|
Correspondence from Aleister Crowley to Charles Stansfeld Jones
Villa Santa Barbara Cefalu, Sicily.
Apr. 20, 1920.
My beloved Son,
So what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.
I find your letters of Mar. 9 and Mar. 23 on my table together. I don't know if that means that I didn't answer the first. To make sure, I answer both. I have tried to connect years and Tarot keys but with no good result. I have thought of the diving of Nuit long since but it seems all wrong, once you get the idea of the omnipresence of Her body. I am glad G.[reat] W.[ork] made a clean sweep of that rubbish. If he would give himself unreservedly to establishing the Law, I think success in other lines would follow. As for me, trifles seem to keep me from activity. For instance, my typewriter miscarried (I don't mean what you mean) and now I've got it it's broken, which mean probably another fort night's inactivity.
There is nothing new in your remarks on love and your Tarot record is beautiful but vague. I wish Mrs. Van Brunt would join this colony without delay. We need an older person than we have to study the show. This place is full of caves and the remains of prehistoric houses, all very suitable for disciples. My personal work is going very well, as usual, but I feel the need of an editor more than ever. I shall send you copies of my record as soon as I get them from Paris. I notice that in both letters, you omit any mention of 31-156. Is she off the stage? I haven't heard from her for a long while. I am quite sure that without her, the magick of the aeon is being held up. I think I see the way in which the gods work. Like us, they are limited by their material. They choose a person for a work but that person is free to do it or not. He is not a passive instrument and he may break under the strain. In case of failure, they look for someone else. In fact, they use ordinary business methods. We have got fooled by childhood ideas of omnipotence. Their limits are different to ours but there are limits. I suppose that if 31-156 gets cold feet, they will perceive it in due time and find somebody else.
I have heard from Reuss [Theodor Reuss]. His show seems to have been completely bust up by the war. I do not know what will happen about Magadine but they have agreed to discuss nothing but Craft Masonry. I advise you to get in touch with Thompson of Salt Lake City. The Orthodox Masons are hopeless and besides they are breaking up, at least in America, through their own corruption. They are neither a club, as in England, nor a political body, as in France. That is the rottenness of money, that the moment financial disadvantage threatens its devotees steer the ship accordingly.
I should also take pains in the matter of T.K., I wish you would see him; or at least Norwood. All the conditions seem right for an alliance. Why doesn't the T.K. retire over here. We could get Reuss as well. The secret habitation of three Masters should be a good breeding ground. People are much disturbed by the apparent antagonism between schools. If several well established people get together physically, things will move at once. Any single man is naturally suspected of playing for his own hand and people seem to have so little sense about this matter. They are, or course, also dreadfully hoodwinked by bourgeois morality, even when they pretend to be emancipated—as in the case of Bowman, who agreed with me, entirely, about morals, until he saw the thing in action. He was Satanically proud about miss A. and defying convention but tho' he approved of my approval, he could not apply these principles to a Master. He was consciously emancipated, but he had not killed the sub-conscious fear bred in him for generations. I hope you'll be able to straighten these people out. Is Russell [C. F. Russell] joining me in September? If so, I hope he will learn some Italian and will bring me 10 pounds of Louisiana Perique, ready cut up, which he can get from Gonzales Royal and Iberville St, New Orleans. It is hopeless to write in such things from this side. I should also like a pint of Grass from Parke Davis.
You talk of coming over to Europe yourself. It would be fine to see you; and I hope by the time you come, to have things in better shape. But at present I can only see, one means of working; that is to get a colony of Thelemites and show the world how the Law solves its problems. That is why we must get all sorts. Our present Community is so small, that personal considerations continually come in. You saw how it was at VanCouver. This occurs tho' we are practically protected from the outside world, at least for the time being.
I shall be very glad to hear further news from you. I wrote to Williamson for news of Cowie [George MacNie Cowie] but his answer did not refer to him. I am afraid the poor old boy will do little more in this incarnation. Please try and answer my letters in detail as I do yours. I feel this letter is very unsatisfactory but I am hardly settled down and incidentally I've had a Tummy ache for the last three or four days. However, the sun is shining outside and it is snowing hard inside and the Yi never fails, so why worry.
Love is the Law, Love under Will.
Thy Sire,
666.
If you have the address of B. Hammond [Benjamin Charles Hammond], or can find it among old letters and papers, please let me have it at once. Important.
|