the book without the help of what has already been given in the Equinox, and no doubt we will get the rest in due time—It's evidently the unpublished M.S.S. that are the important thing. It would have been a complete enigma to me, how with all this enormous knowledge at his hand, Dee should have seemingly have made no use of it and died miserably, had not the brief explanation in your Vision of the Aethyrs thrown some light on it. Anyway I've got a very fine addition to my rituals from p 196 (Enoch's Prayer).
Revenons a nous moutons, I was going away from home a week and it was another before all was in order again. I've only today resumed ritual practice after a fortnight's hiatus.
You will be amused to hear that after something like 10 years heroic abstention, I've at last tasted fish flesh and fowl. I've felt free to do this, of course, for long, but sheer nausea kept me back—however it's always such a nuisance being a vegetarian when I'm in a hotel or travelling. I decided to save myself trouble this once and just be a cannibal again. Felt uncommonly like a cemetery after the first experiment, and, after all, my natural taste is for the other thing and you can't persuade me that beefsteak makes a 'banket'. It was Anna Kingford's 'Perfect Way' that made me decisively a vegetarian by the way.
As regards meditation practice I have little doubt that there is steady progress, only the process of improvement seems infinite, and I have not turned the corner yet. Our sumptuous and belligerent caste over there remains of course defiant, as in sheer disgust I've dropped p[rana] y[ama] altogether, and I think it's better really to do so for the time being, and concentrate entirely on med[itation] practice and rituals. P[rana] Y[ama] doesn't fit in somehow with my amended hours and I want all my time for other matters. I wouldn't even try your excellent virgin's new mystical prowess "Prany Uama"—(I hope you raised her salary for inventing it)
I may as a last hope take a fortnight really away from work very shortly, but I have given up my idea of leaving home in this cold wet season. I have got rid of the 'chill' difficulty by fitting a stove in my room, which gives me a comfortable and equably warmth at any hour of the day or night, with no rekindling and very little attention, an advantage not to be run away from.
I heard from Mr Conyers [?] Kennedy last week and the real point of this letter is to ask if you fully approve of my going into this? I doubted if it was of any use for me, but I gather from Mr Kennedy's letter you think it would be. If so, I am quite willing and it would be hard if I did not at least add something to my knowledge. I will wait however till November, I think, to avoid dispersion of mind from the one object I have in view at present. If this is alright and you have no special remark, I will take it that silence gives consent and so save you a letter. But always glad to hear from you, you know. Trust your not having too mush to endure.
Yours fraternally.
Q.S.
Wegg still dead, but busy I hear on his Hideous Tragedy, Qodmadello or the Angel of Venus (in 175 Acts!) Send him some brandy and stop him. I enjoyed Mortaldello.
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