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Correspondence from Aleister Crowley to David Curwen
The Ridge, Baldslow, Hastings
7th November 1945
Dear Brother Curwen:
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.
According to my promise I am dictating my first letter this week to you. I am sending you today under separate cover the preliminary O.T.O. papers as well as your typescript, by registered post.
About the O.T.O.: the financial aspect of it is that the cumulative initiation fees to the 9th Degree amount to 120 guineas, the annual subscription is 33 guineas. Normally of course this is spread over a considerable number of years. Per contra, smaller fees for the lesser grades are remitted if you are a Freemason of the corresponding grade.
You will see from one of the papers what are the privileges and duties of the brethren, but I think it will make it clearer if I explain that on becoming a member of the 9th degree [of] the Sovereign Sanctuary of Gnosis, you become a participant in the property of the Order, which consists principally of real estate, copyrights, stock and pictures. You have an equal share with all the other members of the Sanctuary.
I do not know at the moment exactly how many members there are because I have not yet heard from the Continent and South America, connection with which was suspended during the war. But speaking for myself I should consider myself a great fool if I were to sell my share for 1000. The value of the copyrights in particular is rapidly rising.
The unfortunate part of the business is that while the income is very ample indeed, there is not enough available capital to undertake various important and very profitable enterprises, such as issuing a pack of Tarot Cards in colour and many other things of the sort. Almost every day I have to refuse people who want to buy this or that book, but I must have had at least one hundred applications for various items this year, and if we could get out reasonably cheap editions of the principal items we should be doing very well indeed. You see the effect is cumulative.
Now to less tedious subjects. As you know certain schools teach that the amrita flows naturally and normally from the brahmarandra-Cakra. This id however caught by the fires of Agni in the stomach and its virtue destroyed, hence the practice of sawing away the fraenum linguae with a splinter of bone saying the appropriate mantras until you can turn back the tongue to close the hemal of the palate.
I mention this because it is a tip of great importance in practical working. You must not swallow the Elixir; it must be allowed to soak into the system through the mucous membrane.
The Elixir has of course to be treated as a talisman; that is to say, it has to be properly charged with magical energy so that it will perform the particular task for which you have created it. Observe: Nature can never be bought; when yod impregnates He, Vau and He finally must be produced. Therefore if this Vau is inert and caused to waste, it may become the vehicle for one of the wandering Qliphoth.
You can read up this whole subject in Magick [Magick in Theory and Practice] in the chapter on the Magical Link.
I have been assuming by the way that the use of mantras is the Indian equivalent of our methods of invocation and the like, by which we charge the Talisman.
One word about the first matter: that Elixir of which you have written has been removed by an elaborate apparatus constructed for the purpose, whereas with our wart on the nose it is produced by nature with the definite object of creation.
In The Book of Lies it says (I have not got the words quite right) "Thou canst create nothing which is not wholly God."
Now let me deal with the points of your letters of Oct. 23, 24, 25 and 30 seriatim. I think it would be wiser to discuss your remarks on the Lion and Eagle when we meet.
I have worked upon this crude secret as it was given to me for many years, and made literally thousands of experiments, but there are still many conditions of success which elude me. I consider myself doing very well if I am successful twice in three times. Much research still remains to be done.
You are quite right with regard to the article "Energised Enthusiasm."
I have not yet dug out the Letters which I was going to send you from the series but if you become a fully paid-up member of the Ninth Degree you receive a complete set of seventy or more free of all charge.
Your postscript: Regudny or Regutny [Israel Regardie] is a foul creature; all that he has printed had been stolen, either from me or from elderly women on whom he has battened.
Yours of 24th: Thanks for the 10 duly received.
I admit having been very muddy about manuscripts, but for the last six months I have been almost without assistance and in a completely poisoned condition, as my dentist has been extracting a lot of troublesome items, and his operations have been letting loose floods of poison into my system. He has practically finished now and I am accordingly feeling very much better, but finished now and I am accordingly feeling very much better, but even as it is, I find myself incapable of sorting out papers which were got into confusion by the efforts of a boy who I was trying to train to be a secretary, and he messed everything up.
You must suit your own convenience about the payments in connection with the O.T.O. but I should like to know what proposal you make.
Your postscript: it is not a childish game; it is a point of good manners. My Secretary, though nearly incapable of error is not absolutely so, and so if a letter goes off without my having seen, revised it and signed it, I wish to avoid responsibility for it.
Petus, in your second letter of Oct. 23, was right in what he says. The Masters do send you whatever you need, which however is not necessarily what you think you need.
Your letter of Oct. 25th: I thank you for your warning, but I should certainly not make any attempt to start anything without your skilled guidance.
If you get any pamphlets of Baxter's I should be glad to have the loan of them for a few days.
Yours of Nov. 30th: I was exceedingly rejoiced to hear that at last you have appreciated the work which I have been trying to do for mankind. Among the Letters in the series is one explaining why my style is so frequently lighthearted; it is because I am internally thrilled with constant joy, and also it is a reaction against the horrible priggishness and sham piety of the average writer on these subjects.
Of course I will help you about Vitriol, and anything else you like, but it is better for you to run down one day to lunch. There is a good train at 10.46 and you could get back by the 5.5. I would have a car to meet you at the station.
Please be quite clear that The Book of the Law is not my writing in any sense of the word, except that I was the scribe chosen to write it down from dictation. It is not in this book that the passage occurs which caused the head of the O.T.O. to come to me and bully me into joining the Order.
I think that I have now covered every point in your letters and will say farewell for the time.
Love is the law, love under will.
Yours fraternally,
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