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Phyllis Seckler's Account of the Robbery of the Crowley Archive from Sascha Germer (2-3 September 1967)
Here is the story that was promised to you about the rescue of Crowley's literary remains from the. hands of the State of Calif, This is a story that has been told in fragments to many of you, but somehow it always seemed to lose some of its interesting details in the telling as it is long and involved. Complete records have been kept of every event so that you need not wonder how much of this tale has been embroidered upon and twisted out of its truth. You may rest assured that this account is as accurate as it is possible for one person to make it, one blessed with a very good memory as well as being the keeper of copious records.
First let me say that since the death of Crowley I became very interested in preserving his works. It seemed to me that if many copies of his writings were .spread around the world, that some of them would survive when and if a dark ages came upon us. At this stage in history it was very difficult to get Crowley published as he was mostly unknown. It was due to the efforts of Karl Germer and Israel Regardie and a few others that now his genius is being recognised.
At the time of Crowley's death there were still many important mss. that had had little or no copies made and had not been published at all.
Crowley died on Dec. 1, 1947. Agape Lodge was the only working Lodge of the O.T.O. at that time, so far as is known. We had been working with Crowley for many years, sending money for his publishing and other needs. Since it was the depression years, many of us could hardly earn enough to keep a roof over our heads and food in our mouths. But it was Karl Germer who raised $25,000 and over for publications and Crowley's support. For many years he had sent at least $200. monthly to Crowley. There was no one more devoted.
For quite a few years Karl had been Grand Treasurer of the Ordo Templi Orientis and was so named in Crowley's will: here is a copy of that will.
Copy THIS IS THE LAST WILL of me EDWARD ALEXANDER CROWLEY commonly known as Aleister Crowley of "Netherwood", the Ridge, Hastings, Sussex, England. I HEREBY REVOKE all wills and testamentary dispositions at any time heretofore made by me. I DIRECT that my Executors shall ascertain as they may think fit beyond all possibility of error the fact of my death. I DESIRE that on my decease my body shall be cremated and that my ashes should be preserved in a casket together with my seal ring and entrusted to the Grand Treasurer of the Ordo Templi Orientis. I APPOINT Karl Johannes Germer of 260 West 72nd Street, New York City, Lady Frieda Harris, the wife of Sir Percy Harris of 3. Devonshire Terrace, Marylebone High Street, London W.1 and Louis Umfraville Wilkinson, Doctor of Letters whose address is care of Westminster Bank Limited, Shaftebury Avenue, London, W.C.1,to be the Executors of this my will (hereinafter referred to as my Executors) except for the purposes property and effects (including copyrights) of and in connection with my profession of an author for which purposes property and effects I APPOINT the said Louis Umfraville Wilkinson and John Symonds of 121. Adelaide Road, London, S.W.3, the Executors hereof (hereinafter referred to as "my literary Executors"). I DIRECT my Literary Executors to collect as soon as practicable after my death all my books, writings and effects of a literary nature whatsoever and wheresoever including all such effects over which I may at the date of my death have any power of disposition or appointment and I GIVE AND BEQUEATH my books and writings and literary effects so collect to my Literary Executors free of all death duties ON TRUST that they shall hand the same to the Grand Treasurer General of the Ordo Templi 'Orientis (Order of the Temple of the East) at 260 West 72nd. Street, New York City with a request that the collection shall be for the absolute use and benefit of the said Order and I DECLARE that the receipt of the Grand Treasurer General of the said Order shall be a sufficient discharge to my Executors. I BEQUEATH free of all death duties all the copyrights in my books and writings whatsoever and wheresoever including any copyrights over which at the date of my death I may have any power of disposition to the Ordo Templi Orientis aforesaid (other than those copyrights which shall already be the property of the Order) for the absolute use and benefit of the said Order AND I DECLARE that the receipt of the Grand Treasurer General of the said Order shall be a sufficient discharge to my literary Executors subject to the payment of my debts and funeral and testamentary expenses. I GIVE DEVISE BEQUEATH AND APPOINT all the rest residue and remainder of my property estate and effect whatsoever and wheresoever unto such of the said of Karl Johannes Germer, Lady Frieda Harris and Louis Umfraville Wilkinson as shall be living at the date of my death and if more than one equally between them for their or his or .her absolute benefit but with a request that they, he or she will dispose of the same amongst my faithful friends in accordance with any wishes expressed by me during my lifetime or set out in any memorandum written or signed by me or left amongst my papers at my death but I declare that no such memorandum shall be deemed to form part of my Will nor shall the foregoing expression of my wishes create any trust or legal obligation.
IN WITNESS whereof I have hereunto set my hand this nineteenth day of June, one thousand nine hundred and forty-seven.
Signed by the Testator in the joint presence of us who in his presence and the presence of each other have hereunto subscribed our names as witnesses:—
OBSEQUIES 1. No religious service.
I should like either Capt. Gerald Yorke of 5 Montague Square, W.1, or Dr. Louis Wilkinson to read at an appropriate moment, first the Hymn to Pan, secondly The Book of the Law thirdly the Collects from the Gnostic Mass (PP. 353 and 354). Finally, the Anthem at bottom of p. 357 to top of page 359.
