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Correspondence from Aleister Crowley to Jane Wolfe
The Ridge, Hastings
3. 4. 46
Dear Jane,
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.
I am really very naughty not to have answered your letter of March 18th until now, but (for one thing) the Equinox always gives a lot of trouble, sending out the Word [Word of the Equinox], to say nothing of getting it. On the top of that I have found a printer, and we are going ahead with 'Olla' a selection of 60 years of Song. And on the top of that Dr. Louis Wilkinson (Frater per terran ad astra) is editing the long Commentary of the Book of the Law that I wrote. I think I sent a copy to Jack [Jack Parsons], and probably you will like to see it.
We are going to publish an abridged version of this Commentary, cutting out all the stuff that is too difficult for the average reader, and he is going to write a very elaborate and full introduction to the book. We have got Jack interested in this, and he has been very helpful.
What you say about him is rather see-saw, but I think I understand what you mean, and if so I think that you are right. In my judgment the only real trouble with him is his youth, and the flightiness which always goes with youth when they are made of good stuff, because their enthusiasms reach very deep and so are liable to carry them away for the moment.
I am terribly distressed to hear that you have been so ill, I had no idea of it, but I am very glad you have got over this stage in your career.
I know it is very difficult to understand about the interchange of the Star and the Emperor, but you ought to have been able to grasp its full implication from the Book of Thoth: Aries goes with the Emperor because it is the ruling, dominating, commanding sign of the Zodiac; the only thing to alter it is the Hebrew letter which corresponds with him, obviously Tzaddi, obviously not Hé.
I am still overwhelmed with work. Frater PTAA [Louis Wilkinson] has been here for the weekend forcing me to discuss this infernal Commentary. As soon as I wrote it, 25 years ago, I have always refused to look at it, even to correct literals when it was typed or re-typed. This is due to my intense dissatisfaction with my work. You see I intended to put in a Qabalistic appendix, in fact the only reason for getting Mudd [Norman Mudd] over to Sicily in the unluckiest hour of my life, was for this purpose, and of course he never did a stroke of work on it, so you can imagine that I am three parts dead.
By the way he is issuing a book this week which refers on several occasions to me; I am sending you a copy as soon as it appears.
Love is the law, love under will.
Yours ever,
Aleister.
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