295 lines
13 KiB
Plaintext
295 lines
13 KiB
Plaintext
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[At head of letter]: It was a lovely day today, are you better &
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could you get out?
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Rolling Stone Orchard
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Campden
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March 25th [1942]
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My dear Aleister,
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Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.
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I hastily return your sample sheet as I don't trust papers a
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minute, it would get away I am sure.
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1. It's lovely paper.
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2. The type looks very nice.
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3. The price is not outrageous but surely the size, if you mean
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to put the book in with the cards, is too big. Perhaps you mean to
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publish without, in which case I think you should at least have the
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photographs of the cards reproduced don't you think?
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I enclose a cutting from the Evesham Journal. Written by Gosse
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& quite good I think.
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I am having a funny time with the Show, very stuffy old ladies
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& very ancient men. But the children! I don't understand, they crowd
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in after school. I must have had at least 8 little boys today & they
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ask intelligent questions & go solemnly round & stare. I have amused
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myself with asking them which one they liked. Oh yes! they know at
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once & generally I find it is the picture which fits with the month
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in which they have been born. But one little boy aged 6, a little
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gnome-like person obstinately declared for the Aeon. I tried to move
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him but he clung to it--. What chord did it strike in him? Those
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clear eyes looked so gravely at me.
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"I walked home with a gold dark boy
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And never a word I'd say
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Chimborazo, Cotopaxi
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Had taken my speech away
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I gazed entranced upon his face
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Fairer than any flower
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O shining Popocatapetl
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It was thy magic hour
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The houses, people, traffic seemed
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Thin fading dreams by day,
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Chimborazo, Cotopaxi
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Had stolen my soul away."
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Also a little person aged 2, scuttling & crawling, was asked
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which picture: Straight she went to No 2. Cups, Love. I though she
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would forget & asked her again 10 minutes later & she toddled off
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to the same picture. "That" she said again.
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Then they asked me "What is the meaning of `Lust'." That's a
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knockout blow for a poor adult.
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So somewhat timorously I said "Well you must understand the
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feeling of it. Now how do you feel if you see nice chocolates &
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there, you get them & how good they taste. That is a picture of how
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you feel about those chocolates." And then we had a lovely
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conversation about our favorite sweets & yum yum over sticky toffee
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& the sweets that took longest to suck. But such concentration, how
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I envied them.
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I will try to send you Sol in Aries picture. [?] Mercury is
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photographed but do I know I like him. We shall tell when we see the
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photographs but all these reproducers are constipated. Where are the
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2 new cards from the Sun--Oh dear!
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I hope Pussy has sent you the poems by now. It is my fault I
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have been supine. My rib is better but stops sleep.
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Love is the law, love under will.
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Yours ever,
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Frieda
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Rolling Stone Orchard
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Campden
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May 9th [1942]
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Dear Aleister,
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Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.
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I have written to Pearson to ask him to send you a copy of an
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estimate which I have been trying to get from the Sun Engraving.
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This, it was agreed, should cover all possible expences & give us
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1000 packs of cards at [L]1/10 each instead [of] [L]10 a pack & only
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a 100 packs. This includes boxes & any additional expence not tax
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which must be left to the Sun Engraving to arrange with their usual
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agent.
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I am concerned at this part payment & buying single blocks. It
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is not a good proposition because the question arises is the new
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block the property of Hylton, yours or mine or whose?
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I foresee great complications & would suggest we should have a
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3rd party to whom all subscriptions should be paid, even if it means
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forming a limited Tarot Co. with a treasurer.
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How would Madge Porter do if I could get her to take it on?
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If you don't like that idea--would Hylton do it or Cecil. You &
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I with the possible chance of profits (I don't think) should not be
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recipients of casual cheques or we shall soon be accused of
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embezzling same. So far I have paid for everything & the question
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has not arisen.
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Love is the law, love under will
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Yours
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Frieda Harris
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[P.S.] I am very feeble. I can't do a day's job & everyone seems to
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lean on me & hope I will do it for them--I feel nothing is worth
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troubling about except leisure.
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Rolling Stone Orchard
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Campden
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May 14, 1942
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My dear Aleister,
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Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.
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I am sorry I cannot allow my pictures to be reproduced as a
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pack of cards unless I know who the person is who is putting down
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the money, the exact details of your plan and how you propose to
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raise so large a sum and am satisfied that the securities are real
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business proposition and the scheme is a sound one.
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As all this fuss and worry is too much for me will you kindly
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write fully to my bank manager and not to me, as in future I want to
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leave these complicated business agreements to experts.
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I shall not reply to you again about them or discuss them with
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you.
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Love is the law, love under will.
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Yours,
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Frieda Harris.
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[P.S.] The Sun Engraving have enough cardboard to do 1000 packs.
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Address The Bank Manager Midland Bank Chipping Campden Glos.
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[Crowley to Pearson, the photoengraver]
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STRICTLY PRIVATE & CONFIDENTIAL WITHOUT PREJUDICE
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140 Picadilly,
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W.1.
