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Correspondence from Aleister Crowley to Cordelia Sutherland
S.W.1.
Dec 26, '43 E.V.
My Dear Cordelia,
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.
This sheet of paper with the envelope addressed and stamped has been in my Urgent file for about a week. And it's a toss-up whether I shall be able to write, even now. I am so utterly fagged out: in the last two nights I have written 5000 words of my Series of Letters to a Pupil [Magick Without Tears] - - - (This is where my pen hit the paper as I went half under.
All single-handed struggle: it's all I can do, at 68 1/4, to carry on. Still there is so much white-hot stuff in me, just surging-seething to emerge. Even when I've got it written, shall I be able to get it typed? and when typed - - -
If I quit for a cigar and a glass of port, maybe I'll feel better able to write at least a few of the 10,000 things I want so earnestly to say to you.
Bang!
Firstly, about Insurance Companies. They calculate that I.C.S. men average 5 years of life after retirement, and that whether they stay in India or come home. Moral: don't underrate the effects of shock, though you may not be conscious of them. Advice: flood yourself with spiritual Light; what you need to "renew your youth as the eagle's" is Romance and Adventure. I speak by the book; for two of my "old ladies" in California have become young women by adopting this simple measure.
27th [December] It wasn't any good: I had to abandon the unequal contest, and hide my diminished head under the bedclothes. Another effort now!
Since April 1904 when the Book of the Law was dictated to me in Cairo, I have been preparing a Machine to save the whole planet for the next 2000 years. Here are some of the principal parts:—
1. The Book of the Law (AL) containing internal evidence of its praeterhuman origin.
2. A number of inspired Books.
3. A number of Official Instructions for self-development.
4. A number of Treatises on Magick and similar themes. (Missing—the "First Steps" book that you rightly demanded!)
5. A public ceremony.
6. A series pf private ceremonies, leading up to the disclosure of a practical secret of inestimable value. (This secret is automatically protected against improper use or betrayal: Explanation too long to set down here.)
7. A slogan.
8. Forms of greeting: "will" before formal meals etc.
9. Designs for personal ornament.
10. A complete programme for political, economical, and social reconstruction.
And so on: I fear to weary your attention.
You will see at once how comprehensive is this plan, and how many of these items can be exploited so as to ensure the financial stability of the movement.
I have not included the publicity value of my own career, either straightforwardly or by means of an "English Dreyfus case"; but it is evidently very great.
Progress has been checked at critical moments on one occasion after another, but always from the same cause, the dishonesty or incompetence of the people in charge of the business side.
At the present moment there is need of a sum of from £1000 to £2000 working capital; and there is an excellent prospect of obtaining this. Provided that I can say that I have a colleague with some business experience to organize the whole affair properly, and to handle the details of the campaign.
Please give this letter your very careful thought, and arrange to have a talk with me before you vanish for your holiday, and before you decide definitely about your future residence. This is because I have a scheme half formulated by which each of several persons can enjoy the benefit of their combined incomes, somewhat on the lines of my Sicilian experiment [Abbey of Thelema], which worked so well until Mussolini panicked over foreigners who could read and write. (The last section of the Drug Fiend book [Diary of a Drug Fiend] gives a sketch of the life there.)
So I shall hope to see you in a few days:
Meanwhile the Happiest of Happy New Years!
Love is the law, lover under will.
Yours sincerely,
Aleister
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