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Correspondence from Charles Stansfeld Jones to Gerald Yorke
AEON OF TRUTH AND JUSTICE
9 May 1948
Dear Yorke,
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law!
Returning now to mundane matters relative to A.C.'s records, the Life etc. with which you are dealing at present.
I may first say that what letters I received from Germer [Karl Germer] I answered promptly; and dealt adequately and clearly with all questions he asked. I sent him some important items about the new revelations which unexpectedly cropped up, and I also wrote him fully and frankly on April 28th (on paper showing him the new symbol) in regard to the whole matter; also asking him a few simple questions, answers to which might clarify the situation. To none of these letters has he so far replied, nor have I received from him a copy of the Will he promised to send. That is how that aspect stands to date.
Meanwhile I have had time to look up various further records which had been stored away in various trunks, etc., and to which I had not referred for many years. These included my own original diaries, and so on. But they also included a small carton which contained a number of items which A.C. handed me personally shortly before we parted in Detroit (which was the last time I saw him in the flesh) in the nineteen-twenties. These items consisted of some notebooks relative to the old Golden Dawn, which formed links with the past, and some notebooks of special interest to me as his magical son, such as the one containing the record of the discovery of his "begetting" in 1915, and a few items relative to Sanctuary of the Gnosis which he wished me to keep in proper hands as G.[rand] M.[aster] and his representative.
Until a couple of days ago I had no occasion to look through these items in the last 20 years, so my memory was naturally hazy in their regard. However, on going over them there is an item of considerable interest which I certainly did not realise was there. This is a note-book of A.C. working with Virakam—Mrs. M. d'Este Sturges [Mary d'Este-Sturges] who "carried on" after Ouarda [Rose Kelly] the Seer became incapacitated. The inside cover is marked "Strictly Confidential" "No Carbon." But there is with it, I find, a type-script and one carbon complete which has never been issued. I don't quite know what to do about it. Is Mrs. Sturges still alive? (As a matter of fact I haven't even read it yet, so don't know just what's in it.) There may, of course, be another typescript which you have among A.C.'s effects. If not, with the above proviso that A.C. marked it "Strictly Confidential" I think I ought to send you the carbon copy for record—after completing it.
Practically all the other items have been issued or published in one form or another, as for instance the Golden Dawn note-books in The Equinox, and most of the others are crossed through in pencil, showing that typescripts have been made. There are a few incomplete notes; these I will go through with care in due course. But the chief discovery I have mentioned. There are, however, other important or more important ones to ask you about.
Among my personal records I have the typescript carbon A.C. gave me of DIARY OF MAGUS from June 28, 1916 to March 6, 1917. You probably have the typescript of this important section. Please look it up. It was sent to me at the time (before a notebook was given me) because it contained the record of discovery of the "conception" of "child". But it also, as I now find, contains details of assumption of "Curse of Magus" and the ritual devised for that purpose. In the light of current revelations and events this takes on terrible added significance. If other copies have not survived of that particular detail, "consideration" will have to be given of responsibility of letting any other person have means for failing under such curse which we hope has now been lifted from humanity. Please, therefore search carefully for this item. Three carbons, I think, made.
Next, there is another interesting thing. I knew that somewhere I had just one of A.C.'s black notebooks, which was left with me sometime or another, but apart from the parcel of items mentioned above. This I remembered contained record of The Hermit of Oesopus Island (where I spent a week with A.C. in magical retirement). Since hearing from you I searched everywhere for this item; eventually I found it in the attic. I now discover that the pages have not been crossed through in pencil—which looks as if it never had been transcribed. Have you a copy of that part of DIARY OF MAGUS? It dates from July 19 to September 21, An XIV. If not, something will have to be done about it. If I sent to you the original, would you have copies made for yourself and Germer and return original and an extra carbon to me? I want to help in every way I can, but others, as you suggested before, should do their share.
Finally, for this time, what became of A.C.'s original modernistic paintings painted in New York? There were many of them of a startling nature. I was there when he first began painting, and at the exhibition which caused such a fuss. These, doubtless, have been preserved. If not, however, there is further news for you. A.C. gave me two albums of photographs of the principal items—drawings and paintings. These I have now re-discovered as a result of my search in old boxes of records, etc. At some expense, photographic copies could be made if original (and other photographs) should by chance have been lost. Please look into this.
Am sending carbon of this to Germer.
Yours in Love and Unity,
Achad.
May 9 (later)
Dear Y,
Have now read record of working with Soror V.—and compared transcript with original note-book; in which certain words are scribbled out in ink.
Except that V. was A.C.'s mistress there seems little in record to account for the "strictly confidential" note. But careful study seems to disclose that, while drunk and under magical influence in these early workings, A.C. (whom V. in introduction to Bk. 4 Part 1 [Book 4 Part I] describes as "the most honest of all the great religious teachers") took advantage of the situation to "extract" from the lady certain jewellery which he afterwards hid in some place, with something else. (Where and with what, cannot discover.) He sort of put them in her hand and in her vision they magically disappeared and her own signature appears that record is O.K. This certainly would be a trifle "confidential", wouldn't it? A good thing he left record with me and I never troubled to read it. What do you think about it? Am of course not sending copy of this to G.[ermer].
J.
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