# - Crowley, A.

discussing his thoughts and beliefs, the Ordo Templi Orientis (O.T.O.), magical rituals ("..I hear that the Mass has not been performed for months; and unless there is a weekly Mass there is no Order at all worth speaking of. On top of that may I suggest a daily Mass - the Mass of the Phoenix or the Mark of the Beast rituals..."), and other subjects, each letter beginning and ending with personal mantras ("Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law" and "Love is the law, love under will"), 52 pages, 4to and 8vo, on headed notepaper with magical symbols, Netherwold, The Ridge, Hastings, and 93 Jermyn St., London, 6 July 1943 to 29 September 1947



[together with:] a typed draft letter by Crowley for circulation among the Lodge with corrections by Mellinger, 3 pages, a carbon copy typescript poem by Crowley ("A Grammarian Croaks") with autograph subscription, 1 page, two envelopes, eleven photographs mostly of Crowley, and two tarot cards of his design

Condition is described in the main body of the cataloguing, where appropriate. If you require additional information we would recommend viewing the item during the exhibition or contacting one of the specialists for this sale.
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"...Every man and every woman is a star; each one of us is absolute and supreme in his own universe; whatever set of experiences he may be going through is right for him as soon as perfect understanding illuminates the tangles..."

a significant series of letters from the last years of crowley's life. Frédéric Mellinger was a Nazi refuge who had settled in California; he was also a member of the OTO - addressed in some of these letters as "Fili carissime 93" or "my beloved son" - with considerable occult and theosophical knowledge. He won the respect of Crowley, who writes in one letter that "when Frater Saturnus and myself have moved on to the next stage, you may find yourself with the whole responsibility of carrying on the work of the Order". Crowley encourages Mellinger to develop his knowledge and understanding of ritual magic, and the letters include many references to specific occult practices. He also  writes about the OTO itself, and especially the exasperating nature of the Order's internal politics.  

Many of these letters turn on the new world order that was being established at the time. In September 1945 he writes of the Atomic bomb, which he assimilates into his own occult theories: "It seems as if the conditions of planetary life may be revolutionized." Mellinger was working for the American military administration in Germany after the war, and the presence of one of his acolytes in a position of power excited Crowley, who anticipated that "you should be able to introduce some of our work to the public in your bailiwick." One of Crowley's more peculiar interventions in the public sphere was his composition of a song La Gauloise (Song of the Fighting French): "I enclose you several copies ... the object is to have this adopted as the French National Anthem instead of the Marseillaise, which has got terribly shop-soiled." His own credentials as a Frenchman, he explains in another letter, come from his family having originated there before settling in England in the fifteenth century ("...stealing abbeys and becoming Sheriffs of London and Bishops who wrote highly improper poetry and all that sort of thing...")