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Correspondence from Aleister Crowley to Montgomery Evans
from E.A. Crowley CNFT 18.1. c/o Dennes & Co. Clifford's Inn London E.C.4 Cables: Crowley CHANCELLOR London
July 27 [1941]
Dear Monty
Had a certain bomb fallen 20 yards further West, I should have not got your letter of Sept 25, but London would have been a more wholesome place, For I walked in to the Fitzroy after a year or more's absence from that pestilence, and found it. Why didn't you write to the above address? I have always been easily accessible there since October 12, 1875.
I hope this reaches you with less delay!
My own news is easy to summarize.
1. The raids last summer were exciting, not alarming. There was nothing one could do about it, so I slept quietly through every thing. But they were so interesting—guessing what any particular noise might mean [illegible] (sometimes) spectacular that they made it difficult to concentrate on Work, and I just had to finish the Tarot [The Book of Thoth] book.
2. The Thames Valley proved poison in the matter of asthma.
(1 + 2) = 3. I went to Torquay—"the Nightmare Necropolis"—for the winter. I was very ill, nearly died.
3. The book was finished. Frieda [Frieda Harris] finished the cards, too; but there are 3 or 4 to be redone. There was an abortive show at Oxford—a long story, to long and mysterious to relate here.
4. You may know this already, as "Lord Haw-Haw" attacked me on the radio. I had been thinking up magical ways to win the war—my next book (due to appear on Aug 8) is called Thumbs Up! This is phallic, all right, and universally used; but it is unofficial. I wanted a ritual affirmation. (See Magick [Magick in Theory and Practice] Suppl. "Liber Resh" and "Liber Astarte vel Liber Berylli".) which would keep men's minds on winning. Presently I got the idea of a letter and a "Naples-sign-language". I toyed with Z which looks like a lightning-flash, and knocks N (for Nazi) sideways! Also, it is easy to signal, though not to exhibit as a gesture. Then I got the idea of V—Horns of the Devil (see Levi [Eliphas Levi] Ritual Cap XV). Also the Bleeding Hosts of Eugene Vintas—see Levi again, Eq[uino]x I and Supplement. (Waite [A.E. Waite] does this in his "Mysteries of Magic"). Then there is the V sign "of Apophis and Typhon" in the Adeptus Minor material—see Eq[uino]x I 5 "The Temple of Solomon the King". L.V.X. = Lux = + = phallus. It was clinched by my motto as a Master of the Temple = V.V.V.V.V. And the whole formula of sexual magic 5º=6o is given by V, 5 in value: but V = Vau = 6 in Hebrew.
Seabrook [William Seabrook] should be thrilled, in view of his story about "Wow!" (V, Heb ו, is pronounced Waw or Wow.) But the most magical thing about this was the slipping it over on the B.B.C.! One of the "accidents" that always happen to me at the critical periods of my life. I can't tell you—if that came out, wouldn't there be trouble for somebody? I should shay sho.
Anyhow, I thought you might as well have the details. You might make an article about it. I can do no harm now, since Haw Haw's broadcast assault [illegible] any virtue! I don't know what they'll say, though, when they realize all the implications. Hush it up, I suppose, as usual. I disclaim all responsibility, by the way, for the course of the campaign. My main idea was to make people war-conscious, and at the same time to plant my Magical symbol in the Astral.
5. My health demands a decent climate, so I am doing all I can to get to California. If you can help in any way, please do. My representative [illegible] is Karl Germer 1007 Lexington Avenue. This is very secret, especially from Gerald Yorke. So please see him on the Q.T. and tell nobody.
Do answer this by action.
Yours ever
Aleister
P.S. Aug 4.
Queer points of view some people have. I took a man to see the ruins behind Cheapside. (By the way, the astonishing thing is what they missed! Again and again one sees noble buildings untouched with absolute desolation on every side!) He went wild: "Glorious! glorious! look how the planes build up!" (This seemed to me a most singularly infelicitous phrase!) "What glow of light and space! Most of the muck and gloom of London's gone! Man, I could spend my life here. I've seen famous [illegible] all over the world, but nothing to beat this. God! what a chance for a new Vision of Beauty: I wish I could reincarnate right here, and grow up with it———"
And so on. Of course, it's no use arguing with lunatics like that, but it's really wonderful the people, in many ways quite intelligent, can be so lost to all proper feeling. He didn't seem to care at all that so much valuable property had been destroyed. So much of it, too, if it had to go, could have been profitable in the old days when Fire Insurance was Business.
This reminds me of a comparatively new, and very strange, ominous and sinister development in British feeling. Practically everybody in the country has come to loathe those helpless, persecuted, despised and hunted children of Israel—who, after all, are God's chosen people, and the root of our holy Religion—with the most unreasonable and uncharitable loathing! Those of us who previously tolerated them, and even liked some individuals, now include them in universal detestation. There are plenty of people about who say openly that the continued presence of the Jews is a stiff price to pay for beating Hitler! As I said above, what queer points of view there are.
I am liable to follow up "Thumbs Up!" with a pamphlet on the V sign. There are 3 photographs of myself giving it in various ways: (1) The Sign of Apophis and Typhon" 1909 (2) "The Magician" Eq[uino]x I 8. Frontispiece 1910. (3) Frontispiece to "Eight Lectures on Yoga" (1939) where I make it with the fingers.
Do answer promptly!
Aleister
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