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Correspondence from Fernando Pessoa to Karl Germer
Apartado 147, Lisbon
8th. October, 1930.
Karl Germer, Esq., Lietzenseeufer 9, Berlin-Charlottenburg.
Dear Sir:
I hope you received in its due time my letter of the 1st. of this month. I wish to apologize for not having written you again as soon as I promised; I wished, however, to see clearly what course things were taking so as to be able to inform you to better purpose.
Things have taken no course at all. The position, as far as I can see is this: The Criminal Investigation Police has no real basis on which to investigate. They do not admit suicide, while the body is not found; they do not deny suicide, until the man himself—the living man—appears. They seem to have abandoned altogether the validity of the information from the International Police, that Mr. Crowley passed the Portuguese frontier on the evening of the 23rd. September. The manner of checking passports, which involves no real checking in comparison with the holder, is very rightly considered as no evidence of identification in any doubtful case. This is how things were on the 6th., which was the last time I had to go to the C.I.P.
The matter of the finding of the letter and cigarette-case was dealt with, as far as I know, in the following papers: (1) initial news-item in "Diário de Notícias" of the 27th. September, which attracted a good deal of attention, since the "Diário de Notícias" is the Portuguese "Times"; (2) news-item in "Diário de Lisboa", the one visible Lisbon evening daily, on the same day; (3) news-items on the 28th. In "Diário de Notícias" (first page) and "O Século", referring to the matter as a possible hoax; (4) news-item in "O Século" considerably more sober, and merely saying that the Harbour Police had tracked Miss Jaeger as having gone out of the country on the s.s. "Werra" on the 20th. September. (This softening of "O Século" is easily explained. They seemed to have been warned by the C.I.P. that they had not been asked to give any opinion as to whether the matter was a hoax or not. And, at any rate, the opinion given by "O Século" is based on the circumstance that this paper considers every special news-item of the "Diário de Notícias" a hoax, owing to a principle based on private rivalry.)
The matter really blossomed out in the 4th. October issue of "Diário de Ilustrado". This weekly is the outstanding Portuguese illustrated paper, and the only Portuguese paper visible from abroad. I am sending you two copies of this issue of "Diário de Ilustrado". You will see that they have given the whole first page to an enlargement of the portrait of Mr. Crowley which I had and lent them for the purpose. They also deal fully with the case, in an article called "The Mystery of the Mouth of Hell", which covers pages 10 and 11 and trickles over to page 16.
I hope to send you in a day or two a translation (I have been asked for one and have to do it in any case) of this article.
The writer of it, who was also the finder of the letter and cigarette-case, and as such commissioned to write the article, is going to Paris in about a week. He intends to take over the article with further data and bring the matter to the fore here. He has taken the matter all the more to heart that an unimaginable amount of opposition has arisen everywhere about this case.
This and other indications seem to show that the matter of Mr. Crowley's disappearance is likely soon to reach a wider field of expression. I suppose that "soon" will not mean less than a fortnight or three weeks. This is as it may be. I shall keep you informed of anything I know or presume.
I do not know whether you are at all interested in astrology or are acquainted with it to any extent. At any rate, I shall send you to-morrow a curious Horary Question drawn up for the subject of the Crowley Disappearance. The figure, which seems to have been "evoked" (so to speak) in an intuitive moment, is a very curious one indeed. I shall send it to you with my "judgment" on it.
I received your telegram in respect of speaking to the American Consul. He really had nothing to say.
I am returning the prospectus you sent me, as you may need it. As I informed you, I received another copy, from London.
Yours faithfully,
Fernando Pessoa
P.S. To avoid burdening this letter, the prospectus will be sent when the translation is. I hope slight delay is of no importance.
I enclose too the translation of about half the long article in Notícias Ilustrado. The whole translation is rather a tall order, but I expect to get the other half done to-morrow, when it will be sent to you. I am sending the half that is done just because it need not wait.
The matter of Mr. Crowley's suicide or disappearance has been passed by the Criminal Investigation Police over to the International Police (i.e. the Portuguese International Police). There seems to be no change in the whole matter. Mr. Ferreira Gomes, who found the letter and cigarette-case and wrote the article in Notícias Ilustrado, was yesterday called to the I.P. and there questioned at some length; he could, however, do no more than develop what he had said to the C.I.P.
Mr. Ferreira Gomes has left this morning for Paris, where he is going to be married. It is a pity, for he had more means of obtaining information than I, and I would thus more speedily get any news there might be about this strange case than I can get personally.
The papers themselves have said nothing more, nor do I think there would be more to say, though the public has been intensely interested by the case. Apart from this, however, as the matter is one of suicide, the Press Censorship (there is a Press Censorship here, and occasionally even a Postal Censorship) might strike out the news-items, as they have orders to do so, as far as possible, in every case of suicide.
