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Correspondence from Aleister Crowley to Charles Stansfeld Jones
31 Wellington Square Chelsea S.W. 3.
[Undated: circa July 1922?]
My beloved Son,
I set myself on fire last night through an indiscreet IX° for "Physical Energy" So write this, burnt, in bed!
Yours of June 29. Fine, but I don't much like things that go like wild fire, especially in Chicago, and especially after last night!!
There is still a touch of sentimentality and pomposity in your prospectus. But I shall be very glad to see your virgin Opus, [illegible] and wish it every success.
Yours of July 2. No, [illegible] dear, you must NOT play tricks on Father, because the Old Man was once a boy himself, and knows them all.
And you must NOT set traps for Father, because it is Big Lion's way to walk straight into them, and it makes such a mess of the nice pretty trap.
You may have had a good deal of innocent pleasure in imagining me going down to South Eeling with your mare's nest packed in [illegible]—I don't begrudge it. But this sort of thing is not dignified. And it is not prudent, because Father is still quite capable of preparing a trap for [illegible], which would make that bright youth the joke of Chicago.
Again, it is no business of yours to inquire how I might act in certain circumstances, otherwise than by putting the case frankly to me. To do so implies that you distrust me. To change the subject, the word "urge" is a verb, not a noun! If you can't write English, try Welsh. Also "through" for "throw" shows ignorance or haste in writing.
Now I want you to get one thing very firmly in your mind: I have had to preach to you about it before. You totally lack the Critical Spirit.
I am interested in Sumerian ideas, whether in or out of Liber Legis. I am not interested in the Lost Art of Hermes, whether [illegible]. For there was actually a place called Sumer without doubt; but I have no reason to suppose that the LA of H is more than a dollar catching invention of modern quacks.
"There is no such thing as Truth," Read your Poincaré! It is not "true" to say 2 + 2 = 4; it is no more than what seems to us the most convenient way of expressing and idea which appears to us to possess a very high degree of Probability.
You will hear of some very striking development in my Work very soon; in particular, Windram [James Windram], Semper Paratus 6º=5o, has written for a charter to establish a new Order. I have sent one, and is [illegible] its Constitutions. They follow the lines of CCXX. I 3g. 40. Will send a copy soon, and advise you to make a splurge with it in September. The anti-Bolshevik classes will bring you in hosts of adherents, on the spot, people with power etc.
I was arrested in Cefalù yesterday week—only I wasn't there—for teaching young men (Hansi and Howard [Howard Shumway], I suppose!) Communistic ideals!!!
By the way, you say "All for knowledge" methods got me into trouble: a mystery about what you mean, but it seems to refer to April Fool Act. If so, let me point out that I have followed your instructions scrupulously; it isn't my fault if you worded them in such a way that they meant what you didn't mean them to mean. Do try to write careful English!
It is hard to keep you aware of all the news; but I am going to write my "Autohagiography" [The Confessions of Aleister Crowley] for publication early next Spring. The O.T.O. has recovered some of my works and doubtless more will follow.
But I'm not looking at the past at all; I'm leaving others to buck up the threads, and concentrating my personal energy on the future.
93 93/93.
Thy sire,
The Beast 666
From the Lake of Fire and Brimstone.
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