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Correspondence from Aleister Crowley to David Curwen
The Ridge, Hastings
6. 9. 45
Dear Brother Curwen:
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.
Thanks very much for your letter of 28th August with enclosures. I have only just started to study this as I have been enormously over-worked with other matters, and even got behind with my letters as my secretary so far forgot herself as to take a short holiday.
I will write to you further when I have given the enclosure proper study.
I must say however that one thing in your letter amuses me, because in one of the enclosures it all comes down to a matter of Kundalini and what is Kundalini? And the serpent, and what is the Greek work for serpentlike? Ophidian.
I feel more and more sure that you know a good deal more that at first I gave you credit for. As to my own attainments, it is certainly remarkable that in the East—by which I mean anywhere from Morocco to Kamakura—I am recognized as a "holy man" by strangers everywhere I go. It is also fair to say that I am practically the only European whose writings are recognized as serious and containing the true knowledge. But what puzzles me is that you should have got the idea that this knowledge is the kind that can be communicated in the same way as if you asked me what day of the week it was and I replied "Wednesday."
In your enclosures, that very point is insisted upon.
With regard to the practices, our plan is for the Probationer to pick out his own practice according to what he thinks will suit him. He has a number from the official publication of The Equinox to give him a very wide choice. Then eleven months later he sends in a record and one is able to guide him usefully.
Of course there are a few simple practices which are useful for all alike; for instance the control of the mind, which is taught in "Liber III vel Jugorum."
You must remember that I have aspirants from every part of the world, in every class of society, and there are some people to whom I can only write in what I may call the language of music, which to some other person would be completely meaningless.
Please accept my very sincere thanks for what you have sent me. I will ask you give me till Monday to study them conscientiously, and on that day I hope to write you again more fully.
Please do not consider that any financial question is involved in this correspondence. If you will look at the second paragraph on page 240 of Magick [Magick in Theory and Practice] you will see that you would be asking me to expel myself from everything, which would be rather a grotesque attitude for me to adopt. Any money that comes to me from my writings or work such as horoscopes, does not come to me, but goes to the treasurer of the Order who has full discretion to use it in any way that seems good to him.
Love is the law, love under will.
Yours fraternally,
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