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Correspondence from Gerald Yorke to Phyllis Seckler
Forthampton Court Gloucester
2 July 69
Dear Mrs. McMurtry,
I enclose this in a normal envelope as I typed over a section which would have been stuck down.
Your 28 June. The photostat that I have of Karl's [Karl Germer] will sent me by Sascha [Sascha Germer] runs as follows:
As you see this leaves everything up in the air, for who are the 'Heads of the Order?' A.C. committed the same idiocy by leaving all his copyrights, typescripts, MSS etc. to the O.T.O. as such. Whoever establishes a title to this will be able to claim royalties, I think, for all A.C.'s work now being published in the States. I suggest that you get in touch with Mellinger, as Sascha is not always clear headed in her old age.
Whoever stole the archive, and it looks as if the [B]'s may have been responsible, should be prosecuted.
I know nothing of any later will, and do not now remember whether Karl sent me the photostat at the time it was made or whether I got it from Sascha after his death.
The most important thing to find is the original MSS of The Book of the Law, although it does exist in published photographic form. My collection, part of which is already at the Warburg Institute, and a further section will be sent when I have got down to bringing the catalogue up to date should really be the recipient of the bulk which you do not want to hold. As I think you know Karl sent me the O.T.O. MS for safekeeping years ago.
I am delighted that you are both in touch with Regardie [Israel Regardie]; he is sane and honorable and knows more about the magical side of A.C. than anyone else in the States. But he is not interested in the IX° and the O.T.O. side.
I have a copy of Jerry Kaye's edition of Liber AL. Please let me have the name of the publishers of the Chicago 777 so that I can get it.
Write mentioning my name to
Carr P. Collins, Jr. Sangreal Foundation Inc. P.O. Box 2580 Dallas, Texas 75221
He visited me here last week with copies of his edition of the 8 Lectures on Yoga and Book 4 parts 1 and 2 in one volume each with a foreword by Regardie. He has a third title in the press. I gave him permission to reproduce the Tarot pack in color and sent him up to the Warburg Institute, with whom I have deposited the originals, to arrange for proper color photographs. I suggested various unpublished items which he could tackle in the future. The Helios bookshop can arrange for any MSS or typescript that I hold to be photostated over here, so that I do not have to send irreplaceable material to the States. So get in touch with him in order not to duplicate anything which he is bringing out. He has the money to produce the books properly and is in touch with Regardie.
Jonathan Cape are publishing a 900 page volume consisting of the bulk of the published and unpublished Confessions [The Confessions of Aleister Crowley] edited by John Symonds with the technical assistance of Kenneth Grant, who is a properly attested IX°, had a charter from Karl which the latter revoked when he and Kenneth disagreed over something. I advised Karl not to do so. You can order the book from a bookseller. I expect it to be out this autumn as the page proofs have been corrected. It if sells they will bring out a volume of the magickal diaries again edited by John Symonds. I have refused to collaborate in this as I do not consider Symonds a suitable person for the job, even though Kenneth Grant will be advising him. Grant has a carbon copy of all the magickal diaries: I used him for typing them from the originals and when I typed copies of what Germer had not got, I made a carbon for Grant. Remind me in a year's time to let you know whether the project is still on.
If Grady [Grady McMurtry] has not got a charter from Karl to open a lodge, I suggest that he applies to Metzger [Hermann Metzger] for one, for Metzger is the only person to my knowledge to have been chartered by Karl, apart from Grant. He puts on the Gnostic Mass as a public service so advertised in the Zurich Press on Sundays.
I suggest that you also get in touch with Frater Theophilus, who I believe is IX° and who has visited Metzger. He is Dr. Gabriel Montenegro Vargas, P.O. Box 76, Daly City, California 94016. But do not mention my name as I do not know him and he does not know that I have his address. I looked at a letter concerning someone else by mistake. Regardie may know of him. From a copy of a letter from him in my possession, he seems to be a confirmed Thelemite and a sensible man, refusing O.T.O. material to someone whom I also turned down partially.
I am delighted you are in touch with Mildred Burlingame whose letters to me show her to be sane and balanced. Or am I mixing her up with someone else?
Will keep quiet about the B's until I hear from you to the contrary.
Yours sincerely,
Gerald Yorke
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