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Correspondence from Aleister Crowley to William Bernard Crow
Aston Clinton Bucks
June 21 [1944]
Dear Brother and Right Reverend Father in God,
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.
When I opened your letter of the 17th the Sons of God shouted for joy. I leapt like a young markhar upon the rocks of Nanya Parbat!
Every phrase as it appeared came glittering as a new golden bond of eternal weddock. It is a most masterly production; it weeps into dull oblivion every seed of disunion. Shabash!
Let me confirm your theras seriatim.
Not Christian but Catholic: good. "Thelemite" is only one short step.
The Virgin-Harlot: absolutely sound.
The Gospels. Not much Qabalah in N.[ew] T.[estament] bar Apocalypse, which is of course full of it. But? Black.
Tibetan Buddhism. You know, I presume, that the two priests who first went to Lhasa reported to Rome that the Devil had devised their rituals etc. For they were essentially identical with the Roman liturgy, the idea being to take the wind out of the Christian sails, long before J.C. So à fortiori the Gnostic Mass is in harmony.
St Jasaphat: Easy to pass from the sublime to the ridiculous nulla vestigie setorsum!
This is the one point which I feel that you are unpractical. I think you should by-pass all these subtleties.
Your riposte about Eq[uino]x and Book of Thoth does not touch me, because these are technical works for the learned. What I put out as doctrine is the simple slogan.
Monophysites et hoc genus omne. My point is that J.C. is a hotch-potch of different teachers, not a person at all. You and I can prove that the Messiah (Matthew) is the Logos (John) but ordinary people who believe in either will have none of it. Such doctrine is for initiates, it drives away others.
The Hanged Man has nothing to do with the Law of Telema. Far from it! Wait till you see my 3 1/2 pp on it in the book (Haven't you got proofs, by the way?) It is the one trump that we have left as a link with the past Aeon.
Salvation? But—from what? Everyman and every woman is a star. And that's that.
"The word of Sin is Restriction" AL I 41. "nor do I demand aught in sacrifice" AL I 58.
The worship of Ra-Hoor-Khuit has sacrifices; but these are purely magical operations to produce willed results. There is no imperfection in the 'star'; it only appears as such when examining it phase of experience at the moment.
Your quotation from "Magick" [Magick in Theory and Practice]. Of course, that 'sense' is just his barrier; as you say, repression—or 'Restriction'. [Harry Prices' heart can be "lifted up"—in fact, it has to be from time to time!]
You need no funds as far as the conferring of powers is concerned. I am the scribe and prophet of the Book of the Law; the sole condition of complete adherence is merely the acceptance of that Book. Every group is completely autonomous.
This is most fortunate, since A.C. is not responsible for the Book. I was no more than the scribe. You should study The Eq[uino]x of the Gods very carefully and thoroughly. So you in no wise compromise yourself by association with that wicked man!
Purchase "Magick"? ! ? ! Don't I wish I could! The G.W.L. doesn't give 'authority', or the contrary, when you take 7º=4o Ademptus Exemptus you must have your claim to the grade by writing a text-book, or starting a group, or what not.
Before John Yarker died—he was 33° Scottish 90° Mizraim 97° Memphis (Grand Hierophant) he made me (I was already 33°) 90° and 96°. After he died the 97 passed to Papus, then to a centenarian in Spain whose name I can never remember, than to me.
But all the stuff worth while in all these ridiculous grades was recast by me into the 10° of the O.T.O. (Have you a "Blue Equinox"? It gives you all the dirt.) The skirmish of '14 - '18 E.V. stopped the open Work in England; but it went on in Canada and U.S.A. Still going strong.
John Yarker gave me a special dispensation "to revive the dormant Mt. Ararat and the Rose of Sharon" amplice "Do what you bloody well want to; only for God's sake, get something started!"
So I did.
Love is the law, love under will.
Fraternally,
666.
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