Correspondence from Aleister Crowley to H. Spencer Lewis

London,

December 2, 1935.

STRICTLY PRIVATE AND CONFIDENTIAL

FOR THE PERUSAL OF MR. H. SPENCER LEWIS

AND NO OTHER PERSON.

My dear Imperator,

It is really very good of you to have answered my letter at such length and with such care.

Let me first reply to your points.

1. I have never doubted your knowledge of many of the facts in question. But I do not think that any apparent variance between your position and mine is irreconcilable.

A. John Yarker's activities were first and foremost Masonic, and in point of fact he quarreled with everybody! His organisation was never more than a mere skeleton. After the original splash in which he affiliated a hundred or more High Grade Masons to the rites of Memphis and Mizraim, the opposition of the Scottish Rite in Golden Square (now in Duke Street) brought everything to naught. We had barely enough men to fill the Grand Offices. My diploma from Yarker is dated 2666 AUC. I have an American Diploma, dated March 21, 1913, among others.

B. Reuss [Theodor Reuss] could not have been a Grand Master of England because he was Grand Master of Germany. But he was the real successor, as opposed to the official successor, simply because of his ability and energy. In a letter written to me shortly before his death, Yarker definitely designated Henry Meyer to succeed his as National Grand Master of England. Henry Meyer was present at the convocation of Grand Masters in 1914. I was elected Patriarch Grand Administrator General; and Meyer left all the work to me.

Reuss was a man of action who understood realities; and, while very scrupulous about Minutes and Charters and so on, did not allow himself to be fettered by them.

From 1912 until the outbreak of the war, I was seeing Reuss nearly every day, and my revised Rituals were approved by him. He was almost invariably present at our ceremonies.

The war made it difficult for Reuss and myself to communicate, and it was only after the armistice that we resumed regular correspondence.

(2) All that I did was done directly under Reuss' supervision and his request. It has nothing to do with the Golden Dawn, and I certainly did not call this Rosicrucian, because it derives directly from Egyptian symbolism. There are no groups or meetings in this Order. (The "Temple" activities have always been doubtfully regular, and were discontinued in 1904.)

(3) As I stated previously, Franz Hartmann was titular Grand Master of U.S.A. But I am inclined to agree with you that his activities cannot have been overt.

(4) I have the Charter among my papers now in Warehouse. With regard to my latter relations with Reuss, I have to point out that the defeat of Germany meant his complete financial ruin. He was shooting about in all directions (in what I must regretfully describe as a random manner) for support. He would issue Diplomas to all sorts of people, for instance Tränker [Heinrich Tränker], without proper investigation. He was, I think, also a little resentful with the part I had played during the war. It was when he had given up all hope that he wrote (to—not from—Sicily) appointing me O.[uter] H.[ead]  [of the] O.[rder] to succeed him. The approach of death naturally restored his equilibrium.

(5) I do not expect to hear from people who are dead. And, as you are aware, in Germany and Italy all such activities are rigorously suppressed. But I occasionally receive letters from individuals of high position in the old organisation. All this has no importance because there were at no time any large or important Lodges. It was a case of a few and isolated people struggling along as best they could, and the war killed everything.

(6) I have a letter from the Grand Master of the Order of the Martinists who succeeded Papus, in which letter I am fully recognised, dated March 8th, 1928.

(7) I have already dealt with this under (4).

(8) My point is that it does not matter who claims to be the Head of an Order which has no existence in fact. The only Rituals workable under modern conditions are those of the O.T.O. written by me at the instigation, and under the supervision, of Reuss.

The only thing that matters is the ultimate secret of the O.T.O., which is not disclosed below IX°. That secret is important because its possession confers real powers. I do not know whether you yourself are in possession of it, as you have not claimed any degree beyond the VII°. But persona in charge of Governments are under no illusions as to the value of this secret, and have gone to incredible lengths in the hope of discovering it. See separate documents enclosed.

I have no evidence of any authority conferred on you except the Reuss Diploma, which is after all a very guarded document, and not in any sense a Warrant or Charter. Besides, it is revocable. I am sure you will thank me for not referring to the City of Toulouse. What have you then which is definitely Rosicrucian in character? What authority have you apart from that of the O.T.O.? In this working there is ample authority from sources which you have so far not mentioned. But if I had no authority whatever, my possession of the ultimate secret would confer it.

In short, I have better tell you exactly what happened. When Mathers [MacGregor Mathers] brought action against the Equinox in 1910 and was thrown out of Court, Reuss came to me and said: "I am the secret Chief of the Rosicrucian Order." I said, "Speak to my secretary, and he will assign you a place in the queue." For at that time about a dozen or more dead-heads came along, each claiming to be the sole and supreme chief of the Rosicrucian Order.

But, some time later, on the publication of a certain book of mine, Reuss again called upon me, and said: "You must be obligated immediately to the IX° of the O.T.O." I asked why. He replied: "Because you have published the Secret." I said: "I have done nothing of the sort. I do not know the secret. What is it?" He then told me the Secret. I said: "I have never heard this before, and I have certainly never published anything about it." He went to my bookshelves, took down the book in question, and pointed out to me the passage! I was aghast. It had been written under inspiration, and my conscious mind had paid no attention. I had printed the passage because it had been written under inspiration, in a mood of not wanting to be bothered to revise what I meant to print. I saw at once that he was right, I realised the importance of the matter. I accepted the obligations. And I devoted myself to the work of the O.T.O.

