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Correspondence from Aleister Crowley to Gerald Yorke
55 Avenue de Suffren, Paris, VII
November 18th, 1928.
Care Frater:
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.
There is really a great deal of news to tell you, but it is all very disconnected. Excuse a ragtime letter.
My Greek dictionary has come from Leipzig, so I shall be able to go on with the Pythagoras.
I think your letter to Hunt [Carl de Vidal Hunt] was a very good one. He was considerably depressed by Stapley's failure to get the Memoirs [The Confessions of Aleister Crowley] across. My impression is that the price would have been in the neighbourhood of a couple of thousand pounds, so that he and Stapley would have had about sixteen hundred pounds to divide. I did not protest, because the victory would have been invaluable; but I think that in setting future terms you should mistrust blind contracts.
When Hunt was in London, he did not use my letters of introduction, which would have been in accordance with the general scheme. He spent all his time running around newspaper men and playing his game. I am sure he has got to be made to understand that we are not philanthropists to that extent.
The installment from Cora [Cora Eaton], mailed last Thursday, should (I suppose) reach you about the 22nd or 23rd. It is imperative that the money should be in the Banker's Trust Co. by Monday noon the 26th at latest as there is a post dated cheque for the 27th which must be paid. It would ease my mind if you would drop me a line immediately upon the receipt of the money in London.
Your fiancée is coming up to spend a few days with me on Thursday, as her birthday is on the 26th. Is there any chance of your running over for the weekend? I think it would be a pretty good plan to have a conference with Hunt.
Relieved from the strain of Kasimira [Kasimira Bass], I have been able to start serious magick with ritual precautions. The climax of the first ceremony was marked, as it should be, by the sudden arising of a violent wind; and subsequent ceremonies have been equally notable. I think the results are already beginning to appear; and, bar accidents, something important should break during the week.
I have further (and probably final) news about Kasimira tomorrow morning.
The thing I really lack is Abramelin incense, I don't see why the package should not be mailed. I don't think there can be any duty on it, if it is declared as incense for religious purposes.
It would be a good plan too if you could have a pudding sent over. It is wanted as artillery in the campaign against Mrs Freeman.
Claude Farrière was tremendously impressed by the story I told him at lunch—the story of the ghost of Father Bernard from the Memoirs. He has asked my permission to use it as the foundation of one of his own books of short stories. He has also given me a very warm letter of introduction to Pierre Benoit, the author of Atlantide. Mount Illiman may come to something.
Love is the law, love under will.
Yours fraternally,
666.
Gerald Yorke, Esq., 9, Mansfield Street, Cavendish Square, W. 1.
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