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Correspondence from Aleister Crowley to Tom Driberg
18 January 1927.
Care Frater,
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.
Thanks for your letter of January 14th. I should have thought that you would have already observed something of the nature of the punishments incurred by breaking Magical Laws. I wouldn't mind betting a bob that something special has already happened since the receipt of my letter.
You say you cannot see how you have broken the Magical Law, and it is difficult to explain to you why the laws are what they are, because you will persistently refuse to give me a chance to explain. But if you look through my letters from the beginning, you will notice that there are several things that I have persistently advised you to avoid. But you have done those things. And the present situation—which incidentally hurts me as much as it does you—may be attributed entirely to your neglect of this advice.
In particular it is absolutely forbidden to the aspirant to have anything to do with women until he has . . .
[page missing]
. . . forgotten the whole business. The only exception to this is for the purpose of taking advantage of your act of 'atonement'—if you must make jokes! You should communicate by telegram with Mrs. M. Curtis Webb, 87 Victoria Street, immediately on receipt of this. Arrange to go and see her if you are able to get away for a day; and if not, ask her to fix a day to come to Oxford to see you. She will put the whole situation before you, and consult with you as to the possibilities of something being done to assist the Work.
With regard to the pamphlet! The 'Method of Thelema' is nearly what is wanted, but I am now at work on another which is better. But it is very difficult for me to get any work done at all in my present circumstances. Anyhow you can arrange all that with Mrs. Webb. And the friend who wants to meet me will do much better to meet her, at least in the first place. I am not going to see anybody except you, until they have been passed by her as eligible.
I am afraid all these injunctions may seem very arbitrary and unreasonable, but when you come to understand the conditions of the Work, and have some experiences, you will not be surprised that one has to act in a very unusual manner, on principles whose basis is quite beyond the comprehensive of the uninitiate.
[remainder of letter missing]
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