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Correspondence from Aleister Crowley to Karl Germer
The Ridge, Hastings.
19. 6. 46
Care Frater,
In case this letter should miss you in New York, I am having an extra copy made and sending it to Frater H.A. (Capt. Grady L. McMurtry, 1661, Sacramento Street, Apt. 3, San Francisco 9).
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.
You fail to make my flesh creep with yours of June 12. It is inconceivable after all these years, but you seem to fail to understand how Magick works. The safeguards are automatic.
The reasons for the apparent secrecy of which we make so much are really unnecessary. Let me put it to you like this:—
First of all, I hand out these terribly destroying documents to the first typist that I find handy, without taking the slightest precautions and without a qualm. You might think that I was myself breaking my oaths. If there were any real need of secrecy, how easy it would be for me to send every 3rd or 4th page of the documents to as many different typists and re-assemble them afterwards. But it simply is not worth while taking the trouble.
What are the odds against a typist understanding the importance, the value, the practical application or even any kind of significance whatever in those documents? The chance is negligible.
But, we will now suppose that the complete document from one chance or another fell into the hands of a complete stranger interested in the subject, and who has the intelligence to appreciate the value of those documents.
Even so, what is the chance that that person will also have the original magical capacity, the magical power, and the magical training to carry out these instructions? Again, it is negligible.
But granting all this, what use can that person make of the information in any way contrary to his own True Will? It simply cannot be done.
For mischief to arise therefore one would have to imagine that these documents fell into the hands of an already prominent member of some Black Lodge or other. Consider the reaction. The nature of the formula would appeal to him; it would be as if a man who was looking for the formula of the secret arrow poison of the South American Indians so as to get rid of a rich aunt at the right moment got the prescription and on translating it found it was merely a cure for mumps. What would be his position: he would give a sharp bark of disappointment and tear up the whole thing with a curse.
But in the case of anyone who is in legitimate possession of those documents the matter assumes an entirely different aspect. He has fixed his True Will publicly by oaths so that he cannot possibly use the formula in opposition to those oaths. All he would do by attempting any such misconduct would be to invoke the Thaumiel, the Qliphoth of Kether, which translated into modern jargon would mean that he was in for schizophrenia.
You apparently seem inclined to reproach me for having trusted Frater 210 [Jack Parsons] as deeply as I did, but I did this on purpose in accordance with an ancient and well-known magical formula.
Our Work is not to be considered in the same light as that of some ordinary business concern where it is possible to steal property or secret information and get away with it. In our case the deeper I trust a man the deeper he is committed to the appropriate penalties should he betray that trust.
It has nothing to do with inflicting penalties and all that sort of thing. If you will read the last paragraph of “The Vision and the Voice” you will see what the position actually is, and if I were to take any overt measures of a penal character, I should myself be cutting myself off from the perfect protection which I should otherwise enjoy.
If I have an Atom Bomb in my pocket it is silly for me to go out and buy a derringer, and to do so in such a case would simply be to deprive myself of the right of using my bomb.
Now we come to the subject of authority. My original appointment of you as my Viceroy and Plenipotentiary covers everything even apart from you, Frater H.A. has an authority which enables him to supersede Frater 210 whenever he pleases. The only limitation on his power in California is that any decision which he takes is subject to revision or veto by yourself.
I do not wish to advise either you or Frater H.A. to take any definite action. You are more or less on the spot and in a position to form your own judgment and to exercise your authority as you deem fit.
From the information in your letter from Frater R.L. [Roy Leffingwell]. it seems that Frater 210 attaches some importance to his supposed authority in the Lodge. Here then is your big stick. You can suspend him or expel him or you can summon him to appear for trial before the Grand Consistory whose members you yourself nominate, and act accordingly.
I think the above may be considered as covering the main points of your letter of June 12. For minor matters I will write separately.
Yours ever,
[eleven-fold cross] Baphomet O.H.O.
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