|
Correspondence from George MacNie Cowie to Aleister Crowley
14 Glenisla Gardens, Edinburgh.
25 February 1916.
Care Frater
Do as thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.
I was very glad to have your letter (of the 10th) this morning. (You see it takes 15 days to come.) I daresay you will feel that this was the sort of letter I've long wanted. The tone is so much more worthy of you and of the things you really have been doing, and heartens me up. I could only infer something of what you have been doing and suffering, and if the suffering has been great, so doubtless the Reward will be. My feeble efforts at cheering you up were probably comic.
Things are still pretty depressing financially and otherwise, but a letter like that and the 'Pastoral' gives one more heart, and firmer confidence, as a glimpse of the dawn might do. When you've got through and lived to write the story, things will be splendid, surely, and the darkest period over, even if no dollars come along—(I scored out the 'damn' as a relapse into a lower key!)
Re the Message [The Message of the Master Therion]
As your copy was quite clear, I judged it best simply to go ahead and print. It was set with the greatest care and I judged that if you found any error it wouldn't be serious and could be corrected by hand, before sending out the sheets, and then corrected on the 'plates' for reprints. I should have felt as if doing nothing, had I waited for approval for everything, it means so much delay. As it is I've got something done bit by bit and it's been a very good thing getting in touch with someone in London, really keen and anxious to help like Mrs Davies [Mary Davies].
I'm worried though that in other cases my letters have produced no effect. I'm wondering if the lack of response and interest is due to any peremptoriness of tone or lack of tact on my part, or if it is simply fear of having to pay up. The 'pastoral' is just what I felt was wanted. It will re-assure, it explains the reasons for the present position—it will balance waverers (and it makes no mention of £ .s.d.)
I'd like to send it out now, but you've dated it for the Eq[uinox]: an appropriate time. I'd get Hobbs to type it, as not really many copies are wanted, my list is so small, but I'd have to fill in the Greek, after, which means trouble with parcels—so I'll manage it here. You'll already have got your parcel of 50 Messages. I daresay they will be useful, and the stereo mats.
Two of the usual worries cropped up simultaneously with your letter this morning. (I) Hobbs was wrong—Ballantyne's appear to hold the stock of your poems still, and the only way to rescue them is to settle the account about £20. This again will wipe out my next months balance and dip well into the emergency fund. Can't be helped.
(2) B. I enclose W and W's [Williamson & Watt] letter in case in your stock of useful knowledge you know anything about peat cutting. I have no doubt, not quite understanding, helped to give you hell about financial matters the last few months. You know, all right, there was no malice behind it, and I felt it plain duty to let you see how the illusion appeared. A letter like todays would have saved me some worry you know, and have made it easier to 'carry on' in face of absence of funds. The difficulty is to understand why you are expected to fulfil your mission with such tiresome difficulties to contend with.
I've groused and will go on grousing, I daresay, till the end of the chapter, but its only grousing.
D[ennes] and L[amb] have sent an acknowledgement of your letter which I sent on, and no comments. No further word from Mrs Davies, as yet, when I reply I'll get Mr D[avies] to try and stir up Hammond [Benjamin Charles Hammond] again and find out what the actual state of affairs is. It's too bad of him really—Been writing in my lunch time and times nearly up, and I must step out for a cigarette. I am smoking perniciously now—and baccy is up, like everything else—There is a shortage of paper coming along, that will affect the printing trade greatly. I wish somebody would wipe out that Sect—not on account of the above though.
Your letter and the Pastoral should have had a reply in proper ceremonial form, but that I'm writing under difficulties and pressure of time. All considered, this letter quite a decent performance however. Glad M.O.H. [Mother of Heaven—Leila Waddell] is all right. Wish she'd write, I feel as if we weren't friends, and I don't mean it.
Consider this letter signed in proper and dutiful form and with love.
F[iat] P[ax]
|