Yours sincerely,
HORARY QUESTION (figure on last sheet)
The question was "What has happened in Crowley's disappearance? What will be the sequence of it?" The questions were asked impulsively on the 3rd. October 1930, at 7 p.m. exact (Greenwich time, which I refuse to represent by an X with a dot on top). This is equivalent to 6h. 23m. 15s. p.m. Lisbon time. For this time the figure is drawn up.
Test of Rightness—Two questions are asked; two signs occupy the Ascendant, since Taurus is intercepted there. The last degrees of Aries rise; this means that the primary fact, concerning which the questions are asked, was an impulsive act (Aries) yet rationally entered upon (setting degrees of sign). This may apply to suicide (an interpretation on the well-known Lyg basis); it may also apply to some circumstance relating to the finding of the letter and cigarette-case. On principle, or, rather on principles, the find, being the actual fact with a determinable hour, should be the basis. This can be tested. The Ascendant is mostly occupied by Taurus; the distance between Aries 28˚11' and the beginning of Taurus should therefore determine whether we are right in taking the find as the basic point. The distance is 1˚40', and the measure is 1˚ = 1 day, since the ascending point is in the moveable decanate of a cardinal sign. The find was made at about 6 p.m. on the 25th. September; 1˚49' added to this, measures to about noon on the 27th., when nothing is known to have happened. But we may take the first "open fact" in the case as, not the find itself, but the delivery of the things found to the "Diário de Notícias", and this was done at about 9 p.m. on the 25th. The addition of 1˚49' to this time brings us to a little after 3 p.m. on the 27th. At this exact time the things found were handed in to the Criminal Investigation Police. This is therefore the right measure; and the basic point is found to be the delivery of the letter and cigarette-case to "Diário de Notícias".—The figure can therefore be judged to be right in point of corresponding to a just intuition of the hour when to ask. We may therefore proceed freely to the judgment.
Judgment.—First Question.—As the final degrees of a sign are rising, and as the ruler is in its fall, we must judge that the first question need not, or should not, have been asked at all, and that there is no need of a reply to it, whatever this may mean. No harm can come of this lack of an answer, since the ruler, though weak, is held up by the conjunction of an exalted Jupiter, by a sextile of a strong Mercury and by the trine of Venus. The square of caput does not exist, for Caput is not an aspector but a moderator and affects only by conjunction (or, as Cauds, by opposition).
Judgment.—Second Question.—The first question being thus ruled out as unnecessary, we are brought to the second question, which seems to be the real one. In this light we shall reexamine the whole figure. And, as Mars is after all ruler of the whole figure and Venus merely joint ruler; as, furthermore, the second question seems to be the essential, we shall judge it, not only by Venus, but by both Mars and Venus, but we must first find whether this second question can really be divided into two. The midpoint of the trine of Mars and Venus is held by Mercury, and this will define the matter. Mercury is ruler of the 2nd., 3rd., and 6th., but, being in a degree more approximate in number to the cusp of the third than to either of the other cusps, we shall suppose the fact to be defined as by the third house. This means publications and essentially, in such cases, the press. As the matter concerns a foreigner, two sorts of press may be presumed—the domestic and the foreign press. We have thus the question made into two; we shall judge the effects in the Portuguese press by Mars, and the effects in the press outside Portugal by Venus.
All this is, to some extent, preparatory matter. The real judgment will now be made.
The fact itself, then, was a rationally impulsive one (reasons already stated); it was the culmination of something (plan or otherwise), since last degrees rise two persons entered into it (Uranus and Caput in ascendant, one near, one slightly further off from the fact itself, since Caput is in the conjunction with the Ascendant and Uranus is not); in the case of one and the other nothing becomes positively known (both significators move away from the Ascendant back into the unmanifesting Twelfth—Uranus by occasional retrogradation, Caput because it is always retrograde). In another aspect of the question, the primary fact is "defended", the conjunction with Caput bearing this meaning always.
The publication of the fact in the Portuguese press was a short one (few degrees of Aries left), it was opposed by journalistic rivalry (Mars in Fall and Imum Coeli), but it could not avoid becoming widely known (conjunction with Jupiter, ruler of the 9th., which, according to the Arabs is the house of Fame; trine of Venus, which happens to rule two cardinal houses; sextile of Mercury, which holds rulership of the significant planets), the matter became as widely known to the Portuguese public as it ever could be: it was twice dealt with in the leading Portuguese papers, "Diário de Notícias", the second in its front page (and everybody in Portugal knows of the fact), and it was finally dealt with in the cover and over two compact pages of the "Notícias Ilustrado", which is, far and away, the leading Portuguese non-daily. Thus, in Portugal, no more could be expected or obtained.
