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Correspondence from Norman Mudd to J.F.C. Fuller
Hotel au Souffle du Lephen, Marsa Plage, TUNIS
3 August XIX [3 August 1923]
Dear Fuller,
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.
I am writing to you, in virtue of my position as business secretary to The Beast, to invite you to help us in our present financial crises, if it be your Will.
For over a month now The Beast and The Scarlet Woman have been wholly immersed in spiritual preparation for one of the operations commanded by the Book of the Law. This operation will definitely determine the course of the Aeon. Excepting only the actual writing of the Book of the Law, it will be the supreme Magickal operation of The Beast's career, and requires absolute detachment from all material problems and interests. Under these circumstances the whole responsibility for establishing a sufficient material foundation for the Work has devolved upon me.
I need hardly say that the worldly estates of The Beast himself and of his five immediate co-workers have been devoted to the common Work, no single particle being withheld. But I have to confess that despite these initial resources, and the potential (but unreliable) wealth in the form of unpublished writings of The Beast, we have now been brought to the very verge of material disaster.
I am thus reduce to the expedient of announcing to all professed servants of Thelema, the present extreme need of the Beast; in particular, that the fundamental documents of the Aeon, to say nothing of the working apparatus of the Beast, are threatened with distroint for debt; and that one of the vital operations of the Aeon is threatened with failure, from the lack of any material basis of working. There is no indication that Those who oversee our Work intend us to undergo spectacular disaster, but there is a great deal of evidence that They will insist on the whole-hearted support of all professed servants of The Beast.
To come to the immediate practical crisis.
1) If you are unable to send any money, or if it be not your present Will to do so, I hope you will not delay to tell me this, in order that I may dismiss the possibility from my calculations.
2) Whatever money you wish to send will reach me most rapidly if placed (by telegraph if possible) to the credit of my account at the Credit Lyonnais, TUNIS.
3) The minimum amount (from all sources) still needed to carry us over the crisis is
a) £100 at the end of the present month,
b) £An additional 100 not later than the Autumnal Equinox.
I should say that our present difficulty is only temporary, and that considerable resources are expected to be available by the end of the year. A loan, therefore, if you can help us best in that way, will meet our needs quite as well as a donation.
Love is the law, love under will.
Ever yours in love and service,
Norman Mudd (Secretary to The Beast)
P.S.
93,
I write this addition after long hesitation and meditation.
1) Is it absolutely impossible for you to visit me here in the immediate future? It seems to me urgently necessary that you should learn at first hand the existing state and policy of the Aeon. To see me here will, of course, not involve your meeting The Beast, though that could be arranged if you desire it.
2) The 'operation' I have spoken of is the 'T' working, described in LXV:"I too am the Soul of the Desert." Its purpose is defined in CCXX viz. "lest there be folly". I do not feel free to say more in a letter.
3) What makes me write this addition is the fact that The Beast believes that you are meant to take an active part in the Operation. I may say that I came to the same conclusion independently. Also I suspect that I am merely holding temporarily a post which is yours by natural right, genius, and destiny. I suppose you are quite unaware of the crucial part you played in my own 13 years battle for freedom. Sorry that I cannot tell you this now. Sorrier still that I cannot be sure that my story would be welcome.
93. 93/93.
N. M.
Col. J.F.C. Fuller The War Office Whitehall. S.W.
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