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Correspondence from Aleister Crowley to Charles Stansfeld Jones
An XII
[19 September 1916]
Son,
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.
I have yours dated September 10.
The epistle on Obscurity is quite good in every part, but it is not very well put together for some reason. It would read better if you divided it up into shorter paragraphs. I should just work it over once or twice at intervals of say three weeks, and see whether you cannot improve it slightly.
I should not say the candidate voluntarily submits to being blindfolded. You must also, please, and this is really very important, avoid journalistic expressions like 'bountiful providence.'
I am enclosing you a copy of a letter sent to the Grand Treasurer General. When you have read it, please send on to Edinburgh in case the original miscarried. I wish we could have a month actual working together. Apparently I am booked for Florida and Texas all winter. There is every prospect of starting a branch under very good conditions in the University of Texas itself. I shall probably leave here early in October for New York and on to Texas a month later.
With regard to the instructions in the letter given to Windram [James Windram], I think it will be best for you to do the same thing. That is, make a regular list for the use of Cowie [George MacNie Cowie], and send him a monthly report. We must really acquire business habits. I cannot make out from you whether all, or indeed any are in good standing in the land of the Sock-eye. I think you will find it helps very much if you get your secretary and treasurer into the habit of routine report to Cowie.
I hope you are keeping up open propaganda work with great vigour. I think it would be a good plan to get the Lodge to work in some way or other every night at purely missionary work until you have caught a big fish. Nobody should rest until 1352 is the Property of the Order. The epistle on the Advantages of O.T.O. and the Open Letter have attracted favourable attention here from sociologists. It is admitted in certain quarters of importance that the Order offers a solution of the social problem. You should get hold of any one in Vancouver who is working on these lines. Put forward this scheme as the alternative to socialism. Go and see the head people of the labour and socialistic organizations. Get yourself asked to read those two papers, and be prepared to answer questions about them. They may perhaps put you some puzzlers; so you should take a very modest position in the beginning. Explain that you have not made any deep study of social conditions yourself, but have simply received the outlines of this scheme ready made. I am sure these are the right lines on which to work. Everybody is interested in the improvement of social conditions, and you ought to get hold of a number of people almost at once. You have to point out the advantage of co-operation and the guild system.
Please insert in your syllabus of books in Equinox X the following names and numbers. Liber VI. The Message of the Master Therion / 837 The Law of Liberty / 106 Epistle to Anna Wright concerning death / 300 Khabs am Pekht Epistle to Percival concerning Extensions of Law / 161 Epistle to Professor W.S.B. concerning property [Concerning the Law of Thelema] / 101 Epistle to Cowie concerning advantages of O.T.O. [Open Letter] / 451 This is the chapter 'Of Eroto-comatose Lucidity' in Liber 414. This number is already given on page 52, but it does not say what the book is. Under Class A-B insert Liber 415 the Paris Working. The others mentioned above are all class B. Further in class B add Liber XXIV De Nuptiis Secretis. / Liber 414 azoth. De Arte Magica. / Liber 367 de Homuncolo. / Liber 228 De Natura Deorum. In class C insert / 800 The Ship. / 811 Energized Enthusiasm. Under class D insert Liber 70 [Liber Batrachophrenoboocosmomachia], a book connected with the Paris Working. Please let Cowie and Windram and Dunn have copies of this list. I'm sorry this list is so messed up. Get it straightened out. Send Qabalah for names of members, and you won't go far awry.
Your naiveté about the sister you speak of is highly amusing. The method of dealing with such people is quite simple, and it is the only reliable one. You will find it indicated with perfect clearness in the quatrain which concludes 'Gargoyles'. There is nothing more to say at the moment.
Love is the law, love under will.
Θ
P.S. I am writing direct to Dunn [Ernest Dunn]. I am going to tell Australia to communicate directly through me instead of Windram, from whom I can get no replies. It may be the fault of the post-office or the censor; I cannot say. I have no pledge forms here: write to me again about it when I get to New York. Please send full report on Checkie. I cannot believe that he fulfilled the conditions.
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