These judgments après le fait are somewhat unconvincing, but we can test them by a time-measure, which we cannot falsify, innocently or otherwise. The first aspect of Mars is to the sextile of Mercury and the arc is 1˚24'. Considering the position of Mars, 1˚ may be taken as representing either one day or one week. In the first case, the arc measures to Sunday, the 5th., October, which is the date of issue of "Notícias Ilustrado"—the number bearing the full report. In the case of "Diário de Notícias", which affects Lisbon primarily and moves thence to the whole country, Sunday, date of issue, when it does reach all Portugal, is obtained. From the exactness of the measures we can, I suppose, take the judgment to be exact.
Mars then moves to the trine of Venus, the arc being 3˚3'. This, on the day measure, comes to the evening of the 28th., which was when the news of the disappearance, cabled by the Press Agencies here, reached foreign papers, who published the news, as far as I could ascertain, either on the 29th., or, owing to overburdening of Monday issues, on the 30th. This fixes at once Venus as significator of "foreign news". And we are at once enabled to fix the definite emergence of news abroad (the more important news, even as the "Diário de Notícias" did not) by the same arc taken as 1˚ - 1 week; this means 5 a.m. of the 17th. October, since the arc is equivalent to 3 weeks 8 hours. Shortly before this (arc 2˚56'), Jupiter comes to the exact conjunction of Mars (ruler 9th. To conj. Ruler figure), and this works out to 9 a.m. on the 16th. October. What these two tings mean I cannot foresee: it may be a publication in one paper and a transcription in another, or simply the completion of printing of a paper and its actual distribution.
This brings our attention around to Jupiter, which, indeed apart from being the upholder (by conjunction and trine) of the two rulers of the figure, is further the ruler of the rising decanate (which is under Saggitarius). To Jupiter the 1˚1' week measure is the only one to apply, since it is in the middle, and not in the final, decante of a cardinal sign. The first arc from Jupiter is the one to conj. Mars, as above. The second arc is to sextile Mercury—4˚12'; the third is to trine Venus—5˚55'. These measure respectively to 7 a.m. of the 25th. October, and to 9 a.m. on the 6th.November. I do not carry the measure further, because it seems to me that the whole matter is brought to an end by the next aspect of Jupiter—square Ascendent, arc 9˚39', about 9 weeks 4 days from its beginning, Jupiter being ruler of the 8th, also. This coincides with MC opposition the same Jupiter in a little over two months; as I admit MC may be a few minutes beyond the exact Capricornus 16˚, I cannot be sure of the real arc.
It would be possible to attempt an exacter judgment, that is to say a more clearly divinatory reading of, for instance, the two Jupiterian aspects just considered. A tentative solution may be put. The whole case seems finally to rest on the trine of Jupiter to Venus,??On the linking Mecurial sextile to both. Jupiter is considered as ultimate ruler because it does rule the greater part of the Ascendant and it replaces Mars by occupying one of its signs); Mercury is considered for the reasons also already stated. The culminating fact in the question seems therefore to be this: a publication (the essential publication in the case) is made, begun, decided upon or something of the sort, by the 25th. Of October (Jupiter ruler 9th. Sextile Mercury ruler 3rd.); this publication becomes known, is finished, is issued or something of the kind, by the 6th. November (Jupiter trine Venus, ruler of both angles and herself angular). The publication is not in Portugal, for the upholder and aspector is also the ruler of the 9th. The publication is better written (strong Mercury) than received (weak Venus). And, at any rate, the full consequences of the whole matter are likely to be felt only three months after it began; the general measure of 3˚ (which as a general measure refers to months) seems to indicate this: under 3˚ there is the conjunction of Jupiter with Mars, the trine of Mars to Venus, the sextile of the Moon to the Ascendant and the quincunx of Mercury to the Moon.
Finally, I think that, in any case, the whole matter, whatever it may be, may be considered as carried finally to a good conclusion, but slowly and with difficulty (elevation of Saturn, but Saturn strong and upheld by the trine of Neptune, a rather significant aspect). There will also be much disagreeable comment (Sun opposition Uranus) but more in private than otherwise (6th. And 12th. Houses involved and both stars thrust off the angles).
As the authorities (police and otherwise) were necessarily brought into this matter and are socially the predominant element in it, it is not surprising that the ruler of the 10th. Should be elevated above all other stars. But Saturn is thrust back from Mid-heaven into the unmanifesting Ninth and is far from conjunction with that vital point.
It is also curious to note that the Moon, dispositor of the problem (because of Mars and Jupiter), is in semi-manifestation in the Eleventh and in Aquarius, one of whose territorial rulerships is well-known. It is no less curious to find that the Moon is in relation (sextile) with one of the holders of the Ascendant, Caput (the old astrologers would say, "as a man known to another man"), while it is out of aspect with Uranus, the other holder.
Perhaps all this can lie under the charge of a futile "sit pro rationevoluntas", or the less classic "facile credimus…" Anyhow, this is the judgment I have been able to figure out, and, as I have just sat down and written it straight off, it is not to be considered as a good astrological document, and, as a literary product, not to be considered at all.
Lisbon, 11th. October, 1930.
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