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Correspondence from Aleister Crowley to Karl Germer
The Ridge, Hastings. Permanent, I hope.
March 8. [1945]
Dear Karl,
93.
March 6 came Perique [tobacco] sent Dec 19, plus parcel from Sascha [Sascha Germer] with figs, chocolate, caviar, cake and a New Year's Greeting. Yours of Jan 6 and S's of 20 will doubtless come later. Many thanks!
I am evacuating Jermyn St [93 Jermyn Street] in driblets. This place seems perfect; so it is best to write here. Please advise those concerned.
Will send the last available Tarot [The Book of Thoth] to Mary K. [Mary K. Wolfe]. Shall have more in a week or so and will send one to F. Mellinger [Frederic Mellinger].
I, Grant [Kenneth Grant], and two others have done all sorts of chores about your 20 copies. They send us all sorts of forms; but none can be filled up in accordance with the facts. I am writing the binder about the next 20 copies, hoping he will know what to do.
Re IX° I meant all contributions to be credited, retrospectively, not merely from time they got IX°.
Yes, I heard of R.K.'s [Regina Kahl] death. There should be some sort of memorial—e.g. an annual lecture in her house. You all can fix this up between you.
There is a question of reinstating 132 [Wilfred Talbot Smith]. He is a God, or else out-of-it altogether. Why the devil nobody can understand so simple a position beats me. But—don't let the same Black Widow Spider sting you twice!
Don't ask me to interfere with your plans re contributions. I enclose brief memo, as to overhead—now quite different to Aston Clinton [the Bell Inn].
I cannot comment on war. None of us know any of the relevant facts. E.g. British Press is taking a smart (and rather savage) revenge for U.S.A. complaints about reporting their share. To read the papers this last 6 weeks or more, one would think that G.[reat] B.[ritain] wasn't in the war at all!!
"Canadian 1st Army" has 80% British troops; but "Oh no, we never mention them, Their name is never heard"! ! ! There's a row cooking up!
Georgia's [Georgia Schneider] letters seem fine.
Your note to IX°s O.K.
Jane's [Jane Wolfe] letter—rather confusing.
Summary. I feel that there is a new spirit abroad, and a good one. But so long as 132 is in any sort of contact with any of the O.T.O. to make trouble, then trouble there is going to be!
93 93/93.
Fraternally,
666.
Yours,
Aleister.
P.S. Yours of Feb 20. By same mail chit from Helen [Helen Parsons] and one from Smith [Wilfred Talbot Smith]. I don't enclose copies of my answers. Same all over again.
Letters. All literary criticism is the bunk. Dr. Johnson could see nothing in Shakespeare but "unhappy barbarians". Most men of to-day, including A.C. cannot read Milton's "Paradise Lost". Jane Austen bores me; many think her the greatest English novelist. I can't wade through Dickens or Thackeray. Few can read Browning at all; this goes for me for at least 2/3 of him. But the other 1/3 is a tireless pleasure; and about 10% of that is actually built into my spinal cord! And this often though I devoutly disagree with what he says. Queer? Yes. But so.
Then you don't say what you mean by my "worst style". I suspect it is when I take you up to 31,000 feet and drop you by parachute which fails to open! Is that right?
I am judging by your fondness for [illegible] and their kind. Please remember that I can't stand Plato or Plotinus or ——— well, anybody that is overloaded with abstract nouns which he can't , or doesn't define.
You retort that I am a lowbrow, and the answer is: Yes, I am.
Another point is that I cannot appreciate anything unless is possesses structure, has clean sharp edges, incapable of actual visualisation, or something very like it. You remember that Lord Kelvin said that he could not imagine anything of which he could not make a mechanical model. Well, I'm not like that; but I have a similar kind of limitation.
There is a short passage in one of Anatole France's odds and ends where he takes some specially "holy" and "exalted" phrase from some Great Mystic, puts it in clear imagery, and it comes out like a Hymn from one of the Vedas; then translates again into the original meaning of the words, and it becomes a sort of nonsense-poem of primitive savages.
I would give a lot to find that passage again!
I once showed Joe Walker my commentary on AL I. 4 hoping to clear up a mystery. But because I used the word "mystery" he wouldn't read it! Like the old Admiral who disinherited his nephew for having sent a paper attacking Social[?]. The word itself was a "Sore Spot" —see Z.25, last but 2 of my 'letters' so far. I must send you a copy.
By the way, about attracting people to O.T.O. I still think Liber OZ is the best bet. There is a vile threat to the "rugged American individualism" which actually created the U.S.A. by the bureaucratic crowd who want society to be a convivial prison.
"Safety First"—There is no 'social insecurity', no fear for the future, no anxiety about what to do next—in Sing Sing.
All the totalitarian schemes add up to the same in the end. And the approach is so insidious, the arguments so subtle and irrefutable, the advantages so obvious, that the danger is very real, very insistent, very difficult to bring home to the average citizen, who sees only the immediate gain, and is hoodwinked as to the price that must be paid for it.
Grant [Kenneth Grant]. I dealt with this in the former part of this letter. What we must do is to organize: not only the Magick, but the literary side. This is a good moment to start some sort of society, being a landmark—my 70th birthday, if I can make the grade!
We should make definite plans after conference with a few people over here; and when they are cut and dried, we should present them to you to link up with U.S.A. "fans".
Certainly, put as much Perique as you can in store. It is now possible to get it in London, but I don't think the quality as good.
1003 [1003 S. Orange Grove Avenue]. Don't you know "Mille [illegible]", the number of Don Juan's affaires de coeur? I thought everyone did.
Letters again: do remember that I am trying to get hold of average Saturday Evening Post readers. There is no intention to expand anything new. Occasionally, a subject has led me into discussing things which I have not previously reviewed; but that is accidental, as a rule. It may be something that has come up in correspondence or discussion, and I have gleefully shrieked: Ah! there's an idea for a letter.
House[?]—see Helen's latest! I must now give her what she wants, as well as I can; probably that will assume the "latter" form; it brings up questions which were not covered by XXX on "Mothers Love".
I do not understand in the least what you mean by "the man from England". Am I in dementia praecox?
I enclose a very special letter to Sascha. I do hope all will go well. Your weather should be getting much better by now.
I hope your latest Barabbas does some good with the Tarot.
666.
Yours Feb 4 just in (March 12). This seems out-of-date, yours of 14th having been here for 10 days or more.
A.C.
Yours of 16 Feb. Am putting Agape [Lodge] under Interdict. Details herewith. [eleven-fold cross] Baphomet.
P.P.S. Yours of Feb 14 with various copies. [illegible] Ray—or anyone according to your discretion.
Where id 'Majdauch'? If the other side of Hell, let him go by all means!
Why can't they understand that all communications of any kind between S. [Wilfred Talbot Smith] and O.T.O. are banned? He must stand on his own feet—not on our toes!
666.
Memo of overhead March '45 E.V.
Special temporary expense: renewal wardrobe, shoes, etc approx. £15. 0. 0.
Only a guess. But most necessary; have had only 2 suits in 5 years.
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