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Correspondence from to Gerald Yorke to Karl Germer
29 April 1948
Dear Germer,
Your 23/4/48.
Have you received the ring [Crowley's ring] and [the original manuscript of] The Book of the Law? I have paid Van Oppen 46 and the bulk of the books, etc sailed for New York on 24/4/48. Bulk of the MSS and a few books still to come.
I think that John Symonds is writing direct to Jane [Jane Wolfe]. Her account will help him considerable. Symonds has quite a lot of material on the Scarlet Woman aspect of Leah [Leah Hirsig] as recorded in her and A.C.'s magical diaries. He is bound therefore to bring in this side of the question. The poor woman was slightly out of her mind when she went with Mudd [Norman Mudd] to Spain and they wrote together a crazy letter putting "slygs" on the old boy, and finally breaking with him. This is such a curious document that I believe John will include it as an appendix. Any statements he makes will be based on letters and diaries which you may not yet have seen. There is a considerable amount of first-hand evidence on the Scarlet Woman aspect of Leah interpreted it, but much less on her as a normal and lovable woman. It is this side about which John would like more information. I got back to London yesterday and have not yet seen him. He has not let me read what he has written so far.
Now for Achad [Charles Stansfeld Jones]. I think he is bats or crazy; in A.C.'s language, Choronzon appears to be keeping him quite busy. I actually had six letters from him one morning. I wanted three things from him for the Crowley archives: Liber 31, A.C.'s early correspondence with him, and a treatise called Qoph Nia [Liber Qoph Nia vel Nomen Dei]. The first and the last were accepted as revelations of Liber Legis by the old boy, and the letters cover a period during which practically no letters survive among A.C.'s papers. I have now copies of these letters and of Liber 31, and have been promised Qoph Nia. I also wanted the Lection for VI° as A.C. lost his last copy. Achad has this, but will not send it to me. You might get it direct. It represents a trampling on the religious symbols of the old aeon.
We both mistrust certain passages in AL 220, and I agree with you as to a certain insanity of soul produced in many by close contact with A.C. I watched this disintegrate at least 3 so-called Scarlet Women. Achad was sound I think in Liber 31, and probably in Qoph Nia. From what I have seen of his subsequent work I am more than doubtful of the latter. My letters to him have set him off again, and as far as I can understand him, he now claims to be the prophet of the Aeon of MAAT, and to be declaring the Aeon of Horus to be over and its rituals to be out of date. This appears to be crazy, but I shall not pass final judgement until his spate of fresh revelations has worked itself out. At the moment I think him crazy. But I shall continue to keep in touch with him until I have got the typescript I want out of him, and shall keep his correspondence as a perfect example of disintegration as a result of AL 220. I will try and get him to send you a copy of Liber 31. Now that you are in direct touch—at first you both refused to write to each other—I will not refer to either of you in my letters to the other. I think we now understand each other on this.
Yours,
Gerald Yorke.
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