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Correspondence from Aleister Crowley to Charles Stansfeld Jones
Collegium ad Spiritum Sanctum, Cefalù, Sicily.
July 25, 1921.
My beloved son,
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.
I have waited some days to write this. I hope you will understand the previous letters sent herewith were inspired by a passionate "Love under will" for my son, for the child whose appearance is the perfect proof of my Life. Let me prove that my faith in you equals that love by sending to you the letters to Mrs. Ford and the Tribune to use according to your honour and discretion.
Since writing these, I have had further reports from you of your successes of which I am heartily glad. With regard to any property donated to us, please be extremely careful. The A∴A∴ cannot possess property and that of the O.T.O. must be vested as has been done in the past. I think it should be held in trust, to be applied to clearly stated objects, by you, me, Windram [James Windram] (whom I propose to make Grand Treasurer General, having invited him here), Lea [Leah Hirsig] as Grand Secretary General, and your own two provincial officers. For convenience, these trustees might appoint one or two of their number to act on their behalf, of course with responsibility to the others and to the Order. It is of the last Importance that the trust should be international, in case of the Order being persecuted by some government. I write this because of my experience of Japanese policy in China in 1906. The Jap[ane]s[e] were secretly subsidizing anti-European newspapers etc., in China; and the Chinese could not suppress them because shares were held by Japanese subjects so that the boycott continued despite the united pressure of Europe and America.
My aged bones begin to dance at your idea as to six Masters of the Temple rewarding our labours. Soror Estai [Jane Wolfe] came within an ace of crossing the Abyss during her recent retirement. Brought up as I was in the old tradition, it seemed to me unthinkable that even three persons should reach 8º=3o in a generation. I need not tell you how jealously we must guard the honour of the Third Order and maintain its dignity. It has been my special pride that even a Zelator of the A∴A∴ was superior all around to highest-sounding titles in all other systems. I err, if I err, on the right side by being cautious in this matter.
I am confirmed, however, by recent events since I wrote last week, in my opinion that you are totally wrong in favouring any relaxation of the A∴A∴ system in general. On the contrary, we should reinforce the boundaries by thicker wire with more and sharper barbs. I can trace nearly all the disasters which have overwhelmed aspirants to a single cause: that of their overstepping the limits of the tasks peculiar to their Grades.
Last week we had the closest shave of a fatal accident both and physically, to one of us here [C. F. Russell]. Death might easily have occurred, temporary insanity did occur, in fact there was Hell to pay all around and the cause was that instead of confining himself to the work outlined in 185 [Liber CLXXXV], he started a crazy retirement which would have been hard on a 6º=5o, performed the rites of the Abyss without the necessary preparation, involved himself in a Qabalah more suited to the path of Aleph than that of Tzaddi where he ought to have been, and roared out diatribes against the concubine-crushed Therion and Jesus Stansfeld Christ, instead of attending to a somewhat conspicuous mote in his own eye. His record is a mixture of parodies on John St. John and your latest Qabalah, for he ate a piece of wood "in a Yogin and ceremonial manner" and when asked why, replied "Gecause." His ego expanded until the Universe was an unconsidered item in its vastness. He turned "love under will" to "hate under impulse," destroyed the proportions of everything and nearly dying of thirst and sun stroke, frightened the local barber. I think we have saved him but I blame myself unsparingly for having allowed him to know more than was good for him.
I am seriously alarmed at the efficiency of my methods. In the last year, I have had brilliant two incredibly brilliant successes, and I still have hopes of the third in spite of this sinister accident. Especially here where pupils are so closely in touch with me and have access to manuscripts of the most terrific character, the danger of their dynamiting themselves is most serious.
We have given the world a weapon of incalculable possibilities. Our only course is to insist on the most rigid discipline in those who are learning to use it. I have been warned repeatedly by adepts, both in the body and out of it, that I have undertaken a desperate responsibility. I know it. I have known and willed and dared. I have kept silence too, in face of this criticism of my act. What I have done, I have done; and I am prepared to abide the consequence like Prometheus before me but I am certainly free to do all in my power to keep my children from cutting themselves with the tools I have put in their hands, and the only way to do it is to train them with vigilant vigour in the prudent manipulation thereof.
