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Correspondence from Aleister Crowley to Norman Mudd
Hotel Eymon, Tunis.
May 9/23.
Care Frater,
93
I have been reading through my diaries and find them profoundly interesting but hopelessly incoherent. Errors of transcription are numerous, and sometimes badly misleading at critical points. They must be corrected from the manuscript.
I get the idea that you could use them as the basis of a whole series of articles introducing my results to the public. There are several main subjects: Thelema, Astrology, Ethics, Mystical attainments, Magical memories, interpretations of the Universe, resolutions of antimonies etc, Shirley [Ralph Shirley] might accept a series on the more technical subjects; the Saturday Review and English Review those of wider interests. I think they would be acceptable from your pen. There should be a sort of interest in me as there was in [Oscar] Wilde after his trial. I could in short, be treated almost as if I were dead. If you could do this, it should provide supplies and also serve to pave the way for a more direct campaign.
Meditation on May 6 told me to wait for
direct inspiration. On May 8 came the clear command "Go to
Oxford". I rationalized this—the command carried absolute
authority—as meaning lecture publicly in Oxford, say, on
Oct. 12. The Yi [Ching] explanation is
as follow: [I Ching Hexagram] Kwan
XX
Thwan: sincere and dignified religious appeal.
Line 1—Proclaim myself 666. Address youth but as if they were adults.. Line 2—Await opportunity. Then be bold. Line 3—Base utterance on my personal record. Line 4—Hymn glory of New Aeon: be proud of my vision. Line 5—Cf. Line 3. Show necessity of my vision—born for this alone. Line 6—Show how Law has made me [illegible] to my human self.
I feel sure that we should make this lecture our main objective in that line. I want you to take complete charge of the campaign; but venture to suggest that you should urge the people we know at Oxford to form a regular committee to take steps to bring it off by exciting wide interest in the University about my Works.
I also want you to prepare the skeleton of the lecture. I want to cover the whole ground, to explain the necessity of accepting Thelema from every point of view. World politics and ethics to personal development and the progress of mankind by developing a superior instrument of thought. I must show myself an enthusiast but not a fanatic. I must not show the Law as merely unobjectionable and yet prove that; although revolutionary, it is not immoral in the ordinary sense. I must show it as furnishing science with a new weapon as proving the possibility of religion and demonstrating the method of personal attainment to spiritual knowledge, but also as adaptable to the needs of ordinary people. You see how hard it is to present all this connectectedly. There must also be some account of how I got it. Please try to furnish me with a schema.
We have no news from you. I refuse to be distressed or anxious. I am determined to leave the Gods an absolutely free hand. I propose to go to Nefta on the edge of the desert, Longitude 8° East, Latitude 34° North, for about three weeks. On the most optimistic figures we should be back in Tunis by June 1 with, say 500 francs left. I do not feel happy about the Poste Restante address, and also wonder whether our mail is being tampered with. Address all communications to Hirsig [Leah Hirsig], Hotel Eymon, where we are staying. We will ask them to re-telegraph any cables you send—and we should of course like to hear at once that your silence does not indicate disaster—but letters had better await our return, especially if they should contain money because it is on the cards that if we feel well enough, we shall not stay at Nefta for more than a day or two, but cross the Desert to Ouargla or Tougurt, returning via Biskra, Constantine, etc. (I think you should find out from the Police whether they claim any right to hold up our mail.) Not hearing from you has been a great test. I had planned to send wild telegrams and invoke Consular aid if no letter arrived to-day, but I have been shown that it is absolutely up to me to trust the Gods without reservation. So content myself with these remarks.
The [magical] retirement has already done much to destroy the fear and lust of result which have been inhibiting my magical consciousness. Result: the indubitable inspiration about Oxford and a superb vision (which unfortunately has left practically no intelligible record in consciousness) of the precise manner in which all things are or become One.
Our health is slowly but steadily improving and we have done quite a fair amount of work on the Hag [The Confessions of Aleister Crowley].
I enclose you a letter from my publisher as it concerns you. Supplement it if you see fit. I also enclose a personal letter to Sir Godfrey Collins M.P., the head of the firm. It would be much better were you to edit it and send it as from yourself. You can say things about me better than I can.
I enclose also a personal statement of my position which may be sent to all correspondents and should, if possible, be issued, publicly in some responsible organ.
All this, if and as you deem advisable. I am making it an absolute rule to do nothing except through you and with your full approval, so that you need not fear interference with your plans through any indiscretion on my part. This applies even to personal letters to people like Achad [Charles Stansfeld Jones] and Estai [Jane Wolfe]. My retirement will be consummate and yourself my only link with the world.
93 93/93
Yours fraternally.
The Beast 666
Enclosures 1—Qabalistic comment. 2—Add. Comment on Verse 73 CCXX—III. 3—Letter to Wakefield. 4—Draft—letter to Sir Godfrey Collins. 5—Statement by A.C.
1—Why did Cagliostro call himself the Grand Copht?
2—Suggestion that you write to H. Martin Holman, c/o Messrs. Portcar [?] Garrett & Co. St. Michaels Rectory, Cornhill E.C.3—to find out how A.C. stands with them and to induce his Holiness to extract some money from the Settlement. Explain circumstances.
3. When you have time examine the Yi interpretation of your Equinox by me in the light of the situation created by the expulsion.
4. Suggestion—If you can get D'Annunzio to intervene with Mussolini on artistic grounds—A.C. and D'Annunzio have many mutual friends, including Isadora Duncan—herself barred from U.S.A.
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of K manifesting i.e. Proclaim the Law. XX = Big
"The manifestation in Thought and speed of the idea of Nuith;
and its formulation in a Pantacle.