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May 29th, 1942.
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Dear Mr. Pearson,
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Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.
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Thank you for your letter received this morning. In view of
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future relations I think it of the utmost importance that I should
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make the situation clear to you. I should have preferred to do this
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by word of mouth; and yet perhaps a letter may, in the long run,
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serve the purpose better.
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As you know, odd cards have been reproduced by you as funds
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became available.
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My very old and very dear friend Mr. Hylton was good enough to
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send me [L]15.-.- for the purpose of producing one more trump, but
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on discovering that two could be done for an extra [L]5.-.- or a
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little less, I sent you the additional amount out of my own pocket.
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Lady Harris, naturally, accepted this enthusiastically, and
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sent you the originals necessary.
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Let me say in parenthesis that one of the principal points in
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wishing this to be done was that a friend of mine, who is proposing
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to finance the entire production, wanted to see one of the smaller
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cards, so that he might feel sure that they would stand up to the
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trumps.
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The next thing is that, to my amazement, I received a letter
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from Lady Harris, including the following passage:--
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"I am concerned at this part payment and buying single blocks. It
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is not a good proposition because the question arises is the new
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block the property of Hylton, yours or mine or whose?
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I foresee great complications & would suggest we should have a
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third party to whom all subscriptions should be paid,
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even if it means forming a limited Tarot Co. with a treasurer.
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How would Madge Porter do if I could get her to take it on?
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If you don't like that idea--would Hylton do it or Cecil. You
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and I with the possible chance of profits (I don't think) should not
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be recipients of casual cheques or we shall soon be accused of
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embezzling same."
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Lady Harris never reads my letters carefully. I had told here
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that these blocks were a present to us.
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Madge Porter is a dear little old lady, who lives in a remote
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cottage in a wood some distance from Newbury. She is only
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approachable by a cart-track through the wood, and has no telephone.
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I wrote to Lady Harris explaining the situation and then
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received the following letter:
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"May 14, 1942
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"My dear Aleister,
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Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.
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I am sorry I cannot allow my pictures to be reproduced as a
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pack of cards unless I know who the person is who is putting down
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the money, the exact details of your plan and how you propose to
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raise so large a sum and am satisfied that the securities are real
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business proposition and the scheme is a sound one.
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As all this fuss and worry is too much for me will you kindly
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write fully to my bank manager and not to me, as in future I want to
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leave these complicated business agreements to experts.
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I shall not reply to you again about them or discuss them with
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you.
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Love is the law, love under will.
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Yours,
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Frieda Harris"
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If only she would have stuck to that! But instead of leaving
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things to her Manager, she takes away the originals from you. I
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suppose that you had already started work on the two cards. I can
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well understand your annoyance.
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I should like to emphasise that I am absolutely devoted to Lady
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Harris, and have the evidence of countless acts of kindness on her
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part, indicating that her feelings toward me are similar.
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But from time to time she is subject to fits of panic in which
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she does the most incomprehensible things. For instance, she writes
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to people who are perfect strangers to her with the object of
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interfering with their relations with me. I do not wish to quote
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incidents, but I assure you that the facts are astounding.
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To recur to the present situation. In the first place, I have a
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two-thirds interest in this work on the Tarot. As to the cards
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themselves, in nearly every case she has done her painting from
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sketches made by me, and in every case the design and meaning of the
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card and the particular colours to be used have been entirely my
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work. There has been no cause of dispute. In fact, she has been most
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docile in adapting herself to my requirements; in some cases I have
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made her do the card over again as many as six or seven times.
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There is no reason whatever why she should go back on the
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proposition to reproduce these two cards. You told me that her
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reason was that she though four should have been reproduced at once.
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But in that case why not tell me? I should gladly have put up the
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additional money required.
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I am sorry to have had to write to you at such length, about
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what is, after all, nothing at all; and I daresay that you were
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quite right in suggesting to me over the telephone that if she were
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left alone she would come to her senses.
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But the point at issue is this: I cannot possibly ask my friend
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to put up [L]1600 if at any moment she is liable to dash in on an
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impulse and whisk the originals away!
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For this reason, I am going to ask my solicitors, Messrs.
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Gisborne & Lewis, 10 Ely Place, W.1., to draw up a proper business
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Contract, which will make it impossible for her to interfere with
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the work, once the financial arrangements with my friend are
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completed.
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Love is the law, love under will.
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Yours sincerely
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Aleister Crowley
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[P.S.] It seems important that you should understand my motive. To
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me this Work on the Tarot is an Encyclopoedia of all serious
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"occult" philosophy. It is a standard Book of Reference, which will
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determine the entire course of mystical and magical thought for the
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next 2000 years. My one anxiety is that it should be saved from
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danger of destruction, by being reproduced in permanent form, and
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distributed in as many distant places as may be. I am not anxious to
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profit financially; if I had the capital available in this country,
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I should send (say) 200 copies to State Libraries in all parts of
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the world, and as many more to my principal representatives.
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A.C.
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