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Correspondence from Norman Mudd to Frank Bennett
57a, Tressillian Road, Brockley, London, S.E.4
7th July, 1924.
Frater Progradior.
Care Frater,
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.
Ninette [Ninette Shumway] has just sent on your letters to her and Estai [Jane Wolfe], together with the news that the £5 you sent to Cefalu was as miraculously times as usual. We all hope that you will go on strongly and steadily building up both a sound worldly position and a flourishing group of brethren, awaiting the time for you to join us in the real Abbey of Thelema that we shall be building here at the same time.
I surely need not say how deeply we have sympathized with you in the troubles you have had to go through in order to win your freedom—or at least a clear chance to establish your freedom. It is the outcome alone that really matters, and I have no doubt that henceforth you will have an uncommonly useful understanding of the passage:
Remember all ye that existence is pure joy; that all the sorrows are but shadows; they pass and are done; but there is that which remains.
[Frater] Libertas, who wrote us such an intimate and kindly letter about you, seems never to have realized before that "A man's chief enemies are those of his own household," though this is, or course, the universal experience of all of us, as soon as we really commit ourselves to the Work.
In your letter to Estai you say: "These people that I have here are all right but frightened." Since "Fear is failure, and the forerunner of failure," this saying of yours is rather obscure, and sounds like a contradiction in terms. I don't think you should let any test which will make them decide definitely and quickly, Yes or No, whether or not they will stand openly by your side. The triflers, the half-hearted, or the faint-hearted are mere dead weight. You cannot expect Kingly men to grow on every bush, even in Australia, and it is only Kingly men that we have any time for.
I don't think there is any chance of Estai being detailed to work with you. She is, of course, like the rest of us, wholly at the orders and disposition of The Beast himself, and it is hardly in order for you to send her a personal invitation to change her Work. The organization of the Work in Europe has, no doubt, changed very greatly since your all-too-brief visit to Cefalu.
I hope to be able to write you in the course of the next few weeks some account of our work here, but I would like to consult The Beast first.
All addresses, including Cefalu, have now become quite uncertain, and you should address all letters intended for any of us, quite simply to Mr. N. Mudd, care of J.G. Bayley [James Gilbert Bayley], [Esq.], 37a Tressillian Rd., Brockley, London, S.E.4. I will forward them without delay. Apart from any informal personal letters that you are moved from time to time to send, you should keep us informed about the progress of your work by sending in a report at the end of each month, addressed to me as the Acting-Chancellor. You should send to me also (rather than to any individual member of the Order) any moneys that you feel able to spare for the support of the common Work.
Estai and I both send you our heartiest congratulations on the change that has taken place in your way of life, and our best wishes for every success in your future Work.
Love is the law, love under will.
Yours fraternally,
Omnia Pro Veritate, Acting Chancellor of A∴A∴
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