48 Biographical information on Mudd is drawn from Ninette Shumway to Frank Bennett, Apr 26, 1923, New 92, Yorke Collection, and Mudd’s own autobiographical statement in New 116, Yorke Collection.
49 Greene, Moments of Being, 21.
50 Spence, Secret Agent 666, 188, reports that Rome’s Central State Archive has a dossier on Crowley, containing a 13 Apr 1923 expulsion order from the Ministry of Internal Affairs which cites Crowley’s “obscene and perverted” sexual activities, including polygamy, as justification. He had until May 1 to leave; the other residents, however, were free to remain.
Chapter Sixteen • Eccentrics in Exile
1 Diary, 16 May 1923.
2 Sunday Express, 6 May 1923.
3 AC to Ninette Shumway, 27 May 1923, Old D1, Yorke Collection.
4 AC to Norman Mudd, 13 Jun 1923, Yorke Collection.
5 Ninette Shumway to Leah Hirsig, 15 Sep 1923, New 116, Yorke Collection.
6 Diary, 15 Apr 1924.
7 AC to Louis Wilkinson, 8 Jul 1946, Wilkinson Collection.
8 Aleister Crowley, Songs for Italy: “Parturiunt Montes—Nascitur Ridiculus Mus”—Solini (London: n.p., 1923).
9 AC to Norman Mudd, Sun 5° Leo (ca Jul 28), 1923, D1, Yorke Collection.
10 Register of Rhodes Scholars, 1903–1945 (London: Oxford University, 1950), 54. Death record, GRO, Northampton, Northamptonshire, 3b: 46s.
11 UK Incoming Passenger List, Kenilworth Castle, 3 Oct 1921.
12 Millennial Conference on Number Theory and Michael A. Bennett, Number Theory for the Millennium (Natick, MA: A. K. Peters, 2002), v. 3, 197–9.
13 Marriage record, GRO, Oxford, Oxfordshire, 3a: 2475. Register of Rhodes Scholars, 54.
14 Saayman’s publications include: Henry L. Brose and E. H. Saayman, “The Atomic Diameters of Hydrogen and the Inert Gases with respect to Electrons of Very Low Velocity,” Nature, 13 Sep 1930, 400–1; H. L. Bröse and E. H. Saayman, “Über Querschnittsmessungen an Nichtedelgasmolekülen durch langsame Elektronen,” Annalen der Physik, 5(7): 797–852; H. L. Brose and E. H. Saayman, “LXXXI. A note on Heisenberg’s relation,” Philosophical Magazine 1931, Series 7, 11 (72): 980–6; E. H. Saayman and T. L. MacDonald, “Notes on the Teaching of Science in Adult Classes,” Tutors’ Bulletin of Adult Education, Oct 1932.
15 Aleister Crowley, “The Genius of Mr. James Joyce,” New Pearson’s, Jul 1923, 52–3.
16 Diary, 9 Aug 1923. See also Norman Mudd to Leah Hirsig, 28 May 1923, New 116, Yorke Collection.
17 Norman Mudd to Marion Clark, n.d., Old DD6/New 116, Yorke Collection. For Crowley’s description, see Magick without Tears, 95–6.
18 Diary, 27 Sep 1923.
19 Diary, 27 Oct 1923.
20 Details of this account are drawn from Leah Hirsig, Three Chapters in My Life, Aleister Crowley Papers, Syracuse.
21 Mudd’s diary, Yorke Collection. See also Norman Mudd to AC, 11 Oct 1923, New 116, Yorke Collection.
22 AL ii.58
23 Norman Mudd to AC, 31 Oct 1923. New 116, Yorke Collection.
24 AC to Norman Mudd, 31 Oct 1923. New 116, Yorke Collection.
25 In addition to Crowley’s debate with Mudd, another biographical trigger for this text is arguably Crowley’s childhood experience of schisms within the Plymouth Brethren over differences in Biblical interpretation. This informs—but in no way invalidates—the short comment’s spiritual significance in establishing The Book of the Law as a spiritual text that no one can interpret for another.
26 The Gayatri Mantra, one of the oldest Vedic hymns, is “Om bhur bhuvah svah tat savitur varenyam bhargo devasya dhimahi dhiyo yo nah prachodayat.” This translates as “May the Supreme Divine Being stimulate our intellect so that we may realise the Supreme Truth.”
