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Correspondence from George MacNie Cowie to Aleister Crowley
14 Glenisla Gardens, Edinburgh.
[Undated: circa 1915?]
Care Frater
I'm writing well in advance of the mail (Monday p.m. 15th) to try and write fully and leisurely this time. Today I got yours dated the 2nd and so, written two or three days before you got the cable that I knew would relieve your mind and be worth the little expense. (I did it for 3/ this time). Therefore by the time I received yours M.O.H. [Mother of Heaven—Leila Waddell] was already 48 hours on her way out to you. I was able to infer, easily, the importance of her presence, from the remarks about the S.M. in the letter a week previous. I wrote to her immediately but she had made up her mind and did not need any urging. If it had not been for that stray hint I might have doubted the wisdom of her going across till you could cable success. But it has worked out all right and as soon as it could be definitely settled I wired to you and booked her berth. Thank goodness I was able to send her over in comfort and by a good boat. By this time you will have got the goods I hope in safety and all will be well. I was sorry I couldn't afford a Saturday run to Liverpool to see her off, I was afraid she would be alone, which would be rather dismal for her, but as a letter and p[ost] c[ard] from her posted apparently in Chelsea last night, have just come, I guess that Miss Otter [Gwendolen Otter] kindly went with her. What price Sherlock Holmes?
M.O.H. will have told you all about the alarums and excursions of last week. How it's ended I don't know, there was no word from Dennes this morning. Also I don't know if the Rider's debenture was found or not, or if the blooming idol did the trick—I regarded the great gawd Budd as my property, legally, but as it turned out I'm a godless person after all. I thought that receipt, as you did, would protect the studio things, but no, and the same will be the case with the Boleskine furniture? Will it be worth while making out a bill of sale for both. It's all grist for Dennes of course, and more six and eightpences added to expect a pretty big bill.
As regards shutting up the studio and warehousing the stuff I think that is a wise precaution and I was about to write to Hobbs and ask her to arrange matters, but then M.O.H. says she has let the studio (furnished presumably) to a friend with a name that made my hair stand on end till it turned out he was only a Swede. He had better wait till the 6 weeks are up and that will give you time to advise me. I will write Hobbs now to secure any specially valuable books or light matters by sending them here. I hope Mater [Leila Waddel] made the Stélé [of revealing] secure.
I wrote to my lawyer to ask about that £100. I thought at best I could use it to raise 50 at the bank, but rather to my surprise he says he has a client who may take 50 of it in a week or so, and he can dispose of the rest in May. I'd rather it had been one of the other unsaleable things. It's rather a pity. However I wrote Dennes yesterday (so that they'd get it this a.m.) that failing Budd, failing Rider I'd manage something wherewith to appease Clay [the printer]. But Clay appeased which Hydra head will appear next? The valorous F[iat] P[ax] can't go on indefinitely. If I get the 50, 30 may stop the mouth of Clay for some time and a judicious sop of £10 apiece may prevent others giving trouble. But how many others and what's the dem total of the dem bills? There's always some dem thing turning up besides, and there's the dem interest on £900 [the mortgage on Boleskine] to keep in mind, it will be May II soon enough. And I've my own increased dem tax coming on soon. A dem Paxful life indeed! Chiefly due to that dem female Hun, Baroness Cremers [Vittoria Cremers]? Has anything ever been heard of her?
Well, there's one thing to the good. Thanks to that stray hint in your letter, it seems to have dawned on me why you are doing a Link in the West and who the Rich Man is that will come from thence. May be a longish job though. I never doubted but that you knew the Stone, but had to assume that there was some A∴A∴ etiquette by which you couldn't use it to make tin. Besides you told me (presumably in reply to indiscreet questions) that it couldn't be made for lack of sufficient IX degree people. If I have inferred correctly, then it strike me there is something inexpressibly comic about the solemn way in which I bequeathed my house etc to the poor unfortunate O.T.O.—the possessors of the Stone! I imagine you are working towards the red powder but that there is almost bound to be, there are hitches. Well, when the destined success comes it will be easy enough to redeem the great Gawd Budd and go forth and establish the Order in due dignity and splendour—and do lots of other splendid things.
I've got that 'Hermetic Museum'. It seemed a bit of extravagance at the time, but I'd go without a new suit to get it. It's as handy having all these writers together and able to try and get out of one what the other does not give. But it will take many weeks to get it all coherent, and both word of mouth and experiment are necessary supplements. So far it seems to me that the union of the two substances (which are one substance) is performed in an exalted way, perhaps as outlined in your Ed Em [Energized Enthusiasm], and in a way that enables one to enter the translucid, so to speak, and behold things for oneself. Naturally I want to experiment. . . .
[Remainder of letter is missing.]
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