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Correspondence from Karl Germer to Phyllis Seckler
Hampton N.J.
May 5, 1953
Dear Phyllis,
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.
Yours of May 1, I wish I could be of help in Qabalah. But I can't. I have no imagination whatever, not the technical knowledge. I have gone through the magical names in Abramelin squares, and can't find any that are like Azar. If you take Aleph, Zain, Aleph, Resh you get 209, 11 x 9, one half of 418, on which you might speculate, or seek light. If you spell ASAR (with its obvious meaning) you get 262 = 2 x 131. The name Asra, Azra, seems to me biblical (or Ezra)—but I have never read the bible. Ask Jane [Jane Wolfe] who knows more about it.
Please understand that I make no claims whatever on Qabalistic (or technical) magical knowledge or interpretation. I am the very opposite of 666 in every respect. Once you get your copy of Magick Without Tears you may get some practical help in learning yourself.
However, I will say this, that I dislike your qabalistic counting of words in the ordinary English language, such as "I will to live", etc. English Qabalah has not yet been discovered; besides, English does not lend itself to it, anyway. With the older Greek and Arabic and Hebrew, or possibly much older name. I just find, for instance, the Ezra is a biblical name, if you take the letters as here written, they would add to 213, if only EZR = 212 =; but in Greek EZR would be 112 = s x 56. You'd have to consult Equ[inox] I, viii for fuller meanings. I'm too busy now!
I like your spiritual growth. Leave yourself to your H.G.A. [Holy Guardian Angel] and you can find no better guide for further progress.—
As to WTS [Wilfred T. Smith]: Never forget: I have never lifted A.C.'s old injunction re dropping all dealings with him. I must say I have looked with disfavour and suspicion on the chummy atmosphere that seems to have gradually developed. I made an exception with Jane, because of the Mass [Gnostic Mass]. But what has grown out of this is altogether different. From what you say, WTS argues; he has failed to cross the abyss; and so is eternally damned to the clutches of reason and 333. I had thought I could get WTS to do certain things to help, that's why I went along again; I'm afraid I have to reconsider. Please show this to Jane.
I have been, and still am, feverishly working on M.W.T. [Magick Without Tears]. The typist has been working on the loan machine we have had last week, and it turned out that the work she did was meticulously done.—BUT it is the wrong roller, the rubber is too soft, the impression is uneven. We have to scrap the masters once more! It is tragic. I won't get another roller before Thursday. And the new machine has been delayed. We need it badly because of the special types, such as ' ' ^ * ! =, the plus sign, and several others needed. I don't know how far we shall get. If necessary we shall have to print as far as possible, then send the Typewriter to California when Jean [Jean Sihvonen] - Ero [Ero Sihvonen] leave and you'd better finish this most important book, and we'd print it in Barstow. I'd ship the Multilith there. We'll see in a week or two, I hope.
Forget about my horoscope: we have so much to do! And I am far behind in what I have to do! M.W.T. will run to about 400 pages if not more.
May 6. I'll add a few lines.
In the early stages our primitive natures require actual, visible, sensible, proof of an outer being contacting us. I remember in my early period I sometimes asked for a definite sign in order to (a) reassure me in a sort of weak phase (b) to give evidence that I was on the right track. Yet: (this is important in my case!) I never connected such signs as coming from a definite outer being, I just took it as from 'God' or such things. My conception of the HGA has probably only been condensed after A.C.'s death. Funny? Unbelievable? It is so! The HGA has been taking almost violent, desperate means to bring me to the realisation of his existence and presence, and operation. But my hide was, and still is, too dense, so that A.C. once in the 1927 period wrote: "instead of a skin you have a carapace!" And this is not as a joke, but rather is despair.
Be, and feel, happy that you are better constituted! Later, the messages become more subtle, and so that one cannot distinguish them from what we call 'conscience' in many cases. There are people who carry on definite conversations, they hear voice—or other type—messages; the difficulty remains, however, to verify the source.
Achad [Charles Stansfeld Jones] got messages to the last; but they were, since his turning away from 666, not from his HGA, but its shadow, the Evil Persona. As it is hard to follow the voice of the HGA in later stages, because often things are demanded that seem outrageous, against all morals and ethics, there is a danger of falling prey to the sweet whisper of the other guy (cf. Jesus and the high mountain; in Achad's case it was the promise that he was to be the bloke of AL III, 45 (the child), and A.C. seduced him, and fortified this conviction (a magical test) by writing Liber Aleph.
"Neglect not the Dawn Meditation"! is one of the most important injunctions of A.C. (I only repeat: I don't do it myself! I can't meditate.) It is well to practice this as a routine, so as to be prepared when the HGA arranges a phase for one of the—let me call it—technical initiations or illuminations. Why do I mention this here? Because you write you were deep asleep when you got that one message and Only wrote it up, partly, after waking. In my Concentration Camp phase I was alone in my cell (when the crucial weeks came). I worked with hardly any interruption; sleep was broken up so that I never slept more than 3 hours at a time; and that "sleep" was light, and I snapped instantly back into work. If you read "John St. John" in Equ[inox] I, you have the same idea; except that A.C. did his op. by an effort of will and in 12 days. What I want to say is that such high water marks are secretly arranged by the HGA: then the conditions are right and will bring the result about. But the training of one's mind to waken instantly and fully at a touch, is always helpful.— — —
Well, I better stop now. This is running into a sermon! It is so easy to talk to you.
Love is the law, love under will.
Fraternally,
Karl
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