2. Duties of Executors.
L. Pay any local debts either from cash found among my possessions, or from funds to be supplied by the Order.
B. Attend to the welfare of the O.T.O.
Y. Assure, "so far as in their lives, the welfare of the natural son of my body, Aleister Ataturk, at present residing in charge of his mother Patricia Deirdre MacAlpine, at "Wheal" Betsy Newlyn, Cornwall.
Karl later exclaimed that there were 3 tons of materials sent to him from England. He moved these literary materials to a house in Hampton, New Jersey and there began the work of filing and record keeping. Before the materials had been sent to the United States a copy had been made of everything in manuscript form. Afterwards Karl and Gerald Yorke collaborated on sending each other a copy of anything that Crowley had written which the other did not have. There was also a third person in England who obtained many copies of various of Crowley's writings. Mr. Yorke later sent much of his collection to the Warburg in London where it remains in the library there to this day.
But I did not know of all this, and many of my actions and concern were based on the belief that there was only one copy of the unpublished writings of Crowley.
Then Karl proclaimed himself as the Outer Head of the Order (O.H.O.). I can remember the disappointment of many 9th degree members that they had not been allowed to vote for the O.H.O. as seemingly instructions existed that this was to be done a year and a day after Crowley's death.
When Karl was in Hampton, New Jersey, I wrote about my concern that some of the unpublished works of Crowley might be lost to the world unless some copies were made. He agreed about my concern and the upshot of this correspondence was that I began to type copies. The first summer I typed part of the Confessions [The Confessions of Aleister Crowley]. The second summer, in 1952, I typed THE VISION AND THE VOICE with all its complicated notes in the text. I was glad of my then knowledge of the Qabalah for it aided me in spotting typist errors in the mss. The third summer I typed MAGIC WITHOUT TEARS. The two later typings were done on multilith plates which were sent to Karl in Hampton and there he had the assistance of two devoted members of the Order to make reproductions.
Since I was also going to College during those years and raising a family of three single-handed, you can imagine what a project this must have been for me. But I had the summers free to carryon this work and even though the children milled about me with their noise and childish concerns, I was still able to complete a book within. the summer vacation time. Karl was deeply grateful for my labour and efforts and gifted me with Crowley publications from time to time and since I had also had a chance to type everything carefully, and to learn from it in that way, I was more than rewarded.
Jane Wolfe, my teacher for many years, helped me to correct any errors and in fact, was used to driving out to my small house every week to do this work or to visit in years and times when I wasn't so engaged. But this is another long story and I hope that some day I can tell it also.
Soon after MAGICK WITHOUT TEARS was printed Karl came to California. He had been about seven years in Hampton and in California he at first did not have a regular base of operations. After about 2 years or a little more he found a house in West Point, about six miles out from the town.
He then set up the library again which had been packed away and engaged himself in sending Crowley's writings to various publishers and had several things done in a professional way. As I look back on these events I suspect it was he who was mentioned in LIBER LXV, Cap. V, v. 20. "Thou shalt dwell among the people as a precious diamond among cloudy diamonds, and crystals, and pieces of glass. Only the eye of the just merchant shall behold thee, and plunging in his hand shall single thee out and glorify thee before men."
Karl had been a merchant of machinery during most of his working life and had traveled a good deal in this vocation.
Karl died in late October of 1967 [sic 1962] and I was almost the first one to be informed by Sascha [Sascha Germer] of his death. This was because Karl and I had always remained on good terms. I did what I could to help Sascha with the various business matters that carne up after Karl's death but incurred her wrath because of what I said about him in a letter to Marcelo Motta. She had given me this correspondence to take care of but when I criticised Karl for being unbalanced on the subject of magical attacks, she was furious. But then, Crowley and Jane had offered the same sort of criticism on this subject as well, as I was to find out later. I had the policy of showing everything to her, perhaps naively expecting that she could appreciate extreme openness and honesty and also hoping that she would not display the usual suspicious attitudes which had been rife in hers and Karl's behaviour. I was wrong, of course, and she showed me the door and carried an enmity towards me to her grave.
Karl did not expect to die; he was very certain that he was going to live another eleven years. This attitude shows up in his correspondence up to the very end.· Therefore, the will he made to dispose of Crowley's literary remains remained unchanged. This will provided that all of the Crowley materials should go to the Heads of the Ordo Templi Orientis and that Sascha Germer and Frederic Mellinger between them should act as executors of the will. All personal property was to be left to Sascha.
At the time of Karl's' death no one knew where Mellinger was. After a good deal of difficulty Sascha discovered his whereabouts in his home in Germany through the help of the Swiss Ordo Templi Orientis, headed by Herr Metzger [Hermann Metzger] and which had been operating under a valid charter from Karl for quite some time.
A correspondence was begun between Sascha and Frederick but the latter was deeply suspicious of the value of corning to California to help with the disposal of the Crowley material as he had been unjustly and suspiciously treated by both Karl and Sascha in the past. Soon after this, Mellinger died and Sascha was left with the task of discovering what to do about the A.C. and Germer library, correspondence and other materials. She disliked me so would no longer have me about and probably I had done the wrong thing to tell her that on the evening of the news of Karl's death, I had asked for help from other planes and had been told clearly to care for the Crowley-Germer library. Since this was an inner prompting, Sascha had her doubts about that kind of instruction, as well she might.
