xiv 
PREFACE 
viewpoint, the hand of the master himself will be recognized. 
Finally, I doubt whether he would have been willing to 
quote at such great length from the writing of any other 
author for these letters. Many short quotations from several 
writers are certainly to be found in this volume, but not one 
of such great length. 
In a word, Crowley is quoting from himself. 
One of Crowley's personal prejudices is highlighted in a 
curious way in one of these letters. It relates to color. In a 
quotation from "The Three Schools of Magick" he refers to 
the stupid attempt by Annie Besant and Bishop Leadbeater 
to set up Jiddu Krishnamurti as the World Teacher. Both of 
these Theosophical leaders had made all sorts of preparation 
for this event, including the organization of special societies 
and service groups which would do honor to him. Crowley 
wrote of it: 
To make the humiliation more complete . a wretched 
creature was chosen who. to the most loathsome moral 
qualities. added the most fatuous imbecility . And then 
blew up! . .. We cannot suppose that humanity is so 
entirely base as to accept Krishnamurti . ... 
To this was added a footnote: "This passage was written in 
1924 e.v. The Master Therion arose and smote him. What 
seemed a menace is now hardly a memory ." 
A more unkind reference could hardly have been made. 
First of all, Krishnamurti was selected by the two 
neo-Theosophists while still a minor: on what basis I hardly 
know. It is quite possible that his boyish vanity may have 
been flattered by having such fulsome honors and praise 
heaped upon him. A lengthy reference to this episode was 
made years earlier in The Equinox , Vol. I, No. 10. There is a 
section , In Memoriam-John Yarker. which is a record of two 
meetings of a primitive Rite of Masonry. The first was to give 
homage to John Yarker, the Sovereign Grand Master General 
of this Rite, who had died on March 20, 1913. The second 
protested 
the attendance of an unnamed follower of