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Correspondence from Charles Stansfeld Jones to Aleister Crowley
Apartment Eleven, 1515 Howard Street, Detroit, Michigan.
February 20, 1921
Sir Alastor de Kerval Collegium ad Spiritum Sanctum, Cefalú, Sicily.
My Beloved Father,
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.
Your letter of January 25th has just arrived, we have a wonderful mail system it seems.
I think you did well to refuse any offer for the English stock of The Equinox, which in any case I suspect was a very low one because I'm sure there is a very good market over there if only you can begin to take some definite steps to let the people know there is some available stock for sale. I understand that there is a real demand and that people haven't the slightest idea where to obtain things. Undoubtedly a small ad in the Occult Review would help and it costs very little.
I am sorry to hear that you are in financial straights, because we know just what this is and it's pretty damned worrisome.
T'was your kindly increase in the number of Book 4 [Part I & Part II] we asked for is going to put us in a difficulty because there will be quite a lot of duty on £45 worth of books and the freight and other charges will be considerable. Please another time just send what we ask for and feel we can handle then we can make our preparations accordingly.
We are straining every nerve to get the Chicago move, which we want to undertake about the Equinox. Ruby [Rubina Stansfeld Jones] expects to sail for Europe on March 16th. This is a very important step I feel, in fact everything is fitting in the usual remarkable way that things have at certain time when there's "something doing." As soon as we have a permanent Post Office Box Address in Chicago we shall start advertising a bit more intensively, using Book 4 as the introductory medium. Thing, I must tell you have been rather slow as regards sales and collections just lately, but all our connections here are dissolving and I think that is to be expected. We too have high hopes of getting on with the public work in a much bigger way in Chicago. Now I feel convinced that They intend your Book of the Law and Comment to form Part 4 of Book 4 [The Equinox of the Gods] and that it is very essential that this be published soon. We are not given to making promises, but I feel fairly confident that means will be forthcoming for the publication of Book 4 Part 3 [Magick in Theory and Practice] by our Chicago College, say by the end of April, we should then hope largely to be able to offer to Publish Part 4 for you if you wished and approved this plan. If the proceeds of Part 3 could be brought in quickly it might be possible to give Part 4 away if advisable and necessary. Therefore, do all you can in regard to the Stele and MSS, but you must decide whether you are going to make them B[oo]k 4 or the Eq[uino]x.
If we had a little money just now we could probably buy all the Equinox Volume III Number 1 from A.W.R. [Albert W. Ryerson] for a song. (Perhaps 50 cents a piece). We might ship them all over the world as advertisements if we only had the money, or send them out 10 at a time on consignment. If you come into a fortune remember this, but act quickly before the ship smashes on the rocks.
That's a very stiff exam paper, but awfully interesting. One cannot help feeling you're putting out feelers for some useful information. Alostrael's [Leah Hirsig] discovery is very interesting, I don't know whether I shall get anything further on the matter, but it sort of appeals to me as if part of some scheme I'm mixed up in quabilistically, so sometime I may find out more. The best that my crazy brain can do at the moment (which I have just noticed while writing this, though it seems a far stretch of the qabalistic imagination and to have little to do with the matter) is 156.651. Combine as Hebrew letters and we have AHVHA or AH-V-HA. Not much use I'm afraid.
Poor Sister Van Brunt, I hope she discovers her trouble she won't chase me for tail.
Well 'O so much' depends on what happens during this next month and after that there will be another Word, which we may trust is a good one.
Write when you can and let us have all news possible.
Love is the law, love under will.
Thy son,
P.S.—Michael Whitty is dead; and Paul F. Case reigns in his stead.
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