The upshot of Mellinger's defection from such a duty was that Sascha was left quite helpless and was not really suited for such a task. Consequently, even though she considered several alternatives, everything was left as it was at Karl's death.
One of my instructions, which I passed on to Sascha, was that she was not to let anyone in Southern California hear of Karl's death. Intuitionally, I was alarmed that all the materials should be guarded only by one helpless widow and I felt that something was terribly wrong in So. Calif. I was to be proven right about this later. Also, Sascha was suspicious of almost everyone, especially if they belonged to the former Agape Lodge. She even repelled the expressed wish to help of Dr. Montenegro [Gabriel Montenegro], who had been a member of the Lodge and a good friend of Karl's.
Five years later the news of Karl's death had trickled to Southern California and the upshot of this was that a group of people came to Sascha's door over the Labor Day weekend of 1967 and announced that they were the O.T.O. Sascha fell for the trick and opened the door. Immediately they blew some kind of gas in her face and overpowered her, an easy thing to do, and administered some sort of shot which put her out completely and then took their time to rifle the library on the second floor. Before she was completely overpowered, she had a glimpse of the woman's hands, but not of her face as the woman of the group seems to have worn a hat which overshadowed the face.
This group took all of the O.T.O. rituals and other secret instructions, they took many first editions, THE BOOK OF THOTH being one of them, and they took Crowley's magical robes and his book of sigils which presumably still had much power in them. At this time none of the O.T.O. rituals or other secret instructions had been published. Now everything of this sort is published. They had previously cut Sascha's telephone wire before the attack so it was a little time after she recovered before she was able to contact the Sheriff. The local Constable arrived and when she poured out her tale, and when they could see the way the library looked—much was still remaining—and as Sascha talked more and more, they put her story down to the wanderings of the demented mind of a lady who had been alone too long. They did not take fingerprints but took some snapshots of the state of the library.
Then Sascha immediately got on the phone after it had been repaired and wired to me that my daughter had done this deed. Here is a copy of her telegram.
You can imagine my extreme shock when this was read to me over the telephone. When I recovered, I wired back that she was mistaken and that not one person of my family would touch one hair of her head. This telegram got to her, but when I wrote a letter to follow it up with complete details that my daughter had been in church at the time of the robbery and that we had witnesses to prove it, she sent the letter back unopened.
Naturally, I was alarmed that my daughter, an innocent person if there ever was one, and completely uninterested in Crowley literary remains, would be harmed by these insane accusations. I resolved to conduct as much of an investigation as I could about who might be responsible for these thefts.
As a result of my letters to various people, I discovered the whereabouts of a former member of Agape Lodge, one M. [Mildred Burlingame] who had been very active in Thelema for very many years. She kindly visited me and we talked and talked about the above event and she let me know about some thefts from her own apartment. She had been robbed twice after the death of her husband in the summer of 1965. The first robbery led her to suspect that it was the work of a former student of hers, one J.B. [Jean Brayton], as the apartment showed no sign of forced entry and J.B. held a pass key as she had been a trusted student for 10 years. Further, when there were two copies of anything, only one was taken and the other was left intact for further use by M.
The lock on the apartment was changed and then a second robbery took place and this time a back window had been jimmied open and much more was taken, including O.T.O. rituals which had been in M.'s possession. This was in 1966 and a little later Israel Regardie's library was also subjected to thievery when Dr. Regardie was out of the house. The fourth robbery was of the house in West Point.
My conversation with M. in due time revealed the fact that due to my advice to Sascha at the time of Karl's death, no one in So. Calif. had been informed of the event. I had been so busy taking care of my own affairs that I had no knowledge of what my former associates were doing there and had gotten out of touch.
But when M.'s husband [Ray Burlingame] had died and when J.B. somehow got wind of Karl's death, probably when she made a trip to England, she proposed to M. that they should start an O.T.O. Lodge together. M. thought, rightly, that she had not been authorised to do so and backed out. But J.B. went ahead and formed her own O.T.O. which was called The Solar Lodge and drew members from near-by U.S.C. In time they owned two or three pieces of property in L.A. near 30th St. and Vermont and some desert property near Blythe, Calif.
During the course of my investigation I also wrote to Grady [Grady McMurtry] who resided in Washington, D.C. at the time. As a result of our long and lengthy correspondence from Dec. of 1968 to April of 1969, we decided that we could start a Thelemic College together. He learned for the first time that Karl had been dead for several years and I learned that he held letters of authorization in regards to the O.T.O. from Crowley which also named him as Caliph and successor to Karl. I sent for him and he arrived in California on April 29, 1969.
In May and June of that same year the members of the Solar Lodge got themselves into trouble and their story hit the papers across the country.
A little boy in their group who didn't really want to stay on the hot desert during the summer months, set fire to one of their buildings and as punishment, they locked him in a box where he stayed for many days. (Accounts differ as to just how long). But it was very sure that the box was very hot and that his potty was seldom changed, thus drawing many flies. He was discovered by some local people who had come by to buy an advertised donkey. Immediately there was the sheriff and publicity and the arrest of the members of the commune. J .B., her husband, the trusted first man of the group and a few others escaped across state lines. The rest of the, commune stood trial and the F.B.I. got on the case as J.B. was also wanted for the cruel and impossible treatment of the boy after the fire. She had actually held a match to his hands afterwards and asked how he would like to be burned up, along with other threats.
When the story hit the papers, M. and Grady and I got together and what was suspicion on our part previously became more and more close to true fact that all of the thefts had occurred from the same group. Grady drove to L.A. and made an investigation of their house on Menlo Ave. When he returned we both drove to the desert near Blythe to see what we could uncover.
We discovered the property and a remaining shed on it where a local old man was conducting a sale of various items. There was an enlarged photo of Crowley glowering over the scene and a few items which showed they had studied the Qabalah and kept diaries and did practices. These were indeed the same persons who had the property in L.A. and they were an O.T.O. Lodge.
Later through some conversations with former members of the group we discovered that a small room near the attic temple was at one time piled high with boxes and books when formerly it had been nearly empty. Also, this witness told us that in Oct. after the Germer thefts, Crowley's robe was pulled out of a box and shown off to the group and J.B. was, heard to remark that they had a right to it.
Another witness identified some of the rare books they were selling for high prices in their bookstore, "The Eye of Horus" in L.A. up to the time of the scandal about the boy in the box. Unfortunately, when Grady and I heard about the bookstore and went to investigate, the group were already gone and the place was shut up and vacant.
Still later another witness told us of their operation on the desert and how much of the material had been stored in the house that had been burned down by the little boy. He also stated that he had access to the advanced rituals and had read them through. He gave us these facts when J.B., her husband, and others were still at large but were being hunted by the F.B.I.
The law was not interested in prosecuting for the thefts that occurred, they were only interested in the case of the boy in the box. Therefore, when J.B. and husband stood trial, they managed to squirm out of the charges and got off with probation. We never could get the law to take an interest in the thefts. Besides, our evidence was pretty slim in their opinion, since we had not caught them with the stolen goods.
Then, I wrote a letter about all this to Sascha and this time I had no return address on the envelope. There is now evidence that she had opened the envelope and read the story but she did not contact us. There was nothing to do but wait.
Grady and I investigated the possibility of a law suit but had to back down when the price of such action was revealed to us. Further, we might have had a difficult time in court. However, the then D.A. of Calaveras County, a Mr. Airola, gave us the advice that it might be better to wait for Sascha's death and then see if we could rescue Crowley's literary remains from the estate.
There seemed to us nothing else we could do but from time to time we would drive to West Point and enquire about Sascha. We also asked the local Constable to let us know when she died. This he did not do. He also had a conference with the Sheriff about the thefts and saw the pictures they had taken of the library. Again we asked to be notified of her death and again this was not done.
Sascha died on April 1 or 2 of 1975. But it was a year before we heard of it, as 1975 was not a year when such action seemed to be possible. We were facing other troubles.
H. and I drove to West Point in late April of 1976 and it was then we discovered that Sascha had been dead a year and that the house had been vandalised three times. Since it was difficult or almost impossible to lock it up, it may have been vandalised more than reported.
But now I must backtrack and tell you of another peculiar incident which fits into this story.
For quite some time Grady had felt that there was an astral watcher in his study. I too felt uncomfortable in this room. Also, one night when he was away, my name had been called very forcibly and had awakened me from a deep slumber. I could not figure out who might have called me, whether the person was living or dead, and enquiries among my friends yielded nothing.
Then a young friend of ours, K., also had a psychic feeling that some presence was in this same room. He tried to clear it out but was unsuccessful. After this I half-heartedly did a Banishing Ritual several times but was mostly curious as to what was there and remarked to Grady that it would be nice if we knew a psychic who could tell us what was going on.
One evening after yoga classes which Grady taught and I attended, Grady arrived with a young woman. She had also been to the same classes and had complained bitterly about how tired she was as she had spent the previous night chanting in a Tibetan Yoga retreat and had had only three hours of sleep and then had worked that very day. She excused herself to join Grady in his room and the door was shut. Afterwards she came out looking very pleased with herself and thanked Grady. For what? I wondered. Shortly after they left for Berkeley.
The next week when Grady was again in Dublin, I asked him about the incident and he stated. that she had gone into the room to see about the presence there as she claimed to be psychic. She had ignored the room itself where the presence had been felt by three of us, put went into the bathroom and looked into the mirror. There she stated that she had seen a psychic vampire dressed in white and seated in profile who had then turned her head towards the young woman and two long teeth at each end of the mouth showed very clearly. It seems it must have been a quite horrendous creature. At this, the young woman took the bracelet off her wrist and struck the mirror many times while she chanted a banishing of some sort - something she had been taught by the Tibetan Buddhists, I think. She then put the bracelet back on her wrist, the apparition seemed to be gone enough to her satisfaction, and they both proceeded to Berkeley where they contacted another young woman who pretended to be psychic. The bracelet was presented to the second young woman to examine and she confirmed the idea that there was a psychic vampire attached to it.
At this piece of nonsense that Grady had been telling me, I laughed and said she had seen herself in the mirror. The lack of knowledge shown by this incident of psychology and psychometry was abysmal, to say the least.
Well, at this, I literally gritted my teeth and said to myself that I needed a real psychic; one who had no knowledge of me or of Grady or of my house and circumstances.
In early March of 1976 the health food store about three blocks from my house was robbed. I was very friendly there as I was a steady customer. A few days after the robbery when I was in the store to buy some supplies, the ladies told me that the day after the robbery a young woman had walked into the store and learned about the event from their excitement. She had then told them what the robber looked like, how he had crouched down behind the counter, in what part of the establishment he had found the money, and which door he had entered. She also pointed out where the fingerprints were to be found. Then she went on to describe events and circumstances of the ladies in the store which she could not possibly have known as she was a complete stranger.
When I heard all this I enquired after her name and they were uncertain. I asked them to please get her phone number the next time they saw her and that I wanted her to establish whether there was anything in my house from other dimensions. I cautioned them not to describe my troubles or me, at all. They were just to say that I would like to contact her. Since they had been very friendly to me over the years, they promised that this would be done. And it seemed to me that this was the psychic I had asked for!
Then one week before H. and I drove to West Point, I wrote to Marcelo Motta and asked if he 'knew of Mrs. Germer's welfare. I was to regret the exchange of letters that came from this later.
H. and I got together and resolved
to find out for ourselves how Mrs. Germer was doing and
maybe, we said, we should have done it last year? As it
turned out, we should have enquired about her sooner.
Mr. Gualdoni hinted that we should perhaps have the books and papers and I stated my worry about them being discovered by certain types of people and told again the story of the thefts in the Germer house. He then referred us to Mr. Robyn, the lawyer in charge of such matters for San Andreas County. It turned out that Mr. Robyn was the very same lawyer Grady-and I had consulted previously when he had a private practice and whose price for suing Mrs. Germer for the Crowley materials had been too high for us.
The gist of our consultations with Mr. Robyn was that we would have to prove Karl had a will and produce it. Since Sascha had left no will, the property would become the property of the State of California and would be sold to pay Sascha's and Karl's last debts for illnesses and burial and then the remainder would be used to pay Mr. Gualdoni for certain services and then what was left would revert to the State. Even if Karl's will could be found the matter would have to go through probate court and even so, the settlement would be difficult and uncertain as Grady would have to prove he was the head of the O.T.O.
He admitted that the personal effects could be sold separately and this included all books and papers on the property. He told us something 'of how these were put on public sale and the proceeds would revert to the State.
When we expressed our deep concern over the welfare of materials 'which did not belong to Sascha nor to Karl as they had been willed to the O.T.O. from the beginning and that these things should be placed in a secure storage, he was uncertain of how to proceed. We asked if we could go to the property and clean things up and see to it that they got into a locked storage, even though they might remain in the hands of the State there. I offered to pay for the storage. He answered that we could not go to the property unless Mr. Gualdoni or the Sheriff was with us. We stated we would keep the law and could this event then be decided upon? He stated that no one had any time to go there to clean things up. Both Mr. Gualdoni and the Sheriff were very busy persons. I offered to pay them for their time. I asked whether the house could not be vandalised again and perhaps burned down? - He admitted that this might happen. The house had been post-ed by Mr. Gualdoni that no one was to have admittance by orders of the Law but that hadn't made much difference to anyone who wished to enter.
H. and I drove home and were in quite a state to think that we should be so helpless. Even though copies of everything Crowley wrote resided in at least 2 other places, still the handwritten fragments which remained would be of great value some time in the future to scholars.
My concern was great and I phoned Mr. Robyn a few days later and stated that numerous phone calls to Mr. Gualdoni had not yielded any assistance and that we were anxious to put the books and papers in a safe storage building. I asked also that if these were the literary remains of Mark Twain, would the County be so indifferent? He agreed that they might not and I think that the fact that I used the name of a famous American author may have-finally made him realise the importance of the things in the Germer house.
By this time, another letter I had written to Motta about the abandoned materials in the Germer house had stirred him to write to a friend of his, J.W., and to ask him to take action. This J.W. did and since he was the representative of an important publishing firm in New York, Mr. Gualdoni was stirred to some kind of action.
But this took some time for the fact that a publishing firm in New York was interested in the materials in the Germer house to sink into Mr. Gualdoni's mind. Meanwhile, H. and I had phoned him from time to time begging to be allowed to go up there and box things and put them in storage. He was always too busy or he was not available, often, I think, on purpose. What could 2 little old ladies make him do after all? I was being driven out of my mind by worry and H. was no better off.
In fact, she and a friend of hers went to the house and took pictures of the place, every room, just as it was at that time. She kept watch outside for possible arrivals of the Law and he went in and took the pictures. Later she put this collection, of snapshots into my hands, neatly arranged in an album.
Meanwhile, on Nay 8, I had a terrible accident and was put out of commission for a month in this affair of the Germer Estate. And during this time or shortly after Nr. Gualdoni finally found the time to take everything to a recently completed storage place in San Andreas. No, not all; but the bulk of it in file cabinets. It was reported to me that a good deal was left scattered allover the floor of the second story.
The correspondence with Motta about the current state of affairs' at the Germer estate continued until the end of May when he finally wrote such an insulting letter to me that I refused to communicate further with him.
My idea was that perhaps Motta should have a chance to bid on the Crowley materials since he had shown an interest in it. I also thought that our only way out was to bid on these materials also, as hiring a lawyer to take care of our claim against the Germer Estate might be too expensive and far more than we could even round up in the future. Further, Mr. Robyn's answer about finding Karl's will seemed an impossible thing to do. Mr. Gualdoni hadn't found it and we had no way of going through a mound of papers to find it either. Then through communications with J.W. we found that Gualdoni had promised him access to the Germer property to pick up all the remaining mess of papers on the floor and to see that they got. into storage. H. and I were outraged! We had worked for months to get access to the property to do this and had been given the runaround by Mr. Gualdoni. Now here a man from New York and a representative of a publishing firm was going to be allowed to do it!
Then in the middle of all this the psychic, J., again walked into the health food store .. in early June. They took down her phone number and I telephoned to her. Over the phone she described my appearance, that I had light colored hair, nearly white, that I was of medium height, not fat, that I was older and that I wore glasses sometimes. She told me of the colors in my house, white, gold and blue and gave me a run-down on the meaning of these colors. I confirmed this: then she stated that I had called her because of a shadow in a room in my house with a large window. She said that the shadow moved to a corner opposite the window, and then often stayed in the corner near the window as it was darker. I again confirmed that there was something there and t needed help with it. She stated that I helped many people and that I had highly developed talents and that I had been on this earth before many times and in view of this, she would be glad to help me. She also said something about my personal life which was true and that my health was bad at this time. I admitted to the broken bones from the accident and my recent bout with tiredness. At this she said I had been traveling on the astral at night and that I must ask that my energy not be depleted from this. I said that I had to lie on my back during the recovery and that it was much easier to get out of the body when in this position but that I did not know that I was on the astral at night. She named a despondent woman who was to phone me soon. (This was true, a friend of mine phoned the next day who was in a despondent mood).
She then got her Bible, opened it at random and gave me some quotes from it. Later that evening I applied the Qabalistic methods against these references and found that they alluded to the number and name of my H.G.A. There were a few other significant numbers as well and some months named that would be important to me. This turned out to be true later.
I asked for an appointment and asked if she could work from photographs and she stated that sometimes she could. During the whole of this conversation I was taking careful notes and did the same thing on the ·next evening when she arrived to talk to me. I admitted nothing until she told me about it, then I would admit it carefully. I wanted to be as scientific about the event as I could be. She had been as correct as possible for me to see on the telephone and I had no reason to doubt what she said when we met for the first time.
She got down to business immediately she was seated and said that the shadow in the room was someone who had passed over, that is he was dead. I couldn't think who might want to contact me from the other side and was greatly puzzled but she went on with her description. This shadow was going towards the lighted window and was trying to escape but he was an earth bound spirit. He wanted to say things to me for my well-being about the papers—written papers, and books in a library. All this while when the message was coming through, J. had her eyes closed and her hands spread out on each side of her: face, as though they were antennae. She went on to speak as though she was the spirit, who continued: that he had a heavy burden and he was so tired and that he wanted to direct me and that it was very hard to get in contact with me and that he wished to go on and again he complained of his tiredness. At this goose-bumps appeared on my arms and cold up my spine and I suddenly knew that this must be Karl! Who else could speak like this?
The spirit went on to complain some more that I blocked him out and feared him, that he was tired and heavy and then he insisted "I am good". (Since I was used to doing the Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram day and night it was no wonder he. couldn't get through to met I have ever deliberately kept out everything from other planes except my own H.G.A.)
J. described him as an old man with an overpowering warmth and love. I said this was true.
There was a little break and a description of a scene of children playing around an old barn and she seemed to think this somehow did not belong to the main message. I couldn't place it anywhere in my experience, either.
J. turned herself back to the matter in hand and said the old man wanted to go to his rest soon and that I will know about many things. Again there was some reference to the Bible opened at random and again some more Qabalistic meanings as well as passages connected to my magical work.
Then she said I was to go over running water and would discover many things of importance. This was true, to get to the Germer house by either of the two routes one did have to cross running water.
She said there had been an old woman in the house who was now gone and who was now saying, "I was stingy, I lied". She had feared the house was not going to be hers and she was going to get it somehow. But the" old lady was now regretting her actions and she was crying and crying on the other side and she was not with the old man.
J. interrupted herself here and told me that I must forgive her and bless her.
Then J. went on to say that I must get to the papers and that there were a lot of entities in the house and that the neighbours called it a haunted house.
She said there was a library and that there were a lot of precious things in it, some of them history, and much that was very important to mankind and that I must remove these things from the house as soon as possible for she saw some danger if I did not do this.
At this, I gave her the album of pictures which H. had prepared and J. smiled, put the album in her lap but did not open it and placed her hands on its cover. She again closed her eyes and began to describe the appearance of the house. She stated that it was a small and old house of two stories, that it was in need of paint, that there was a porch leading up to the door, that it was surrounded with weeds, that there was broken glass, and that there was an old fashioned cupboard upstairs in which I would find some handwritten messages which would be important to me. Again she stressed that I must take away the papers before they were destroyed and that everything would soon be coming to judgment. Who would it be? She described a cynical young man with brown hair and a pointed nose who likes to drink and carouse and that he claimed the house. This puzzled me. I had an idea who it might be, but was not sure this description fitted him.
When I should take care of the house, J. went on, there would be a golden ring all around it. The old man admitted his fault and reiterated that he loves me and that he is sorry. He had a great talent and could have done so much for so many people but he didn't use it.
She switched back to the young man again and said he doesn't want to come here, he corresponds.
She then described that there would be a document of importance and that I would phone and plan to take a trip and that another lady and perhaps a man would go with me and we would find the treasures and gather them up.
She went on to describe an important paper which had been moved around many times and had been protected by the spirits and was hidden in an old fashioned closet with boards going up and down. Later we were to explore this closet but nowhere did I find Karl's will and I did think that maybe Sascha, who had found it, had moved it around often when she was trying to take care of the Crowley materials.
She described that the papers in the house had spiritual meanings and that I would read them and discover things that I hadn't known about before. This turned out to be true. She also stated that the papers did not belong to the old man or the old woman and that the old woman, when she was alone there, had been afraid to destroy anything and knew that to do so would be evil. She had wanted to be a do-gooder but didn't know how and nothing was the result. She was crying on the other side.
As we continued with this, some of it repetition, I thought that J. should see the room she had been describing over the telephone. We got up and went into the room with the large window and the white walls and. she smiled at the accuracy of her description. I asked if she would check out the bathroom. She did this, and said there was nothing there, the room was warm. I asked if there was anything in the mirror and she said there was nothing there and then I described what the young lady had seen. At this, J. smiled and said the young lady had seen herself.
We went into the living room again and had a long conversation while J. told me about herself. She had learned how to be a psychic three years previously and had never accepted money for her work. When J. left me she remarked that the shadow had now departed and would no longer bother me. This turned ,out to be true as there has never been any more trouble with that room. J. also told me many things about my personal life which were absolutely true and here I can say she did not make any mistakes.
This then, was the psychic I had been hoping for, an unusually pure one, as she did not accept money for her task. I, of course, made sure that I paid my karmic debt to her by doing some Astrological work for her.
In very early July, H. and I decided that we had enough of the trouble from Mr. Gualdoni and that perhaps we had better contact a lawyer. We did this, and engaged Mr. Airola, no longer the D.A. but who had still the case of Mrs. Germer in his files. When we told him our story he said that the court could perhaps be petitioned that Grady was the only appointed successor after Karl and that if he had the papers to prove it, and since the library belonged to the heads of the O.T.O. according to Karl's will as well as to Crowley's will, that there was a good chance that we could gain possession of it. We could not hope for the property, though, as that had been willed to Sascha.
A week later we had a second session with Mr. Airola with Grady along with all the proper papers. Again, there was no hope that Mr. Gualdoni would go with us to the property to box up the remaining materials. We had to wait.
In the middle of July, J.W. arrived. Since he had been given permission to go the Germer residence and box the remaining things and H. and I did not have this permission or an appointment to do this as did J.W., we decided to drive him there. This was convenient for him and we had a good time together as we all drove to the Germer house. J.W. proved to be a very charming fellow and quite sympathetic. But did I notice a look of surprise on Mr. Gualdoni's face when he saw us all there together? He also made some remark that he didn't think we were friends and didn't expect to see all of us at the house.
We spent several hours boxing every last scrap of paper that seemed to us to be important; J.W. remarking and exclaiming about this and that as we worked. It was hot and unpleasant and the house smelled of rats and death but we continued until everything was picked up and placed in Mr. Gualdoni's station wagon. From there it was placed in the newly completed cement block storage place in San Andreas—a little bit out of the town, and we were allowed to help with moving the boxes into storage. They 'were to Remain there under Mr. Gualdoni's' care until the court had made a decision. Also, Hr. Gualdoni expressed himself as being relieved that H. and I had engaged a lawyer' on our case as he had doubts that we were entitled to the materials.
On the way back, with H. driving, I was very quiet as I had found a hand written note in the cupboard, Just as J. had indicated I would, and it was from Jane to me. Poor dear, she had been having a terrible time of it in the last two years of her life and she was very unhappy and was trying to write to me so that I would take care of her. But her mind was partly gone and the sentences were disjointed and betrayed disconnected thoughts. I mourned for her passing as she had been a very dear friend over twenty or so years of my life. H. glanced over at me quickly and then gasped and said that there was a hand on my shoulder. I gulped, tears too near the surface, and remarked that it must be Jane as I had been thinking about her. But no, H. said it was a man's hand. At this, we all marveled at the turn of events and how we had been eventually aided in gathering up Crowley's papers.
