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Correspondence from Aleister Crowley to Gerald Yorke
55 Avenue de Suffren, Paris, VII
January 3rd, 1929.
Care Frater:
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.
Thanks for your letter, undated, posted at 2:45 am. on January 2nd.
I imagine that you wrote before receiving my long letter. What you say about the trust deed seems inadequate. I may have, in some optimistic moment said that Regardie [Israel Regardie] and I should live at a pinch on £10 a week, but that must have meant mere living. Is there to be no allowance for postage, paper, etc? I also call your attention to paragraph (a) of clause 2. I only do so to show how impossible it is to make hard and fast rules of this kind.
Exceptional circumstances are always turning up. The whole point is how to deal with them. If the capital would allow it, I should certainly think it wiser to keep on this apartment. We could economize Regardie's rent if he came to live here. Otherwise the whole plan of constructive work would be broken up. We have the address of several studios, and will try to find something at a reasonable price. But we ought to have in view something like semi-permanence. You could not carry on your business yourself if you had to move every other month or so into another section of London. And it is absurd, when people are getting interested, to break the whole thing up. As things are now, £10 a week plus the rent, is adequate.
I saw Church yesterday and he is making out a contract with Aumont [Gerard Aumont]. I will send you a copy as soon as it is ready, which I hope it will be today. The main point is that he is to deposit with us copies of the translation as soon as they are ready; and that, unless he is successful in negotiating to the extent of 50,000 francs of royalties within three months, he loses his right to any royalties at all.
Cope [Stuart R. Cope of the Lecram Press] is being rung up this afternoon to send the amended sample page. I think four parts are better than two. The book will be something like 800 pages, anyhow.
I shall be delighted to receive the latest edition of "Who's Who in Occultism." But I don't propose to contaminate my pure soul by looking at it, still less should it be put in the hands of an innocent child like Regardie. I feel the best plan is to circularize Occult Booksellers and offer them a special confidential price. I will go down to see Galignani this afternoon and get some tips from him. (P.S. I did. He agrees. Also be willing to act as London agents, and advises you to go and see them.)
Incidentally I may point out that Regardie has got his hands extremely full with the most important work. Altogether apart from his training, the work that he is doing for us even had he no interruptions, would take him something like six months. He must be regarded as the apple of one's eye. He must be protected like a pregnant queen. It would be absolutely comical to put a man of his value on the job of addressing circulars [to get sales for Magick in Theory and Practice].
Personally I don't think that the circulars sent out in the way you suggest would bring in a dozen subscriptions. Most of these people are either hostile or scared, or both. Our appeal is just to those people who are sick of all the bloody nonsense of the Hoosehoose.
I really think that the key to your letter is the combined cold and headache of which you complain. I tell you we are in the middle of a magical attack. Last night was the first night I had a natural sleep for about 10 days. The Queen of Sheba [Maria de Miramar] is herself feeling pretty rotten, constant cold, fever, and headache, and heaven knows what else.
I don't understand about Pickfords. The transaction dates back to July of two years ago. But I am not going to argue in Jaundyce vs. Jaundyce. As I indicated above, we are in the middle of a fight, and the question is what to do to keep going.
I am not taking any further notice of Hunt [Carl de Vidal Hunt] because the business in hand is to get out Part III of Book 4 [Magick in Theory and Practice]. But please don't imagine that I am afraid of any libel actions. I have looked in every cupboard in the flat, and I can't find one, and it is a good many years since I began calling people scoundrels when I felt in a pleasant humour after dinner.
I really think it would be better to put off your visit for another week; if it is possible, and make three days of it, as you did last time. It would be stupid for you to come here to superintend, so to speak, our ejection.
Either we get a studio suitable for Magic, or we simply leave Regardie where he is, and I pack my rucksack.
What you say about making money last is not quite fair. I have really a sense of economy so highly developed that I am positively accused of avarice. You must recognize that it is necessary to make a show of decency if one is to attract the right kind of people. The problem is simply how to do this on the available funds.
To mention one incident. There is a Mme. Barbe, whom Galignani told me had got all the Equinoxes and was exceptionally interested, and had written me, only I did not get the letter. Mme. Barbe had disappeared, but her sister the Countess of Something (connected with spiders) had an address, so I wrote to it, and the aforesaid Countess (of the sixth part) forwarded my letter to Mme. Barbe. The next thing is that the Countess rings me up and says that Mme. Barbe will be back in Paris during the month of January. I say, well I'm here until the 20thm and after that I'm not sure. This seems to upset her, because she has probably got private information that Mme. Barbe will arrive on the 22nd.
This may mean absolutely nothing. On the other hand, it is an opportunity; and if I am to do any good at all, I have got to be in a position to jump at opportunities.
I have a very friendly letter from Millage, and I should like to roll down to Saint Raphael for a week or so, if the opportunity arose.
It is like trying to construct a chess problem. You have to put a pawn in one place to stop something or other, and then you find that that pawn interferes with your plans in some other direction. So you take off a knight somewhere, and then the absence of the knight means that you have to put a rook somewhere else, and so on. Observe how different this is from a game, in which you have an accurate knowledge of all the forces in hand and of their respective positions at any given moment.
I applaud your courage in admitting that you do not agree with Goethe. In my humble station, I can only say, "Who am I to argue with Jesus Christ"? I refer to the matter of the sparrows and the lilies and all those buggers.
I must ask you to define the word "miracle". As I take it, it is something at which one wonders. It appears to me, that it does not matter in the least what the thing is; it depends upon one's own faculty of wonder. Now, please don't write back that you disagree with Berkeley.
Love is the law, love under will.
Yours fraternally,
666.
P.S. 4 P.M. Thursday. The Bank have no money yet. Anyhow we need about £20 arrears, i.e. £30 to arrive Monday next, and after that £10 arriving Monday is good enough. Oh the waste and worry of these waitings!
666.
Gerald Yorke, Esq., 9, Mansfield Street, London, W. 1.
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