|
Correspondence from David Curwen to Aleister Crowley
7a Melcombe Street Baker St. NW1
May 17th, 1946
Dear Brother, 666,
I am pleased to hear from you again, and I am grateful for your kind letter. Be of good cheer; when one is tired, one is sad, but remember the words of the Bhagavad Gitā:
"Thou grievest for that which should not be grieved for, yet speakest words of wisdom. The wise grieve neither for the living nor for the dead. Nor at any time verily was I not, nor though, nor these princes of men, nor verily shall we cease to be, hereafter. As the dweller in the body experienceth in the body of childhood, youth, old age, so passeth he on to another body; the steadfast one grieveth not thereat. The contacts of matter, giving cold and heat, pleasure and pain, they come and go, impermanent: endure them bravely. The man whom these torment not, O chief of men, balanced in pleasure and pain, he is fitted for immortality. The unreal hath no being; the real never ceaseth to be; the truth about both hath been perceived by the seers of the Essence of Things. Know THAT to be indestructible by whom all this is pervaded. Nor can any work the destruction of that imperishable One. Therefore stand up and fight, O Chief.
As to the elixir, take a cupful now and then, it will work wonders on you. When you are not feeling fit, take it. When you are sad, take it. It will cheer you, you will feel better. It will help your eyes. In telling you this, I am not considering the B[hairavi] D[hiksha] at all, only the medicinal effects on your physical and astral systems. I know you do not believe in an objective astral, as material to the physical; I do I know. If you wish for further proof, read Muldoon's book again. When you are out in your lower astral (for these are seven planes or qualities) you will then know how solid it can ve from your then angle. If you see symbolic visions such as obviously you are accustomed to, you are still dreaming, but in a higher plane than the ordinary dream. Anyway, I am not certain of how you think or believe on this subject. Do not blame my teacher for my Thrombosis. I have explained this to you before. I tried an experiment on myself, which maybe would kill an ordinary person who had not been carrying out the B.D. I do not wish to discuss this anymore. My suggestion now to you is purely medicinal. Take more salt (I know it is forbidden in the B.D.) and then take a cupful of the Elixir occasionally. You will thank me for it. DO not look for immediate results as one takes a stimulant. Take it at least an hour before or after meals. On top of a meal, it is likely to give you heartburn. For its marvelous effects, you do not have to wait for "Next Time." Meanwhile you are here. As Khayyam says "O, make the most of what you have to spend, before you also into the dust descend."
Do not worry about seeing me. I promise, I will see you as soon as I can make it. I am just waiting for a likely opportunity. I cannot go into explanations now, but I am just not free to come. As for writing; just write me when you are in the mood, it does not matter.
I am sending you the book of poems that you presented to Bertha Steinberg[1] possibly forty years ago, at least it was published about then. This lady is now a widow. She claims she was your secretary about twenty-five years ago; but then you must have had plenty of secretaries in your time.
I get The Occult Review every quarter and have never failed for many years to get it every time it comes out. I must admit there is hardly anything to read in it now-a-days, except a lot of theoretic meandering talk; possibly what you would call "wooly pomposities." However I have seen nothing about you in the April number. I am sending it to you as well, in case you have not seen it. But if I remember rightly, you are referring to last April, I mean the April of 1945. Somewhere among The Occult Review there was a nice article about you, and your poetry. I do not keep any copies long. What's the good of them anyway?
Neither have I delayed in wasting 8/6 d to read Marlow's book, which I am adding to the others. Do with them what you please. There were certainly some nice references to you, but little more than would fill a page. For a man who is your friend, he might have said more and worked you in to advantage. The rest of the book is just talk which when read leaves one feeling exactly like meeting a stranger in a restaurant, having a casual chat over nothing in particular, then saying good day. That was exactly the feeling Marlow left me with when I saw him the other day, in your room.
I tried to draw him out, but felt there was nothing to draw out except social scandal that gets one nowhere. Yet you spoke very highly of his mind and brains. Well, perhaps I'm wrong, but who cares anyway. My mood about everything in the world is and has been for a long time "What will it matter in a hundred years' time?"
Tell me now please, in connection with this travelling in the astral plane. How do you manage for one to travel with you in company? How do you draw them out with you? What happens when they are out? Can you see one another and travel together? It has always been in my mind to ask you, but I have forgotten to ask it.
Why have you never started a society on the lines of Dion Fortune's? That is an open forum where people meet and each can have their say. Where there is a yearly subscription paid, and lectures given. It is a great shame that so much writing must be lost by not having an open institution that all and sundry, who read your books, can come to. Never mind about initiation and rituals—invite people to join the let us say "The Thelema Occult Society" or some such names organization. You would be President, and others could manage the thing. Liber Legis could be the bible, if so you wish it, and we could take each sentence and build it up into something, for instance,
1. Had: The manifestation of Nuit.
From ancient times it was known among the elect, the adepts, how the universe came into being, It is the bounden duty of every living person to know something about it before he passes on from this world to the next. Only the animal is content to live without knowing. Among every race and civilization, past, present and future, there was, is and will be a secret tradition that teaches these things and so on! Every line of Liber AL can be taken and made into a whole dish.
Does this idea sound crazy to you? You will never get Liber Legis floated until you do something like this. Throw the thing wide open. Let them come in their thousands to find out what it is all about. At present you know that I think of how few know about it, and how depressingly fewer still understand it. There can be an inner and an outer section. Take a leaf out of the T.S. [Theosophical Society]. Go and do likewise. If you feel it is too late—let others do it for you.
Yours sincerely,
David Curwen אאל
1—Bertha Steinburg (b. 1892), a short-hand typist that probably worked for The Equinox or Wieland and Co.
|