|
Aleister Crowley Diary Entry Sunday, 9 September 1923
Die Sol
5 minutes after midnight Saturday—Sunday. Question. Should we ask Kahn [Otto Kahn] to assist us financially? If so, on what lines? (sticks manipulated by O.P.V. [Norman Mudd]).
[Kteis/Luna] Sze [I Ching Hexagram] VII
The expansion to Infinity of a restricted Universe. Meaning: Hosts.
This may well be taken to mean association of the kind proposed. Thwan: A leader of age & experience is essential to success & avoidance of error.
Line 1. The proposal should be made on strictly business lines. [Line] 2. The proper person must be chosen to attend to this business. He must devote himself to it, & follow Kahn’s advice loyally. [Line] 3. Division of counsels would be ruinous. [Line] 4. We must begin by a defensive campaign. This appears to mean getting possession of the stock &, generally speaking, achieving a quiet concentration of assets. [Line] 5. It is important to take steps to destroy hostile forces which in the past have prevented our seeds from coming to harvest. The control must be centralized in the original leader. He must look sharp after his subordinates & keep them up to the mark. [Line] 6. The present proposal should be regarded as preliminary to a large extension international in character. Any branches require men of first-class ability to run them.
General remarks. (1) Simplify the proposal. (2) Avoid multiplicity of arguments. (3) Leave open a way for alternative proposals. (4) Explain how personal jealousy & animosities have prevented success hitherto. (5) Promise a determined & efficient conduct of the business. (6) Indicate the ways which the present scheme may be extended at the proper time.
12.35 a.m. Question. Suggest to Beast the subject of a sensational novel touching the heart of public interest at this time. Give a sketch of the plot.
Sticks manipulated by O.P.V.
[Fire/Earth] Hsiâo Kwo [I Ching Hexagram] LXII
Small excesses. The Will of the Body. Essentials & non-essentials. A bird. The symbol of fluttering. A big Khan. Symbolic of Luna.
The general idea is the problem of how to conduct the business of life. The plot shows attainment due to firm correctness, to distinguishing between important & unimportant matters, & to finding fulfilment in Reality as opposed to impracticable ideas. The plot:
Line 1. Trouble arising from ill-ordered ambition. [Line] 2. The influence of heredity. Acquiescence in destiny. [Line] 3. Carelessness leading to injury from enemies. [Line] 4. The sense of reality: following the middle course: caution in procedure, & adroit conduct saving the situation. [Line] 5. Calamity is threatened. By doing his True Will, the hero gains his point & wins his girl. [Line] 6. The villain, with greater original abilities, comes to smash through following false Will & being led away by excessive ambition.
12.50 a.m. Hagged [dictated The Confessions of Aleister Crowley] all day—USA.
[Question] Shall 666 make a clean breast of it to D?
[Earth/Sun] Pî [I Ching Hexagram] XXII
Answer decidedly ‘No’ unless something happens which makes it obviously the right thing to do.
[Question] Indicate any further steps which I can take to relieve the financial situation.
[Phallus/Moon] Sung [I Ching Hexagram] VI
Contention. Thwan: Keep on worrying about it. Don’t let things come to a climax. The general method for obtaining funds would be to present my creative genius to the common people, to visit personally any one of position & suggest investment.
Line 1. It is useless to try to get money out of contentious affairs. [Line] 2. Prepare that Retirement. [Line] 3. Follow up past successes. There is some unintelligible hint about a gov’t job or possibly some magical scheme. P.S. The king’s business. Try to get something going in connection with my recent poems on Italy & Entente Cordiale. The suggestion comes to my mind to send my 3 friends round Tunis to collect money for a fund in favour of the Entente. [Line] 4. Avoid further occasion for crisis. Concentrate on Comment & such things. [Line] 5. Push things home at the proper moment. [Line] 6. It is no good getting money in if it has to be paid out immediately. As soon as we are clear of debt, do not presume that success but live in such a way as to incur no further risks of catastrophe.
2.20 p.m. My new Novel. Trifles Tell.
Characters. 1. Paul Wilkinson 25 (at principal period of story) son of a small West End Chemist with personality, highly placed friends among customers, ambitious for his son. Paul wins Mathematical Scholarship at Trinity, Cambridge. 2. John, Lord Trentham, 26 college friend of Paul, Rowing ‘blood’. Talented, but ‘fast’. 3. Agnes Cunningham 23 daughter of Paul’s tutor. Wooed by both men. 4. Wilkinson senr. 54. 5. Earl of Seascale, 60 Trentham’s father. 6. Harry Holt, 25 Orphan of Banker. Envies Paul & John, though pretending friendship. Talents few & aims mean: terribly efficient because he knows his own mind & does what he wants. Crazy about Agnes. 7. King Lamus, as in Drug Fiend.
Book I. Describe youth of Paul & John. Incidents at Cambridge which determine their love for Agnes. Paul, though brilliant, is pot happy in his career. He feels he is cut out for a soldier: his father has overruled him. John, too, aspires to an open air life-exploration etc. His fast conduct is due to his disappointment, his father wishing him to embrace Diplomacy. ‘Trifles’ of heredity & destiny bring about important crises. Small spiritual errors make huge blunders.
Book II. Paul, consulting actuary, & Trentham, attache at Tunis. Cunningham has forced Agnes to marry John. Both men grow reckless through discontent. Holt plans to ruin John. King Lamus sends for Paul, who outwits Holt, & takes Agnes from John, whose love for her was a ‘false will’.
Book III. King Lamus persuades Paul, John & Agnes to explore the Sahara. Having all three got rid of false ideals & risen above conventions, each shines out: every trifle tells that they have found the true course. Holt seeks vengeance & organizes an attack on the Expedition. While he stuck to financial schemes, he was to be feared; but his hate leads him to try a plan which is not in his line: result, he is smashed.
|