That fall found Crowley in a publishing frenzy. He not only corrected page proofs for his next book, The Heart of the Master, but was also preparing a second printing of The Equinox of the Gods. When Simpkin Marshall threatened to renege on their agreement to distribute the reissue, on December 10 AC changed his personal British Monomark Corporation box BM JPKH to the commercial address BCM/ANKH through which to sell this and future books. The second printing of The Equinox of the Gods would appear in two formats: a standard issue uniform in paper and binding with the first edition; and a less elaborate subscriber’s edition of 250 copies on machine-made paper with cloth-backed boards, priced at eleven shillings. The production cost of both editions was roughly £400; those expenses not covered by subscriptions were paid by Pearl and OTO donations from California.
Crowley’s publication announcement for this edition of The Equinox of the Gods was more dramatic than that for the first printing:
THE FIRST PUBLICATION
nine months before the outbreak of the Balkan War, which broke up the Near East,
When this was done, it was done without proper perfection. Its commands as to how the work ought to be done were not wholly obeyed.… Yet, even so, the intrinsic power of the truth of the Law and the impact of publication were sufficient to shake the world, so that a critical war broke out, and the minds of men were moved in a mysterious manner.
THE SECOND PUBLICATION
nine months before the outbreak of the World War, which broke up the West.
The second blow was struck by the re-publication of the Book in September, 1913, and this time … caused a catastrophe to civilisation. At this hour, the Master Therion is concealed, collecting his forces for a final blow. When the Book of the Law and its Comment is published … in perfect obedience to the instructions … the result will be incalculably effective. The event will establish the kingdom of the Crowned and Conquering Child over the whole earth, and all men shall bow to the Law, which is love under will.”
Magick, pp 112–113, written in 1922 published in 1929.
THE THIRD PUBLICATION
nine months before the outbreak of the Sino-Japanese War which is breaking up the Far East.
THE FOURTH PUBLICATION
6:22 a.m., December 22, 1937 e.v.
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.
The world is stricken to-day by an epidemic of madness.… On every side we are confronted by evidence of insanity which is sweeping across the earth like a pestilence.
Murder and terror in Soviet Russia; Concentration Camps and persecution in Germany; war fever and blood lust in Italy and Japan; civil war in Spain; economic crisis in U.S.A.; recurrent strikes and labour discontent in France—there is no corner of the Globe untouched!
What is the cause?
The old standards of human conduct, the ancient religions which have served humanity for thousands of years, have broken down.…
The old order has broken down, and mankind is searching frantically for a formula which will take its place—a standard of human conduct independent of tradition and dogma which will stand up to the stress of modern conditions, and create a new engine for the further progress of mankind.
The Bible, the Koran and other codes are proving incapable of resisting the shattering effect of modern thought; humanity is drifting rudderless through a stormy sea of doubt and despair. Belief is bewildered. Conviction is shaken. But there is a way out!
A universal law for all nations, classes and races is here. It is the Charter of Universal Freedom.
“The Law of Thelema,” revealed in Cairo in 1904, has come to replace the outworn creeds, the local codes; to help the peoples of the world to march on to a new era of peace and happiness.
Its power has been made evident time after time. On three occasions its publication has been followed by disaster—catastrophes to awaken mankind to its message. For the fourth time the Law of Thelema has been published.…
The prospectus following gives particulars of the book “The Equinox of the Gods” which contains in facsimile the manuscript of the “Book of the Law” of Thelema, and an account of how it came into existence.
You cannot afford to neglect the powerful message which it propounds, and the guidance it gives for your future and the future of the world.
Crowley was proud of this book as he believed its proper publication would cause such social and political upheaval that the Law of Thelema would sweep the world. On December 13 he presented an advance copy of the book to his seven-month-old son.
On December 21, he prepared to make a dream come true. The first time he published The Equinox of the Gods, he had a vision of adepts representing the earth’s different races presenting him with the Word of the Equinox. Crowley wanted to return the favor by presenting a representative for each race with his own word.
