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Correspondence from Aleister Crowley to Cordelia Sutherland
S.W.1.
Aug 4 [1943]
Dear Mrs. Sutherland,
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.
The above greeting is the secret of Life: therein you will find the remedy for your complaint. It is the universal moral rejuvenator.
You must discover for yourself WHO you are, and what is your proper function (the True Will we call it) on this grotesques yet sublime planet. "Thou hast no right but to do thy will. Do that, and no other shall say nay." Liber AL I 42-43.
"That's all very well, clever Mr Crowley! But a trifle easier said than done, eh?"
Quite right! But in Room XIII is a copy of "The Equinox of the Gods", which contains the Book of the Law, and tells how it all happened. There somewhere there is, or ought to be, a copy of my MAGICK in Theory and Practice: The Appendix (H415 sqq) gives you two methods of finding yourself. As soon as you know the inmost secret of Your Self, good-bye to doubt and dullness, and indifference! (Do study these books.)
On the material plane, astrology usually gives helpful hints as to the choice of a career. (Refer to my remarks in the "Horror" [horoscope] on the 9th 10th and 12th houses.) But your letter appeals to me to deal with [illegible] and deeper matters: what you want is "the Summum Bonum—True Wishes and Perfect Happiness". If I knew more of your "lurid Past", it would be easier. Would it bore you too much to criticize that reading in detail? I rather wish you were working with me, so that I had the first section of your "Magical Record"—an account of your life (including ancestors!) analyzing the events which have led to your being where you are at that moment writing that record. Very many people have found this helpful, apart from anything beyond. What disheartens us is not having an intelligible purpose in life. "It all seems so senseless!"—how often have I heard those words. And senseless is exactly what it is until you have discovered that True Will.
"Oh bother that old Book! A.C., SHUTUP!" O.K. by me.
Love is the law, love under will.
Yours,
A.C.
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