THE OCCULT DIGEST

Chicago, Illinois, U.S.A.

December 1925

(page 37)

BOOK REVIEWS.

Q. B. L. or THE BRIDE’S RECEPTION,

a Short Cabalistic Treatise on the Nature

and Use of the Tree of Life, with a brief

introduction and a lengthy appendix.

By Frater Achad.

(Collegium Spiritum Sanctum), $10.00.

The Children Israel have given the world not only three religions, but also the philosophy of Qabalah. This philosophy, symbolized by that Tree of Life, which we call the Ten Sephiroth, has been eagerly studied by some of the deepest minds ever since its first publication. Those Sephiroth included Macrocosmos and Microcosmos, starting with Kether, the Crown, the direct radiation from Ain Soph, invisible and boundless, and ending with Malkuth, the Kingdom, visible and circumscribed. They are ten, because that is the Number of Perfection. Perfection means Synthesis, without which Thesis and Antithesis stand there fighting each other, getting nowhere.

This book is no mere copy of what other cabalists have written about the Tree of Life. Its author, Frater Achad [Charles Stansfeld Jones] with his deep insight into cabalistic lore, is an independent thinker, and his intuition has helped him to visualize many new truths and facts. If his fine pictures of the Sephiroth in this book are compared, for instance, to that in Liber 777, it is easy to see the difference. This book is a gem of bookmaker’s art and of cabalistic insight. Even a mere Tyro in Cabalism, like the reviewer, can see it.

—J. B.