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Correspondence from Aleister Crowley to Charles Stansfeld Jones
Collegium ad Spiritum Sanctum, Cefalů, Sicily.
January 28, 1922.
My beloved son,
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.
I have your letter of January 10. I quite understand what you say about my suggestions. I had no wish to insist upon any course of action, but on the other hand there is surely no harm in my offering them. You are perfectly within your right in deciding whether to act in accordance or not. It does not annoy me when you decline. If I could not trust you to do your Will, I should not esteem you as I do.
You are quite right about Liber Legis; I myself find it quite impossible to tackle the Qabalistic Comment.
I feel that your first paragraph on page three is either badly expressed or symptomatic of grave error. Every star is independent, true enough, but equally it is linked by necessity with every other star. I think you under rate the importance of the view that you are one link in a chain of initiates and Hierophants which stretches throughout eternity. I never allow myself to forget that I am the successor of S.R.M.D. [MacGregor Mathers] My place in the Work as Logos in the Aeon is unique, but the Word would be unintelligible except in its place in the sentence. Unless S.R.M.D. was really the head of the Order, the Book of the Law is no more than an individual outburst. Unless you are the "child" your title to initiation is invalid and your work without authority.
Re the A∴A∴ work. I have felt from time to time that we were in danger of misunderstanding each other. Such incidents are inseparable from existence. But you and I are linked by necessity. Your work and mine both depend upon perfect interpenetration. The apparent divergence of view is evidently due to the fact that we have both progressed since we last met. I propose that you should make a point of coming to Cefalu for the summer; a few weeks would straighten out the kinks.
Re. O.T.O. I am myself quite inactive. It must, as you say, be reorganized, when the time comes, fundamentally. We shall know when the current starts.
Re Mrs. Ford. I felt instinctively that you had failed to work together. I wrote to her as I did because of the practical good sense shown in her letter. She is the type that we require. You and I both suffer from the same trouble: too much initiation. We think so differently from the profane that we are unintelligible and inefficient. We are both impotent without the intervention of a Demiourgas. We ought to energize practical intelligences, keeping ourselves in the background.
I think you understood me about the relations between your occult and human lives. What I meant was that I have noticed you confusing the planes and settling practical questions on Qabalistic grounds. Your Tu quoque is justified. I am the greatest ass alive. All the more reason for you to take warning from my evil example.
Anyhow, I want you to set your face as in flint to come to Cefalu—a big new current is starting, and I feel convinced that this year should be devoted to organizing our campaign. Do your utmost to join me. I suggest the end of May as a suitable time. You will, of course, be the guest of the Order, so you need not think of anything except travelling expenses. Let me know as soon as possible if I may expect you.
Love is the law, love under will.
Thy sire,
The Beast 666.
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