|
Correspondence from Aleister Crowley to Heinrich Tränker
An XX
die
[11 January 1925]
Salutation on all points of the Triangle!
Care Frater,
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.
I have received your letter of Dec. 12 '24 E.V. and considered it carefully.*
I divide my reply into 5 sections
A. The Succession of the office of Frater Superior and O.H.O. [Outer Head of the Order].
I received from Frater Achad [Charles Stansfeld Jones] your nomination to the post of Frater Superior and O.H.O. [Outer Head of the Order].
If I accept, it is not that I do not feel any great unworthiness, but that I cannot decline in view of the Obligation laid upon me in Cairo Spring 1904 E.V.
I may add that Frater Peregrinus [Theodor Reuss] in the last letters that we exchanged definitely designated me to succeed him.
In view of the actual world-situation it seems to me urgent to take certain very definite steps, and of these some are of such importance that I desire earnestly to have the advice of the Elder Brothers in your neighborhood.
I propose to take advantage of your kind offer of hospitality in May as you suggest, this to prepare matters for an International Conference of Grand Masters, and also one of selecting worthy persons without respect of official rank, even of workers beyond our own orders, to consider action on the lines which I shall indicate later in this letter. These Conferences should begin at the Summer Solstice.
I do not know whether you include in your invitation my wife and my secretary: persons necessary to my work, and rather a help [illegible] iin domestic matters.
I wish to prepare you for my great incapacity for public affairs, as this will make it necessary for me to lean very heavily upon the Grand Masters.
(a) I am extremely shy, and too often absorbed in abstract thought, to play the part of a leader in the ordinary sense. I have no gift of eloquence.
(b) Despite wide experience of men and things in many countries and classes of society, I am an Innocent, that is, there is ever present to me the truth of every man, that he "is a star". I am therefore always surprised when any one acts badly i.e.: untruthfully to his real self. This makes any practical psychology a mockery.
(c) Also, I cannot help assuming that the knowledge of all men is coterminous with my own; so that
I expect obscure allusions to be at once understood, and leave large gaps in my train of thought, assuming that no man can fail to fill the lacunae.
This makes me hard to understand; and judge ill the motives of other men, and (acting as I must do on my spiritual conception of values) mutual comprehension of practical matters is almost impossible.
B. The Crisis.
Those who came to me in 1904 E.V. told me that They chose me for the Work in question on account not of my spiritual or magical attainments (which were, and are, small indeed) but for (a) my loyalty and steadiness (b) my knowledge of comparative occultism, especially the comprehension of the essential unity underlying sectarian differences (c) my perception that the Great Work was as strictly scientific as chemistry (d) my command of language.
The urgency, They told me, was this. There was to be a general destruction of Civilization, and it was expedient to reduce the Sacred Wisdom to concise and simple form, so that (as in the Rennaissance), the scholars of the New Aeon might be able to reconstruct the Royal Art from the debris of the world.
Much of this I have accomplished in "The Equinox", whose form was determined by consideration of this necessity.
But much yet remains to do. The Book of the Law gives most careful detailed instructions to ensure this paramount aim, I have not yet been able to execute—through my own tardiness and self-will.
C. The principle Secret of the Sanctuary of the Gnosis was not fully known either in theory or in practice to the late O.H.O.
The most important question—impossible to discuss in a letter—is that of how to utilize fully the powers conferred by the possession of the Secret of the Gnosis.
He communicated it to me—a complete stranger—on the ground that I had already published it plainly in one of my books [the Book of Lies] on Magick. This was the case; but the book in question being inspired, I as a man was not aware of it.
He told me he had applied it with success but twice in his whole life. As soon as I considered the matter seriously, my scientific training enables me to realize at once that the key to its practice lay in the study of the conditions of the Experiment. I began to record all such Works, noting any circumstances that might conceivably affect the issue etc. etc., as I had been taught in the laboratory.
My results, albeit incomplete, should, if properly studies, bring this whole matter into the clear light of day for initiates of the Gnosis.
The supreme importance of this matter lies in the following considerations.
The discoveries of Science in the past century or so have been alike in this respect, that all are apart from Virtue. They can all equally be used by vulgar men, after by merely brutal men, at the discretion of vile and ignoble masters. The result has been as we see it.
But through the O.T.O., we possess a form of energy far stronger and subtler than any yet known; and its virtue is this, that it cannot be employed successfully by men ignorant of spiritual laws and untrained by spiritual methods.
True; the most [illegible] of mankind are capable of concentration, which is an essential factor in success. But, though we must do all that may be to keep the secret from unworthy minds, we cannot deny that it is already widely known at least in gross and onerous forms. We must rely on the natural fact that the technique of Virtue must needs prevail.
Yet, even at the worst, I hold it better that the world should be ruled by Black as well as White Lodges than that, as at present, its government should be more confusion.
On this account, I shall not shrink from the responsibility of using this great Secret to determine the direction in which the rotten tree of civilization shall fill. It is above all on such points that I must ask the Wisdom of the Elder Brethren.
Given their approval, we should find little difficulty in selecting and training a sufficient number of men to study, develop and apply this energy.
