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Correspondence from Charles Stansfeld Jones to Aleister Crowley
P.O. Box 141, Chicago
August 23rd 1925
To Mega Therion Hohenleuben-Th, Germany
Dear Therion
Through the discourtesy, rather than the courtesy of Frater "Viator" [Max Schneider] I have just received your letter to me dated Sol in Cancer, Luna in Taurus. I do not know on what date this letter reached Chicago, but since it had evidently been shown (with others which I have not received) to several people before it was delivered to me, it has certainly been held at least two days too long to have in any way modified my action of August 21 in personally and publicly announcing my severance with that aspect of the A∴A∴ represented by you.
Having taken this step I shall of course stand by it as having been the best possible considering the circumstances as they had come to my knowledge, but for the sake of our past relationship, I shall make as plain as possible certain facts of which you may, or may not, be fully aware.
Firstly I think you did an almost unpardonable thing in sending communications intended eventually for me through the channel of an ex-probationer of whom you have little real knowledge and to be handed round at his discretion (and he was very indiscrete in his choice of people) before being delivered to me, and all this without notifying me in any way or asking for any explanation of the case. Whatever any differences of opinion there may be between us, this conduct on your part could hardly be justified even in the event of certain matters having been grossly misrepresented to you by some person who felt it to be to their personal interest to discredit me and my work here. However, you have acted, and so have I.
I feel you have made and are in danger of making the gravest kind of mistake in regard to the nature of my work here in your judgment of my attitude towards the Great Work and my inner motives. It is really rather absurd to expect me to explain the inner affairs of the A∴A∴ to a committee of persons none of whom are within the Order, and two out of three of whom are definitely disgruntled on account of their unfitness to enter it. If there is one thing I have honestly tried to do as far as the A∴A∴ is concerned it is to see to it that the standards of test should not be lowered, and that people should not be passed into the Order unless I was sure of their fitness in all necessary respects.
In the case of one a Mrs D. . . . who I find on the so-called committee who had the audacity to ask me to appear before them I have hear on very reliable authority and in several instances that she claimed, after I had requested, or rather intimated that her presence at our meetings was no longer very necessary on account of the fact that she had borrowed money from many of the members of Psychomagia, and that I had had many complaints about it, that I had thrown her out of the A∴A∴ and accused her of being in the Black Brotherhood. I have good reason to believe that this lady wrote to you in regard to the matter, and in case she omitted to send you a copy of that part of my letter to her which had reference to the A∴A∴ it may be well for me to quote it here for your edification:
Her records had, for one thing, been very sloppily kept, she was altogether too emotional, and at the same time—you having warned me about such matters from your point of view—she was a Roman Catholic still attending that Church before coming to our meetings, and had, on her own admission and that of the papers, been accused by the U.S. of being a spy and the case left open in the Federal Courts as undecided but not cleared up. However I wrote as follows:
"In regard to your A∴A∴ work my letter to you should not be looked upon as an indication of your failure but rather as pointing out that you have not, so far, attained to the full measure of success to which a Neophyte should be entitled. The Standards of the A∴A∴ have of necessity been kept exceedingly high; no slackness in the due performance of all the tasks imposed upon those who Aspire to enter the Order, is ever allowed. One who is recognized to be a Neophyte in that Order must have measured up to the Standards before that recognition is given. Although I, myself, am within the Order—having to the best of my ability and to my Guru's satisfaction—passed these early tests, and although I have been permitted by those in Authority to understand that I had passed the tests of other Grades—I still chose, as is apparent from the use of the motto 'Achad', to consider myself but a Neophyte of such an Order. Frater Perdurabo, as such, is also a Neophyte, and the high standard of his work cannot be denied. You should therefore be proud to feel that you have been recognized as a Probationer who still stands a very good chance of ultimate acceptance into the Order itself, and redouble your efforts to fit yourself for this honour when conferred.
