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Correspondence from Aleister Crowley to Gerald Yorke
55 Avenue de Suffren, Paris, VII
February 14th, 1929
Care Frater:
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.
I had a long conversation with Mr. Holroyd Reece this afternoon. He went away with a copy of the book "Magick" [Magick in Theory and Practice] intact as I received it from you. There were no appendices, and either you sent them to us or else you did not. In any case we have not got them.
He is very interested in the whole proposition. When I say the whole proposition, I do not mean merely the question of "Magick", or the Memoirs [The Confessions of Aleister Crowley], or the "Net" [Moonchild], but of starting a definite movement towards the "freedom of the artist", which is the absurd way in which he envisages the situation.
He is going to New York on the 26th of February. There he will see Karl Germer and possibly Montgomery Evans. He will then cable me an offer with regard to "Magick."
In the meantime the Serpent [Israel Regardie] having had to go to the hospital this morning to be injected with typhus fever by his favourite doctor, took occasion to call on Smith's and Brentane's on his way home. These people were rather intrigued and will take 200 prospectuses apiece in the firm expectation that they will crave for more.
I wish you would arrange with your family to lose a thousand pounds at Monte Carlo, so that you might understand that on a certain plane there really is something in following an upward curve. (Professionelles 'abstenir).
I have just had a very informative letter from Smith. It upholds my view that Kasimira [Kasimira Bass] was perfectly sincere, honest, and straightforward. My present belief is that she was put off the track by a combination of Hunt [Carl de Vidal Hunt] and Mrs. Reynolds [Rosa Reynolds].
She gave Madame de Miramar [Marie de Miramar] the impression that she would turn up here one evening unexpectedly, preferably when you were here, with the idea of raising trouble. I have no data wherefrom to estimate the nature of the conspiracy between K[asimira] and Hunt, but I think that our proper course is to put the fear of God into Hunt, and that then they will come running to us. To return to the subject of this letter, Holroyd Reece has taken away the manuscript which you sent me. This consists only of the book itself. We have no second copy of the appendices. (Incidentally, I have translated the Ritual of the Mark of the Beast into Sanskrit, with, I trust, the happiest of results). Reece promises to cable me an offer from New York after seeing Germer. I have written to Germer preparing him for the visit. If Germer has any brains at all, he will pull off something big, being a salesman by profession. What is the matter with him is his lack of confidence, or virility. If you wish to put it so, of vulgar optimism. You can call it any names you please, but the fact will remain that this state of mind is the best possible for negotiating business deals. It obviously needs the control of criticism, but if it is not there, the deal simply does not go through. You may have a gold mine averaging a thousand ounces to the ten; but unless you can convince some on of the fact, you will not get any capital to work the mine. You have got the idea that you are engaged in a thoroughly conservative business with your brewing machinery, and the rest of it. But you don't realize that the basis of it is the blind faith of the innocent children, whom you exploit, that you will really deliver the brewing machinery that they require on the appointed date. This faith is of course founded upon the experience of the firms with which you have dealt since the beginning that you are willing and able to supply what they want at the price agreed. What you seem to lack is memory. In the history of your firm, there must have been a moment when it was a mere gamble that you should be able to fulfil your contracts. To quote the Book of the Law "Success is your proof."
But then, on the other hand, before you get even the first success, you must have this element of confidence in yourself in feeling that there is a market and that you can supply it.
Here endeth the second lesson.
Love is the law, love under will.
Yours fraternally,
666.
P.S. I dictated the above last night, and this morning I have to add that the first 17 pages of proofs came from Lecram. I am sending you a set, and will do so with each installment as it arrives.
Holroyd Reece should be in New York by the 3rd of March, and will probably cable me during the following week. He should be back here, he hopes, on the first of April, but in any case by the 15th.
666.
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