I need hardly say that while I regard this whole matter in the spirit of material science in respect of its technique I do not necessarily contemplate any incursion upon the lower planes: contenting myself with the dictum of Eliphas Levi: "Nature accomodates herself to the statement of the magician".
D. The Question of Supply is the most fruitful source of trouble in all movements of spiritual value because it is impossible for the herd, and very difficult even for the earnest inquirer to realize that great men completely despise the question and bitterly resent the necessity of discussing it. For this cause, too, they are too often incompetent to use money wisely, so that whether there be [illegible].
There is only one proper attitude. Every man should indulge himself to the utmost and the most useful man is he whose self indulgence takes the form of diversion to the Real Work.
Misunderstanding of such matters has caused more trouble in initiating a new current than almost anything else.
In view of the necessity of taking world wide action to meet the impending crisis it is first of all necessary that the responsible leaders should be unhampered in their movements and supplied with the means of propaganda. It obviously interferes with their concentration on the work with which they are entrusted if they are not free to carry out the plans on which they may resolve.
The most important practical step for us all at the moment is herefore to fill the Treasury of the Order. For instance it may be necessary to assist certain Brethren to travel for the proposed conference from distant parts of the world. There is also the supremely important question of publication.
I do not know to what extent your outer adherents can be called upon to contribute to such objects.
I do not know whether you are in touch with any person who would be able to place the whole movement on a business basis.
But I see two assets of prime value, (1) the ancient manuscripts in your possession (2) my copyrights.
With regard to (1) it should be possible to arrange for small editions at a high price of contact print reproductions. This plan is also good because it would tend to the preservation of the ancient knowledge.
(The course of exchange should have advised you that the exploitation of the inflated markets of U.S. is extremely simple. That is the ratio of currency to real wealth is an absurd extravagance; so that a wise man can live in peace for a year on less than a trans-atlantic gambler squanders habitually in an hour's intoxication. This also is a design of the Preservers).
With regard to (2). I have caused to be communicated to you the names and addresses of certain people in Germany who are interested in my work and I have asked for a list of my works, as complete as possible, to be sent to you at once. It has been prophesied since many years, that I should first be "discovered" in Germany. I authorize you to make business arrangements on my behalf. It should be possible to obtain a sum of money in advance and royalties as the translations appear. It is important to find a man financially capable of undertaking the expenses as a whole, and of good discretion in the employments of translations.
I have long since put the whole of my property of all kinds at the disposal of the Order. I have no ambition to become rich and no use for great wealth if I again possessed it. I require merely to work without material anxiety in the conditions suitable to my natural station in life.
Besides my published works I have many M.S.S. of all kinds, including plays, which should be commercially of great value in any country not completely lost in the morass of debauch, sentimentality, morality and commercialization.
The main object of instituting an important Treasury is after supplying current expenses, to arrange for the issue of extremely short and simple pamphlets in all countries and in all languages calling upon men to unite to establish the real spiritual revolution.
The only Word which can unite Mankind is "Do what thou wilt" for this asks no man to distort his personality to serve a fixed ideal of conduct. At the same time, the injunction is most austere; for it permits no man to go beyond the aim appointed by his nature.
The real opposition to the Law of Thelema lies just here. The base understand by instinct that this Law must destroy the whole machinery of the civilization which assumes that the greatest good of man is the possession of material means of enjoyment. As Browning says: "What provoked the spite of filth incarnate, like the poet's need of other nutriment than strife and greed".
The mistake of many of our brethren in the past seems to me that they thought it sufficient to despise base ideals as such. With the scorn was mingled a certain taint of fear, and they were therefore crushed by the Golden Calf in trying to pull it down. They should have cut it up and sold the pieces for bread and wine. St. Anthony was no less the salve of lust than Heliogabulas. Parsifal didn't accomplish the Redemption miracle until he had accepted Kundry as the servant of the Order.
E. With regard to the action to be taken between now and May the principal points are as follows:
(1) You should do everything possible to concentrate the material resources at your disposal.
(2) You should by this means make it possible for as many worthy Brethren as you know of to meet at Hohenleuben at the summer Solstice. Grand Masters from other jurisdictions are especially to be asked. But I should also invite unofficially any sympathetic leaders of other orders, with a view of bringing them under the Banner of O.T.O. There will be presented a plan for extreme simplification (a) of jurisdictions (b) of the course of initiation. This work was laid upon me long since by the late O.H.O.
(3) You should arrange ffor translations of any of my works which seem to you likely to make a good impression. This apart from any arrangement with a regular publisher or rather in default of such arrangement or in expectation of it.
(4) The historical succession of the Order being of prime importance you should supply me with evidence properly documented of the history of the Order from the time of our Father C.R.C.
* In future, please write in English by means of the F. interpreter, as translation here is long to accomplish, and not reliable. If not too inconvenient, have the letter typed.
It is of the greatest importance that the rule of the Order with regard to the keeping secret of the identity of the Frater Superior should be maintained severely. The necessity of employing a Brother interpreter demands that he be sworn specially to maintain silence on this point.
You will observe that my name as S.G. [illegible. G. I. I. Et. O. B. being known I have adopted a new name for my new office.
Please try in future to answer my letters within a week of their receipt, and I will do the same with yours. I will let you know of any change of address.
|
in 21°
