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Correspondence from Phyllis Seckler to Karl Germer
18862 Casa Blanca Lane Saratoga, Calif.
March 11, 1962
Dear Karl
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.
Thank you so much for Liber Aleph, which I received yesterday. Enclosed is a check for $10, to pay for it and also for an extra copy if you have one to spare. I would like to give the extra as a gift to Bruce if he would like it. Please note that the check is dated for April 1, 1962. The budget is always in a sorry state after the 5th of the month for Bill [Ward] and I are engaged in paying off debts too numerous to mention. I hope this postdating of the check won't inconvenience you but I would rather you had it right now than wait for April 1.
Also you will find enclosed a circular form the Mystic Arts Book Society. Do you suppose they might be useful in publishing some of Crowley's works? The Editorial Director—John C. Wilson—has said some of the most sensible things about Crowley that I have heard in some time. I almost sat down to write to him to comment him on his common sense but thought that perhaps I had better not. What do you think?
Who wrote the description on the book jacket of Liber Aleph? Was it Marcello Motta? Bickie [Phyllis Seckler's son] has been fascinated for a long time by Marcello and would like to have his address. Are you still in touch with him?
My health is 100% improved since Saturn transited out of an opposition to natal Saturn. I knew this would happen and deeply regret having consulted a Dr. about it all. However, maybe his medicine did have an effect on the virus I was suffering from, who knows?
Your last letter set me deeply thinking so that I didn't know quite how to answer it but I think perhaps I ought to clear up a few points. Yes, Thelema is a whole job as you suggest. I have always thrown myself heart and soul into the spirit of The Book of the Law and have gained much supreme joy out of the guidance received therein. But your sentence made me wonder if you meant that I had not enough time for Thelemic matters. There is always enough time in the thoughts even if not in the daily life. I must work for I have no independent income. If I am married there is a chance that outside work may some day cease. If I am single there is no remote chance of this. My attitude towards marriage is a funny mixture but please to remember that the Angel ordered me to do this. However, all my love comes through and to the Angel and Nuit—or that is where the intensity of it lies. Quite different than when in the poetry writing stage. Love for other people, for my work, for the garden, for painting, for beauty, then spills out of the main concentration. Needless to say, many things can happen now without upsetting me too much. I find life is truly joyful. I sing paens of praise in my interior every day. Kind of mystical, isn't it? I guess I am just that type.
Now you say that "Thelema is a whole job. Its guardians watch the few disciples that show promise closely, and, may I say 'jealousy?'—that they do not share Thelema with lesser pursuits, or old sweetnesses."
Here you have me stumped. Lesser pursuits? One does what one has to do and does it with praise and joy. I have Saturn in the 4th house so this has always given me very heavy home burdens. I expect this configuration will always behave this way. There is probably some deep soul lesson in it for me. Now that the children are grown and all in college this burden still continues and actually I can't let any of them down by cutting off money or similar things. When Bill [Ward] has needed assistance so that the business can develop and some day may yield considerable returns, who knows? If it does I have a certain percentage of the profit marked for Thelemic books only. The whole thing is a gamble but then so is much of life. So those are my bones in that department. Then comes the necessity to help others—hence the letters to Bruce and the training of Bickie. Who knows where all that may end?
It is true I spend much time creating beauty for I love life so much I can't live without it. I must paint and garden and weave and all the rest of it just so beauty is created in the surroundings. I have not been fitted by nature to create it in great public works—as Frank Lloyd Wright did. My efforts have always been domestic and personal. Some day I might possibly support myself a little by selling ceramics and paintings and weaving but it would never be possible to make as good a living from it as I do now from teaching. That is due to the structure of the modern world and also to some of my own shortcomings.
The word "old sweetnesses" I thought applied to the Scarlet Woman. Here I do not understand your use of this thought out of context, as it were. It certainly mystifies me and I scarcely think using those words applies in my case. Unless you have something else in mind which you do not explain.
If I am ever in a position where I don't have to teach I would certainly like to write. But I must have absolute quiet to do it for the family says one sentence to me and the whole chapter flies out the window. I am crossing my fingers that this quiet time will arrive some day.
All my best to you and Sascha [Sascha Germer]. I think of you both often.
Love is the law, love under will.
Fraternally,
Phyllis
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