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Correspondence from Aleister Crowley to Charles Stansfeld Jones
Collegium ad Spiritum Sanctum, Cefalù, Sicily.
Sept. 17, 1921.
My beloved son,
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.
Thank you for your letter of Aug. 28. You are quite right as to the object of [illegible] paragraph—One Star in Sight. It had not previously occurred to me that such misunderstandings could have arisen as are implied in some of your recent letters. The document mentioned in Paragraph 4 has no date. It does not refer (except incidentally) to events—it is simply an account of certain conditions which exist irrespective of the illusion of time.
There is no prohibition about selling my books, since the price of such represents only a partial return of the capital expended in their production. I noted the point about residence at the College here; in case of paying guests coming here, the sums received would be expended in material comforts for the guests. I have got over the difficulty about instruction by making $25 regular charge including luxuries (of all kinds), and reducing the amount by $10 a week in the case of people who are taking a course of instruction. My estimate of $30 is a minimum based on shaving starvation as closely as possible.
The A∴A∴ contains no obligations in any grade to those above them in the Order, but only to those below them. The statement about people having to accept the Book of the Law is badly worded. Thank you for pointing it out.
I don't quite understand about the distinction between Will and Power. They are obviously quite different things. The whole Book implies throughout that the Beast is in the same position in this Aeon as the Buddha was in the other. Note 132, 138, 205, 253, 265, 278, 279, 311, 342 etc.
My Comment on CCXX explains the office of the Scarlet Woman.
My letter of July 28. You don't seem to have any idea of the difference between philosophical statements and practical ones: yet one would have thought that you, better than any one else in the world, would have been able to realize that the destruction of the ego in a M.T. [Magister Templi] does not make him less himself, but more so. The initiation enables him to think and act according to his nature without the interference of the thought of himself as himself.
I will go through One Star in Sight with a view to meeting your criticism; but I must point out that Probationers are signed up after having heard Liber LXI, where Verse 30 implies the Book of the Law as canonical.
Your remarks about 'peace' show a failure to understand me similar to the business about truth. Nothing is easier than for a person to discover the flagrant contradictions in any expressed statement. I thought that you knew that above the Abyss a thing is only true insofar as it contains its own contradiction in itself.
The trouble with you seems to be that you let your own ideas about your true nature interfere with your obvious function as the Child; or rather, as one of the children. I am not aware of any point at issue between us in practical matters, and I have no wish to interfere in any way with the results of your initiation. Our relations should be confined to establishing the Aeon.
Furthermore it is really comic of you to quote "I am peace" out of its context. It would be dishonest to do so to a man who did not know that context. In the First Aethyr, P. 169, the words "I am peace" are preceded by the word "for". This connects them with the previous part of the paragraph, which I advise you to read. You might further turn over the page, and look at Line 14; and if it is not troubling you too much, it would do no harm to read P. 171, lines 6-7-8- and the rest of the chapter, especially the last three paragraphs.
It gives your father a pain in the old place to see his son lay himself open to such a complete refutation from the very text that he quotes in support of his position. I want you to forget for a few moments what a tremendously important person you are, and devote yourself to humble and sincere study of Our Holy Books, and also of the best minds of the period.
Love is the law, love under will.
Thy sire,
The Beast 666.
P.S. It is really important that you should read Poincaré, La Science et L'Hypothèse. "Les axioes géométriques ni sont donc ni des jugements synthétiques à priori ni des faits expérimentaux. Ce sont des conventions:—" "Dès hors, que doit-on penser de cette question: La géométric euclidienne est-elle vraie? Elle n'a aucun sens. Autant demander si la système métrique est vrai, at les anciennes mesures fausses; si les coordonées cartésiennes sont vvaies et les coordonnées polaires fausses. Une géométrie ne peut pas être plus vraie qu'une autre; elle peut seulement être plus commode." and again:
"On veut dire que par selection naturelle notre esprit s'est adopté aux conditions du monde extérieur, qu'il a adopté la geométrie la plus avantageuse à l'espèce; ou en d'autres termes la plus commode. Cela est tout à fait conforme à nos conclusions, la géométrie n'est pas vraie, elle sat avantageuse."
La Valeur de La Science.
"Nous choisissons donc ces règles, non parce qu'elles sont varies, mais parce qu'elles sont les plus commodes, et nous pourrions les résumer en disant:
"La simultanéité de deux événements, ou l'ordre de leur succession, l'egalité de deux durées, doivent être définies de telle sorte que lénonce des lois naturelles soit aussi simple que possible. En d'autres termes, toutes les régles, toutes ces definitions ne sont pas que le frait d'un opportunism inconscient."
Observe then that the most fundamental axioms of thought are not Truth, even to the ordinary mathematical mind; nor can they be. When I say the CCXX is "the Truth", it is the same sense as it is true that Chicago is [illeigible]. CCXX is "Truth" in respect of the coherence of certain sets of ideas, none of which have any absolute existence.
666.
P.S. Something HAPPENED to me last night: I am a damaged man. Expect developments shortly, in particular, be assured . . .
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