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Correspondence from Phyllis Seckler to Gerald Yorke
7674 Jasmine Ct. Dublin, Calif. 94566
June 28, 1969
Dear Mr. Yorke,
You will be pleased to know that we have the name and location of the women involved in the theft of Sascha's [Sascha Germer] library.
Many things have been happening since I last wrote to you. We were planning to start a College of Thelema and have started the ground work for this project. Grady McMurtry was appointed by Aleister Crowley as his personal representative in the United States and to take charge of the work of the Order in California and to reform it. This was in 1946. At that time these instructions were subject to the approval of Karl Germer and there was nothing to be done due to Karl's particular set-up and thinking.
Now an emergency exists as is clearly evidenced by the theft of Karl's library. Also, the time has come to carry out A.C.'s instructions. On reflection, this lapse of time was needed, for it has helped to weed out some of the wilder elements from the group workings.
We would like to also set up a bona fide O.T.O. organization but must proceed with care and caution. Grady is writing to Mr. Metzger [Hermann Metzger] in Switzerland about this.
The thief who stole Sascha's library is named Jean [B], but we are not absolutely sure of the three men who accompanied her. We think her husband, [D], may have been among the group and we also guess that a [B] may have been among the group. We have an eye witness report that A.C.'s robes were pulled out of a box one evening, that the copy of the Stele [Stélé of Revealing] which Karl had in his home was displayed prominently and that there was a room full of diaries, letters and books. Jean B. was heard to say that they deserved all this. She is running a "fake" O.T.O. in Los Angeles and is trying to swear all her members to deep secrecy. However, some have suspected something wrong and we may be getting a little help, we hope, in the recovery of Karl's library.
However, Sascha did not let me read Karl's will and I understand you have a copy. Sascha is very difficult to work with and though we expect to see her soon, we do not expect much cooperation, if any. How could we recover this library if it does not belong to the O.T.O. and makes Sascha his executrix? But I know this will is replaced by a later one. Would it be out of line to ask you what the last will contains? There would be no use restoring this library to Sascha only to have it stolen again from her lonely and unprotected house.
I have expressed the thought to Grady that perhaps the whole collection of manuscripts and letters should go back to you since you paid Sascha to send them. I do not care to have it all around as it is far too bulky and I am thinking there are inimical forces about some of it anyhow.
My only interest in that library is in rare manuscripts of Crowley's which might need publishing. We are planning some publication activities and may have something out next month or two at the most. We find there is a great deal of interest in A.C.'s works here on the west coast and Liber AL has been published by Mr. Jerry Kay in Los Angeles and 777 has been put out by an outfit in Chico. Also, the Tarot cards from The Book of Thoth have been reproduced by a photographic process by the Sangreal Foundation, P.O. Box 2580, Dallas, Texas. I am sending for some of these. They are not in color, of course.
Mildred Burlingame is working with us and in the process of our investigation we had the great good luck to meet Dr. Regardie [Israel Regardie] and I must say that I found him to be a charming gentleman. He helped us a great deal to find the thieves. We are not quite sure whether the same people stole his things as well.
Apart from all this, Grady and I have been married, so you see, we can combine our joint efforts on the above mentioned projects. We are very much in love with each other and very happy.
We would appreciate it very much if we could be informed of any publications of Crowley's works, including Symonds' [John Symonds] publication of The Confessions [The Confessions of Aleister Crowley]. Naturally we wish to build up a fairly complete collection for our future students. Do you think Symonds' publisher might put us on their mailing list?
Thank you again for all your assistance.
Phyllis McMurtry formerly Phyllis Wade
P.S. We have not decided yet whether publicity is the proper procedure against Jean B. so we would very much appreciate it if you would keep her name quiet for a while longer.
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