Correspondence from Aleister Crowley to James Doughty

Collegium ad Spiritum Sanctum,

Cefalù, Sicily

Jan. 29, 1923. e.v.

James Harry Doughty, Esq.,

Dear Sir,

Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.

I have been recently in communication, by cable, with your old friend and mine, Norman Mudd. As you presumably know already, he is giving up his work in Bloemfontein to devote himself entirely to the Great Work with which I am myself identified; that is to say, the establishment of the Law of Thelema, as a universal formula. My particular object in inviting him to join me was that he might work out the problems (a) relating to the external circumstances of the Communication of, (b) embodied in the text of, the Book of the Law which afford mathematical and statistic proofs that this book was dictated by a Praeterhuman Intelligence, thus furnishing for the first time in history scientific evidence of the history of such. I may mention that the concealed formulae in this book anticipate many of the discoveries of Cantor, Poincaré, Russell, Einstein and others. They even (as I believe) solve several problems which have not yet yielded to investigation of the ordinary kind.

In his latest cablegram he tells me that you would be competent to undertake this work in case anything prevented him from doing so himself. I hope however that he will arrive here as expected during the month of April. Let me say at once that I shall be extremely happy if you should be able to visit us at any time. (It's a supremely delightful place; and we are the happiest people on the planet.)

You may think the following request the limit of impudence; but I have several reasons for making it besides those which I will proceed to set forth. The request is this; that you should send the sum of £31 to Mrs. Marshall, 126 Strand, London with a note that it is on my account.

The reasons are these. (1) It is vitally important that Norman should have access to certain manuscripts which are in the possession of Mrs. Marshall immediately on his arrival, and she demands this sum before sending them. (2) It is almost impossible to send money from Italy to England; and my resources in London are for the moment entirely earmarked for legal purposes.

I do not want you to do this if it would inconvenience you seriously, and you can of course look to me for repayment as soon as the temporary crisis is over. But I feel sure that from what Norman says about you in a long document which I have received from him this morning that you will be only too glad to have the opportunity of doing your bit to help him at this moment when he is taking his fate in his hands at the bidding of his deepest instincts.

Please let me know in any case about this, and also whether you (or Coates) are likely to be able to drop in on us at any time. In this place we cannot get the most ordinary information about travel, so I have no idea by what route Norman is likely to arrive. I can only guess that the approximate date may be the last week in April. You can reach him from London in three days via Naples and Palermo. We like to know well in advance when people are coming, as in these parts the fatted calf takes a great deal of killing.

Love is the law, love under will,

P.S. Feb 8, 1923.

I sent this letter to 26 North Ave, Levenshulme, Manchester, and enclose this copy in case you have not received the first; I have heard again from Norman; it makes no difference to the above, except that there is less time than ever to get the business through.

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