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Correspondence from Aleister Crowley to Charles Stansfeld Jones
63 Washington Square South Telephone—Spring 4319 New York
Feb. 7, 1919
Mr. C. Stansfeld Jones, City of the Pyramids
My beloved Son:
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.
I am writing to you on your departure for Detroit in order that the result of our conferences may be formulated without danger of confusion, which pertaineth unto Choronzon, unto whom be restriction.
The first and most important business from every point of view is to induce Brother Ryerson's [Albert W. Ryerson] Company[1] to go on with the arrangement which they themselves proposed. I do not think that I have been treated fairly or courteously, but I know perfectly well how serious are the obstacles in the way of any of the operations of the magick of light, and I will say no more on this point. The most important thing in this connection is that no further time should be lost in getting out Book 4 [Part I & Part II]. It would be stupid to wait until the books arrive from England.
It would be an excellent thing if this Company would undertake the publication of the Equinox. I have figured the Editorial expenses as $1,200 per number. With regard to the first number, however, this has been already printed, it would be well to confine your immediate efforts to getting them to put their name on the title page, and to take 2,000 copies at $2.22 per copy. It would not be necessary to pay the whole of this in a lump sum. I should suggest $500 down and the balance by installments to cover the six months.
The whole of this plan should be put through with the greatest possible publicity in connection with lectures, conferences, and so on. It would even be possible to have classes, provided that it was clearly understood that the teaching of the A∴A∴ was not thus given.
I should like to remind you of my experience in London. Although I was doing my work very strictly according to the programme of the A∴A∴, it was not very long before I found that people were meeting each other. This, of course, is most undesirable. You had yourself some slight opportunity of seeing this. Now if you cannot prevent people from meeting, the only solution is to treat them as groups, and to avoid trouble by discipline. It is principally for this reason that the O.T.O. seems to me so valuable, and there is no doubt in my mind that the head of that organization was sent to me at the right time by the right people.
My proposal is that you should retain the position of Deputy G[rand] M[aster] G[eneral], leaving me to fill the other offices, as may seem good. There should be no trouble whatever in connection with this matter, provided that the regulations are adhered to in the future. There are now printed, and authorized, and recorded, so that we have always a standard to which to appeal in case of disagreement.
It was my original idea that the O.T.O. would be a sort of training ground for the A∴A∴. It was still in my mind that the A∴A∴ represented, so to speak, the only thing worth doing. But recent conditions have changed my view considerably. I had not paid sufficient attention to the statement in Liber XXXIII to the effect that when people become ripe, they are joined to the chain. But the O.T.O. has a perfectly definite function in connection with the New Aeon. At a time like the present, when individual liberty is threatened in a way to which history offers no parallel, a strong and vigorous order is required to guard humanity. The A∴A∴ does this, it is true, but in a manner so beyond even your present conceptions, that I think it only fair to give even the most commonplace of men a chance to co-operate actually.
There are doubtless many points in this programme which need fuller discussion, and I hope that you will make yourself entirely clear, speaking to me with absolute frankness on every point that may occur to you. I may remark that I am still entirely at a loss to account on anything like rational grounds for the incident of August last.
In case we come to a complete agreement on these points, as I hope, I think that your task in Detroit would become very much easier. Brother Ryerson, as you know, is exceedingly eager to obtain certain information, which it is in our power to give him under proper safeguard. I believe that three months of vigorous work in this particular line would result in the complete solution of your own problem of life, so far as one extremely important matter is concerned.
Love is the law, love under will.
Thy sire blesses thee
666
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