27 18 Nov 1923. New 116, Yorke Collection.
28 Ninette Shumway to Norman Mudd, Sunday (n.d.), Nov 1923. New 116, Yorke Collection.
29 AC to Montgomery Evans II, 26 Dec 1923, Evans Papers.
30 Ninette Shumway to Norman Mudd, 2 Dec 1923, New 116, Yorke Collection.
31 Leah Hirsig to Blanche Conn, 17 Feb 1924, New 24, Yorke Collection.
32 James Moore, Gurdjieff and Mansfield (Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1980), 3.
33 Symonds, Shadow Realm, 288fn.
34 Nott, Teachings of Gurdjieff, 121–2.
35 Suster, Legacy of the Beast, 93.
36 Webb, Harmonious Circle, 314–5.
37 Ninette Shumway to AC, 15 Feb 1924, New 116, Yorke Collection
38 Ninette Shumway to AC, 22 Feb 1924, New 116, Yorke Collection
39 Memorandum on the Fox of the Balkans, from Crowley’s 20 Oct 1924 diary. MON: 13, OTO Archives.
40 Diary, 4 Mar 1924. Liber AL I: 42–3.
41 AC to Norman Mudd, n.d. (ca Mar 1924), Yorke Collection.
42 Diary, 19 Mar 1924.
43 “The Master Therion: A Biographical Note,” The Equinox 1986, 3(10): 16–7.
44 Diary, 24 Feb 1924. This quote references Liber AL i.44: “For pure will, unassuaged of purpose, delivered from the lust of result, is every way perfect.”
45 Magical Record of the Scarlet Woman, 1 Apr 1924, Yorke Collection.
46 A long-established firm, they were located at 3 King William St. E.C., London.
47 Holograph note on a letter from Holman Hunt to AC, 7 Jan 1924, Yorke Collection.
48 Norman Mudd to Montgomery Evans II, 27 Jun 1924, Evans Papers.
49 Quoted in Larry Rohter, “Mystical Visions of Argentine Artist,” New York Times, 27 Jul 2005.
50 Diary, 15 May 1924.
51 Diary, 16 May 1924.
52 Quoted in Álvaro Abós, Xul Solar: Pintor del Misterio (Buenos Aires: Sudamericana, 2004), 107.
53 For more on Solar, see: Abós, Xul Solar. Mario H. Gradowczyk, Alejandro Xul Solar (Buenos Aires: Ediciones ALBA, 1996). Fermín Fèvre, Xul Solar: Tesoros de la pintura argentina (Buenos Aires: Editorial El Ateneo, 2000). The first American exhibition of his works was held in 2006; see Patricia C. Johnson, “Xul Solar Exhibit Sheds Light on an Artist ahead of His Time,” Houston Chronicle, 27 Jan 2006. In 1961, Solar would paint Crowley’s portrait as Muy mago Krowley Alistör.
54 Reproduced in Crowley’s FBI file, obtained under the Freedom of Information Act.
55 These extracts, in order of appearance, are from: Bertrand Russell to Norman Mudd, 29 May 1924, Old E21, Yorke Collection; AC to Montgomery Evans II, 13 Sep 1924, Evans Papers; Emma Goldman to Norman Mudd, quoted in Symonds, Shadow Realm, 367; Philip Heseltine to Norman Mudd, n.d. (1924), Old E21, Yorke Collection; Otto Kahn to Norman Mudd, 5 Aug 1924, Old E21, Yorke Collection; Norman Mudd to AC, 5 Apr 1924, New 5, Yorke Collection; Letter to Norman Mudd from his parents, quoted in Symonds, Shadow Realm, 375.
56 Ninette Shumway to Leah Hirsig, 15 Oct 1924. New 116, Yorke Collection.
57 AC to Montgomery Evans II, 19 Nov 1924, Evans Papers.
58 Leah Hirsig to Montgomery Evans II, 6 Aug 1924. Evans Papers. See also AC to Norman Mudd, 6 Aug 1924, New 116, Yorke Collection.
