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Correspondence from Aleister Crowley to Gerald Yorke
Hotel Royal Condé 10, Rue de Condé Paris
die
Care Frater V∴I∴
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.
Yours of Sept 5.
A. You should not have "tried to accept" anything. You should will to understand.
Liber Legis has bothered me from the beginning.
The Book is not written from any human standpoint. It takes no account of man's ideas of what is good for them, any more than a surgeon of a patient's pain.
You are not enough initiated to judge at present: you should be content to study for years. For the Book is certainly the work of a praeterhuman intelligence, and this makes it a unique document.
B. You merely register the fact of the existence of a definite campaign of persecution. I assured you of this from the start, and you would not believe.
At the back of this campaign are the enemies of mankind and all progress to higher things. Judge them by their methods: persecution of the innocent, and attempts to prevent the diffusion of knowledge.
You, the historian should recall that all great men in any domain—literature, science, art, politics—have had this to fight.
(I personally as Crowley would stand by any man thus persecuted, even if I detested his work.
I propose to come to London as soon as the fight is on, not before. I want a fair fight in the courts. I am preparing in health and all other ways for this).
I do not think I am a great man but I have been chosen to do a Great Work. All thus chosen are tested in every way: the steel must have no flaw.
You have been tested about the Demon Crowley etc and came through. Face the present issue firmly and you will find that this Home Office bogey is just a painted turnip on a sheeted pole in the graveyard of England's honour.
I honestly doubt whether any decent newspaper would attack me unfairly. Even Beaverbrook is, I think, sorry: at least, they refused to carry on the attacks as I told you.
But I would rather look at the worst, and appeal to your manhood. You are free to say "I don't agree, with this work, but I think this man has been badly treated. I stand by him."
But, in any case, before you make a final decision, it would be only fair to your own magical honour as well as to the trust I have placed in you, to come over for a week-end and put before me the actual difficulties about Liber AL, since you will to understand.
Love is the law, love under will.
Fraternally yours,
ΤΟ ΜΕΓΑ ΘΗΡΙΟΝ 666
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[Tuesday] [11 September 1928]