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Correspondence from Aleister Crowley to Clare Maison
Aston Clinton Bucks.
July 7 [1944]
Dear Missus* Maison,
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.
Thanks for yours of 3rd. Sorry my letter came unsealed, with the 10/- note pinched! I'll get a P.O. next time I'm at the P.O. and send it along. Your suggestion that I had not enclosed it is extremely insulting; you had better apologise. Being a foreigner, I suppose! of course Allan [Allan Bennett] despised and loathed the 'occultist' as I do. But the Sammasati and Mahasatipatthana practices are "occult science", or there is no meaning in words. Allan and I were in absolute accord about Truth; we only differed as to convenience of nomenclature. I still harbour doubts about the world deciding to learn Pali, with all those crackjaw names!
You know nothing of Allan and you never will. You are a dear sweet romantic sentimental child; but your portrait of him will be exactly on a par with the average Brummagem—mass produced Buddarupa!
You learn nothing of a public man's private opinions from his platform manner, or his utterances when "on duty", or his propaganda writings. The trouble with you is that you are too damned innocent!
I have never heard any one jeer and snarl at Buddhism (not the theories, but as he found it in practice) as Allan did, and his eternal complaints of the meanness with which he was treated (mostly because they wouldn't build him a laboratory such as a great University would only see in a pipe-dream!) were a bore. And it was funny to hear him complain that they didn't cook his chicken the way he liked it!
Wait till you make contact with George Cecil Jones; he will be really bitter about it, seeing that he had to bear the brunt of it. I am writing to my lawyer for J's address; he is my senior trustee.
There is not as much as I thought about Allan in this volume—half [illegible] would see you through. I don't want to [illegible] by post. I should be delighted to be at your talk in August, if it is a 'reunion contrdictoire'.
I wonder if you will ever learn that first hand evidence is the only kind worth consideration. Your deductions from A's official writings are worthless. Get hold of a few private letters—oh how I wish I had some!
Please send the T.T.K. [Tao Teh King] by registered post; I'm a bit nervous about conditions in London. But I hope you will come through safely.
Love is the law, love under will.
Sincerely,
Aleister Crowley.
* Since you write to me as 'Mister'. These words are gross vulgarities, and insulting. Please don't!
P.S. May I point out that your smug superior "Buddha[illegible] [illegible]" is not the teaching of the Buddha. It is a later corruption, when the infernal tendency of men to rely on others, even making Gods of them in the process, had done its deadly work.
The works of the Buddha himself were: "Be a refuge unto yourselves Ananda!"
And this is identical with the Law of Thelema. A.B. [Allan Bennett] saw all this, and was at great pains to explain it away.
Do not forget that the Buddha passed away "by that kind of passing away that leaves nothing whatever behind".
But your whole attitude is just that of the Evangelical Christian, merely substituting the name of Buddha for that of Jesus. I recognize the psychology.
A.C.
Enclosure. P.O. for 10/- payable to Clare Maison from A. Crowley, Bell Inn, Aston Clinton, Bucks. You can't pocket this and pretend you never got it—since we're swapping insults.
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