59 AC to Gerald Yorke, 16 Mar 1928, 4 Apr 1928, and 25 Dec 1928, Yorke Collection, respectively.
60 Leah Hirsig to Montgomery Evans II, 11–12 Sep 1924, Evans Papers, respectively.
61 AC to Montgomery Evans II, 12 Sep 1924, Evans Papers.
62 “Visitor is Noted Miniature Artist,” St. Petersburg Times, 8 Aug 1925, 5: 3.
63 Her watercolor “The White Elephant” is at the Met, while her miniature of “Miss Georgette Bickley” is at the Smithsonian. See http://www.metmuseum.org/works_of_art/collection_database/all/objectview.aspx?OID=20016752 and http://americanart.si.edu/collections/search/artwork/?id=2187 (accessed Dec 14 2009).
64 1920 U.S. Census, Bronx Assembly District 4, Bronx, NY, district 237, 3B. U.S. passport application 28 Jun 1924, National Archives, College Park, MD.
65 UK incoming passenger list, Minnekahda, 12 Jul 1924.
66 New York passenger list, Nieuw Amsterdam, 4 Oct 1924.
&n
bsp; 67 “Visitor is Noted Miniature Artist.”
68 There is some question about her exact date of birth. She has two passport applications, a supporting letter from her great aunt, and an entry on a 1925 passenger list giving 6 Sep 1892. Another passenger list has it 10 Sep 1892, while a third gives 6 Sep 1873. U.S. passport application, 29 Jul 1924, National Archives, College Park, MD. New York passenger list, SS France, 6 May 1922. New York passenger list, SS France, 19 May 1923. New York passenger list, S. S. Republic, 12 Oct 1925.
69 Leah Hirsig, Three Chapters of My Life, GARL.
70 AC to Montgomery Evans II, 29 Sep 1924, Evans Papers.
71 26 Sep 1924, Three Chapters of My Life. The line “He and I are One, nay are None” is a wordplay on Liber AL i.27, “O Nuit, continuous one of Heaven, let it be ever thus; that men speak not of Thee as One but as None; and let them speak not of thee at all, since thou art continuous!”
72 26 Sep 1924, Three Chapters of My Life.
73 28 Sep 1924, Three Chapters of My Life.
74 AL iii.43.
75 AL i.16
76 Leah Hirsig to Montgomery Evans II, 30 Nov 1924, Evans Papers.
77 10 Oct 1924, Three Chapters of My Life.
78 Ninette Shumway to Leah Hirsig, 9 Nov 1924, New 116, Yorke Collection.
79 Ninette Shumway to Leah Hirsig, 17 Nov 1924, New 116, Yorke Collection.
80 AC to Norman Mudd, 18 Feb 1925, Old D1, Yorke Collection.
81 Published in German in 1925, and in English in 1938.
82 Diary, 24 Apr 1925.
83 Leah Hirsig to Norman Mudd, 24 Oct 1924, Three Chapters of My Life.
84 Leah Hirsig’s diary, Apr 1925, Yorke Collection.
85 Leah Hirsig to Norman Mudd, quoted in Symonds, Shadow Realm, 402.
86 AC to Heinrich Tränker, An. XX Sun 26° Capricorn (c. 19 Jan 1924), Yorke Collection.
87 AC to C. S. Jones, An. XXI, Sol in Capricorn (Jan 1924), Yorke Collection.
88 Germer to Heinrich Tränker, 6 Jan 1954, OTO Archives. As O.H.O., Crowley took the magical motto Phoenix. His pseudonym of Comte de Fénix for The Scientific Solution to the Problem of Government (London: privately printed, c. 1937) is likely an allusion to this motto.
89 Otto Barth had published an occult magazine called Lotusblätter ca 1923–1924, which served the Lotus Society he had founded with Heinrich Tränker to promote the teachings of Franz Hartmann. From 1927–1930, he would also produce the alchemical newspaper Alchemistische Blätter. He was also proprietor of the publishing house Otto Wilhelm Barth Verlag. During the first and second World Wars, Major General Otto Barth (1891–1963) served the German army, but I have been unable to confirm whether this is the same person.
90 Albin Grau is portrayed by Udo Kier in the 2001 release Shadow of the Vampire about the making of this classic horror film. The filmmakers were spooked to discover that Grau’s group, Fraternitas Saturni, shared its name with their production company, Saturn Films.
