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Correspondence from Karl Germer to Grady McMurtry
K. J. GERMER 260 West 72nd Street New York 23, N. Y. ENDICOTT 2-6799
April 6, 1946.
Dear Grady,
93,
What I meant about Jack [Jack Parsons] / Roy [Roy Leffingwell] was I thought under the circumstances, and especially so as Jack has to devote all his thought and energy to his new venture, Roy seems to me the only one to take over. I don’t know Roy personally, only from his letters, which show him somewhat erratic. There is one angle I like about the development, it is that the various groups seem to be able to work together, if even in a loose way only. Have you heard from Aleister in the matter yet? He wanted to write you.
I can well understand that Jack’s March 6 letter ‘is a little too deep for me’. He seems to have had an illumination. But what kind? For me it has earmarks of a very bad kind of source. I have not written Aleister about it yet. It is not quite fair for me to judge. Jack was in the last year or so in direct touch with A.C. and I am hardly informed about Jack’s spiritual experiences during this period. So I can’t fit this experience of his into a pattern, and my view should have no authority. I can only say that certain passages of his letter remind me of the record of an illumination a certain brother had many years ago which came from the ‘Evil Persona’. I do wish this is not the case here.
I was very glad to hear of the various thelemic books you have been able to collect. 777 should not be so important for you as long as you have Magick in Theory and Practice, which in pp. 303 to 324 contains the important tables from 777. You say you have parts 1, ii, & III, so you should have those tables. Incidentally, a parcel has just been announced from the Customs and yesterday I went to look at it: it is from A.C. who is sending me a set of Magick in all four parts. I expect to get it next week after it has passed the Appraiser. As I have a complete volume in my library, I could send you this set as a loan for your library and use in your work. A copy of The Diary of a Drug Fiend is announced for sale by the CORONET BOOK SHOP, 622 St. Peter St., New Orleans 16, La. for $2.50. If you want it, write him direct. I have an extra copy of Liber Aleph, and I have started revising it. When ready, I’ll mail it to you, and you can return it at your leisure. You should try to get Eight Lectures on Yoga, Little Essays Toward Truth, The Heart of The Master, all by A.C. Ask Agape Lodge, they had some copies left. If you don’t have a copy of A.C.’s version of the Tao Teh King, let me know, and I’ll mail you a typescript with Liber Aleph. Does your Set of Equinox include the ‘Blue Equ[inox].’? If not, I can loan you a spare copy. You ought to get a copy of The Winged Beetle, a volume of A.C.’s poems later than those in the Coll[ected]. Works. Do you know ‘The Stratagem’ and other short stories by A.C.? I have a spare copy of this too. I have the policy of buying up anything by A.C. that I can lay my hand on at a reasonable price. Please do likewise. If you are short with cash, let me know. I can always scrape a few dollars together for that purpose. Every group should have all the reference books available. It must only be understood that such books remain the property of Grand Lodge. I mean those toward whose purchase I, or Grand Lodge, contribute or pay in full. I just notice, you have a Tao Teh King, do that is that.
About your possible trip to London. Should this become necessary in the interest of the Work, and Jack should have to be asked for financial help, any personal question of ‘I’ should not come up. From some experiences I had with Jack, Smith [Wilfred Talbot Smith] et al, I have seen a very peculiar attitude towards money. Lately my attention has been called to it again. Now you say, he might be thinking of ‘being ‘dug’ for someone else’s benefit’; that he feels ‘he has been imposed on in the past’. Jack has been given the IXº; a very prominent position in the Order at an extremely young age; he has received benefit of private instruction, MSS., of a unique kind. (It is true he gave $300 or even more for the Tarot [The Book of Thoth]; but against this he received seven copies of the book which he sold.) For a period he was very helpful to the Treasurer financially. But even if I sum up his total over the last three or four years, it does not reach the figure of my personal contribution of say, one single year since I came to America in 1941. And I have never had a whiff of a thought of being ‘imposed on’. In every year, for over 20 years, I have borne the main burden for carrying on the Work. I have from the start identified myself with the Work. The Work and I are one, as far as my consciousness is concerned. So the thought of being ‘imposed on’ cannot arise. You cannot ‘buy’ the Work. You cannot buy the favour of the Gods. You cannot cheat Them. ‘They’ keep the upper hand all the time, and if somebody should think he can get something in the Great Work at a bargain, he will find that he was tested and that he was thrown aside as worthless.
So, if the need should come, there is no reason why Jack should not be asked, if he has it. When the need arises, the Gods will provide the means and will offer the chance to serve as a privilege.
But you are right: if Jack should have some business in England, and if he should be considered worthy by the Gods, no reason why he should not take the job. Too early now; let’s see what happens.
93 93/93
Ever yours
Karl
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