The above is principally addressed to you as Grand Neophyte, but also just a little to you as my child. I want to assure you again of my ardent unsleeping affection. I would rather scold you too much unreasonably—mistakenly—than miss the slightest symptom which seems suspicious. So let me say that I hope you won't let yourself be carried away by your Qabalah. You will not forget that I taught you; and now that you are deeper and subtler than I in some respects, you make think it is natural for me to be over conservative, to distrust the brilliance of my pupil. Old men always feel that way. But after making all allowance for my age and infirmity, I still think that some of your work is superficial and unsound. I consider 'acause' a master stroke of genius. I interpret the word as meaning that two causally connected phenomena must not be considered as two but as one. 'Because' implies duality and other conditions of illusion. 'Acause' asserts the identity and necessity of the two parts of the phenomenon which we have hitherto called cause and effect. The use of this word explains the whole ontological doctrine of CCXX and is in exact accordance with the theory which I myself derived from the study of the other parts of the Book. But I have once criticism to make. I feel sure that you are right. But I want one thing more. I want to clinch the matter by some Qabalistic proof the 'acause' is not merely a brilliant speculation which satisfies the requirements of theory, but is definitely indicated as the solution by internal evidence. It is not enough to argue its correctness from our private Qabalistic interpretation of A and B. It must be proved beyond doubt that Aiwass himself had the same idea and intention. Failing this, the 'Gecause' of my unfortunate disciple could be made to do equally well.
I have been at some pains to point out the weakness in what I regard as one of your greatest discoveries, that I may write à fortiori about some others. I am strongly against attaching importance to Qabalizing English names. We could do as much for William Ewart Gladstone as for Charles Stansfeld Jones. The correspondences leap to the eye like young goats. Williams equals I am will, etc. I never cared to insist on any tricks with my earth name. Think of Bertha's [Bertha Bruce] claim on BAB! We have got to convince the lay mathematician that our Qabalah is not to be explained by coincidence. I want you to be Rhadamantinely rigid in rejecting the remotest possibility of self-deception. You should read Piazzi Smyth on the Great Pyramid. He was a professional mathematician and astronomer and his enthusiasm led him into absurdities of the most fantastic type.
Above all, be constantly on your guard against the Ego. You have abolished it on principle but in practice it comes back again constantly through the force of physical and mental habit of thinking and acting. Beware of success! 'Success is [thy] proof,' the proof that our Law is the Law. Petty personalities are not worth a snap of the fingers.
One practical word at the end. Remember that F.T. Lodge [Frank T. Lodge] is a bitter and treacherous enemy. He is very powerful in the middle West, and he is unscrupulous and remorseless. He hates us insanely with unfathomable hate because we proved ourselves so superior to him in every way. We made him feel his failure—he will never forgive or forget. Now that you are emerging from obscurity he is certain to muster all his forces to destroy you. I am more and more convinced that Free Masonry in the States is one of the most evil organizations that has ever existed. Despite individual exceptions and their professed principles, they are selfish, greedy, and envious. They are against all that the Law stands for, especially that aspect of it which you personally emphasize.
Love is the law, love under will.
Thy sire,
The Beast 666.
P.S.—Please send me any press cuttings about your lectures and the Work in general. I hope you have arranged for verbatim reports of your speeches in public. Circumstances might arise which make it extremely important to possess the records.
A case in point. The Prefect of Police said that Jane [Wolfe] was accused of firing revolvers at random during her retirement. We laughed at the idiocy—of course she had no firearms. He went to search her tent and found nothing, but he still believes that previous to the search she was firing. It appears that two soldiers positively swore that this was the case.
You are going to be attacked for causing the San Francisco earthquake and smuggling roc's eggs and hitting Billy Patterson, and you had better have your documents handy. Remember what happened to TK.
666
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