91 Quoted in Grant, Magical Revival, 155.
92 Mudd to Jane Wolfe, 13 Sep 1927. Quoted in “Jane Wolfe: Tunis and France.” In the Continuum 1983, 3(3): 38.
93 AC to Roy Leffingwell, n.d., New 14, Yorke Collection.
Chapter Seventeen • The French Connection
1 Arthur Mizener, The Saddest Story: A Biography of Ford Madox Ford (New York: World Publishing Co., 1971), 208. Carlos Baker, Ernest Hemingway: A Life Story (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1969), 539–40. Jeffrey Meyers, Hemingway: A Biography (New York: Harper & Row, 1985), 131–2. Matthew J. Bruccoli and Margaret M. Duggan, Correspondence of F. Scott Fitzgerald (New York: Random House, 1980), 193–6. The circumstances of Crowley and Hemingway’s meeting form the amusing story “Ford Madox Ford and the Devil’s Disciple.” Ernest Hemingway, A Moveable Feast (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1964), 79–88.
2 Thomas Edward Neil Driberg was studying classics at Oxford at this time, but left in 1927 without taking a degree. In the ensuing years, he would join the Communist Party as an MI5 spy, write for the Daily Express, be elected to Parliament in 1941, become the Labour Party whip in 1945, and be made Baron Bradwell shortly before his death. Given his career choices, Driberg concealed from the public two facts about himself: his homosexuality, and his early association with Crowley.
3 AC to Montgomery Evans II, 6 Oct 1926 and 18 Oct 1926, Evans Papers, respectively.
4 AC to Montgomery Evans II, 18 Oct 1926, Evans Papers.
5 AC to Montgomery Evans II, 22 Oct 1926, Evans Papers. In 1906, Leadbeater was accused of pederasty after it was discovered that he had been encouraging young boys to masturbate. He resigned in a cloud of controversy to save the Theosophical Society from any embarrassment, but to Annie Besant, he explained that he had discussed masturbation, amongst many other topics, as something completely natural in order to help the boys avoid feelings of shame. Leadbeater was readmitted in 1908, shortly after Besant succeeded Henry Steel Olcott as president of the Theosophical Society. The charges resurfaced again with regard to Krishnamurti around 1912, resulting in further scandal. The matter is treated at length in King, Sexuality, Magic and Perversion.
6 AC to Unknown Recipient, 1 Mar 1926, HRHRC.
7 Yarker’s contributions include “Guild Free Masonry and the Critics Criticised,” Co-Mason 1910, 2: 62–3; “The System of the Worshipful Society of Free Masons,” Co-Mason 1910, 2: 109–16; “The Relationship of Freemasonry to the Collegia of Rome,” Co-Mason 1911, 3: 163–7; and “The Ancient York Rite,” Co-Mason 1913, 5: 7–10. His obituary appeared as “In Memoriam: Very Illustrious Brother John Yarker, VII° (Guild); 33° S.R.; 97° A.A.P.R.,” Co-Mason 1913, 5: 65–71.
8 See Starr, Aleister Crowley: Freemason!
9 AC to C. S. Jones, 19 Feb 1919, C.S. Jones Papers.
10 Kaczynski, Panic in Detroit, 7. Further details regarding Crowley’s plans regarding The Voice of the Silence and the Theosophical Society are also presented there.
11 Dorothy Olsen to Montgomery Evans II, 37 Jan 1926, Evans Papers.
12 93 is the numerical value of thelema (will), agape (love), Aiwaz, etc. 418 is the value of Abrahadabra, Ra Hoor, the Hebrew letter Cheth, etc. Finally, 2,542 is the numerical value of thelema spelled “in full” i.e., the value of the words theta (th), epsilon (e), lambda (l), eta (e), mu (m) and alpha (a).
13 Leah Hirsig to AC, 22 Aug 1927, New 116, Yorke Collection.
14 Karl Germer to Philip Kaplan, 16 Mar 1958, Kaplan Papers.
15 Jane Wolfe’s diary, 18 Aug 1926. Quoted in “Jane Wolfe: Tunis and France.” In the Continuum 1983, 3(3): 33.
16 Diary, 2 Jan 1927.
17 Described in Crowley’s 1926–1927 diary at HRHRC.
18 Diary, 6 Feb 1927.
19 Quoted in In the Continuum 1983, 3(3): 36.
20 New York passenger list, Majestic, 12 Dec 1922. Record 15381, 30 Oct 1925, Naturalization Records of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California, Central Division (Los Angeles), 1887–1940, National Archives, Washington, D.C.
21 AC to W. T. Smith, Sep 1927, New 15, Yorke Collection.
22 Charles Mosley, Burke’s Peerage, Baronetage & Knightage, 107th ed. (Wilmington, DE: Burke’s Peerage, 2003).
23 Cricket Page, http://cricketarchive.com/Archive/Players/34/34149/34149.html (accessed Dec 15 2009).
24 Henry Green, Loving, A Novel (London: Hogarth Press, 1945). “100 Best English-Language Novels from 1923 to 2005,” http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,loving_living_party_going,00.html (accessed Dec 15 2009).
25 AC to Gerald Yorke, 20 Nov 1928, New 115, Yorke Collection.
26 AC to Gerald Yorke, 23 Mar 1928, New 115, Yorke Collection.
27 Gerald Yorke to AC, 20 Mar 1928, New 116, Yorke Collection.
28 AC to WT Smith, 4 May 1928, New 15, Yorke Collection.
29 The numerical value of Babalon. B (2) + A (1) + B (2) + A (1) + L (30) + O (70) + N (50).
30 AC to WT Smith, op cit.
31
AC to WT Smith, 6 Jun 1928, New 15, Yorke Collection.
32 Gerald Yorke to AC, 14 Aug 1928, New 116, Yorke Collection.
33 New York passenger list, Chicago, 7 Nov 1923. New York passenger list, Europa, 11 Dec 1931. UK passenger list, Annie Johnson, 7 Oct 1933.
34 Carl V. de Hundt, Internet Movie Database, http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0212007/ (accessed Dec 15 2009). The last film, Jeremias, was produced in Germany and relased in the U.S. under the name The Fall of Jerusalem.
35 Examples of Hunt’s journalistic output around the time Crowley hired him include: “Why America’s Models Have had Enough of Paris,” Washington Post, 4 Oct 1925, SM5. “The Penitent Burglar of the Beautiful French Actress,” Atlanta Constitution, 18 Oct 1925, F10. “Not a Penny for Pretty ‘Zeff’: Paris Stage Star’s Claim for a Fortune in Alimony from Her American Husband Thrown Out of Court when Judge and Jury Saw What a ‘Walking Art Gallery’ She Was,” Washington Post, 1 Nov 1925, SM5. “Almost Killed by Duke Who Now Woos Her,” Atlanta Constitution, 10 Jan 1926, E6. “Danced as Never Before to Save Her Lover’s Life,” Atlanta Constitution, 17 Jan 1926, E10. “What Really Happened at the Mysterious ‘Assassins’ Bar,’ ” Atlanta Constitution, 7 Mar 1926, E6. “Should Women Strive to Look Like Men?” Washington Post, 18 Apr 1926, SM1. “Latest Lovely Victim of Paris Dope Ring,” Atlanta Constitution, 23 May 1926, F6. “How the Love Pirate Trapped His Silly Victims,” Atlanta Constitution, 27 Jun 1926, F6. “Secrets of Life in a Persian Harem Revealed,” Washington Post, 26 Dec 1926, SM1. “Paris Traps for the ‘Easy Marks,’ ” Washington Post, 27 May 1928, SM4. “Reveals Rivaling Ancient Orgies,” Washington Post, 30 Sep 1928, SM7.
36 Carl de Vidal Hunt, “Film Mother Stoned in House of Mystics Tells of Attack,” Charleston Gazette, 3 Jun 1928.
37 Diary, 25 Jul 1928.
38 Birth record, GRO, Mile End Old Town London, Middlesex, 1c: 420. New York passenger list, S.S. Celtic, 15 Aug 1921. Gerald Suster, Crowley’s Apprentice: The Life and Ideas of Israel Regardie (York Beach, ME: Weiser, 1990). Dr. Israel Regardie, http://www.sria.org/israelregardie.htm (accessed Dec 15 2009).
39 AC to Gerald Yorke, 18 Nov 1928, New 115, Yorke Collection.
Perdurabo Page 98