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Correspondence from Aleister Crowley to Grady McMurtry
S.W.I.
die
March 15 [1944]
Dear Louis!
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.
O.K. about formality. Cast it out, except for the real official stuff: then, pile it on!
But I don't like the sound of the name Grady; it calls up the hideous spectre of Kipling! Louis is fine; a "Lewis" is any boy whose father is or was a Master Mason. And [illegible] = 46 and—no! You work out your own Qabalah this time!
I am very glad to hear of you
attitude to Army matters. It is good Magick, and good
Thelema, and good sense. But that doesn't interfere with
your doing Liber Resh. You can always do it mentally, as I
often do, when I don't want to interrupt a conference with
[illegible], for instance. [Funny! Called away from this letter by a telephone call from the Bank, I chose a lamp post in St James' Square to do the midday adoration. One of your boys thought I was in trouble, and offered to help me across the square!]
Yes: everybody is supposed to do Liber Resh. One point is too get reminders that you are doing the G∴W∴ [Great Work] so often that it becomes automatic to reaffirm Thelema at every moment of the day and night. Suppose you are stopped in the street by an acquaintance—the right greeting should spring instantly to your lips. Instantly. It doesn't make as much trouble as you would think: He said "How do you do?" or whatever it might be. You don't have to shout it; but it ought to be there, ready. This practice is No. 1 for learning concentration; you'll find out about it when you get on to some big job, such as Abramelin.
Don't consider your present way of life wasted. Fra V.N. [George Cecil Jones] used to practice at his work. Ask him "What are you doing?" suddenly: he will flash back at you: "I am fractionating this Ester" (or whatever it was) "in order that I may perform the Great Work." And so on. The game is to get your mind flowing in a constant rhythm. I want your own methods of doing this: they will be better, for you, than mine, with luck.
"Sterling [?]" ??? Surely that line is line 4 of "The Destruction of Sennacherib" (Byron) It begins: "The Assyrian came down like a wolf on the fold."
I'll go into your campaign ideas after I've seen Mr. S. about them to-morrow.
But—of course my name will be O.K. when I'm dead. But that doesn't pay my rent, or help me to make all the masses of first-rate unpublished work available to the world.
I'm really at the end of my rope. K.G. [Karl Germer] sent only 3/4 of the minimum arranged for this month; and I just can't carry on. I've had only one decent meal since Saturday; not too good, especially as in any case I haven't been able to offer the very necessary medical treatment that my health requires.
So my name may be cleared very soon indeed—even if my position in the target area is not pin-pointed! Last night was pretty bad: I'm getting over my first calf-love for raids. The fact is that worry, especially over getting the Book of Thoth out without disaster, has shaken my nerves up quite a bit.
Well, there's this good news for you: the Book [The Book of Thoth] has been printed off at last. Better still, there seems no difficulty at all about the binding. I have found a supply of genuine native-tanned and native-dyed goatskin from the Niger—what they call Morocco—in the colour (in the Emperor scale) of Hod. Cost 15/- a copy. So the volume will look astonishingly handsome, and well worth the £10.10.0.
The practical point is that as soon as I can get the first batch of 25 bound up, there should be not only the means of squaring all liabilities, but a surplus for overhead and the next book.
Meanwhile—
Take a new page for this!
"It's an ill wind that blows nobody good"—this time it's your chance to benefit. The "wind" is that the woman [Anne Macky] to and for whom I was to write the 50 letters [for Magick Without Tears] suddenly tells me that she has spent the money which she had put aside for them. So the £26.5.0 which was due last week is now at the hairdresser's or the hatter's or the brassiere king's (Hence my immediate hell; that and Karl's [Germer] 25% cut on the monthly cable.) Result: the copyright reverts to me. I can accordingly make you an offer. It is not 100% safe like the loan: the chief danger is that I might die before finishing the series; though, even so (a) enough to make a book is clearly written (b) it would, normally, be finished before the payments.
On the other hand, it might mean a small fortune; fifty years from now, it would be selling still better than to-day. Already, good evidence that it meets a need is to hand. Four different people came here and asked me questions. In every case, I was able to answer: "Oh, yes! I've dealt with that in No. ____. " and it has been exactly what was wanted. Of course the purchased can now put in his own questions, and I think that you would be an excellent man for the purpose, as you understand the "average" man (or woman) so much better than I do. The price would be £100, payable in 5 installments of £20 on the first of every month for 5 months. You would get 15% on the book (E.g. if the first edition were 1000 copies and sold at 10/- you would get £75. A cheap edition, sell at 4/-: you get 7 1/2% per copy. It adds up in the course of years; and after my death far, far better than while my carcass cumbers the decaying planet!
Now be a sport and take a chance on this; it could give me the feeling of security from actual starvation, or at least the destruction of headquarters, and consequently, of all my means of working. It would carry me until the Book is on the market.
Don't be cross with me for not understanding the economic cult which you at present think so overwhelmingly convincing. I don't nourish harsh thoughts of you for not knowing every variation of the Max Lange attack in the Giuoco Piano! I must admit I'm incurably sceptic about any economic theory, whatever. And at least I err in the company of practically all the experts, or something would have been done about it.
But if you mean (by your par. 2 on p 2) that the world is already finding itself in the conditions favourable to the adoption of [illegible] principles, I won't say you're wrong, and most sincerely hope you're right. But I don't think it's quite fair to blame me for "disregarding" it "because it is in the future". I take it into account in my calculations; and you say yourself that there is nothing one can do to help or hinder it.
That groggy line means that I'm fagged out: it's all I can do to pull myself together to finish this with a spurt.
So
93 93/93
Yours,
A.C.
I'll return "The Seeker" with notes in a day or two. To-night I'm all in. A.C.
Lieut Grady L. McMurtry 1475th OrdMM Co (Avn) (Q) A.P.O. 638 U.S. Army
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[Wednesday]