(06/14/1946) Aleister Crowley to Grady McMurtry

Netherwood,
The Ridge,
HASTINGS, England
14. 6. 46.

Thrice Illuminated, Thrice Illustrious and
Very Dear Brother,

—–

Do what thou wilt shall be the while of the Law.

I was delighted to have your letter of the 12th of May. I have not been able to answer it till now. My eyes are really so bad that I have had to get someone to read out your letter to me and I am afraid her time being very limited I have had to postpone the reading of your Poem until my new glasses come. At the best.

It is not good talking about Frater 210 coming over. He has got under the influence of a person whom I believe to be an ordinary Con Man; at any rate he is acting quite insanely, and as far as I can see, both deceitfully and dishonourably. I am still waiting to hear whether the adverb “dishonestly” should not be added to this list. In any case he would not come, because, — O curse these people who have no ideas of their own and can do nothing but pick up my ideas and try to put them into operation without in the least understanding them or knowing how to bring them to success! — apparently he, or Ron or somebody, is producing a Moon Child.

I get fairly frantic when I contemplate the idiocy of these goats. (I apologise to goats.)

Soror Estai, I am afraid, is much too old. I do not see what she could do.

Your position is entirely different; you are young and full of energy, you have got good sense, and at the same time you would be all the better for a few months’ training. Apart from that, you could be of the greatest possible use to me, especially if Mellinger were over here at the same time. You could help me get everything into some kind of order with our eyes upon the future.

Another point about you is that you know how to think for yourself, you have initiative; you have energy; you have courage; you have a gift for organisation and a knowledge of business methods which I do not have at all. Your would be a tower of strength to Frater Saturnus even more than you are at present.

In any case, whoever you send over it ought to be somebody as near like yourself as possible. Why in heaven’s name we cannot get a few people in the Order who would foot the necessary bills is beyond my understanding!

As a matter of fact, however, it does really look as if the tide were beginning to turn.

I am enclosing with this a cutting from The Occult Review. The author is a complete stranger to me. There are also some young men and young women who have begun to see the light. There is actually a proposal on foot to start a Crowley Society on the same lines and the Browning society of two generations ago. This is not to be run on Occult but on Poetic lines, and I think that within a year from now it might be internationalsed.

You might do something yourself on these lines in San Francisco. I have great hopes of what may result from the publication of Olla, which I should think ought to be before the end of July. It gives a really comprehensive view of my work.

There will be plenty of copies available, and therefore it would be easy enough to use them as a sort of primer.

I think that is all I have to say now. Your domestic news is very interesting, but do not for heaven’s sake get into the habit of making a magical song and dance out of perfectly normal events.
You may say that that contradicts the injunction in the Oath “I will interpret every phenomenon as a particular dealing of God with my soul,” — but there is a great gulf fixed between these points of view. Do not fall into this error.

Love is the law, love under will,

Yours ever,
666 {written}

Grady L. McMurtry,
1661 Sacramento St.
Apt. 3.
San Francisco
Calif.

{written postscript}
Dear Grady

Love! Hope to see you soon!
Aleister.

Note: Originally published in Thelema Lodge Calendar, January 2000.

(06/14/1946) Aleister Crowley to Grady McMurtry #1 (06/14/1946) Aleister Crowley to Grady McMurtry #2

Note: Thank you to William Heidrick for making these images available.