Correspondence from Charles Stansfeld Jones to Gerald Yorke

 

 

 

 

 

1 April 1948

 

All Fools Day

 

(Slow mail!)

 

 

Care Frater V.I.,

 

Today I am still 61 (Ain), tomorrow being my birthday expect to become 62.

     

There are still several points to be recorded for the sake of clarity. I usually work things out Qabalistically as I go along, without reference to any of A.C.'s comments or workings. This is especially true in regard to the comment contained in The Equinox, Vol. I, vii., which, until the other day, I had not looked at for years. I discovered a very interesting point. Please refer to page 391, near bottom of page. There you will find an hiatus, although A.C. of course had the Sepher Sephiroth handy. This gives the same working as I arrived at in regard to Nuit's number formula, viz: that if one adds 61 to 8 plus 80 plus 418 we get 567. Now please look up 567 in Sephiroth and you will see what I mean.

     

It must be remembered that A.C. wrote this comment before there was any question of my connection with Liber Legis. But he did not fill in the gap when making his new comment after having received Key in form of Liber 31. Perhaps just as well!

     

Another strange coincidence occurred last night when I was looking at the page mentioned above. Only then I noticed para. 4 which gives True interpretation of: "Do what Thou wilt . . ." and then clearly shows that Ateh corresponds to TAU. This is of much interest in light of recent interpretation of MANIFESTATION.

     

There is one further point re Commentary which should be faced and explained. You have told me that on typescript of New Comment re L.[iber] L.[egis], Ch. II. v. 76, A.C. added a note in his own hand.

This 'One' is not to be confused with the 'child' referred to elsewhere in this book. It is quite possible that O.I.V.V.I.O. (who took the grade 8 equals three by an act of will without going through the lower grades in regular way) failed to secure complete annihilation in crossing the Abyss; so that the drops of blood which should have been cast into the Cup of Babalon should 'breed scorpions, and vipers, and the Cat of Slime', In this case he would develop into a Black Brother, to be torn to pieces and reduced to his Elements against his Will.

(You say this note is undated.)

     

The above is a very serious consideration, but, at the time it was written—probably 1925, when there appeared to be a serious break between us for the first time, or possibly 1936, when I terminated correspondence of that period—from A.C.'s point of view it can be justified. There was some doubt. The Fool had read The Book of the Law, and understood it NOT, and supplied the Key! But he had not then passed any of the four ordeals to follow. Or, in the event of 1936 bearing date of note, certainly not the Fourth Ordeal, which was not passed till 1945. (Exactly 13 years to a day after "star.")

     

It is only now that the Ordeals have been passed and success obtained (III.69), that it might appear that the possibility to which A.C. referred was unfounded or will prove to the contrary. Liber Legis itself is correct enough. III.47 clearly indicates that 666 might "fall from it".

     

Now, for the sake of historical record, let me briefly indicate the facts and possible reasons for this error.

     

In 1923 certain correspondence was entered into re. the matter indicated in One Star in Sight and Liber 31. This was by registered mail while he was in Tunis with Alostrael [Leah Hirsig] and Norman Mudd. The letters are on file. The point is, however, that on October 24th I wrote: "As long as such conditions exist and are recognized to exist the Order of the A∴A∴ retains its Integrality." However on December 12 1923 it became necessary to write in a letter of that date: " . . . there is no use discussing it any further. Aiwaz did not supply this Key, nor did Liber Legis say that you should discover it yourself. There may be further revelations of a similar nature, or there may not, but I am convinced that as long as you refuse to admit the facts, your Work will suffer and other Channels be used to accomplish the Same Purpose."

     

(Now the Silver, Golden and Diamond Ordeals and their results were recorded after linking up, by means of Word of 1926 and Symbol of 1932, as if under "Other Channels" but with "Same Purpose". The Fourth Ordeal was of General Interest, having to do with Atomic Affairs.)

     

Be it noted, then, that in 1936, A.C. himself having opened up correspondence, he wrote (July 22, 1936) "Your preparations for the Aeon of Justice seem to me personal to yourself, incidents in the course of your initiation [which he thereby admitted to be continuing. A.] and I have no doubt hat they will flower at the fall of the Great Equinox. But I think that your position in respect to the Aeon of Horus is to be considered of supreme importance at this juncture. I do not think your work in respect of the Book of the Law has passed beyond its beginning. [He expected more then. A.] I regard the curious experiences through which you have passed as the necessary training for your full assumption of office. [But I had not passed the Fourth ordeal. A.] I have been thrown entirely out of what appeared to me the logical continuation of my career, and it is now perfectly clear to me that the many bitter and humiliating experiences of the last few years must be regarded as imposed upon me in order to fit me for my own present job".

     

But he was just then (immediately after) unjust to Smith [Wilfred Talbot Smith] and that started further trouble. Then he started on me about books. The result was that on December 13th—exactly 13 years and 1 day after my warning sent to Tunis—I wrote: " . . . you have not alone been doing me a great injustice, but from the higher, wider, and more occult standpoint, have in all probability brought upon yourself and the work you represent a degree of failure which would not have manifested had your mind and thoughts been truly directed in this connection. A complete purification of consciousness and a re-adjustment of viewpoint towards this matter, followed by an attempt, at least interiorly, to make amends for the wrong done in thought to a Brother, would seem to be the indicated course to pursue."

     

This terminated that set of correspondence; the "division hither homeward" continued (for we neither of us knew about the 4th Ordeal ahead) and the formula: "As Brothers fight ye" remained in effect.

     

(By the way, the particularly nasty note which called forth the above was not signed 666 (he was very careful), but O.S.V. 6º=5o (Severity). And that clears up O.S.V.—it is another of A.C.'s mottos—making 4 on The Equinox of the Gods publication. Not many left, eh?)

     

Saturnus [Karl Germer] is under the impression (apparently) that I was completely separated from A.C. for the last 20 years—or more. This is, of course, a grave error. We both kept on: despite differences. Liber Legis had to be fulfilled—as we now more clearly see. At that time we could not know that it was only when my age was 2 complete Cycles of Saturn, and that had been in City of Pyramids just One Complete Cycle—and that these could be shown to coincide, that the grave Ordeals were over. Through Handel's [Albert H. Handel] request this was brought to the notice of A.C. during his life time, but, even then he did not notice" it—or again did not want to understand. I think the former. AND I AM GLAD! Where would my freedom have been had I got tied up with the "legal" end of it—publishing, etc. Surely that was not coming to me. You've thrown quite enough on my shoulders by starting things going which do seem to cry out for truthful explanations—at least in outline.

     

By the way: Handel got a very special letter from me on his return from attending the Opera Parzival on Good Friday. This "Fool" formula started a long while back. See The Equinox, Liber 165 [A Master of the Temple], page 144—March 12, 1911. (Perhaps long before that.)

 

Yours very fraternally,

 

Achad.

 

 

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