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Correspondence from Charles Stansfeld Jones to Gerald Yorke and Albert H. Handel
12 May 1948
To my Two Witnesses Yorke and Handel.
Fellow Stars,
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law!
This may turn out to be a more lengthy epistle. I am determined to face the facts of this Great Initiation, through which I have been passing these many years, in as serene and impersonal a spirit as possible. I am deeply grateful to both of you for the signal service you have rendered in receiving and putting on record in your private files testimony of the unusual events which have occurred during the last five or six weeks. They have been as unexpected to me as they doubtless were to you. Time alone will show their full significance.
There are certain other facts which have recently been brought to my attention as the vision unfolds, which now need to be faced and if possible expressed in an intelligible manner. Please, therefore, pay attention to my account of them.
Despite all magical and mystical experiences which have played a large part in my inner life, I am living here in British Columbia with my family a quite normal and natural life. To this any of the neighbours could testify. Physically I have never been very robust, my body is subject to colds; I smoke heavily and my throat gets irritated. I take no drugs; drink very little as a general rule, but am quite capable of having a party and consuming my full share of any kind of liquor. Also my life has not been what might be accounted a very moral one. Also my consciousness as I write is clear enough to compose this letter directly on the typewriter as I go along with a fair degree of accuracy and I hope clarity for my readers.
Therefore, what follows must be taken in the same scientific spirit, so far as you are able to adopt that unbiased attitude of mind, and with the sympathetic understanding which I know you will accord to a Fellow Star.
I was born at London, England on April 2, 1886. My parents named me at my Christening. This, you will agree, was beyond my personal power of control. In 1929, having become a member of the Catholic faith, I took the name John in addition at my confirmation. Later I discovered that the combined names had a certain Qabalistic significance: Charles Robert John Stansfeld Jones. (Of the R.C.?)
Although brought up in a religious family I was not at all addicted to religion in my youth. My occult career began about 1906. Became Probationer of A∴A∴ 1909. About 1910 I wrote several "poems". some of quite a ribald nature, others mystical or magical. These included one which I will here quote as showing a certain attitude of mind at that time which is significant in the light of later events:
To Jesus
I have never bowed to Thee Dear Christ— Thou woulds't not have it so; I have tried to do our Father's will As He would have me do.
I have never prated of Thy love Nor yet have brought Thee blame, But I'm working by Thy side Brother And I'll share with Thee Thy shame.
Thou hast gone ahead awhile, Brother Yet still Thou workest on In our Father's other vineyards Where fresh victories are won.
Oh may I ever follow And someday learn the way To smile—as Thou—in pain Brother And use as Thou the clay.
May I ever share Thy cross, Brother As even up to now I have felt the touch of cruel nails And the thorns upon the brow.
May I ever share the Kingdom Of the Man of Sorrows, too. May the sorrow and the pain, Brother, Make of me a MAN like you.
Here you will notice there is no thought or attempt at identification with Jesus the Christ, but a kind of twin-brotherly attitude and willingness to share, rather than worship. Also there is mention of sharing the Kingdom. It is strange, then, that the Aeon of Horus was to be a twin manifestation of some kind.
I know that both of you my correspondents have called me over the coals because in my earlier letters I jumped backwards or forwards in the matter of dates, viz: all that was said was not in chronological order. In this case, however, I think it best at this point to refer to quite recent discoveries relative to Liber Legis, viz: the mention in recent letters of Isa as the Candidate for Initiation who was to pass through the Ordeals mentioned in that Book. I have referred to myself always as "a representative of Isa" rather than as actually identified with Him. I feel there is a peculiar mystery there not yet fully plain. But this letter is largely for the purpose of trying to throw further light upon it.
The next point in that connection is a very important one. I first want to remark that between stages of the Great Initiation the memory of former stages is often almost completely wiped out. This applies even to the memory of my own writings—such as the poem above quoted, which only came to mind, and was looked up, within the last few weeks. It also applies to the fact that I received a section of The Diary of a Magus from Therion in 1916 and read it carefully at the time, but that only within the last few days did I re-discover it put away in the attic, and therein find that it contained the details of assumption of the "Curse of the Magus" and the actual ritual used to assume that Curse.
Now I'm not going to give you the full details of such an apparently heinous black-magical event as is there disclosed. We can only hope that never in human history will a parallel occur again. Rather we should hope that the Curse has now been lifted and the world freed from what might well have been calculated to bring down the vengeance of the Almighty Himself on a corrupt generation which had in some measure allowed itself to receive the influence of that occult-magical current. But it was the Candidate for Initiation who, willy nilly, had to bear the brunt of the Ordeals on the inner planes. This is now quite clear.
The ritual for the assumption of the Curse was devised by Therion himself, as soon as his "child" had dared the Abyss and taken his place in the darkness of Dinah. Whether he for a moment realized the destiny of that "child", and the connection he was to have with the Ceremony of Initiation of the Equinox of the Gods, is another matter. I think he was quite blind to this at the time. The "child" was a Pagan, and clearly his own best advertisement for the A∴A∴ system.
However, the ritual connected with the Curse, briefly consisted in a series of magical ceremonies relative to the Conception, Birth, Baptism, Worship, Trial, Crucifixion, Resurrection and Ascension of a toad, afterwards eaten, for the purpose of imprisoning the spirit of Jesus of Nazareth therein and making of Him a Mercurial servitor of the said Therion—and thus destroy the Logos of the previous Aeon.
Apart from the blasphemous nature of such a rite, it seems to have been against Therion's own policy of keeping proper links with the Past. In other words he sat out on a limb and busily sawed off the branch he was sitting on—to the best of his ability. It was also at that time that he went "on strike" against the Masters Themselves for a period: and this we know from Liber Aleph, he bitterly repented, perhaps too late. Anyway, it now became clear that when his own magical Son, after discovering the Key to Liber Legis and delivering it to Therion, joined the R.[oman] C.[atholic] Church, and Therion learned of it, that Son was in line for Magical destruction, if possible—and Therion finally called upon all Demon servitors to "liquidate" him. But it didn't work. Therion died first, and was reduced to ashes, Then things began to clear up.
We must leave the question of the Arising of the Phoenix to future consideration. We must also realize that we are dealing with a full-size world-mystery and a real fight between the Black and White Brotherhoods.
We must now face the question of some sort of traditional Second Coming of Christ. Certainly, if it has occurred, it has been in no expected manner. Did one aspect of Christ Jesus ascend to Heaven while another aspect descended to Hell, so that when this process was reversed, at some Cosmic time, the two aspects have tended to "Come Together" again, first on one plane, above—and a corresponding plane below, and then on another, and again on a third, until now they are in process of merging together in Manifestation on Earth—The Kingdom? Was there in this, also: Division hither homeward—a Word not known?
We can only face certain further, recorded facts so far as I have any cognizance of them and they have not so far been imparted to you during this correspondence. