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Aleister Crowley Diary Entry Wednesday, 3 October 1923
Die Mercury
Hail unto Kheph Ra!
1.31 a.m. Have been working with A.I. [Eddie Saayman] Gave him a Vellum Sword of Song—of 3. Some present!
I still feel very sick. I have a badly swollen jaw—abscess or sarcoma, I suppose! Too quick to be latter, I trust! Bar diarrhoea, there is nothing else wrong, to speak of; but a deep malaise, which even [Cocaine] ad lib. does not touch!
I believe it is all due to Marky’s [Edwin Markham] letter: once I have got it answered & my plans clean-cut, I shall be all right.
1.40. [Question:] Give a symbol for the political situation in Italy in the immediate future.
What action should I take, if any, to protect the Abbey [Abbey of Thelema], & advance the Great Work?
[I Ching Hexagram] Lî X [Phallus/Water]
A revolution seems imminent. ‘A mere bravo acting the part of a great ruler’ (line 3) is Mussolini, all right! Line 6 reassures me about the Abbey: English & French visitors will be safe. I should not modify my plans (line 1).
Oracle for my health & how to recover it.
LXV, V.2. ‘Starry heaven shaken as a leaf at tremulous rapture of your love?—flying spark of light whirled away by great wind- - - - - -’ suggests change of climate—a new love affair—inspiration due to new idea. Reference perhaps to Hilarion [Jeanne Foster]—this verse was our symbol. Write comment in ‘Tizi’.
2.22 a.m. Our plans revealed to me in Meditation, having invoked Aiwass.
A.l. to cash cheque £25 Oct. 6 saying ‘I relied on Sir A.C. to cash it; but his own cheque from U.S.A. has not yet arrived. He will endorse my cheque if desired’. A.l. to write his father ‘Ill since June and still ill: hence broke. £100 p.d.q. or I’m finished. Will repay this & all cost my education as soon as I settle in life’.
A.I. to go Oxford, leaving us £36: once there to meet cheque, & borrow £100 from friends, sending O.P.V. [Norman Mudd] £20 & Nineete [Ninette Shumway] £30. To take pupils, and offer to write essays, stories &c. for papers—sending in A.C.’s work.
O.P.V. to stay till Hag [The Confessions of Aleister Crowley] is in shape, & cash comes. 666 and Alostrael [Leah Hirsig] to join him at Hamman-Lif, or all 3 to go to ‘Tizi’.
666 to work at Comment. Alostrael to nurse him & rest.
O.P.V. to join A.l. when Hag is ready, & get a regular job. Also to work.
Vindication, sell Hag, &c. &c. This before Oct. 31. He goes via Cefalu. If Hag can be ready in say 14 days, Hamman-Lif; if not ‘Tizi’. O.P.V. to borrow from friends on arrival up to £100, & use all possible credit for clothes &c. 666 writes C & R intro[duction]. O.P.V. wears to settle my £500 in due course. C & R. [Draft letter for Mudd:]
‘I am M.A. Camb[ridge] Trin[ity]. I have been L[ecturer] in M[athematics] at G[rays] U[niversity] B[loemfontein]. I am going to L[ondon] to get new job. I agree to pay A.C.’s bill out of salary as it comes in. Broke now as helped A.C. exile’. [Last four sentences crossed out.)
Much better. Out to lunch—siesta—tea—light work—dinner—movies (a really good French film).
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