A representative for the white race was easy enough to find: Crowley chose Yorke. That evening, the two of them dined and embarked on a pub-crawl and gin-soak, accompanied by Daily Express reporter Tom Driberg. On their bizarre trek, they added a black dancing girl, a Bengali Muslim, a Jew, and a Malayan to their party along the way. The challenge, according to Yorke, was to keep the party going until 6 o’clock the next morning; this, presumably, they did by crashing a party at the Erskine. Crowley called it “a terribly dull party, brightening when we got rid of most of ’em and started whiskey.”
At 6:22 a.m., Crowley and Yorke took the group of puzzled strangers to Cleopatra’s Needle on the Embankment. There, as the sun entered Capricorn, Crowley made a brief speech: “Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law. I, Ankh-f-n-Khonsu, the Priest of the Princes, present you, as representatives of your race, with The Book of the Law. It is the charter of universal freedom for every man and woman in the world. Love is the law, love under will.” He presented each of them with a copy of the book, officially marking its publication. After the confused recipients staggered back to their homes, Crowley went to bed. “It was one of the craziest evenings I have ever spent,” Yorke remarked. The next morning, Crowley’s diary noted “Hangover very bad.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
The Book of Thoth
“An Englishman, a Jew, an Indian, a Negro, a Malayan—no, it’s not one of those saloon-bar jokes—assembled on the Embankment by Cleopatra’s Needle soon after 6 a.m. yesterday.…” Thus Tom Driberg, using the pen name William Hickey, began his Daily Express article on the bizarre republication of The Equinox of the Gods. It ran in the December 23 edition of the newspaper. Despite the free publicity, this reissue sold poorly. Crowley reports that only forty copies of the book got out;1 after Crowley’s death, the unbound sheets sold in editions by Samuel Weiser and Thelema Publications.2
He was now aged sixty-two—“Old Crow,” as Gerald Yorke affectionately called him—and his asthma grew increasingly worse. More so than in his youth, Crowley realized the time limits to publishing his backlog of writing. Ditto for his opportunities to have children and train pupils. Thus he began a frenzied schedule of publishing, procreation, and searching for a successor. These activities would dominate the rest of his life.
Crowley’s next project was a one-shilling edition of The Book of the Law. Early in February 1938 he checked proofs of the prospectus; a month later, proofs of the book itself. Many preorders came in, and on March 19 Crowley distributed advance copies. It officially appeared on March 21, the vernal equinox of 1938. It was a small paperback with white wrappers, later reprinted in America with blue wrappers. Despite brisk sales, Crowley had an ample stock to circulate until his death.
One copy, warmly inscribed with thanks for support and friendship in the publication of his most important work, went to Cammell. The poet curiously read this book until he reached the dreaded chapter three and could read no further. He confronted Crowley for printing such inexcusable blasphemy. Shaken and lamentful, Old Crow pleaded that he was simply the book’s stenographer, not its author, and that he had acted on orders to publis
h the book in unaltered form. Cammell found Crowley’s excuses lame. Despite his love of books, he was compelled to burn the volume—per the commentary’s instructions—and felt great relief when he did.3 In later years another recipient, Madame Wellington Koo, would write, “Instead of destroying your Book of the Law, I venture to return it to you in case you might be short of copies.”4
Back in February, Crowley had written of Frieda Harris, “She is seriously on the Path.”5 His May 3 diary added, “She is now quite definitely a pupil.” Within a week she affiliated to OTO for £106 and joined the AA with the motto TzBA (which in Hebrew meant “Host” and added up to ninety-three). Later that summer, she bought a copy of The Equinox I(8) from Crowley for £1. It contained Crowley’s description of the tarot cards, which prompted discussions on the subject. That August, Crowley suggested that Soror Tzaba design a deck. “I don’t know anything about tarot cards,” she pleaded. He assured her, “It will be easy.” They’d start with an existing deck of cards and simply embellish the designs based on descriptions in The Equinox. He estimated six months’ work, and she readily agreed.
Looking back over forty years of study, Crowley found the descriptions in The Equinox woefully inadequate. Frieda suggested he redesign the deck and write a book on the subject while she painted the cards to his specifications. AC averred:
You are under a complete misapprehension about this tarot business. My original idea was simply to get hold of the best available old pack and have them re-drawn with occasional corrections and emendations. I expected to stick very closely to the Equinox description. As you will remember very well, I thought the whole thing could have been finished easily by Christmas.… it is entirely due to your genius that things are otherwise. It is you who have goaded me into getting the heart out of the whole business and taking each card separately as an individual masterpiece. The result is that any given card is something immensely beyond anything that I have ever contemplated.7
As a final carrot, Harris offered Crowley a stipend in exchange for lessons in magick. This, she reasoned, would better enable her to execute the new cards. That August they began the task, originally projected for an optimistic six months but which kept them both hard at work for five years. Crowley and Harris were both perfectionists: He with a very specific vision of what he wanted each card to look like, and she determined to meet his high standards.8 In a lighthearted mood, Frieda wrote AC, “All day yesterday I wore three pair of glasses and squinted at a small map and at my design.… My eyes fell out and my hair went white and today I can’t see at all and I’ve had to go to bed and am now writing with my eyes tied up in hot tea.…”9 In a more serious letter about card XX, “The Aeon,” however, she revealed that her humor did not greatly exaggerate the truth:
My Guardian Angel shouts to do it the best you can and not second best in a hurry and you must hit a perfect structure to build the pictures on. The elemental Cherubims are quite jolly but the Little Lady has twisted and turned ’till I am insane with wiggling lines and I’ve done about forty drawings of her.10
Aside from Frieda Harris, several others became involved in Thelema in 1938. California’s Agape Lodge admitted several new members that January, including twenty-year-old Phyllis Evelina Pratt (1917–2004), who would become involved not only in OTO, but also in AA as Soror Meral; she would eventually advance to IX° in OTO and remain a fixture on the scene for the rest of her life, being one of those instrumental in carrying Crowley’s teachings on to a new generation.11 Joining with her was her sweetheart (and future husband), twenty-two-year-old Paul Seckler, who could go on to officiate at initiations, act in Regina Kahl’s production of “Petrified Forest” for the Adult Evening College, and serve three years in San Quentin State Prison from 1940 to 1943 after he was convicted of grand theft auto.12 Luther L. Carroll, who took over as Deacon in the Gnostic Mass, also acted in Kahl’s productions and became an AA Probationer on March 18, 1939.13 Finally, American disciple Louis Turley Culling (1894–1973), a member of both OTO and AA, helped Crowley seek lawyers to denounce AMORC.14
Meanwhile, Crowley admitted Arthur Day to the grade of Minerval on August 24; he became a frequent visitor and promised to affiliate to the Vo for £17 15s. AC also contacted psychologist and Co-Mason and Martinist Grunddal Sjallung (1895–1976), recognizing him as Frater Galahad, Grand Master X° of the Danish OTO; this was one of the rare occasions Crowley took interest in OTO in other countries.15
Another new student was John Bland Jameson (born c. 1915) of the Theatre Arts Club. From all accounts he was a dilettante, unemployed and living a wild life of dining, parties, and travel. Although he attended Cambridge’s drama school, stage fright blocked his graduation. He was interested in magick, having long collected Crowley’s works, and wrote AC on May 11, 1938, to invite him to lunch. As a result, Jameson became his student. Furthermore, as the actor was away during July and August—playing in the Cornish Shakespearean Festival—he sublet his large flat on 6 Hasker Street to Crowley. After his return in August, Jameson became a Probationer with the agreement that, if Crowley was satisfied with his progress in a year, Jameson would become his successor.
Around August 16, Jameson paid a £100 founders’ share in Crowley’s newest scheme: a clinic that, for a minimum fee of £50, would provide rejuvenation through massage, ultraviolet radiation, and OTO’s elixir of life. The clinic was but one of many tricks filling Crowley’s sleeves: If he could raise £2,000, he would go to America and seize control of AMORC, guaranteeing an annual income of £80,000. He also sought producers for Mortadello and The Three Wishes, and pursued other magical plans aside from the tarot. “The orchard has many apples,” he told Jameson, “though one cannot tell which tree shall ripen first.”16
As the autumnal equinox approached, Crowley prepared to publish The Heart of the Master. Written in 1924, it was originally published in the 1925 German periodical Pansophia, which was not distributed much outside of the small membership of the Collegium Pansophicum.17 AC devoted September to reviewing its proofs and binding and on the 21st received eleven special copies of the book. Two days later the OTO publication officially appeared in its flashing colors of yellow and purple.
September also marked nine months since publication of The Equinox of the Gods. As expected, the news from Europe looked worse and worse:
September 11. Grave news on BBC. Will there be immediate war?
September 21. WAR.
September 26. Hitler’s speech. War seems certain.
September 27. I.W.E. [Küntzel] raving against Czechs: these people are really insane.
Then, on September 29, the bottom fell through at the Munich Conference, and Britain and France yielded to Nazi demands. In disgust, Crowley jotted in red ink on a copy of The Equinox of the Gods’s prospectus that publication occurred “Nine months before the Betrayal, which stripped Britain of the last rags of honour, prestige and security, and will break up civilization.”
Crowley’s various romantic forays stabilized for a time with a runner named Peggy Wetton. On October 7 and 8 they began a series of sex magick workings to beget another son for Crowley. “She claims that this worked right away,” Crowley noted in his diary,18 but at the end of December, Crowley recorded her miscarriage. After a kitchen fire burned Peggy’s hand and sent her into the hospital, Crowley conducted sex magick workings with someone named Josephine Blackley to heal her arm. Peggy Wetton faded from the scene shortly thereafter.
Crowley spent autumn of 1938 working on more books. He busily dictated descriptions of the tarot cards, beginning with their traditional designs and building on or revising them in accordance with forty years’ study of magick and mysticism. Frieda, meanwhile, continued the arduous task of painting the cards. Since she lived in the country and communicated with Crowley by mail, work proceeded slowly. Crowley was a hard task-master, supplying very specific descriptions (and sometimes sketches) of the cards, rejecting even the slightest deviation from his ideal. The artist on some occasions went
through as many as seven revisions before an acceptable card was produced, much to her frustration. Fortunately her dedication and patience won out. She respected Crowley’s learning, and he admired her ability to interpret and render his descriptions in her own style.
Meanwhile his secretary, Nora Knott, prepared typescripts of “Yoga for Yellowbellies” and “Yoga for Yahoos.” He had long considered these prime candidates for publication, and now planned their release as Eight Lectures on Yoga. On December 15 he began dictating a manuscript on the I Ching.
Little Essays toward Truth, a collection of Crowley’s philosophical writings, became his next book to go to press. He took it and a £10 deposit to the printer on November 4. The prospectus was ready by the 18th, and Crowley was soon taking orders for the book. He designed the dust jacket on December 3, and two days later Soror Tzaba rendered it to his specifications. OTO published the five-shilling book on December 22, 1938, at 12:13 p.m. as the sun entered the sign of Capricorn: precisely the winter solstice.
At the end of 1938, Jameson dashed in to appoint Crowley power of attorney, then dashed out again for business in Switzerland. Various ailments laid AC out for the first two months of 1939 despite frequent treatments for his asthma. When Jameson returned from Switzerland on January 17 they began petty and open bickering. The conflict came to a head in mid-February when Crowley moved out and Jameson entered a nursing home for surgery.
Spring of 1939 saw Old Crow as busy as ever. On the evening of Wednesday, March 17 (two days after Germany occupied Czechoslovakia), he gave a talk and demonstration titled “Travelling on the Astral Plane” at 32 Fairhazel Gardens. He also designed the cover for his yoga book and began correcting its page proofs. By April 3, Crowley had a sample copy of Eight Lectures on Yoga, by the Mahatma Guru Sri Paramahansa Shivaji. Of his pseudonym, Crowley wrote, “The name is, of course, a little slap of mine at the swinish scoundrels who confer high-sounding titles on themselves, and write books about a subject which they do not understand at all.”19 He was referring to His Holiness Mahatma Sri Agamya Guru Paramahamsa, with whom he was associated at the dawn of his Equinox period in London. Eight Lectures on Yoga was a large-sized book, constituting the next issue of The Equinox: Volume 3, Number 4.20
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