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Correspondence from Aleister Crowley to Gerald Yorke
55 Avenue de Suffren, Paris, VII
December 4th, 1928.
Care Frater:
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.
Thanks for yours of the 1st. It was not that I was worrying about the £90; it was the other fellow. At 4 o'clock on Friday afternoon the cheque had not come through, but they said they thought it would be payable on Saturday morning. It seems absurd that it should take five days, but they told me that was the normal time.
I met some quite possibly useful people at the Caledonian Banquet. But the harvest is not yet.
Of course further money has to come in before any definite new start can be made, but as soon as it is possible it would be the greatest economy if it could be done.
What you say about Hunt [Carl de Vidal Hunt] is alright. I don't think it is worth paying him any more at present. But you are making no allowance for my converting Hunt. He was very useful in the conversation with Aumont [Gerard Aumont].
My dealings with Kegan Paul had nothing at all to do with strangling any woman. The unsold copies of my books were taken over by the Society for the Propagation of Religious Truth, because Kegan Paul were making no efforts to sell them. There was no sense in giving them any rake-off. The ideas was to sell the books by means of personal advertisement. The main feature of this was the offer of £100 for the best essay on my works, which was won by Captain Fuller [J.F.C. Fuller] with the "Star in the West". So please loosen the rope round the poor lady's neck!
Dealing with Rodker [John Rodker] is going a little too far East to be odorous. He was (1913-1914) the dirtiest, slimiest kind of person that I ever met. He used to come round to my studio because there were free cigarettes. Mary Butts picked him out of the gutter; had him washed and dressed, and married him, owing to a complex which she had. She wants a man who will in no way compete with her, and so bought Rodker and Cecil Maitland. She left Rodker to live with the latter. My relations with her were never in any way intimate. We enjoyed exchanging views. I had a friendly letter from her two or three weeks ago in which she said she was going to Italy and would see me when she came back. I will try and find time to look her up between now and your next visit, in case she has returned to Paris. We must talk the Rodker matter over at length.
I think your attitude about the A∴A∴ system is all wrong. You cannot test out the system unless you buy the black egg without haggling. I supposed you had been doing this, and was correspondingly optimistic. The best evidence at your disposal is my Magical Diary. The Gods have been extremely generous with me. "No more than others I deserve, but God has given me more". They have come down very handsomely indeed in every matter but money; and I am pretty sure that I know the reason why I am not a millionaire. They have been training me to get over the feeling of anxiety about money. It is very largely gone, but I still have moments of weakness. It is not that I mind any possible hardship; but when things go wrong I have a feeling partly of annoyance at the interference with the Work, especially with regard to the possible destruction of the material and partly of irritation at the stupidity of the people who have brought about the crisis, which often includes myself! But I am not in the least worried as to the present issue
I take it that you will arrive by the usual train so I shall ask Mr. and Mrs. Freeman definitely to lunch at 1 o'clock.
Astarte may still be here. She is in trouble with the dentist.
Love is the law, love under will.
Yours fraternally,
666.
P.S. I am trying to prove 1/8 - 7/8 > 1/5 + 4/5.
P.P.S. There will be a theatre on Friday night, and two actresses to supper—apropos of the Three Wishes.
Gerald Yorke, Esq., 9, Mansfield Street, London, W. 1.
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