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Correspondence from Aleister Crowley to Gerald Yorke
55 Avenue de Suffren, Paris, VII
January 10th, 1929.
Care Frater:
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.
I should like to see your complete list of geomantic sigils. I cannot be sure à priori that it is the same lot. Anyway, I am not quite satisfied that mine are accurately drawn.
I am very annoyed about the "Golden Verses." The only thing I can do is to get a first rate Greek scholar to go through the text with me, and make a literal word-for-word translation. It could be done in two or three days, and it ought not to be difficult to find a sound man.
I ought to tell you what is happening at the Banker's Trust Co. They have become extremely confused and dilatory. They blame the Westminster Bank for the delay. But Trimouille, the tailor, tells me that they are losing all their best clients. He himself is one of them. Mr. Church [Crowley's lawyer] told me the same thing, and went into more details. It seems that they are replacing their American and English clerks, who are familiar with civilized ways of doing business, with cheap Frenchmen at three or four hundred francs a month. There is some complication about the French law. There is a provision that any firm must not employ more than a certain small percentage of foreigners.
I remember, last year, that the authorities came down on the Ambassadeurs in the Champs Elysées over their jazz band, which was composed of American negroes. The management simply engaged the requisite number of French performers and told them to go right ahead, but not to make any noise! The restrictions on trade everywhere are becoming more and more idiotic.
A further instance of this is the contact with Aumont [Gerard Aumont]. If I make a formal contrat with him, it has to be registered, under heavy penalties, and is taxed at something like 30% of the amount involved!!! Contrat does not mean the same as Contract. It is not a contrat if I go into a shop and order a dozen automobiles or a thousand tons of coal. On the other hand, the exchange of contract letters involves no taxes or penalties, and is equally binding. Incidentally, we could not have got the contrat through for an indefinite period, because the papers would have to be submitted to a number of French officials, none of whom know their own regulations, and they would have disagreed with each other on every point, probably to be upset at the end if a decision of the court were asked for! Please do not think I am writing nonsense. I am repeating what Church told me.
(I have not yet received your letter with regard to the Lecram Press [Paris printers].
To refer back to Aumont, the result is that I wrote a letter to him, a copy of which I enclose, embodying the terms.
I have just received a letter from Mr. Reeck, and send you a copy, with a copy of my reply. Please make the necessary dispositions on the strength of this answer.
This reappearance of Reeck messes me all up about Goedel. I understood that Reeck had abandoned all hope of placing the "Drug Fiend" [The Diary of a Drug Fiend], and his letter surprised me very much. In consequence I handed the book to Goedel, with full authority to go ahead. My only plan is to refer all business questions to you. With your clear buoyant brain, you will be able to straighten out all my iniquities.
I enclose receipt for £22-8-1.
I return the lettercard, which has edified me and not annoyed me. You have probably noticed, on several occasions, that my memory has failed to inform me. But it is one of the deliberate methods of my memory not to record things when I pass them on, as in a case where I am not likely to need the information any more, unless further developments fix them in my mind.
The last paragraph of your letter reminds me very much of myself at your age. But your "act" is not sufficient. You have not made any magical link. Your act is not an act of truth, but of superstition, a sort of '13 Club' stunt. If you "knowingly and deliberately" spill salt, as the municipality of Paris has been doing by the thousands of tons a day for the past week or so, one need not expect any particular misfortune. There is a catch in all this business somewhere, and it is up to you to find out where it comes. I thought I had made it perfectly clear that in order to evoke a demon, it is not sufficient to go through the preparations and conjurations as laid down in the Grimoires. It is just the same thing trying to make an artist by buying him all the colours and canvasses he wants, with a short book of instructions, preferably by Ruskin, as to how to do it.
Hitherto, I have been profoundly impressed by your comprehension of Magick; and for the first time you appear to me absurd. As I said before, I am reminded of myself. (And that is not a nice thing for you to have done!)
Love is the law, love under will.
Yours fraternally,
666.
P.S. I very much doubt your getting away on Friday night. It would be a very poor Passing. Can't you stretch a point and take off the Monday?
P.S. II. The Bank has just rung up that they have just received (11 a.m. Thursday) a transfer of £10.
I hope you will have transferred the balance of what I asked for before now. It is urgent that we should carry on.
666.
Gerald Yorke, Esq., 9, Mansfield Street, London, W. 1.
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