Correspondence from George MacNie Cowie to Aleister Crowley

14 Glenisla Gardens, Edinburgh.

Dec 5, 6, 7, 1916.

Care Frater.

Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.

I was very glad to get your letter last Friday (the day after I posted my last) but was rather dashed to find that after all you were not comfortably fixed up for the winter. Glad I managed that Nairne [£5 note]. A lot however depends on London being in possession of a surplus this quarter. There will be, I think, £10 legitimately due to you from sale of books, I have just heard, and I am going to warn S.L. [William Steff-Langston] as I have warned Althea [Althea Hobbs] that sales of books are not to be regarded as Lodge funds. Sales may grow.

Your second letter followed on Monday last. I liked very much your letter to E.M. [Eustace Miles], it should 'fetch' him, it is just the right tone. About H. [Benjamin Charles Hammond] as it is no use writing to him, I have determined to go up to London this week-end and insist on his seeing me. If I find that he has not done as promised, I will rescue the engraved 'picture' plates and send them over to you—or I will complete the two extra drawings and get ordinary half tone plates made to save delay and expense. They could be done on steel another day and are not of the most vital importance. The photograph I got of 2 is very good but Bowdlerised. I will put in myself from the Naples book a suggestion, slight enough to keep the plate makers from kicking. These two plates must just be regarded as makeshifts. If you say how many prints and what size of page, I could get photogravure impressions, to avoid using coated paper. H. has certainly got some of the steel blocks made, I will try to get on his reasonable side and see if he cannot be induced to finish the whole thing off in reasonable time. I'd offer to pay a workman for him, but the money difficulty is now insurmountable till next year. My visit depends on permission from the firm to go, and I haven't as yet got a reply.

When returning it would be quite a simple matter to break at Peterborough and go on to Spalding, 16 miles, so I've written to Fra J.M. to suggest that if he likes I might pay him a flying visit. I understand your feeling and have put it to him that in these days the existence of a duplicate copy [of his Greek Qabala] would be a very comfortable feeling for all concerned.

Did you by the way get the first portion of Voice of Silence [Voice of the Silence]? Althea is getting on with the rest.

It's been a very heavy weight on my mind, that slip I mentioned, and I'll feel better when I've done what I can to blot it out—as if casually but decisively.

Eng[lish] Rev[iew] has returned A.W. Epistle returned. I was by no means convinced that Grahame and Carpenter lived in London! the former is a nomad.

A new worry cropped up a few days ago. I now feel that my instinct about lupus in fabula [de Wolf] was correct. She enc[losed] letter. 'Job' is written all over it. It's been a particularly difficult letter to reply to, as he has without first making secure, burned his boats, as if to throw himself on pity. That's the awkward part. For the idea itself I have no compunction. To give a fanatic his head and attack the fanatics by their own imbecile methods is to play into the enemies hands. I've told him so quite plainly, and that we will have to direct his enthusiasm into more dignified channels. But at the best he's not the man to impress the public, unless the wrong way. E[ustace] M[iles] would be a different story—after sufficiently advanced. I've of course told Wolf that Bro[ther]s are not permitted to lecture without the presence of or endorsement of a VII degree. (He has no business to preach to the public under pretence of 'some interesting subject') what IHVH does or does not like. I have no information yet as to what the tohers think. If they are enthusiastic about the prospect of having Cain raised, I'll eat the Naples Musée. I am sure you will agree with the course I have taken. I know that one of my weak points is to say more than is absolutely necessary and I was very careful, but to say too little was to allow it to be construed into weakness.

I'm vexed if you have not got the MS of Book IV, 4. I understood that Althea had sent everything, and above was the most important of the lot. I wrote to her to get it and send it this mail if she really did not do so. I have no information yet.

I have anxiety in another direction also, for the time being, but there's no use boring you with what may clear up or never happen.

I am trying to clear up and post this letter early, to clear the way for London. If I do go, I will write fully next week. Love and sympathy to M.O.H. [Mother of Heaven—Leila Waddell]. It's a weary world, and we are all having our share of its troubles pro tem. I'm feeling fairly fit again, but shadowed by worry. However there are consolations.

As ever, fraternally.

Geo M Cowie.

I did not post this yesterday. In the afternoon I had an interview that has greatly relieved my mind about business, and made me feel less nervous. Also I'm able to go to London with an easier mind and to feel less hurried about it. I was afraid of asking more than a week-end, but now I am free to delay my return a day or two if necessary. I am not looking forward to it with pleasure, but it will be a load off my mind to be through with it.

I had a wire from Fra J.M. to say he will be very pleased to see me on my way back, so that's good.

Amidst all this turmoil I've been undergoing a sort of inner illumination as a result of these completing chapters of Liber C [Liber Agape Azoth sal Philosophorum] and getting at a sense not conveyable in words. The feeling of holiness in it is overwhelming, and more so, the sense of responsibility. Then there is a curious feeling that now that I understand so much, it is a wonder that others do not guess it. I always knew that when one did get at the secret of the stone the chief wonder would be that one did not guess it before.

In this connection I woke up with a bad fit of nervousness. I'm not sure but that after all I did risk too much with S.L. and I'm not so confident of him now. Of D.N.D. [De Natura Deorum] he has had no word or hint beyond what you know. The injunction therein to try to bring others to the Light made it seem right to try to bring him near where I was when V degree only. He was far enough to know that the mystery had something to do with its essential holiness. I am wondering now if, in connection with the alchemical books I lent him, and The Canon, I have not given him too clear a clue. He's been kept too busy to speculate lately, but I'll ask him how he's getting on and what he makes of the Golden Bough, and blind him if it seems necessary.

In my present state of mind and nervous feeling about everything, it now seems like gross impudence to have gone even that length. I now realise what sapere aude involves, and non sum qualis erat. I was quite easy in my mind before about it, but now I feel that dead silence is the only thing.

I've got a better knowledge of Latin by this, but certainly not enough to read it as sight. I've made sedulous use of odd bits of time, and can worry out the sense of passages met with in my reading with mote ease.

Enclosed nice letter from O.H.O. [Outer Head of the Order] this morning. It assures you your letter did reach him. I infer from what you said that you had arranged with S.L. to fix up with Smith's to send over printed matter [to Switzerland]. I don't even like to ask him about it! What I sent before was stopped and went to waste—you remember. I will write O.H.O. and explain again. I'd have got a written copy of the Manifesto made but it's so long, and I've never heard from Reelfs if he got the written copy of L of L [Law of Liberty].

Geo M Cowie.

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