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Correspondence from Aleister Crowley to William Bernard Crow
Aston Clinton, Bucks.
December 4th, 1944
Care Frater,
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.
I was very much relieved to have your friendly letter of November 26th, but very sorry to hear that your affairs are not yet straightened out. I had hoped that the arrangements at Leicester would have been satisfactory.
The main difficulty with regard to these Degrees seems to be that you are a formalist and legitimist, as indeed I used to be myself. If there were any penalty for using the Degrees D.D. and the like, I should support Newman heartily. As it is, he merely creates a false impression. I am a little annoyed personally because his D.C.L. led me to suppose that he could answer a difficult legal question, which indeed he did, and I daresay correctly, but that is not the same thing. I had supposed that he was wither a barrister or solicitor.
What you say about this country and freedom is unhappily most true.
I am very interested in what you say about Dr. Quilliam; for his father, as I suppose it was, was Grand Master of the O.T.O. in Turkey. I should like to know more of this, because, when I saw his son after his death, I gathered that he was not himself interested in these matters. Is it the same man?
What you say about a University is also literally accurate. But again I think you miss the point. If a man is introduced to me as an "old Cambridge man", it is not that we may admire each other for the schoolboy knowledge which enabled us to pass our examinations, but the three years of life according to special standards.
I am very sorry that I cannot let you have a copy of my book about the Gospels [The Gospel According to St. Bernard Shaw]. It got as far as the Press proofs; and the only copy that I possessed disappeared from my flat in 93 [93 Jermyn Street]. I can only think of one person who could have stolen it, and I expect you know who that is.
I hope that "Prediction" will decide in your favour. I want to draw your attention to "Magick" [Magick in Theory and Practice], p. 96, footnote, and p. 112, and refer you to the files of the "Daily Express" for December 23rd, 1937 as a complete case of prophecy fulfilled and testified, as is proper. In view of the present situation, you ought to find a ready acceptance for such an article. I do not in the least mind accepting the responsibility, and would give the publishers a guarantee that I would not take any legal action against them.
Love is the law, love under will,
Yours fraternally,
666.
Dec 5.
P.S. Yours of Dec 2. Many thanks for return of photos. Next time you are in Houston, Texas, you can call on Regina Kahl, who has moved there. I don't know who is priestess now. I should have some other pictures some place; if I can find them, I will send along. Can't think of other papers, bar The Two Worlds and the Psychic News. The Occult Review seems to have faded out. Ask a newsvendor!
In writing articles, soft pedal the Learning. It constantly overweights your style, even for me.
Hope for good news from you soon.
666.
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