Frater Achad (1886–1950)

The main body of this volume is an adequate primer on the hermetic qabala. Charles Stansfeld Jones reproduces nearly verbatim the heuristic theory of qabala originated by his spiritual father Aleister Crowley, with its central metaphor of the 'filing cabinet.' (Crowley himself did not publish this theory until several years later in Magick in Theory & Practice.)

Most notable, however, are the appendices to this book, where Jones first advanced the scheme of his "restored" Tree of Life, show more revising the entire system of qabalistic correspondences on the basis of his individual intuitions. Crowley was disappointed in the general style of the book, and criticized its unorthodox content as “imbecility.” In obvious allusion to Jones, he wrote in Magick in Theory & Practice:

"One who ought to have known better tried to improve the Tree of Life by turning the Serpent of Wisdom upside down! Yet he could not even make his scheme symmetrical: his little remaining good sense revolted at the supreme atrocities. Yet he succeeded in reducing the whole Magical Alphabet to nonsense, and shewing that he had never understood its real meaning."

Jones went on to affirm and develop his Restored Tree in later works: The Anatomy of the Body of God and The Egyptian Revival. But Crowley's criticism was well-founded; and Jones' insistence on an idiosyncratic system of correspondences, cutting himself off from deep precedent symbolism, was in fact symptomatic of his tendency to "shut himself up" in the false emanation of Knowledge. Despite the occasional embrace of the Restored Tree by later magicians (Benjamin Rowe is a signal instance), Jones' peculiar filing cabinet sits in an shadowy office where little real work is done. show less

Nothing is an essay on practical mysticism by Charles Robert Stansfeld Jones (here credited as "One"), a pupil and one-time magical heir of Aleister Crowley. Jones eventually came to style himself as "the world's greatest living qabalist." Although there are no overt references to Thelemic doctrine in this short work, which was recovered from the archives of the Universal Brotherhood (a.k.a. M, a.k.a. Mahachakra Society, a.k.a. Integral Fellowship), the general philosophical vector is show more consistent with what Crowley would later characterize in Magick Without Tears as the "White School of Magick," of which Thelema is supposed to be the modern expression. The practical elements further clearly rely on Crowley's interpretation of yoga discipline as outlined in Liber E and Part I of Book Four.

Nothing is addressed to a generic aspirant and avoids sectarianism and technical language, and is thus comparable to Jones' later piece "Stepping Out of the Old Aeon Into the New," which was published in The Equinox. If you get one of the 165 copies of this new edition from Night of Pan Books, you can then say that you have Nothing. Perhaps it will even be the case that you appreciate Nothing. For myself, although parts are obscure or clumsy, on the whole, I would dare to say that I understand Nothing. show less

The Chalice of Ecstasy is an early work by Aleister Crowley's disciple Charles Stansfeld Jones. It does not involve the novel qabalistic doctrines that Jones later developed (beginning in the appendices to the book Q.B.L., or the Bride's Reception). The story which Jones is subjecting to interpretation is the Parzival of Richard Wagner (the "drama" i.e. the opera libretto) rather than the ur-text of Wolfram von Eschenbach. The result is a faithful account of the initiatory path as defined show more through Crowley's A.'.A.'. system. This book should also be of special interest to participants in Ordo Templi Orientis because of the extent to which symbolism in Parzival is congruent with that of the Order's central ritual, the Gnostic Mass.

I consider this book to be Jones' most valuable published work, and it demonstrates why Crowley identified him as a presumptive successor early in the younger magician's initiatory career. show less

One of the clearer expositions of the Qabalistic Tree of Life and its relationship to the Tarot. Although much in line with Crowley's 777 and the Egyptian mythos underlying The Law Is For All, it does not align with Crowley's Thoth Tarot deck but references Waite's instead, which could bring some confusion depending on where you're coming from. Still, this work would appear to offer a very serviceable introduction to the Tree Of Life, the Tarot, and the fascinating nexus between them.