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Correspondence from Aleister Crowley to Charles Stansfeld Jones
Collegium ad Spiritum Sanctum, Cefalù, Sicily.
February 23, 1923. e.v.
My beloved son,
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.
Your letter of Jan. 30 gave me the greatest joy. I was especially delightful to observe the filial greeting so long omitted. It arrived at a moment of great grief, Frater AUD [Raoul Loveday], who had been working with me here since November 26 having died unexpectedly a few hours earlier. He had every possible qualification. He was only 22 but had studied our books for some years and knew an astonishing amount of Qabalah. He was a practical Magician of astonishing ability and his loss seems to me quite irreparable. It is one of the worst blows I have had for a long while.
With re to Q.B.L. Pranayama comes into the early grade because Yesod is air. I do not want to labour the argument at great length—I've been ill for some weeks and am still in bed—but I must point out that the three lowest paths are Q Sh Th —there is also S joining Yesod and Tiphereth. The whole symbolism of the rainbow and the arrow is destroyed if you alter any of these attributions which are not arbitrary but connected with the middle stage in alchemy, the universal peacock, and any amount of other symbolism. I could not possible consent to give up a system like this which has been confirmed by tradition for centuries. I still think that your Appendix, while brilliant in many ways should never have been published as rough working and with the a-symetrical difficulties still left. I feel sure that a year from now you will realize that you went to Press in a hurry. It never does any harm to keep good wine in the cellar for a year or so. Let me recommend you to make an absolute rule of this in the future. I think the space would have been far better filled in by a preliminary Qabalistic demonstration of the Law. (By the way, I got a little discovery myself the other day. TzBA means not only a host but to will, caused to go forth as a star, soldier etc. 93 thus is the same in Hebrew as in Greek).
I am sorry I couldn't send you a Drug Fiend [Diary of a Drug Fiend]. I am sure you can get one. If not let me know, or rather write Soror Estai (Miss Jane Wolfe) c/o Western Engraving Co. 18 Broad St. Golden Sq. London to send you one. I shall be delighted with your next two books—you really seem to be getting ahead. I suggest that your next effort should be definitely Thelemite perhaps with the plain object of contradicting the foolish rumours about us. Something in your line to correspond with what I have done in the Drug Fiend. Show how the Law will clear up every one's ethical problems and insist on its austere morality.
C.F.R. [C. F. Russell] is still quite insane with envy. In his latest letter he attacks Alostrael [Leah Hirsig] and Progradior [Frank Bennett] as well as Christ Stansfeld Jones. Your advice was excellent but I should have as little to do with him officially as possible. I believe him quite capable of murdering somebody in honour of Choronzon and we do not want to be mixed up in that.
I apologize for thinking you were trying to use subterfuge. The impression was gained from your own letters. Any way, as you know, I trust you entirely to do your job. I am very happy to read the last paragraph of your Page 2. That is exactly the attitude which the Order appreciates.
I am glad that Psychomagia is going so well. But why you should add up a purely Greek word on Hebrew principles, I don't see. Psychomagia adds to 1662, the reflection in the worlds of I A O.
Thanks for the promise of the cards.
I should like to know more about the 7º=4o cipher letter. I am glad you are on your guard against such childish tricks.
About your "proposed alteration of the Sephiroth" I was referring to your scheme for a thirteen fold arrangement in which they should be equal. Let me explain once more that there is no objection to doing original Qabalah but any such achievement is so to speak merely a personal masterpiece and does not alter the structure of existing things. Just so you can lift a weight from the ground and calculate its velocity etc. That does not alter the value of G.
The only objection that I have to your letter to Russell, in all other respects admirable beyond praise, is your tentative approval of Abrams, whom I distrust intensely. His methods are simply outrageous.
Love is the law, love under will.
Thy sire,
The Beast 666. by Alostrael 31-666-31.
The Beast is at present too ill to sign these letters—I do think though that he is showing signs of a slow recovery. Best wishes to you.
Alostrael
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