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Correspondence from Aleister Crowley to Gerald Yorke
55 Avenue de Suffren, Paris, VII
Nov. 12th, 1928.
Care Frater:
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.
Very glad to get yours of the 9th. I believe everything will be all right now that the eclipse is over. It was squaring my Herschel and my Saturn, and really rather knocked me out of time. I had disturbed nights and bad dreams. All this month Saturn is going to trine of my Herschel and sextile of my Sun and Saturn, and this ought to make for very great success. The only trouble is that Jupiter is still hanging about in opposition to his radical position in my horoscope; and I am afraid this is going on for some time, as he is retrograde and will pass over the bad spot some time next year.
I quite understand the position about Miss Eaton [Cora Eaton]. In view of our respective ages, it is you who should take out the policy. I think her terms are perfectly fair and even generous. She is doing this as a friend and we ought to see to it that she has nothing to regret.
The immediate crisis is rather irritating. I am cabling Germer [Karl Germer] this morning to try and send $100 weekly pending the arrangements. A cable from you saying that you agree to the terms and requesting this remittance to be made might turn the scale.
We are all right for this week, but next week several rather heavy payments have to be made. We need thirty or forty pounds more than we are likely to have.
I think it quite possible that those stocks in New York have already gone up on Hoover's election and his speech about South America.
I am very glad you take the view you do about the legal proceedings. I have always thought that; but I had to write as I did on non-business grounds. The matter is in the hands of the Gods; we must await the event.
By the way I don't think that K's [Kasimira Bass] share of the expenses comes to more than $1000, though of course I can't give the exact figures, and if so we have lost nothing provided that we can get that bill paid. I am going to see what I can do about it.
Hunt [Carl de Vidal Hunt] interrupted this letter by ringing up, and said that he had heard from you about Miss Eaton. Are you quite sure that it is wise to tell him all our business? I think Hunt is a good man, but I am quite sure that he has to be made to toe the line all the time. In two months he has seen one man, Stapley, and introduced me to two people, one of whom is perfectly useless from my point of view. I don't think that is a whole lot to have got for 40 pounds. Nothing but success would justify him. His idea seems to be to have as many irons in the fire as possible, and to give the minimum of time to each. It is of course quite an absurd policy and explains his non-success. Of course you must use your own judgment, but you are handling the business end of things, and I doubt whether it would do any harm if you made it quite clear to him that there would be nothing doing on December 1st unless his results to date justified it. His general tendency is to put first any piece of work which is liable to bring him in immediate cash, whereas our reason for giving him this salary was that he should not be obliged to do this. He claims that his total expenditure is in the neighbourhood of £20 a month, and he was therefore to devote all necessary time to pushing our business. If he regards this salary merely as a retaining fee and just throws out a little ground bait here and there in the hopes of getting fat commissions, I don't think it is good enough. The trouble with the man is that he cannot understand any genuine feeling. He thinks that everybody is an opportunist and materialist. It is the point of view of Walpole; who was not, I understand, our greatest or most successful statesman.
A financial statement of sorts should be ready sometime during the week. It is going to be very complicated, but it will clear the way for simpler dealing in the future.
Love is the law, love under will.
Yours fraternally,
666.
Gerald Yorke, Esq., 9, Mansfield Street, London, W. 1.
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