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Correspondence from Aleister Crowley to Charles Stansfeld Jones
Ex Urbe Pyramidum
An XII
[9 July 1916]
I have not sent IX° M.S.S. having no spare copy here. Better come here! Θ
Care et Sumne Honorate Frater,
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.
I have your letter dated July 3. With this I have compared previous letters and telegrams. I am still of course quite at a loss to understand what has occurred, but it must have been very extraordinary. The introduction of the animals makes me want to quote "Perhaps it was a mistake to add the dash of Algernon Blackwood"; but you are apparently quite sane in other ways. Except that it's absurd to say that the attainment of 8º=3o is insignificant compared to anything. In a way it seems more important than 9º=2o, just as 0º=0o is more than 1º=10o.
I am also a little doubtful. knowing as I do the possibilities of glamour. Observe, your actual experience—in this life—is very very limited. I also dislike the reference to "a certain struggle which was the true cause of the present war" which sounds a little like Elsa Barker. I hope (for God's sake) you are not mixing up the planes. It's a terrible danger, especially when actual magick is in question.
Note that on the 8º=3o
matter I have no right to cross-examine. You claim it and
there is an end of the matter. You need a new motto* of the
V.V.V.V.V. type. That is of course representative of the
words Vi Veri etc and also is 5 Vaus∴
= (5=6) and you can make a
Of course your 8º=3o removes a bar to my 9º=2o. Curiously, the 7º=4o who made my 8º=3o possible was a Jones [George Cecil Jones] too!
Now what are you going to do for a 7º=4o and be for a 6º=5o, and so on? You must have a hierarchy, or there's the devil to pay.
I note gladly what you say about Otz Chiim "folding up" That sounds to me like business. Also re O.T.O. as the means in the outer. Observe O.T.O. = 540 and A∴A∴ 2 = 542 = 418 + 666 / 2 therefore the number harmonizing these two.
But of course you understand that the A∴A∴ is the serious Order for individual progress. With O.T.O. you only become a magician, and a priest of the Holy One—a very fine and balanced 6º=5o, but no more.
With regard to 'a free hand in Canada', you must maintain the landmarks. As you should perceive from the first pledge-form (even), the idea is to unite the whole of the Craft under one head Baphomet. (I am assuming I shall succeed the present O.H.O. when he dies.) I always give a free hand as far as possible—The A∴A∴ is nothing but free hand!—but O.T.O. is a practical international concern, and needs discipline as much as any other business.
I am personally very bad in this way; e.g. I ought to have insisted on regular accounts and reports and all the rest of it. But I'm a lazy poet in my calmer moments; I need a real Secretary-General, with nothing else to do but the red tape. As things are, my failure to insist on dues being paid up and so on has hampered my work abominably.
At present my Way seems to get darker every hour. I'm waiting for a new current. I certainly think you ought to spend a month here with me; there's endless things to talk about.
It is noteworthy that just as in getting the 8º=3o one was completely bereft of all the natural qualities which the attainment of the grade gives in praeternormal perfection, so now the Magus being the embodiment of creative power, I am stripped of all my natural power. I can't do miracles, or even divinations, or even Dhyana; and even in ordinary ways, I don't seem to know where to turn for anything. I'm swathed in coffin-clothes—as Ptah must be, I suppose! A chrysalis! The chrysalis of a Winged Phallus! Why damn it, I can't write a line of poetry or prose either; and despite splendid health, don't even get an erection! 73 days of this will be about the limit! Oh well!
Love is the Law, Love under Will
Fraternally
ΤΟ ΜΕΓΑ ΘΗΡΙΟΝ 9º=2o
*Till then sign NEMO. You need a signet-ring, too. Details in P.S.
P.S. Signet-ring must be of gold, with one of the usual stones—carnelian or lapis lazuli or sapphire with eye in rayed triangle and initials of new motto. On the outside, but opposite the bezel, have engraved באבאלון (best have it inset with enamel, else it wears down quickly)
Inside the ring, engrave
NEMO EST FRA A∴A∴
No man (but the jeweler who doesn't matter) must ever see this motto. It contains a great terrible arcanum.
Θ
You can conceal bezel if you
choose with—platinum top—6 pyramids and the
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in
in
and so on.
in the middle concealing an imaginary seventh. Θ