Two days later Grady, J.W. and I went again to the Germer house but without Mr. Gualdoni. We had been given permission to go in to see that we really had gotten everything. We found a few more items that had been hidden in the cupboard and removed the large library carpet, again with permission. Grady did a banishing ritual and stated that he had heard voices telling him "Thank you" several times.
We wandered around in the yard and explored the garage and the roof of the house reflected a golden glow as the sun was just at the right angle. Was this the golden .ring that J. had said would appear when I had done the needed work of removing the papers? I couldn't tell, as I am not a psychic myself, but that glow from the roof of the house I shall always remember.
In late July the Judge decided in our favor but left it up to the decisions of Mr. Robyn, Mr. Gualdoni and Hr. Airolai, as to what other items were to be considered as part of the Crowley heritage. We conferred outside the court about this and Mr. Gualdoni' conceded that the seal ring was part of the library. I mentioned that the three typewriters were also a part of the library and Grady said that the large electric typewriter had been paid for out of Order funds but we were ignored. There was silence between all three offi6ials on this point, and I couldn't help but think later that there must also have been collusion.
A few days after this decision) we were notified that all of the paper work had been done and that we could now go to the storage place and remove all the materials. Grady and I drove to San Andreas and I gave to Mr. Airola the $1,000 for his fee, and over a hundred to Mr. Gualdoni for his part in removing the first load of materials to the storage. I also paid for extra storage which Mr. Gualdoni had not cared for, letting things run late so that I would be stuck with it. All of these sums and much more came out of my private funds.
At the storage place Mr. Airola was with us and stood there reading one of the books from the collection; Mr. Gualdoni drove up with his station wagon and a deputy coroner and nervously took the three typewriters right from under our noses and while our own attorney stood there to see what was done. We protested but were told by everyone that the typewriters were worth $60.00. We couldn't fight and I had in mind that the seal ring was not yet in our possession. Gualdoni and helper drove off in a hurry and Grady and I were allowed to remove what we wanted to on that particular day. We piled up my station wagon with things that we thought might be valuable and by now I was suspicious of even the manager of the storage sheds. Then we drove to Mr. Robyn's office where we were to sign a release and the ring would be given to us. Mr. Robyn kindly handed the seal ring to me in his office and as we waited to have the release typed up, Grady was given the ring And made promises that he would take good care of it. When the release was ready we read it and after some hesitation we signed it, for it released the State of California from any other responsibility in this affair. I was so tired of the fight we had been through that I indicated Grady should perhaps sign and this he did. But now I think that was a mistake, as we could perhaps have demanded that the typewriters would be returned to us or we wouldn't sign.
In early August a member of the Order helped us to remove all the rest of the materials. Again I had rented the truck and paid for the gas and all that was necessary for this work. We brought the remains of the Crowley-Germer library to my house in Dublin and Grady took some pictures. of our arrival. All that evening Grady 1forked on the sorting of these materials. He also got on the phone immediately upon our arrival and let it be known in certain quarters in Berkeley that everything was here. I was nervous about this and told him he had just jeopardised my welfare and perhaps my life and had in mind what had happened to Sascha when it got about that she was alone in her house. It had happened also, that threats to ripoff the McMurtry's of certain of Crowley's things had gotten back to me just a few years previous to these events. I knew of the lines of connection between some of Grady's friends and acquaintances and through them in a chain to certain types of "rip-off" artists. I also knew that Grady was often fooled by certain types of people and this fact had been proven to me by events in the past. Maybe I was being too nervous but I considered that I had good reason to be worried. I asked Grady for his protection. He refused.
Grady spent one more day sorting the library materials and removing the better books from those that were of no use to Thelema. He also had access to the files of correspondence. After this was over, I drove him back to his place in Berkeley.
The following day I was alone and I removed every last bit of the Crowley literary remains and the correspondence and the Germer materials and the parts of the library that were valuable into a storage place quite far from my home. To this day these things are hidden and for good reason and there are quite a few who know these reasons or can figure them out for themselves. Those who might have access to them in the future shall have proven their honesty and their sincere concern for the welfare of Thelema and for the right use of these materials to the benefit of Thelemites everywhere. To prove these attitudes may take some time and a good deal of testing. My stand is that an untried and unproven Minerval of the O.T.O. is not a fit person to be let loose among these library materials. There is some 'sensitive matter in the correspondence files, for instance, which involves persons still living and I do not think that anyone has the right to expose matters which were given to Karl or to Crowley in trust. In due time what has not been published of Crowley's works, will be published. This is being worked on at the present. Also, please remember that there is a copy of everything that Crowley wrote in England and quite a few people in that country are interested in publishing Crowley material.
Some of you know of the threats to torture me and of the threats that also carne from Grady. But these people have now been eliminated from our circle and so must it be. And now I have told you the truth and if the truth seems to be incredible, remember that life itself is incredible, especially when a person begins to use Magick. Also along ~his line, remember that every cause, or event that we can see has worked out on the physical plane, has had its effect. We can trace in this story the effects which produced this particular phenomena. I might also remark that there is no guidance so perfect as that of the Holy Guardian Angel and may you all attain to this joy and wisdom!
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