Dr. W.W. Westcott letter Regarding the Legitimate Rights of the Golden Dawn and RR et AC material
Dear Bro. ______
I have been thinking of what may happen to my occult properties after my death. The Soc Ros things will go of course to the Sec Gen- I will let Pattinson and Edwards have my Theosoph papers and the Order of Light & Sat Bhai & Order of Perfection papers_ Under an old promise Mathers is to have on demand an iron box containing copies of the G.D. Rituals 0=0 to 5=6 & side Lectures; they are alone in a box for him at Rosic Library & he is to have nothing else.
I think it likely that at my death Mathers & Innes; Crowley & Co; & Waite, Felkin & Co, may each make claim on my G.D. properties & may each make public claims derogatory to my historical interests in the G.D. and Isis Temple. So as you have copies of all Rituals, I propose that all these G.D. papers shall go to Hamel for preservation _ whereby you or Pattinson or Felkin may be able to refer for information in case my doings are attacked.
Mathers is the only person alive who has any knowledge of the starting of Isis Urania Temple & he has made & no doubt will make false claims of proprietorship of the G.D. Hermetic Society because of his vanity, and because I resigned all offices of the Society in 1897;- I think it was.
I have cipher Rituals, early Rituals in English, diagrams – a volume of historical data from 1887 and a volume of moneys expended from 1887 – and many letters from Mathers, especially 2 asking leave to help me in the G.D. Rituals translation and literature. Those latter he will give his soul to get hold of _ and shall not get.
There are also letters from the first 30 G.D’s who asked for the 5=6, each expressing approval of the G.D. system & several German letters re G.D. I want all these kept for my protection. I want you if alive & well after my death to use those to protect my claims _ if any false claims are made about them.
About 1886 AFA Woodford gave me Hermetic teaching & old MSS information of G.D. 0=0 to 4=7. Mathers helped me to write those up _ & Woodman as S.M. agreed to be 1st Principal of the Isis Temple. We 3 were co-equal by my wish _ & this lasted until he died Dec. 1891. Then Mathers brought from Paris the 5=6 and said it was the culmination of my G.D. 0=0 to 4=7 and I carried 5=6 on in England until M. became so eccentric that I resigned in 1897.
I make no claim to the 5=6 Ritual authorship but I do claim right & precedence in the origin of G.D. 0=0 to 4=7 derived from Woodford I started the Isis Temple. I paid Mathers to translate & write out the rituals from my original cypher drafts. I paid for the Isis Warrant, & paid M. for writing it & I won’t have him say he got the G.D. from his ancestor in Pondicherry, as he now pretends.
I propose to give the original cyphers to Brit Museum Library after my death.
Law affairs may yet arise between Mathers, Crowley or their enemies & so it is not safe to get rid of anything so long as M. lives.
I think you understand my meaning & perhaps will agree.
You might put this in an envelope addressed to me in case you die before me; if not please do as I wish.
Yours sincerely,
Wynn Westcott