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Correspondence from Aleister Crowley to Isidore Kerman
S.W.1. WHI: 9331.
Nov 28 [1943]
My dear Kerman,
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.
I have always felt that when the corn was ripe you would be one of the first to understand that in a Prohibition country there is big business in Corn Whisky.
I am an arm-chair strategist; I can make plans not only imaginative but sound and worked out in every detail. But I am temperamentally incapable of carrying them out: shyness almost pathological, laziness, hatred of all forms of routine, these paralyse me.
Despite all that, my position is so fundamentally strong that [illegible] fall ready cooked into my mouth as I stroll in my dream-garden.
E.g., "Magick in Theory and Practice" brought me in nearly £2000 before it ever went to the printer; another man paid every penny of the cost of production, and I took all the money from the sales. The Mandrake Press brought me in over £1500; everybody else concerned lost heavily. The Tarot [The Book of Thoth] has netted me already about £700—and I haven't begun to exploit it! My general work has been worth about £1200 in this last year. Besides that, there is my house in Pasadena, and my ranch in the backblocks.
And yet so badly do I manage my expenditure that I find myself short of ready money nearly every month.
The point of all this is that if I had a strong and energetic man as "impresario", my income could be multiplied by almost any figure you like, after letting him take 50%.
May I just set down the assets in a rough sort of fashion, a crude sketch of the gold mine?
1. We have a new religion—notoriously the most lucrative property that exists.
2. We have a Sacred Book [The Book of the Law] which every one will have to buy. (Cf. The Book of Mormon, Science and Health, mein Kampf).
3. We have a whole series of subsidiary books: text-books, rituals, hymns, essays—an endless series. Many volumes are still unpublished.
4. We have an Order with secret rituals: Fees and subscriptions amount to a great deal, but much more when we can establish the Social System devised to meet modern economic conditions.
5. Booth-Clibborn [Arthur Booth-Clibborn]—grandson of the General—said that "Do what thou wilt" was the most effective slogan he had ever known.
6. We have a political system which will enabling the governing class to keep order in the herd. (Every one is at his wits' end just now, with Fascism and Communism threatening, and all the old 'sanctions' dead as mutton.)
7. We have a social system based on new principles. (There is a mass of literature about this: one cannot give even the vaguest outline in a letter.)
8. We have as the head of the whole business a man who is already legendary; people can be got to believe anything we consider desirable.
This rough summary should suffice. I must however ass that I am personally sincere, and absolutely truthful, in all that concerns the religious aspect of the matter. The history of the foundation—see "The Equinox of the Gods" is as precise and accurate as it is possible to be with such training in science as I possess.
I have listed the assets from a strictly objective standpoint: a business matter is indifferent to all moral considerations, and should be set forth within its own strict limitations.
The fact of my integrity is a fact, and I am not sure whether you will regard it as an asset or a liability. There are more facets than one: e.g., I will not lend myself to any deception, or acquiesce in any dishonourable manoeuvre. (E.g. Blavatsky [Helena Petrovna Blavatsky] and the imaginary Mahatmas and fake miracles: Mrs. Eddy's secret visits to doctors and dentists: von Hindenburg's forged will: Annie Besant's suborning of perjury about Col. Olcott's death-bed: etc.)
Could you find an evening to discuss practical steps?
Love is the law, love under will.
Yours sincerely,
Aleister Crowley.
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