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Correspondence from Aleister Crowley to Benjamin Charles Hammond
55 Avenue de Suffren, Paris, VII
December 30th, 1928.
Very Illustrious and Very Dear Brother:
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.
Thanks for your letter of the 29th. You don't say where these people were born; I have had to assume that it is London.
As to this alleged male born in 1885, it is very difficult to say much which is definite. It is not any good asking me for a horoscope as full as possible, because that does not mean anything in particular. It might imply the work of a lifetime, but on the other hand, one cannot say anything at all, unless there is something to say.
This individual does not present remarkable astrological interests. The planets are quite unbalanced and remarkably disconnected. This means that he is the play of circumstances. There is no deep fundamental issue of character on which to build a career. Such success as he has will be in the nature of a sort of accident that might happen to anybody. It is true that he may have very great executive ability in certain peculiar lines. For instance, in a business like your own, he might be a very good practical man. He might make an efficient, though severe, master of a workhouse. Again, he has a pleasant easy going mind with a certain practical cleverness, and in the small material affairs of life he ought to be fairly lucky. It is as if he had not enough in him to arouse a serious opposition, but in all fundamentals he has no essential "guts," if I may quote the little known phrase of Mr. Rudyard Kipling in his little known story—"Regulus." Despite the easy going sensible nature of his mind, he is some danger of sinking gradually into dementia. His danger seems to become entirely mechanical, and to tend to react passively to circumstances. He should be essentially a melancholy type, the facts being hushed[?] up by a certain social capacity in making himself a pleasant companion at harmless evening parties. He would be a great fool to marry. Any children that he had would die young or be very unfortunate. He may live to a great age, but I don't see that that is going to do him any good. The back row of the chorus is the place for him, and preferably in a music hall which has ceased to exist for several centuries.
I don't say that he might not become a distinguished professor of history, archaeology, or paleontology, or something like that. But whatever he did would be ultimately a mistake.
So much for Buckingham!
The little girl has a very fine character, well established in every way. At the same time it is a very curious character. She ought to make a great artist in some line or other. You have to reckon first of all with her temperament. It would be fatal to interfere with her development,—to try to impose preconceived ideas upon her. She is much too strong to be influenced by any external pressure. All that education, in the commonly accepted sense, could do, would be to damage her.
She ought to make very good friends among intellectual people, and people engaged in business. Here again, she must be left entirely to her own devices.
She may be expected to undertake long voyages of an adventurous character and she is in some considerable danger of accidents in the course of such voyages. But there is no indication that such accidents will prove fatal. There is in fact every indication of long life.
She is the kind of person whose temper is not exactly melancholy, but who keeps herself to herself, as the saying is. She feels that she has far more important matters to consider than to make herself agreeable, even to her most intimate friends and relations. She must be left to manage her own affairs in this way as in every other way.
She ought to achieve a very great degree of renown. But this will be of a character likely to displease people of a conventional turn of mind.
She is not likely to have any children, and her love affairs will be presumably of the stormiest character. A great deal of her career depends upon the support accorded to her by her father. Her mother is apt to be a great nuisance to her, and may do her serious damage.
She ought to find a protector in some position of considerable public authority.
She ought not to marry. If she did she would probably polish off her husband in short order.
She has considerable aptitude for an occult career, in what I may call the second line of battle. For her fortune she has to rely entirely upon her native talent. If she accumulates money, and invests it, her affairs may prosper unusually well, and be followed by a complete collapse. It would then be better to avoid preoccupation with any such affairs.
Her career will be generally prosperous, but is likely to suffer temporary interferences from sudden scandals or intrigues.
She must rely upon the general solidity of her character and talents to ride over obstacles. If there is one thing she ought to be taught, it is to have confidence in herself. Almost any other form of instruction, apart from purely technical matters would injure her.
I hope that the above will prove satisfactory. If there are any special questions that you want to ask, let me know them. A horoscope is such a big thing that one cannot possibly think of everything, unless one's attention is directed as desired.
The very happiest of all New Years to you and yours.
Love is the law, love under will.
Yours fraternally,
666
B. C. Hammond, Esq., Richmond Mews, Dean St. London, W.1.
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