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Correspondence from Aleister Crowley to Edward Noel Fitzgerald
93 Jermyn St.
Jan 14 1943.
My dear Noel.
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.
Delighted to have yours of n[o] d[ate] and also of Dec 29. I have been hibernating. You are doing Work for the Order now as useful as almost anybody. Carry on. Do start groups and meetings—just as you would build any profane business. Boards re? Rot. You are supposed to have a valuable book bound; even the best buckram and so on counts only as a "publishers cover". So paper is best; for you can have the 'ends' bound in, so as to preserve the book in its original state. So now you know!
About you. I've noticed, ever
since I knew you, that whenever you saw a cloud no larger
than a man's hand that meant you had to fork out the price
of a drink or what not, you were instantly transported "avay
in der Ewigkeit." Probably this is because it is so painful
to feel that you can't pull your weight in the boat that you
avoid the neighbourhood of water! I can quite understand
that; it happens to me. It happened, in fact, this last six
weeks. I've been waiting—still am—for a cable. If I carry on
my work at all, there is sure to be a moment when I have to
say "I'm a bit short for a day or so etc." or the like; and
to do so is bad for credit that I prefer to lie low until
rescue comes, however bad that may be in other ways. For all
that, there is something about which one feels, and cannot
explain. Is it a sort of ready-to-withdraw attitude—socially
all round, not only financially? Other people notice that.
You never seem quite sure of yourself. Is that it? Oh well,
what a bore it all is!—good night. About the girls: there my
poor friend, you have given yourself away completely.
"satisfied my physical requirements". No, Sir! To 'do love'
requires much more than the physical. "A lump of meat with a
hole in it" as dear old J. W. Morrice used to say, is n[o]
b[loody] g[ood].
There must be knowledge, experience, even (I may say)
erudition. It is fair to say that no "pretty" girl, no
English girl, can possibly serve. Ars futaendi is not easy:
"requires as much theory as Theology, and as much practice
as billiards" was my early epigram. Technical skill,
depending on (a) book knowledge (b) subtle psychology (c)
elaborate experiment with keen observation K.T.N. Your
little joke on me must have given you a lot of fun, though;
but there again you have not the key to the "Comedy of Pan".
This is: to induce the victim to do something foolish, and
then to expose him in mockery. E.g. the supper in Act V of
Mortaldello. There being here real hatred, the comedy is
About friends again, something wrong with you, it's quite certain. More, it is outrageous weakness to give way. I've been viperized dozens of times; but I have not lost my faith. If I had, I should not consider myself a man at all. "Juppiter"?? I've forgotten what was sweet. Oh, the inscription I suppose. Portrait. I'd get one specially made. But the "Sahib" is much better, and there finished prints ready; post free, 10/6.
Love is the law, love under will.
Yours,
Aleister.
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the goat play; but the comic method remain.