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Correspondence from Aleister Crowley to Charles Stansfeld Jones
Collegium ad Spiritum Sanctum, Cefalù, Sicily.
April 2, 1923.
My beloved son,
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.
Yours of Mar. 15. Let me first apologize about Fazio. I regret very much that you should have been distressed. Fazio quite understood that there was no obligation on you to pay, but we couldn't do so before he left Sicily, so we gave him the note on the off chance that you might be flush when he reached the U.S.A. The whole thing was quite friendly, so don't worry.
I am very glad you have heard from Fuller [J.F.C. Fuller]. Surely this is an opportunity to persuade him that he is making a dreadful mistake in not supporting us. I have written him several most friendly letters, admitting that the breach between us was more my fault than his (it was the fault of neither of us—it was due to a conspiracy between his wife and Raffalovitch [George Raffalovich].) He could be of immense use if he resumed his old relations with me. I told him that I had changed fundamentally since 1910, but he would not correspond with me or see me. Now, when I am being so grotesquely and malignantly attacked, it would be the part of a gallant soldier to come forth and fight for truth and honour.
The death of Frater AUD [Raoul Loveday] raised a terrific rumpus in England. The widow [Betty May], (an East End slum girl, a model from her earliest years and a drug fiend from the age of 18 to 23, twice married previously and once divorced,) returned to England and thought to make a bit by inventing all sorts of fantastic lies about us. It was even suggested that I had murdered Frater Aud—as you will see by enclosed. There is a huge clamour for exhumation, investigation, my extradition and prosecution for witch craft. It would be too gorgeously funny if it were not for the deep wound which the death of Frater Aud has made in my heart, and the implied slur on his memory, as my accomplice.
Betty [May] rather overdid it, however. She went to Oxford to stir up trouble about her poor murdered husband, the only man she ever loved, and took her latest man with her! Oxford thought it rather funny.
I cannot defend myself for several obvious reasons. (1) lack of money, (2) I refuse to be distracted from my creative work, (3) Liber 418 [The Vision and the Voice], last page; (4) one cannot in the nature of things disprove an endless string of inventions. Many of the allegations are totally untraceable, referring to my relations with people whom I cannot in any way identify, and so on. If you read the women's Apologia, you will find the point dealt with. "It would be useless," he argues "to rebut the falsehoods which are being circulated about me. If I did, another collection would instantly spring up. The only answer to falsehood is to present a positive truth." The Buddha says the same with regard to error in general. Life is too short to criticize. We need all our time for creation.
I am following this course. My Autohagiography [The Confessions of Aleister Crowley] will show me as I really am, and falsehood will perish automatically. One can't whitewash shadows—turn on the light and they vanish. But Fuller could help a great deal by coming forward to champion his old friend and colleague. To do so would save his soul. What really wrecked him was the fear of losing his social consideration, and the Masters always insist, sooner or later, that a man should make a definite renunciation of all that is not the Great Work, as you well know. He must, in fact, cross the Abyss on the plane of every-day life before becoming an aspirant at all, in the full sense of the word.
I cannot tell you how overjoyed I am about your literary output. I await eagerly the 31 Hymns, (Why don't you send me typescripts of your stuff as I do you of mine. Please don't think about apron strings, but reflect that I can help you by advice apart from my magical position, by my experience as a writer and editor. You write far too well to omit any precaution with regard to your Form. I could have offered several valuable suggestions about Q.B.L. with a view to making it a permanent classic, and that without the least interfering with your ideas. For example, you might have defined the Sephiroth more clearly. P.S. On re-reading, I find this is much better than I thought. I am however annoyed at your selection of numbers from the Sepher Sephiroth. It seems to lack system. I understand, of course, how difficult it is to choose. I don't like your feeble imitation of my own yet feebler imitation of the feeblest feebleness of Mathers. Pp. 91-92. Is your paragraph 42 a deliberate blind? The fool an ancient?? The very essence of his being is his innocence, especially sexual. You might have shown what they really are in terms of misleading titles; ditto with the Paths. I have in contemplation a book on the mind. My first step was to design an intelligible tree in terms of ordinary psychology. I enclose a copy, feeling that you will appreciate at once its value in making clear what we really mean by these symbols and in showing the reader how to use the correspondences in practice.)
But to hell with caviling! My paternal heart sings 31 Hymns of its own to Our Lady; 31 more to Hadit; and yet again 31 to the Crowned and Conquering Child, for in the varied yet one pointed flowing forth of your genius I see that you are at last reaping the harvest of which I tended the seed in the darkness. Your Initiation is bearing abundant fruit, as it is written (nearly) "some an-hundred-and-elevenfold." Nunc dimittis. You are the justification of my career. You are the manifest witness that Initiation, as understood and practices in the A∴A∴ enables a man with no evident congenital tendency to literary expression (or you would have started as I did in boyhood) to express himself in a number of quite distinct manners with perfect freedom. I assure you, speaking as a man of letters, that you are an almost unparalleled phenomenon. Four books of quite different types in a year—and that your 37th.year! (By the way, I don't like IU—the Ever coming One, as a title. I am not quite clear why you make it IU—it's unbalanced for one thing. Let me urge you to remember CCXX-III-35 and similar passages. The Child is a twin—H P K deriving from LA and R M K from AL. H P K is Aleph, the innocent babe or Fool; R H K is Lamed, bearing the sword and balance. This arcanum that he is twin is, to my mind, one of the most important that we have. I was always bothered by the final H of I H V H. V H must be understood as two in one. In this way one keeps the Trinity, yet enables the work to start again since V H becomes I H when the daughter is set upon the throne of the mother and the son grows up and succeeds his father.
