Correspondence from Aleister Crowley to George MacNie Cowie

14 Sept 14.

Care Frater.

Thanks for your letters. I have not had time to answer them. I shall be stuck on this board for at least another fortnight, and the quack says it may be 3 months. The disease is alleged to be Phlebitis; its cause is unknown. I am not sure that it was not a magical imprudence.

My vampire letter was only to say that by the banishing Pentagram and the Harpocrates formula, people could protect themselves, and offering to teach them gratis. Forgive me for not entering into the political discussion on, as this illness has thrown me out of my stride, and made me busier than ever. It is in some ways a blessing, as I cannot waste any time in frivolities. I have already written an entire book of the utmost importance to the O.T.O. in its higher grades, part of my plan for preserving the knowledge through the cataclysm, so I will only say that your information about the war is to all intents and purposes nonexistent, like the poor deluded Germans, who are allowed to see nothing but the carefully prepared falsehoods. I thought you knew that that which can be thought is not true; but at least at your age you might realize that nothing with even a grain of truth in it is ever printed in a newspaper. I will declare this matter further to you if you come down to London.

Your remarks on Cant are sublimely humourous; I strongly recommend your reading Nietzche without delay. If you want a real long job, you can try and find in his writings some of the opinions at present hysterically attributed to him.

By the way I regard my present calamity as in the nature of a warning to get my work done without any further fooling about. There is no reason for regarding it as serious, but it is one of those things which may suddenly become mortal without any particular excuse. You may find yourself in the position of being responsible for the publication of various manuscripts, and for the safe custody of others.

Yours fraternally.

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