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Correspondence from Aleister Crowley to Mr. Pearson [photoengraver]
STRICTLY PRIVATE & CONFIDENTIAL WITHOUT PREJUDICE
140 Piccadilly W.1.
May 29th, 1942.
Dear Mr. Pearson,
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.
Thank you for your letter received this morning. In view of future relations I think it of the utmost importance that I should make the situation clear to you. I should have preferred to do this by word of mouth; and yet perhaps a letter may, in the long run, serve the purpose better.
As you know, odd cards have been reproduced by you as funds became available.
My very old and very dear friend Mr. Hylton was good enough to send me £15.-.- for the purpose of producing one more trump, but on discovering that two could be done for an extra £5.-.- or a little less, I sent you the additional amount out of my own pocket.
Lady Harris [Frieda Harris], naturally, accepted this enthusiastically, and sent you the originals necessary.
Let me say in parenthesis that one of the principal points in wishing this to be done was that a friend of mine, who is proposing to finance the entire production, wanted to see one of the smaller cards, so that he might feel sure that they would stand up to the trumps.
The next thing is that, to my amazement, I received a letter from Lady Harris, including the following passage:—
I foresee great complications & would suggest we should have a third party to whom all subscriptions should be paid, even if it means forming a limited Tarot Co. with a treasurer.
How would Madge Porter do if I could get her to take it on?
If you don't like that idea—would Hylton do it or Cecil. You and I with the possible chance of profits (I don't think) should not be recipients of casual cheques or we shall soon be accused of embezzling same.”
Lady Harris never reads my letters carefully. I had told here that these blocks were a present to us.
Madge Porter is a dear little old lady, who lives in a remote cottage in a wood some distance from Newbury. She is only approachable by a cart-track through the wood, and has no telephone.
I wrote to Lady Harris explaining the situation and then received the following letter:
If only she would have stuck to that! But instead of leaving things to her Manager, she takes away the originals from you. I suppose that you had already started work on the two cards. I can well understand your annoyance.
I should like to emphasise that I am absolutely devoted to Lady Harris, and have the evidence of countless acts of kindness on her part, indicating that her feelings toward me are similar.
But from time to time she is subject to fits of panic in which she does the most incomprehensible things. For instance, she writes to people who are perfect strangers to her with the object of interfering with their relations with me. I do not wish to quote incidents, but I assure you that the facts are astounding.
To recur to the present situation. In the first place, I have a two-thirds interest in this work on the Tarot [The Book of Thoth]. As to the cards themselves, in nearly every case she has done her painting from sketches made by me, and in every case the design and meaning of the card and the particular colours to be used have been entirely my work. There has been no cause of dispute. In fact, she has been most docile in adapting herself to my requirements; in some cases I have made her do the card over again as many as six or seven times.
There is no reason whatever why she should go back on the proposition to reproduce these two cards. You told me that her reason was that she though four should have been reproduced at once. But in that case why not tell me? I should gladly have put up the additional money required.
I am sorry to have had to write to you at such length, about what is, after all, nothing at all; and I daresay that you were quite right in suggesting to me over the telephone that if she were left alone she would come to her senses.
But the point at issue is this: I cannot possibly ask my friend to put up £1600 if at any moment she is liable to dash in on an impulse and whisk the originals away!
For this reason, I am going to ask my solicitors, Messrs. Gisborne & Lewis, 10 Ely Place, W.1., to draw up a proper business Contract, which will make it impossible for her to interfere with the work, once the financial arrangements with my friend are completed.
Love is the law, love under will.
Yours sincerely
Aleister Crowley
It seems important that you should understand my motive. To me this Work on the Tarot is an Encyclopoedia of all serious “occult” philosophy. It is a standard Book of Reference, which will determine the entire course of mystical and magical thought for the next 2000 years. My one anxiety is that it should be saved from danger of destruction, by being reproduced in permanent form, and distributed in as many distant places as may be. I am not anxious to profit financially; if I had the capital available in this country, I should send (say) 200 copies to State Libraries in all parts of the world, and as many more to my principal representatives.
A.C.
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