I do wish you could come here for the summer. It is so long since we met—I feel the need to exchange views. Do try and work it. I am myself eager to spend the winter in the U.S.A. lecturing etc.. You might try to prepare my path. A man in New York is supposed to be now publishing a long serial about me so as to being me before the public. If it catches on I might get a contract.
Thanks for promise of pictures which will doubtless arrive in a few days. With regard to the practical success of your lectures, I maintain my opinion that the parity and depth of your thought militate against wide-spread enthusiasm. If you can show them how their beastly ambitions in life can be helped by our practices, they will come along.
My Book on the Mind proposes to cover such points. For instance, Liber III. Show how perfect ability to show thinking, saying or doing any given thing can help them in business. Christian Science tells them that they wouldn't be ill unless they thought they were ill, but does not teach them how to prevent the thought arising. People often say indiscreet things in business conversations. Liber III creates a sentinel to challenge the rash admission. People are clumsy in manipulating their muscles. They make mistakes in typing, etc. Liber III fries the seed of the wrong gesture.
Again, Liber 175 is not merely a manual of devotion—it teaches how to turn whatever comes along to account. Thus, a man who wanted to learn Spanish, might be helped by that book; it would train him to translate every impression of the day into Spanish.
Again, Pranayama is a specific for constipation. It banishes mental distress on the spot; it frees the mind from distracting vibrations. A man in Kumbhakam can make a business decision far more freely and unhesitatingly. Physically, again, it produces sweating in fever. It did much to save my life this winter; nothing else overcame the burning dryness of my skin.
I could multiply examples but spare you (and Lea [Leah Hirsig]) The average man thinks Occult Methods vanity, either because they promise him some spiritual reward which he doesn't want, or some material advantage which he does want but is not rationally connected with the practices proposed. We alone know the scientific reason why our practices accomplish what they do, and we alone give people freedom to choose their own goal and their own path. I should like you to demonstrate (a) that our methods develop the normal faculties of the individual sanely and wholesomely; (b) that they do not commit him to any specific course of action; (c) that the powers thus acquired may be applied at will to any problem of life; (d) that they act in a strictly rational and intelligible manner; and generally (e) that they are on all fours with accepted methods of training and education. Military drill and mathematical study work in precisely the same way as our own practices. Our sole object is to bring the subtle faculties of mind and body to the type of perfection which is proper to their nature. By doing this you will avoid the reproach of other worldliness on the one hand and superstitious vanity on the other. I want you to get at the souls of people by appealing to the qualities they already possess; their desire for material welfare and their common sense. As soon as a man has trained his mind and body to the utmost, the perfected faculties will themselves tell him that there are things better worth having than those they wanted when they began. The Neophyte cannot aspire to Geburah; he doesn't know what it is. It is futile to tell him (Liber LXV-II-37-44) but when he reaches Tiphereth he will become aware of Geburah and be drawn naturally to it. Start a series "How Magick boosts Business" or words to that effect, and see if you don't hit the bull's eye. Incidentally, you might show analytically how acknowledged business methods conform with Magical Laws. Show how the success of people like Henry Ford is due to the fact that they happen to be born with a natural perception of certain Magical truths and a certain natural ability to perform certain magical operations.
My blessings upon you all and hope to hear better news of your financial position. My own has been unexpectedly relieved to some extent in the last month, but I fear it will not go very far. We need general support. I can do little personally in Cefalu. I am at present entirely barred from selling anything in England. I leave it with the Gods.
Love is the law, love under will.
Thy sire,
The Beast 666.
P.S. Now you seem to be getting on with publishers, I really wish you would make an effort to introduce my work to larger circles. I suggest offering Adonis, Aha, The Ship, and some of the A∴A∴ instructions to be reprinted separately at popular prices. You might advantageously comment on these. In this way we should help each other and also make a market for the existing stock. See what you can do. Aha should certainly sell very well—it is the only thing of its kind after all. The poetical form should please; and with you to elucidate any obscure passages it should appeal to all. By obscure passages I mean principally descriptions of various Dhyanas and Samadhis, also the biographical references to incidents in my own Initiation. People look for Mystic meanings all the time; they would not understand that by China I meant China unless you told them.
Congratulations on your birthday and third anniversary of my taking possession of this house [The Abbey of Thelema].
666.
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