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Correspondence from Aleister Crowley to Unknown Correspondent
[Undated: circa September 1936?]
Dear Sir.
I am sending you under separate cover a copy of a book which has recently been published in a limited edition entitled The Equinox of the Gods. It is claimed that this book contains a direct revelation of the Law.
Within the memory of man we have had the Pagan period, the worship of Nature, of Isis, of the Past; and the Christian period, the worship of Man, of Osiris, of the Present. During the first period the material ignores the spiritual; during the second the spiritual strives to ignore the material; and it is this which explains the glorification of death and suffering which is characteristic of Christianity and all cognate religions.
The new Aeon is the worship of the spiritual made one with the material of Horus, of the child, of the future. I am aware that the first reaction of any intelligent man when told that a book is the direct revelation of the law of nature of the new Aeon, is to reach for the waste paper basket. I ask you, however, to clear your mind of the material prejudice which such a claim arouses, and to read the book in an impartial spirit.
If, when you have read it, you consider it to be nonsense, there is no more to be said. If you do not, the question arises as to how its principles can be applied to practical life, and in particular to Politics.
It is obvious that the traditional sources of authority are to-day everywhere challenged with increasing confidence and success. The result is a wide-spread confusion of thought and a crop of fanatical empiricism such as Fascism and Communism. Democracy is disillusioned and effete; and for this reason is clearly unable to compete with the devoted fanaticism of the two existing forms of totalitarian state. The failure of the recent recruiting campaign is merely one instance of its impotence. Nevertheless Democracy is to-day the only guarantee of the principles of liberty which to our race are the only principles which make life tolerable.
The problem of today therefore is that, unless some new spiritual principle capable of inspiring the same fanatical devotion as the principles of Fascism and Communism can be breathed into the democratic states, they must inevitably perish; and the principles of liberty must perish with them.
How, in short, can the nation be turned into that disciplined organisation which alone can hope to emerge successfully from a universal war without sacrificing the very principle of liberty for which alone we are fighting? It is claimed that the answer to these questions lies in the Book of the Law. It is claimed that the Law of Thelema is a universal philosophical principle (self-evident, when properly understood) upon which it is feasible to base an entire culture and an entire system of government.
I am aware that the Law itself
'Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law'.
appears at first glance preposterous; as preposterous as the exhortation to turn your other cheek to your enemy must have appeared to the Pagan world.
It is obviously impossible to attempt to set out the implication of the Law in the compass of a letter. Briefly however it implies that every man has within him a Real Will—a purpose for which his whole being is designed, which at present is only realised by the individual himself in a minute percentage of cases, and which is of course totally different from the body of transitory and illusionary desires which most men mistake for their True Wills. The purpose of the new state must be to assist its individuals to discover their True Wills, and its laws must be designed to insure that when found they are followed. I will not elaborate this theme. I have only elaborated thus far to show that the Law is not the self-evident absurdity which it appears at first glance.
The translation of a new moral principle into a practical political form is of course a task of gigantic magnitude. If the principle is valid however, it will sooner or later be done. Should you therefore conclude that the claims made for the book are in any way worthy of consideration, I should naturally be only too pleased to discuss the matter further with you.
[Note: On the back of a carbon copy of the above Crowley added as below in his own hand.]
1. W[ar] O[ffice] accept principle secretly, issue posters based on idea, note result.
2. W[ar] O[ffice] subsidize propaganda, I to form flexible body of initiates to place at the service of government as required.
Dear Wyllie
This is the idea of D.C.'s old pal. I enclose it as additional material for the new draft
Yrs.
A.C.
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