|
Correspondence from Aleister Crowley to Louis Umfreville Wilkinson
Louis Wilkinson Grove Heart Ripley Surrey
May 12 41
Barton Brow
Dear Louis
I kept putting off writing because there wasn't very much to say. Your Devenport news was reminiseenceogenous. What a curious state of mind it is, one's reaction to the unexpected reopening and slamming of a door long closed—when one knows it to be the final slam. How dependent reality is upon memory! Yet memory is the most untrusty and illusory of all our faculties. Raids over here almost every night; this house is constantly shaken. This is on the main airway to Plymouth and S. Wales, the former 30 miles away. Nearer—12 m—is Brixham, with large oil tanks. They went for it last night; there was also a dog-fight, complete with crash, right over these moors. There is more accident than most people suppose. Twice, close to me, people have been killed by bombs jettisoned in despair from limping planes.
I am glad of your own escape: very curiously, you omit to say what caused the damage. You don't say that the house was hit. Was it a delayed effect of "blast"?
I see that the Lower Fourth have had their classroom damaged. But they will always find a place to prattle in!
The Abbey is a bit stagnant: I do wish you would find a couple of suitable people, or a single man, to join. At present, the economic position is weak. (This is a perfect example of meiosis). There may be an exhibition of Tarot in Oxford—early June. I'll keep you posted.
Love.
Yours
Aleister
|