In regard to your apparently trusted messenger self styled "Viator", properly IchDien [Max Schneider]—for he was only a Probationer. Here is a man upon whom, despite his rather serious imperfections, I had showered all the best of my knowledge—as far as his grade permitted and leaving aside the Gnosis—had taught Qabalah from the first letter up, had befriended, kept with his family while out of work, tried to hand over to him some of my own following to form a class he could not hold together, tried to start in business by advising a friend to lend him $500.00 for that purpose, only to have him fail again and again till the sum amounted to about $2000.00 not a cent of which has been repaid to that good brother, and who now, on account of his knowledge of German and the fact that I originally took Trankers [Heinrich Tränker] first notice to him and asked him to translate my reply, has so taken advantage of the fact that this business had to be done by him as one who knew more of the affairs of the order than any German-speaking brother available, that he has gone behind my back, in spite of that fact that he still calls me his best friend to others—and so represented himself and me to you and Tranker that the present rupture is the outcome of a plan which might have turned out—and I hope will yet turn out—a magnificent success. I have not the slightest idea of what this brother has said to you, but there are one or two parts of my recent letters to him I should like to quote by way of a possible explanation.
On June 8, 1924 I wrote him a long letter not, as I assured him in a spirit of criticism, but because his words had indicated to me what might be a very grave danger, viz: division of will. The part connected with A∴A∴ I quote:
"Now as regards the A∴A∴, again I feel that you have done really good work along certain lines, and work that would entitle you to considerable advancement in that System, provided all the other essential conditions had been fulfilled.
"But as a Probationer of the A∴A∴ you must not fall into the very possible error of thinking that your attainments advance you automatically in that Order. You have done a great deal of work on the preliminary stage, but you have neglected to turn in your exam-paper (although your record is in my hands) and for that reason alone, you have not been granted the official Grade to which you would otherwise undoubtedly be entitled, and which would carry with it a formal recognition of your work, thus making it no longer a matter of personal opinion, but of established fact. You may remark that this is little more than a technicality, but in reality a great deal more is involved (from the A∴A∴ point of view with which we are dealing). But, whatever your personal views may be of your attainments and studies, whatever you, yourself feel to be your true stage of advancement and (unofficially) corresponding grade in the A∴A∴, one thing is certain, as far as that system is concerned, you have not fulfilled the tasks necessary to the Grade of Zelator, and this is no mere technicality, but a most important consideration, and no officer in the A∴A∴ knowing the System and conditions, could possible pass you beyond that Grade with the conditions are unfulfilled. Neither can you at any time safely take the one open step in the Order, and claim the Grade of M.T. [Magister Templi]—even should you really think of doing so—from your present position, for, as I understand it, this can only be done by an actual Neophyte or one actually advanced in the Order, not by a Probationer who is officially, so to speak, outside the door of the Outer College. . . . . . . .
"I have merely raised these [illegible] so that you may examine yourself upon them, not that I [illegible] them with me or another; but I feel that if you do so within yourself, you may be able to adjust your interior differences, and get rid of them. If you consider me wide of the mark, there is no harm done. It is of course for you to do your own True Will in any case." In reply to the various matters taken up in the letter above quoted I received a long and fairly plausible reply (which this oily brother is quite capable of writing) and so I left the matter for time to show. My warnings about his "God-Almighty attitude" (if I may so here term it) and the possibility of falling down on Liber XXX V. 15 (prejudice) had no effect. Shortly after this he lost his job and got out of work, in which situation I tried to help things in every possible way. On February 7, 1925 I wrote the enclosed letter, but did not send it to him as I did not want to hurt his feelings and thought a few words might be sufficient. But I enclose this letter to you so that you may clearly see the attitude of mind I held at that time.
I left this aspect of the matter till July 15 1925 when he had sent me a copy of his letter to Tranker talking of "our Order" etc. in reference to A∴A∴ I then felt it necessary to write as follows"
I knew that this letter would sting him about his job—or lack of it—but it seemed the last resort for saving him from becoming a hopeless bum—or worse after eight or nine months of idleness (during which time he was too preoccupied to translate for me the chapter of the book Tranker gave him on conditions he did this).
He then wrote to me Sol Cancer, Luna 6. and requested that he be transferred to another Neophyte. He said he was sending a copy of the letter to you, so you probably have it.
My reply was as follows:
On July 30, 1925 I suddenly got a letter from this ex-brother starting Dear Sir:--(rather formal perhaps) I have received two communications, one from To Mega Therion and one from Frater Regnartus. If you care to read Therion's letter, kindly let me know.
