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Correspondence from Aleister Crowley to Jane Wolfe
from E.A. Crowley CNFT. 18.1 10 Hanover Square W.1.
Jan 16 [1942]
"—Only fools command When folk are free to disobey them, Paul!" Browning The Two Poets of Goisic.
Dear Jane,
Yours of Dec 20 turned up yesterday: very welcome. Is the "strong demand" in your 2 the so-called manifesto sent out by Smith [Wilfred Talbot Smith]? This was sent to me with rather rude remarks.
It certainly seems as if the wording and dating were intended to lead people to think that I had authorized it. "Nov 11" and "approved Dec 3." Needless (I hope!) to say, it was not sent to me for approval.
"Be it further known that we are not paper soldiers." I find it hard to express my feelings: but it is rather as if I attempted to laugh and dislocated my jaw in the process!
"Dearly beloved brethren." Doesn't Smith know that this is a stock phrase, ridiculing the soi-disant Elmer Gantry type of hedge-row parson?
I quote these two as peculiarly outrageous; but the entire document is almost the worst thing of its kind I ever saw. The platitudes, the style piebald, the forcible-feeble ferocity, the cascades of anti-climax, the Wardour Street antiques, the morass of blah: no wonder your contacts always come to nothing.
As you know, not every one can wear a robe. In the photocopies of the Mass sent years ago, it was only too evident that Smith was not one of such. He has no "presence", no personal dignity. But I had hoped that your experience of stage and screen would have somehow put this right: in any case, there was nothing else I could do. So I had to keep quiet when people wrote about "amateur theatricals."
All this is a terrible pity, because Smith is such a good man in so many ways, and the faults are of the kind that in the real world don't amount to a plugged nickel. But they just kill the external side stone dead. The glib shows of a Spencer Lewis [H. Spencer Lewis] get by. He too, by the way, looked grotesque in a robe; but in later years, he must have got some one to see to his make-up, for later photos show a pseudo-Pharaoh which was at least not plain errand-boy or provincial fancy-dress ball.
Really the blame is partly yours! You ought to have built up a front for him. This 'daw in peacock's plumage' impression is the very worst that any one can give.
As to the letter itself, it is a masterpiece of mistake!
[Why "Saladin", in the name of Allah? Why take the pseudonym of Stewart Ross? To play the part of S. in a ritual is of course all right, like Solomon in Freemasonry. But not outside the [illegible].]
Nobody is going to obey the farcical injunctions some of which are annoying and tedious. Also, if you have to blast somebody with the Thunderbolts of the Almighty Zeus, you ought to get more than Fifty Cents a month out of it!
Then people ask: Who is this lion that roars so loud, it sounds like one of those dictators? They want to know if he is really a Supreme Most Holy King. A title is no use unless you can live up to it. (I can't forget that he registered this R.S.S. as the name of the Order, not knowing what the words meant!
Now don't you get the idea that I undervalue Smith. But his good qualities are swamped by his unfortunate appearance and manner. Try to get him to see that modesty; that great earnestness, are his best presentation to the public.
I put all this in a cable to Germer [Karl Germer]: "Smith's [illegible] unauthorized. Disclaim tastefully. Inculcate humility." This is very hard for me: I hate being unable to support him; but he can't go on making the Order ridiculous. Perhaps the funniest bit is the 'state of emergency.' "There's sickness for you!"
Well, do your best to straighten it all out!
Yours,
Aleister.
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