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Correspondence from Aleister Crowley to Wilfred Talbot Smith
The Hotel Metropole. Bruxelles.
30 Apr 29
Care Frater
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.
Thanks for copy of letter which you sent to Yorke [Gerald Yorke]. He was here yesterday and has gone back to England this morning. You seem to be under grave misconceptions about the trouble having blown away in Paris—which we have not even started, and what you mean by Yorke's staying with us, I cannot imagine.
I am sending by this mail a copy of Magic [Magick in Theory and Practice], Volume 1. The general dust-up has delayed the printer from going ahead with the other parts, and you will have to apologize to the subscribers for this delay. In the meanwhile Yorke has refrained from cashing your cheque.
Everything is going astonishingly well, except my health. I am physically nervous, and go from one spell of chill and fever to another with unrefreshing regularity.
Concealed in the volume of Magick, you will find photographic copies of the blackmailing letter to Yorke by your friend Karl Hundt [Carl de Vidal Hunt] and a copy of the whole Kasimira [Kasimira Bass] correspondence. The next step will be to put this whole matter before the courts as accusers. Kasimira really acted in a most extraordinary way, quite outside anything in my experience, and in the course of fading away behind her shyster, she must have had the house watched, for no sooner had I gone down to Fontainebleau for the weekend, then she bearded an autobus and started to threaten my fiancée [Maria de Miramar] whom she had watched get on board.
I want you to show the photograph of the letter signed Rosa Reynolds to that lady and let me have a statement sworn before a public notary that she did or did not write it, as the case may be. Our present theory is that she uttered this forgery which had been prepared for her by Hunt, and of course this is a very much more serious matter than any simple theft or swindle, which is all we have against these worthy people at present.
You will readily understand the supremely important task of getting a complete vindication of our actions. The press in France has been uniformly sympathetic, with a single exception, and we are going to raise trouble for that paper. A very little now, and we will swing public opinion over onto our side and that of course will mean making good contracts for all our work and enabling us to repay the people who have staked this in our hours of distress.
Let me add for your comfort that we are in no need of money, but by about the time you get this letter, we may find ourselves requiring something for legal expenses and such things. I think you might do something in this matter. If that letter turns out to be a forgery, Mrs Reynolds ought to be pretty annoyed that her name should have been taken in vain. It is a case of great ingratitude, for she was extremely good to Kasimira, and even if the letter were genuine, it is perfectly clear that Kasimira was a thief and it annoys people to find that they have lavished affection on folk of that type. A little think like that often leads to big results.
If you can get anything going in this way, you might send me a night letter.
Love is the law, love under will.
Yours fraternally
666
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