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Correspondence from Aleister Crowley to Charles Stansfeld Jones
Collegium ad Spiritum Sanctum, Cefalú, Sicily.
May 30, 1921.
My beloved Son, to whom my human heart goes out intensely,
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.
Your letter of May 8—I have known all about the Alestla business for a long long while. I want you to be very careful. It is singularly unprofitable to discuss things that happen above the Abyss—I mention this because things of that exalted kind have been happening over here, and it has been impressed very strongly on me that a great deal of mischief might come of talking. The only excuse that S.H. Fratres have for bodily manifestation is that they are pledged to the renunciation of living for the purpose of helping mankind. That is really the feeling I have at the back of my last letter. There is no raison d'etre at all for carrying on, unless people are benefited by what I do. I think, in the past, you have been under some misapprehension about this; especially with regard to my attitude. However, the point is, that we have got to be free to devote ourselves wholly to public life. My only sorrow, my only shame, is to know that Man needs me, and that I can do so little.
I am enclosing a letter for Marie, hoping that you have got her address. I am exceedingly obliged to you for sending me the Roerich Catalogue. I hope you'll keep your eyes open for similar things. I am sending you albums with photographs of most of the pictures which I took to Paris. I want you to be kind enough to try to get people like this Art Institute to take an interest.
I am quite convinced that the power to paint has not been conferred upon me without an occult object. It is certainly almost incredible that a man of my age with such extreme original incapacity should have got as far as I have in less than four years, and I assure you that every month that passes marks a distinct advance in power of execution. The dealer who saw my work in Paris wouldn't believe I had not been on the job about 15 years. I am painting the house itself, wood work and plaster and all. If you came into this room at this moment, you would be absolutely staggered though it is not yet quite half done. There are 21 panels including a double doorway, and naturally the wood-work is a very small fraction of the area. There is an immense variety of subject. The effect is quite indescribable.
I am also enclosing you an extract from my Diary on this subject. I think it will interest you, and moreover, it might be a good card to play with the Art Institute.
Love is the law, love under will.
Thy Sire,
The Beast 666.
Albums and CCXX draft under separate cover.
P.S. I also enclose note for Schneider [Max Schneider], to thank him for [illegible], just received. I have no address of his, that or the packet being destroyed by official perversity. 666.
P.P.S. Financial success for my pictures would set us both free to work on a large scale for the Law, and there could be no shadow of reproach about making profit from one's magical activities. That may well be the reason for my most strange endowment with gifts so alien to my nature. 666.
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