(9) I hold no brief for Dr. Krum-Heller [Arnold Krumm-Heller], but he has certainly been doing work of some practical importance. And as his aims are generally sympathetic, I do not think that he should be altogether ignored.

(10) On page 1 of your letter you deny very emphatically that the Scottish Rite and the Rites of Memphis and Mizraim are any factor in your claim. Yet the only document on which you base your claim is devoted to these Rites, as concentrated in the O.T.O. (which is printed in big type right across the Diploma) and nothing whatever is said about Rosicrucians. Further, my own private Seal is at the foot of the document. At the same time I wish to point out that according to my information it has always been strictly forbidden for an Rosicrucian to claim to be one. I shall be interested to learn why you have departed from this tradition.—I take it that it is legitimate to say that authority is "derived" from them.

     I think that the above should be an adequate basis for complete understanding between us. There is no need for allowing these matters to come to the knowledge of unworthy persons.

     I will now go a little into personal matters. I may remark to begin with that my bankruptcy affairs were conducted on purely Rosicrucian principles, and have not in any way affected my income. I am sorry about the 'egotism', but I thought that you wanted the facts.

You write: "you say that you can clear yourself." I said that "I had been cleared." The only difficulty that remains is to get this fact into the alleged minds of the kind of people who read the lowest class of Sunday newspaper, and believe the rubbish there printed. This would not matter except for the fact that even people who know that the allegations against me are pure nonsense are afraid of the prejudice of the illiterate. My position is in this respect precisely similar to your own. But owing to the state of the Law in America you have no real remedy against people like Swinburne Clymer [R. Swinburne Clymer]. Otto Kahn was over here in 1922 when there was some question of a libel action and he said to me: "In America they can print that I robbed my partner, and raped my cook; and there is nothing I can do about it." Now in England we have a good enough law, but we cannot make proper use of it unless we can afford to pay the top-notchers. I did not know this at the time of my libel action against Constable, or I should have briefed Sir Patrick Hastings. I was innocent enough to think that, because my case was so good, Truth would prevail by its own manifestation. But I have other actions pending, and shall conduct them properly. What is principally needed is to convict Betty May of perjury. She openly boasts of how she fooled the Judge, and steps are actually in process to bring about a spectacular prosecution.

You will remember that when I met you in New York, I was not altogether in sympathy with your methods, but that when you were attacked by mutinous members of your organisation, I rallied immediately to your defence. I also did you a good turn in respect of the Charter purporting to be from the "French Rosicrucians in Toulouse", by pointing out that if they had mastered all the secrets of nature, those of the elementary rules of French grammar still baffled them, so that you wisely withdrew the document. It is not the only occasion on which it seems that your good faith has been abused. Some Latinists deplore some note paper.

And I have not forgotten that when two delegates of the 33° (Sovereign Grand Council of Detroit) visited the Coast in 1919, you spoke very highly of me. But I have never in any way interfered with you or challenged your jurisdiction, and I have only approached you this year because of the attacks upon you by this swindling imposter Swinburne Clymer. And I think that any divergence in opinion between us as to the propriety of our respective methods should not be a cause of controversy. I may point out that it seems doubtful whether you have read more than a small part of my published work; and certainly none of the secret and unpublished writings, which are of far greater importance. So I will ask you to reserve judgment. As to your own methods, I quite understand for instance your use of Franz Hartmann's book. Being, as you are, in partibus gentium, it is perhaps natural that you should find that the only way to get elementary ideas into the heads of the natives is to do it as you have been doing. There is no way of making such people value what is of importance except by making them pay for it. In England you would be snowed under with law-suits and prosecutions within a few months.

But it does seem to me that the attacks upon you have not been without effect, and the evidence of your connection to me is quite impossible to withstand. It is not only the question of the Diploma from Reuss, which is apparently the only document on which you rely, but of your having adopted numerous phrases, symbols and other matter from the Equinox, which is definitely my own. There are also numerous references in the letters and documents reproduced by Clymer which prove to any independent party that his contention is correct in this particular matter. Now I do not in the least object to your adopting 'Crowley's' Black Cross', (so-called because it is far older than Crowley, and because it contains all the colours of the rainbow) but it does mean that if Crowley is such a terrible person, you are tarred with the same brush. Whereas if you helped to put him forward as the celebrated Virgin Martyr, you will yourself appear at the close of the operation "whiter than the white-wash on the wall". I am urging these matters upon you, because I feel certain that you are in danger of being hounded down and your usefulness destroyed. I cannot impress too strongly upon you that when it comes to a scrap in a law-court the judge will see the difference between such serious literature as The Equinox, and ad captandum advertisements such as Clymer quotes on page 79 of his disgusting libel.

One of the ways in which you can help me is by informing me whether Clymer has any following in England. If I can find anybody who publishes (that is, according to English law, who hands to any other person not protected by legal privilege) a copy of Clymer's pamphlet, I will send him to prison in two shakes of a Paschal Lamb's whiskers. And such procedure would immediately destroy any influence he may have in the U.S.A.

I will indicate to Mr. Schneider [Max Schneider] the lines on which these operations may be carried out.

Yours in the bonds of the Order

666.

[separate note attached to the above]

Excerpt from Therion's letter of Dec. 2nd: [to Max Schneider]

"It is perhaps best not to admit having seen the Lewis stuff, as I go for him rather heavily from the last page. Your job is, of course, to get him to put his organisation in England at my disposal for the purpose of the vindication, and to guarantee the costs for the best legal assistance."

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