General Statement Covering All My Relations With Loveday

[Undated: circa late February 1923].

During the month of October 1922, e.v. Frederick Charles (Raoul) Loveday [Raoul Loveday] and his wife [Betty May] met the Beast at the house of Mrs. Sheridan Bickers [Betty Sheridan-Bickers]. Mr. Loveday had just come down from Oxford (St. John's College) with a first class in history. He had been anxious to meet The Beast for over two years and had made a profound study of The Equinox and other of his magical writings. An immediate sympathy sprang up between the two men, and they saw each other on numerous occasions during the fortnight or so which elapsed before The Beast left for Sicily on (date ?). He was particularly anxious to pass the Student's Examination to be received as a probationer in the A∴A∴ before The Beast left London. The Beast refused to pass him though he would have passed most men of much inferior attainments. He felt that a man of such remarkable abilities as Loveday should make a point of being letter perfect in every detail.

The Beast had already offered the hospitality of the Abbey [Abbey of Thelema] at Cefalù to Mr. and Mrs. Loveday, and he wrote again from Rome making a definite proposal that Loveday should act as private secretary, taking a share of the proceeds of any joint work. Mrs. Loveday was to undertake the responsibility of the housekeeping. After some hesitation they decided to come out, and arrived at Cefalù on Nov. 26. The terms of the engagement were not put rigidly into force at first so that the newcomers might feel their feet, so to speak, and learn the ways of the Abbey. Besides this, they had both been ill from the hardships of their life in London. Their health and spirits improved rapidly. Loveday devoted himself to writing descriptions of the new conditions, and to studying the curriculum appointed for Probationers. He made such progress that we was received in this Grade on the Day and Hour of the Winter Solstice with the motto of A U D. The open air and wholesome conditions generally, especially the extremely sympathetic relation between himself and The Beast, made this period the happiest in his career. His wife, though vastly better in physical health, was subject from time to time to transitory fits of melancholy. These passed off without any serious outbreak of any kind.

It must now be explained that The Beast before leaving London had made various business arrangements by which he would be assured of an adequate income during his absence from London. These arrangements were upset by a false and malicious libel with which it was impossible to deal at the time for sheer lack of money, to bring an action, or even to travel to London to take the matter up. The people who should have sent money to the Abbey made these absurd fictions an excuse for not doing so, with the result that the Abbey experienced great anxiety, discomfort, hardship, and privation. Work however continued in the spirit of courageous cheerfulness characteristic of Thelemites. In January the weather became very damp and cold, and the lack of means for combating its inclemency doubtless contributed to an epidemic of illness, at first chiefly sporadic but affecting all the members of the Abbey in turn.

In February the prolonged strain began to tell upon everybody. The Beast was practically confined to his bed for weeks at a time, though still able to continue on his work of writing the story of his life [The Confessions of Aleister Crowley] for Messrs. William Collins. Sons & Co., 48, Pall Mall, London. Frater AUD had suffered from a few brief attacks of malaria which he had acquired as an infant in Burmah where he was born. From the last of these he did not recover properly, and he developed symptoms of intestinal disorder; and Dr. Maggio was called in. The condition of the patient was at that time not considered serious, but there was an inexplicable weakness. The Beast learnt too late that, a couple of years before, his old friend had met with an accident in which he had lost so much blood that he took some six months to recover, and the Doctors told him that it would take him at least four years to regain his normal vitality. On Monday Feb. 12 the trouble was still confined to a catarrhal condition, and the doctor did not seem seriously alarmed. On Friday, apparently through catching a fresh chill, his state suddenly turned to what the Doctor, hastily summoned, diagnosed as acute infectious enteritis. He now took the gravest view of the case; and, when asked, advised telegraphing to the parents of the patient. From his manner, it was evident that he had little hope of his recovery, and in the afternoon of the same day at about 4 o'clock, the patient, who had been sinking gradually died, from cardiac paralysis.

The termination was extremely quiet and altogether painless. It is unnecessary to say that he had been nursed throughout the whole course of his illness with unremitting attention by every one in the Abbey as occasion required.

The funeral took place twenty-four hours later, a short ceremony being performed at the grave side by the Rites in which FRATER A U D conformed.

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