|
Correspondence from Aleister Crowley to Gerald Yorke
55 Avenue de Suffren, Paris VII
October 27th, 1928.
Care Frater:
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.
Yours of the 25th from Norwich.
When you are cheerful about things, then they must indeed be flourishing. I immediately fear disaster. I am only happy when there is no ray of hope anywhere on the horizon.
Of course it is absurd saying that they want only the last ten years, which have been from their point of view nothing but a very stupid and sordid struggle against adversity of various kinds. Nor are those ten years at all intelligible without the earlier periods.
I heard from Miss Olsen this morning, that her friend won her lawsuit to the tune of 10,000 dollars. She promised Dorothy to bring her to Europe when she won. But I think you might apply for an investment of, anyhow, half the amount. So rush a contract over to Dorothy with a covering letter.
I don't know why you had Mrs. Bass [Kasimira Bass] typed in on the contract instead of having the name and the amount left blank. I should emphasize, in writing both to Dorothy and Mrs. Reynolds, the desirable character of the investment. Of course if you have a success of Hunt's [Carl de Vidal Hunt] to report already, so much the better.
I think you are quite right about Hunt. I spotted him from the first, and should have employed him right away if there had been the funds.
About England. My general plan is to do something spectacular without being indecent such as the ascent of Mount Illiman in the winter and come to England to stand for Parliament in the general election—on the plank of Sunday Saving of course. (I'll write you separately about the Croyden Crowleys.)
I am not telling anyone about Hunt's project. You can rely on me entirely to hold my tongue about things in general. In fact people say that I am too secretive. When I babble foolishly, I have a very good reason for it. It's awfully decent of you to have settled Hunt for November. Owing to Kasimira's escapade, several hundred francs were wasted. She has made a sudden and miraculous recovery. I am constantly reminded of the woman with the issue of blood. How long it will last I can't tell, but she imported Vouvray and cold beef last night, as it is written: "They did eat and drink and saw God also". Which reminds me that you have so mild a master to deal with. In other days the barren Bristol Channel might have been cursed because the time of lampreys was not yet.
If course I want Hunt to have control of everything, and about the first thing I want to do as soon as adequate cash arrives is to make a regular contract with him. I think he is distinctly a man to encourage. In the beginning he may have thought you a mug, and wanted the earth; but now he is reasonable I should give him a bit more than he asks.
The O.T.O. is so to speak the quintessence of Freemasonry and is run on strictly masonic lines. There is no question of spiritual advancement as in the A∴A∴ It teaches nothing but theoretical and practical philosophy of life and death. There is no question of the attaining of higher states of consciousness. It is true that some of the practices involve what might on analysis turn out to be supernormal conditions; but it is not mystical in any ordinary sense of the word. Further it works almost entirely in groups; and this is what makes the attitude towards money entirely different.
The point about Ogden [C.K. Ogden] was that he appeared mysteriously at the psychological moment; and this was dependent upon Sieveking's [Lance Sieveking] equally mysterious appearance, because if it had not been for meeting Sieveking the situation would not have arisen in which the moment of meeting Ogden was psychological.
Love is the law, love under will.
Yours fraternally,
666.
|