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Correspondence from Aleister Crowley to David Curwen
The Ridge, St. Leonards-on-Sea
2nd August, 1945
Dear Mr. Curwen:
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.
Thank you for the remarks on the two Letters. I think you have misunderstood altogether the scope of the work. I know there are gaps in the information given in the two which you bought and which I return, as they are your property—but you must understand that you cannot judge the whole book from such small fragments.
For instance, there is another letter devoted almost entirely to the subject pf the Masters. I think you should give me credit for my honesty instead of reproach[ing] me because I do not make authoritative statements based on my say so.
Some of your comments seem quite as if you had not read the sequel, for instance on the first page of Letter 18, because I say that the question is a difficult one, it does not follow of necessity that I am not supplying the answer later on, which I do, but I must ask you to remember that one of my oaths is to the effect that I will not make ex parte statements which are not based on corroborative evidence, external to myself.
I will call your special attention to your remarks about the Ophidian Vibration: there are quite a number of people known to me personally who use these Vibrations regularly and find that they obtain the results expected. You remind me of a man who is offered the stratosphereous [sic, Stradivarius] of a great master and then complains that he cannot get the same music form it.
Your remark on para. 3 of page 3 shows your literary ignorance. I am trying to state the conditions necessary to leadership. I do not say that I do not know; I say that I do know because of the word must.
Your remarks about the final paragraphs on that page: these are references to statements in some other Letter that you have not got.
I am not al all offended by what you say, but it does tell me that you have a chip on your shoulder and to me that is evidence of your disappointment. Now I have half-a-dozen other Letters in front of me expressing the exact opposite. Those who have followed my indication are extremely satisfied with the results. I won't ask you to get any more Letters, though of course you ought to have them to clear up the gaps in the two that you have got, because I hate to make any suggestion which might involve people in financial commitments otherwise than in the regular prospectus. What I do feel however, and that very strongly, is that you would benefit very much by meeting me personally. I think it would clear up a good deal of misapprehension.
If you could manage to find a spare day to come down to lunch with me I should be delighted. If you desire to do so all you have to do on arrival at Hastings is to walk down the hill to the Memorial, and ask for the bus stop of the No. 2 Circular route. It does not matter whether you go up or down, either gets her in about 20 minutes—5d in one case and 6d in the other.
If you want to stay the night I can probably get you a room in the cottage opposite, but in that case you must give me two or three days notice, and even if you come to lunch it would be as well to telephone me (Baldslow 19) the day before at 10 A.M. or between 7 and 8 P.M. so that I may keep the day free for you.
Hoping that this project may lead to a really sympathetic understanding I close this letter.
Love is the law, love under will.
Yours fraternally,
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