|
Correspondence from Aleister Crowley to Jane Wolfe
London, W.1.
4th May, 1943.
Dear Jane,
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.
Thanks for your letter of March 15th. I am glad you liked the "Fun of the Fair" and will feel the same about the "City of God" when you get it. I cannot afford to send it by air.
About "Oriflamme": I cannot see the point of this at all. It is the most amateurish production I have ever set eyes on. You give absolutely not one word of the information which people expect when they pick up a new magazine. Why don't you print the Constitution of the O.T.O., perhaps in an abridged form? You have got to shew who you are, what you stand for and what you are doing. You don't even give an address, except a post office box. I cannot imagine any more stupid way of wasting money.
Then, in case anybody ever should see the thing—which God forbid—you print those verses of Jack's [Jack Parsons] which are not bad in themselves in their way, but you could hardly have found anything in the whole world more objectionable from our point of view. What could have been better calculated to revive the ancient stories about drug-traffic and so on! Incidentally, he not only misquotes the Law, but gives it that very interpretation of all others which we are most anxious not to give. When I saw them I said" 'This cannot be plain idiocy, this must be malignant design'. Then when your letter came and said that you were editing the thing I saw that it must have been plain idiocy after all.
In any case, drop it. Every penny is wanted for getting out unpublished stuff, or at least for advertising the Order and its principles and the work of the Order.
There is no allusion to the celebration of the Gnostic Mass and if it is not being celebrated, there is no sense whatever in your having a house of the millionaire type which you apparently inhabit.) You say nothing about the courses of initiation; in other words, I simply cannot imagine what you are after. I can see nothing but distraction, dispersion and waste, and colossal stupidity beyond the power of the human imagination to conceive.
You ask for help or criticism and this is it. It is much milder than I should like. Anyhow, for the future please print nothing of mine in any such rag-bag of imbecility.
It is perfectly ridiculous to express a hope that I may sit under your vines and fig-trees when you do nothing whatever to help the work at Headquarters.
We have now by dint of immense sacrifice got the Tarot book [The Book of Thoth] to the point where there will be nothing more to pay until it is ready for delivery and I suppose not very much then. We were obliged to use any cash available to do this because at any moment the Government may require the metal used in the setting and the edition must therefore be printed off without a moment's delay.
This leaves us on the brink of actual ruin and starvation, and you play the fool in Pasadena issuing ridiculous magazines and squabbling. It looks to me as if you were wasted out there—the whole crowd of you. You ought to join the Fighting French.
I hope that Jack's visit to Germer [Karl Germer] will do something to straighten out your domestic troubles, but unless you can decide to settle down and work in perfect harmony under instructions from Headquarters, there will be no longer anything to do.
Karl's suggestion that you should get into close contact with Schneider [Max Schneider] is admirable. He is simple and loyal. He is absolutely trustworthy and sensible. The greatest mistake you have made out there is in allowing Smith's [Wilfred Talbot Smith] jealousy to jockey him out of his rightful position.
Love is the law, love under will.
Yours,
[eleven-fold cross] Baphomet X° O.T.O.
P.S. In all this you will please understand that I do not in any way lack confidence in you, but I think you have allowed yourself to be deceived and misled. I am sending a letter which you later can hand to Helen [Helen Parsons] when you have thoroughly digested it. It is in answer to hers of the Vernal Equinox. She attacks various people without mentioning who they are, but I fancy you must be one of them. Don't stand any nonsense from any upstarts and interlopers.
P.P.S. It is really shameful that a Lodge in a Palace should not find the price of a new every month, while the Revered and Beloved is short of food! But I Laugh!
|