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Correspondence from Phyllis Seckler to Gerald Yorke
7674 Jasmine Ct. Dublin, Calif. 94566
August 8, 1969
Dear Mr. Yorke,
Thank you for your letter of July 2. There are many things to comment about here. First, some years ago, while in Hampton, New Jersey, Karl [Karl Germer] had occasion to quarrel with Frederic Mellinger. He tells about this quarrel in one of his letters to Jane [Jane Wolfe] and I would quote from it now except that there isn't much time to look it up. The upshot of the quarrel was that all relations between the two were broken for good. I never heard Karl mention Frederick when he was out here. I knew Frederick myself, having had my first astrology lessons under him and was at Orange Grove house [1003 S. Orange Grove Avenue] when he was. We do not know if he is alive or dead, at the present.
When I was trying to help Sascha [Sascha Germer] right after Karl's death, she mentioned that there was another, later will, than the one that mentions Mellinger. She was quite mysterious about the later will and thought that it mentioned Marcelo Motta of Brazil but Sascha later hinted that it did not. Now, what I would like to ask, did Sascha send you the photostat of Karl's will at the time of heath or shortly after, in 1962?
We now have the O.T.O. started and a Headquarters Lodge established at the above address. All three of us hold the IX° in the O.T.O.—that is, Grady [Grady McMurtry], Mildred Burlingame and myself. It may be that when we have the organization legally incorporated under the laws of the State of Calif. that we may be able to do something to recover the archives. Meanwhile, much needs to be done, and it keeps us constantly busy. Grady is so busy that I must write this letter in order to dispel some of the misconceptions you may possibly have formed from too little information.
We met Jerry Kay on our last trip in June to Los Angeles where we also met Regardie [Israel Regardie]. Jerry Kay is anxious to put out a color copy of the Harris [Frieda Harris] designs of the Tarot deck. He has the capital, the printing facilities and the enthusiasm for this project. Lee Heflin has offered to fly back to England to make the necessary color photographs or slides of the Harris paintings. I believe you talked to Mr. Heflin on the 'phone when he was over there in July. He reports that he visited the Warburg Institute and he seems to think that the Sangreal Foundation did not make the necessary pictures of the paintings. Today we are leaving for Los Angeles to confer with Mr. Regardie and with Mr. Heflin, who will travel with us, and with Mr. Kay. We shall probably learn the true picture about the Tarot deck from Mr. Regardie, I hope. I myself have written to the Sangreal Foundation about whether they are going to print the colored version of the Tarot deck, but do not as yet have a reply. If they have no firm commitment to this project, then Grady and the others are certain that we could so it. The Sangreal people did not print all of the Holy Books [Volume I, Volume II, Volume III] in their book by that name. They left out Liber AL, Liber Trigrammaton and Liber LXI vel Causae. We must ask Regardie about this and the reasons for it, maybe he knows.
777 was put out in Chico by Larry Brock. I enclose his card with his address. He printed this as the insistence of another friend. We have now gathered some of these people into our organization. Many of them got acquainted with Crowley's works through other means than through us.
Grady has spoken to Metzger [Hermann Metzger]. We have not yet had a reply. Grady spoke with Dr. Gabriel Montenegro about the latter's visit to Switzerland and his meeting of Metzger. A week later Dr. Montenegro was dead. We all had known him for a long time and Mildred had been in touch with him almost constantly. His death was quite upsetting as we had hoped to include him in our plans.
We are going to send you a 777 that was put out in Chico, so don't take the trouble to send for it. One of the bookstores objected to the binding but since this was put out before Mr. Brock knew us, we had nothing to do with it.
Thank you again for all your trouble for us and your interest. We truly appreciate it, and you shall certainly have a copy of whatever we are able to publish.
Yours very sincerely,
Phyllis McMurtry
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