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Correspondence from Aleister Crowley to David Curwen
The Ridge, Hastings
9. 10. 45
Dear Brother Curwen:
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.
Thanks very much for yours of the 5th inst. It is very kind of you to have copied out the Hung Mung passage. It is of course very familiar to me. I made a translation of the Tao Teh King myself during my great magical retirement on the Esopus Island from a Codex presented to me astrally by a Chinese adept.
Some say that the ordinary translations of the book are mostly unintelligible to them, but that mine is really clear.
I have copies of Liber Aleph which you may want to study. Some people think it is perhaps the most important thing that has ever come from my pen; considering the conditions in which it was written that may well be so, and the work led directly to one of the most important communications that I have ever had from a Master with whom I conversed for a period of several months almost nightly.
Yes, I like very much to have your letters; they do interest me and give me a lot to think about. What you say about the average letter is also very true, and very sad. My oath compels me to take all these things seriously and answer them with my best attention and ability.
Now about the secret of the amrita. That is the one practical secret which we possess that has to be kept secret, but there are enough hints given in various writings, all of which are accessible to you, which your intelligence ought to be able to interpret.
The Rituals of the O.T.O. lead progressively to the disclosure of that secret, but without going through all that rigamarole it is possible to put me in the position in which I am compelled to explain—where you can so to speak put a pistol to my head and say "Now talk!"
The way to do this is to find out from the ample hints and indications what the amrita consists of, then you tell me and I am compelled in self-defense to swear you in.
That, in fact, is how I got the secret myself, though inadvertently. I had published the secret to which you refer in your paragraph 6, though inadvertently. The passage was given to me in a strange way and [it was] one against which I instinctively revolted, although I did not understand the actual meaning of what I had written.
However this passage came under the notice of the Head of the Order and he came to me and said: "Look here, this won't do at all, you have published our secret and you must join the Order." Even so, he had to explain to me what it really meant, but once I understood I realized that he was right.
I may say, however, that the secret as at that time possessed by the Order was in a very crude and unscientific form and there was no explanation of the conditions which had to be brought about to get it to work, and I spent many years of experiment finding out what those conditions were.
However it will be good enough if you indicate to me the nature of the secret in its crude form.
With regard to the Letters, I will dig out a selection and send them to you.
I will see if I have a copy left of Liber Aleph. I have been sending these copies to people at £10 a time. It is rather an elaborate book and it will probably be a long time before we can get it printed, that is why the price has had to be so high.
Love is the law, love under will.
Yours fraternally,
David Curwen, Esq. 7a Melcombe Street Baker Street, NW1
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