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Correspondence from Aleister Crowley to Gerald Yorke
10 Hanover Square W.1.
Sept 13 [1941]
C∴F∴
93.
But you are working with me! Nothing could have pleased me more than your criticism—you put your finger exactly on the spot. Thanks very much.
Also for the unexpected contribution; very decent of you. (A quite mild go of bronchitis would probably finish me. So I must be comically careful—no diet, no exposure and so on. Saw Parsons this A.M.: no hope of arrears of income being paid in for another 6 months. I want to live to see the Tarot [The Book of Thoth] published and to finish the Yi King. Small hope of getting to U.S.A. this year. Support fully guaranteed when I do get across, so if you care enough to keep me going till I depart, I shall take it friendly.)
Your trouble is that you don't really believe in Magick. Silly, because you had good personal experience of success with it. If you had gone all out, and taken the kicks cheerfully, you could have been right on top by now. It is when you have learnt to "interpret every phenomenon" etc that life becomes logical and sensible, as it doesn't on any other hypothesis.
You have always wanted to make the best of both worlds; and Mammon is just as stuffy as God about that! Fuller [J.F.C. Fuller] thought that his association with me would hinder his career in the Army; so he fell between the two stools bang on to the swiftly rising boot of Nemesis, and his rearguard had been badly mauled. He even tried Mosley. Couldn't stick to that, kept out of Brixton, and is despised all round. He might have been C-in-C and my right hand; he is "a very clever journalist". Quomodo cecidisti.
Thumbs Up! has extracted praise and thanksgiving from U.S. Embassy, Naval blokes, Joad [C.E.M. Joad], John Cooper Powys, Ralph Strauss and so on. Joad specially nice about it. I'm encouraged. You'll have a few on h.m.p. next week.
Don't like any title so far [for Liber OZ], "Rights of Man" is an historical document. The items don't go easily on the Tree; but I've got them down to five sections: moral, bodily, mental, sexual, freedom, and the safeguard tyrranicide. In its new form it looks shapely and well-balanced. 160 words in all.
Of course "in practice almost impossible to anything without clashing with somebody": but this is because the rule is not accepted. Same applied to cricket, or machines. Our claim is that the system minimises friction.
The V-sign. My object is to disclaim connection with my B.B.C. friend. The plate in Eq[uino]x I 3 and to face p 374 of "Magick" [Magick in Theory and Practice] is entitled "The Signs of the Grades", caption to photographs "The L.V.X. signs". Each photo is marked L - Isis mourning, the Swastika. V - Apophis, the Trident, X - Osiris risen - the Pentagram. Dates at least from the '80 G∴D∴ [Golden Dawn] but I have "Squatter's Right" as first to publish it.
The second half. Only the P[rime] M[inister] could take the responsibility of promulgating so appalling a plan: and only he could give the pledge necessary to minimise the cataclysm which would follow its adoption.
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