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Correspondence from Aleister Crowley to Jane Wolfe
from E.A. Crowley CNFT. 18.1 10 Hanover Square W.1.
7 - 1 - 42 e.v.
Dearest Jane,
93.
It was so delightful to get your letter. So sensible and interesting! How glad I am that you've grown out of those maddening affectations!
I got a rousing letter from Karl [Karl Germer] last week. You have been hinting things. About time, too!
I want your personal ideas on various points. One is: W.T.S. [Wilfred Talbot Smith] will sign Rex Summus Sanctissimus—which is all right, except that somebody is liable to say "Every inch a King!"
He has no "presence": he can't wear robes without looking ridiculous; and he simply exudes Lower Middle Middle Class. So the arrogant authoritative manner prevents people taking him seriously.
Now, he has many virtues and greet; he must not mask them by assumptions which put people off. It is hard to tell him without hurting his feelings, which one hates to do. But dignity is a quality which cannot be faked; and, if absent, only great modesty can command respect.
Think about Regina [Regina Kahl]. From various sources I got the impression of her as vulgar, "common", pushful, flamboyant, oozing synthetic sex-appeal, overblown, unable to act naturally, self-assertive, either resentful of sleights or too stupid to notice them. Yet you, with precisely opposite qualities, manage to get on with her. Perhaps my picture of her is all wrong—in fact, I know it is wrong to some extent, and the theatricality which certainly characterizes her shews everything in a worse light than is deserved.
Do clear me up on all this!
I hope I needn't ask you to be diplomatic; you may wonder why I haven't woken up in this last quarter of a century. For one thing, I felt that my interference would be ineffective, that I was in danger of being unjust, that it is better in 9 cases out of 10 to let things work themselves out. (That's three things already!)
They why wake up now? Because at any moment the "Thumbs Up!" campaign or Liber OZ (LXXVII) may throw us all suddenly into terrific positions and Titanic, where swift and arbitrary action may become imperative, so that I must know more about my executives.
I shall send J.N.P. [Jack Parsons] poems by ordinary mail with comment.
Never heard of "The pursuit of destiny" or it's author. Send me a copy?
No letter from Bashan—not even a Bull! Paul Case seems a very alert crook: any news of our Nordic "Francis I. Regardie"?
Please answer this at once, as frankly as I have written.
Important. I want Max Schneider to have typescripts of "De Natura Deorum", "De Nuptiis Secretis Deorum cum Homnibus", "AΓAΠΗ" (Liber C) and "De Arte Magica". Smith must have them. Let Max have them on loan, or copies.
93 93/93.
Love to all.
Yours,
Aleister.
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