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Correspondence from Karl Germer to Jane Wolfe
K. J. GERMER 260 West 72 New York, N. Y.
April 1, 1944
Dear Jane,
93
Yours of March 29th with the M.O. [Money Order]. Thanks.—If this M.O. from Jack [Jack Parsons] means that you prefer to remit to me in the future for me to include with the rest, this will be quite all right. It would save expenses in any case.
My opinion is that it would be better for you to be Treasurer. It will avoid possible friction and ease personal relations. I had a talk with Frederick [Frederick Mellinger] and it seems to me that your age should preclude you from taking up household or other work which in the past has put too much strain on you. After all you have to take care of yourself.
As to your last passage let me say first this: no need to be impatient for A.C.'s reply to yours of Jan. 15th. Only if he would have replied at once could you have expected his letter for sure by now. But it is unlikely that he should sit down and reply immediately. He is preoccupied with other urgent matters, one of them being his personal safety and comfort. (I have seen from a letter to Roy [Roy Leffingwell] that a bomb hit within 250 yards from his place and smashed up everything. After all, "there is a war on" in England.) Second, he has no secretarial help, and I have been waiting for letters from him for quite some time.
But, perhaps, you will allow me to say a few things to your problem. A.C. has never talked to me on any degree in the A∴A∴ that I might have, though I remember that there were times when I was extremely impatient to hear from him just where I stood.
It seems to me that A.C. has somewhat come away from the point of view of where he stood back in the Cefalu days or before. I know of no case in the last 15 years or so where A.C. has conferred any A∴A∴ degree to anyone in the formal outward way. I know of no "pledges", diplomas or similar written documents issued or signed by prospective members of the A∴A∴ I know that this used to be different. Is it because A.C. has realised that the A∴A∴ is an invisible Order where checks are automatic and on a different plane of bookkeeping and records than here where people demand outer visible diplomas? If so, the change must have taken place before 1925 because I recall the case of Traenker [Heinrich Traenker] who had the IX° OTO and when A.C. turned up signing himself as 9º=2o he insisted on being told just what degree he held in the A∴A∴ system. A.C. never satisfied his desire.
I believe the best thing is to forget about this urge of the lower self to be told 'oh, you are this and that' or 'you have risen above so and so' or, what not. I thing this feeling of incertainty was very much at the bottom of Wilfred's [Wilfred Talbot Smith] troubles. The proof of attainment, in my view, is in the Work. Compare Liber LXI, 20-28. If that great reward which, since A.C. especially, everybody is waiting for is to come to somebody, it will come in a certain subtle passive state when the bride, the soul, has become without patience or impatience, and has learned the lesson to WAIT. See all those passages in the Holy Books [Volume I, Volume II, Volume III] that stress that point: LXV, ii 55-62; iii, 30-37; 63, 65; iv, 29, and lots of others. Also Liber VII, v. 46 and 47 where the stress is on "await", and on "passive love".
All this searching for it is poison. In Turgenieff's 'Fathers and Sons' somebody says: "There are three states of the soul: one, in which time flows too fast, one where time passes too slowly; and one where you do not notice time at all." It seems to me that this is the proper mental attitude. One must lose oneself in the Work in hand, no matter what it is at the moment.—You know the Holy Books well. I have always found that in difficult stages the reciting of these Books are soothing and calming and purifying. May-be you have another method. There are many roads that lead to Rome, and I wish yours will lead you there.
As to Wilfred handing out diplomas (of the A∴A∴) or setting A∴A∴ tasks, this seemed to me a presumption. I heard first about it when Perry Tull gave me the tasks Wilfred had set him—and was astounded. Frederick has told me his own case which shows that W.[ilfred Talbot Smith] set tasks which he certainly was incapable of judging, or criticising or examining himself. Does this not remind on of the A∴A∴ rule that nobody is to set tasks who is not entitled to it? Remember Captain (now General) Fuller [J.F.C. Fuller] who was thrown out of the A∴A∴ because of that very reason.
We have a Hierophant, and that is A.C. People who wanted to make progress in the A∴A∴ should have sent, or rather should have been encouraged to send their records to A.C. for advice and examination. But this was never done. Why? From the above you will see the obvious answer. Wilfred apparently never asked members to do this, but seemed to want to keep that job to himself, with the results we know. Even such intelligent people like Frederick have got a very wrong idea of the A∴A∴ What then should simpler minds think? I could write ages about all this, because I have seen the tragic results of these initial and vital failings for more than a year.
Good luck to you and write me whenever you feel like it.
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Love, yours,
Karl
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