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Correspondence from Aleister Crowley to Gerald Yorke
55 Avenue de Suffren Paris
Nov 20 1928
Care Frater
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.
Thanks for yours of the 17th instant. All along I have had the gravest doubts as to whether anything could be done with the serial rights [for Magick in Theory and Practice] in England. It would be quite different if some really important person (? Wales) undertook to back the vindication. It is a vicious circle.
Montague Summers appears to know what he is talking about. People generally do want a book on Magick. There never has been an attempt at one, anyhow since the Middle Ages, except Levi's [Eliphas Levi]. I don't see why you should expect me to give authorities. I am not one of the scribes. The book is revolutionary. On whose authority did Buddha base His work? But this is all confusion. We have the world-famous expert, Mr Arthur Vivian complaining that the book is not original. We have these other world-famous experts saying that it is so entirely original that it is worthless. And then there is the other world-famous expert Dr Birven saying that the book has to be read in the light of the authorities from whom I have taken it.
You are quite wrong by the way in thinking of it as having been dictated. It is true that the skeleton was dictated about 18 years ago, but the whole thing has been re-written repeatedly, and the original dictated portion does not amount to more, I imagine, than 5 per cent of the work.
I cannot understand Ogden's [C.K. Ogden] statement "if any admirer of your work with publishing experience would recommend it".
The opinions of Evans [Montgomery Evans], Earp [Tommy Earp], and Ogden need not be taken seriously; with the possible exception of Ogden they know practically nothing about Magick. I think I know pretty well what they want. A lot of high-faluting stuff with a literary angle to it. They don't understand that fundamentally it is a cold dry text-book. The idea of the 'sole purchasing public' amounting to 150 is ludicrous. There are many thousands of people all over the world who know my name, and respect me as the greatest living authority on the subject. This is admitted by my bitterest enemies. It is even insisted on by them. Without exception students of occultism who have looked at the manuscript accept it as a classical text-book. You note that they themselves say that they were anxious to read it; ergo, there would be plenty of people just as eager, and those people will buy it, which is all we need to worry about at the present moment.
My system is no more traditional than Darwin's. At the same time he relied to some extent on previous authorities, such as Cubier, Bouffon etc, and I have presented the occult tradition faithfully, throwing at the same time an entirely new light on it. You cannot answer the criticism, because the criticism is nonsense. incidentally, it is not even true. There are quite a number of references to people like Frazer, Poincaré, Eddington, Einstein, and Levi, and at the same time to the great ancient classics of the East. But the point is, as the book itself explains to some extent, that the whole bulk of magical writing in Europe is either hopelessly obscure or nonsense. Do not forget that the tradition which I represent has always been a secret tradition, and that I only publish it to-day because of the impending catastrophe to our present civilisation.
I quite understand the difficulties about the Three Wishes. The ending is quiet in the way that a judge's summing up is quiet. But the criticism would also apply to almost every successful play that has ever been put on the stage. The whole idea of the last act is that the storm and stress of the play is over, and the public is asked to survey the results. I challenge you to mention either a Greek play, or one of Shakespeare's, which lacks this quiet ending—this judicial summary.
The question of the two equal female parts is of course, I understand a crux, but this should be turned into an asset. You have got to find two actresses good enough to have the guts to play against each other. That is just the psychology which will make the play a tremendous success once it is put on. . . .
Of course the Hag [The Confessions of Aleister Crowley] needs rewriting. About the Net [Moonchild]—some of the names could be changed. That being done, I don't think anybody is coming to court to wash all the dirty linen of the G.D. [Golden Dawn].
It is never any good asking a writer, who is not a publisher's hack, to chop his books about. Self-respecting authors won't do it, especially when they have no clear idea as to what is actually wanted. How can they have? They have already written the book with a certain idea in mind; and you cannot expect them to write some book which is not their's at all.
You said that you were getting in touch with Earp. Remember that he is a charming man with a great knowledge of literature, impotent, homosexual, melancholic, and a sot. I hardly know anyone in the world with whom I would rather spend all night talking. Your proper course with Earp is to make a night of it, being very careful not to ask him to pay for any drinks, because you can only get a request of that sort executed by aid of the police. When you make a night of it with him, get him to write the necessary letter of recommendation then and there.
I have no objection to publishing the whole of the A.A. instructions, preferably in a cheap and popular form. Liber LXV should be printed separately with the comment.
The Cactus was never written. What existed was a package containing something like 100 records of people who had experimented with al, and this package was sunk in the Mudd [Norman Mudd]. I could however write a short treatise on the subject if I were commissioned to do so.
I think Ogden and Earp might like Liber Aleph, as it is very literary. The Urn is simply a magical diary. Liber CVI is just a brief essay. Liber CCLXV has not been written. What we have is the material in my diaries of my own work on the subject. (What I want is a staff of about six trained people to put all this immense wealth of material into publishable shape). You might try them with The Voice of the Silence.
Thanks for the five pounds from Smith. Regardie [Israel Regardie] is sending a formal receipt. I rather doubt whether the Serpent [Regardie] wants a job in Mr Hunt's [Carl de Vidal Hunt] scullery. As far as I know he has no more got an office than any femme de mene.
I will expect you on December 3rd. I believe everything is now coming out straight. About the Geomancy Box;[1] Regardie and I will do it ourselves; if you will send over the specifications. We will try to have it ready for you by the 3rd of December. I can then easily get a professional model made. There are plenty of people who make stage scenery etc. Then you can offer it to the proper people in London.
I enclose a note for you to show to Pyke. I also return the original of Ogden's letter. I have made a copy of it to file with yours. The way to get me to complete any given piece of work is to commission me to do it and to have it ready by a certain day. Then I am on my honour, and the thing gets done.
Love is the law, love under will.
Yours fraternally
666
1—[This refers to a Geomancy Box he was trying to market. The geomancy box was first called The Finger of Fate. The needle as of a compass in the centre of a circle. You approach your forefinger nearly to it until your body heat causes the needle to swing round. Withdraw finger and the needle stops, pointing to a number. You look up the number in the pamphlet and the word is your answer. It failed: the delicate balance broke down when the box was moved about—G.J. Yorke.]
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