Frater Regnartus wants me to get in touch with you on a matter of business. He has been put in charge of all the A∴A∴ books etc that are in storage in your keeping and he requests that I communicate with you etc. and then talks of centralizing the O.T.O. Ms. and that he, S[chneider] . . is to do it. (Hand that person the details of the Gnosis? Who said?)
All this seemed so absurd considering your own instructions about leaving Tranker's agency to me, and the lack of any other instructions from you, that I wrote the following:
This quite polite and reasonable request resulted in the following somewhat rude reply from the ex-probationer to his late Superior.
I concluded from this that your letter had no reference to the matter of Trankers peculiar reference to books and ms. and as I was not at all interested in reading letters of an uncomplimentary nature from you and certainly not going to put myself out in order to do so at the request of S. I let the matter drop and wrote you—in fact I had done so.
Then come reports of secret committees, and of letters written by you to me to be shown to others first, and various other matters to rotten to mention, but still no instructions from you or even a letter from Tranker to explain what its all about.
I have every reason to believe Tranker an honest and decent man, I had every reason to distrust the integrity of S.'s motives in wanting to get his hands on the book stock and Ms. You had certainly done me the dirtiest kind of trick, and I was about through with that kind of thing once and for all. I therefore took the only course open, cut by bond with you, advertised the fact that I was no longer in sympathy with the policy of the A∴A∴ as represented by you, and had definitely disassociated myself with it, and, as the best means of centralizing your books in the hands of honest Bro Tranker, with your approval, paid about the only $65.00 I had in the world to cover the balance of storage charges and ordered both your books and Ms from Detroit, and the books here to be sent you at once care of Tranker. I was certainly not prepared to deal with S. in this matter, and after your treatment not prepared to add to the long storage account I have already paid. I have approx.. had expenses for freight, cartage and storage in connection with thee books which were sent without my request, to the extent of Two or Three thousand dollars besides the various sums I have sent you, and putting my time boosting up the value of the stock every week at only $10.00 a week for the last 5 years another $2,500, would I think, now that I have returned to you most of the books leave you owing me a fair round sum in cash. I had no wish to hold the books for this, or even to claim the whole lot, as I might have done at their dollared value of three or four hundred dollars which what has been sent you and what I had to pay for storage on your special editions in Detroit would have about left me as entitled to the rest of the stock—the value of which has increased through my work and careful management of the market as far as I could. But it seemed to me far better to insure their return to you, even if it does put you to some expense for freight, for then Tranker will be able to make proper arrangements for distribution in a businesslike manner.
You may have thought it easy to carry this burden for so long, of recent times we have not sold enough to cover storage, this being partly due to your apparently having let some of the books get out on the English market at prices which knocked out sales here.
I have really done my best for you all this time against big odds after the scandals of the press etc. etc. I have just got enough from any books sold to tide over a rough corner now and again, and at other times been hard put to it to meet the bills and keep the work going. After your letter in which you wrote saying you did not consider I owed you anything, and considering the books were actually from O.T.O. stock in which I suppose according to rules I am entitled to a share. I considered you had turned these over to me as a general aid to the work here, and retained the English stock for yourself to dispose of. But, as it is, and since without mentioning the matter to me you suddenly—apparently—want Tranker to have them I have just let them go with little regret as I should not like to use any more after severing with the A∴A∴ bond even if this property had nothing to do with A∴A∴
However, to close this long letter, S. is now writing threatening me with all sorts of scandal if I refuse to meet a committee of people none of them in the A∴A∴ and discuss A∴A∴ matters with them even after I have in order to save such a stupid slur on your work taken the steps I have. I shall warn him that should the slightest scandal arise he will be held responsible. I hope this will not happen since it will do a lot of harm to your work if not to mine.
I really think if, after reading this letter, and seeing copies of some of the actual correspondence, you give the whole thing quiet and unbiased thought, instead of flying off the handle at what having been done cannot be undone, you may that by considering Liber Legis in reference to System and System etc. all this may be a part of a bigger working and that although there has been a sort of split between us on some planes that it is not much use smashing around and getting wrong impressions and giving such to others. I have always upheld you publicly so far, the fact that I state that I am not in agreement with the present policy will probably save the situation and the Order from disrepute in wrong hands if you take it that way. Anyway I tried to be a good son as long as you let me, and I have no ill feelings towards you.
Good bye,
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