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Correspondence from Aleister Crowley to Gerald Yorke
[Undated: circa 23 May 1932]
Medical Report. On Saturday and Sunday I was in such severe continuous pain that I was goaded into going to see a proper dentist—Dr. Etter, young, American, but I think very competent and clever.
(Even at that I had to have a few drops of morphine to enable me to get through the night).
This a.m. I woke up fresh and without pain; after vomiting, diarrhoea, and severe physical collapse caused by perusal of a nastiness which arrived by the second post I went back to Etter.
He tells me (what I knew before) that there is any amount of infection, caused by the neglect of the last three years—you will remember that I have denied myself all proper treatment in order to use every penny to push the Work through.
It's the physical basis of the deadly torpor and lethargy which has been numbing my faculties, bar short spurts, for so long.
It is not too late to restore me to my pristine vigour; but there is not time to lose, and there must be no more monkey-business.
The bacillic infection of the scalp has now practically disappeared; it only required some 4 weeks continuous treatment, and this is the first time in the two years that it has lasted, that I have been able to look after it.
Business note. It appears to me senseless that you should
(1) try to interest a man in the production of a book
(2) secure
(a) the destruction of the documents on which the Book will be founded
(b) the death of the only man capable of interpreting those documents and filling in any lacunae.
Magical note. Abramelin (our sole text-book on the Sacred Magick) specifically warn the Aspirant that his family will oppose the Operation in every way possible. It is therefore a primary condition of attainment of this particular operation to break formally and finally with the family—until success is achieved. This is harder for you than it was for me because of the natures of the two cases. That is why the insistence is greater. But alas I doubt whether such offerings as you propose will be accepted at That Altar.
93 93/93
F∴[raternal]ly
666.
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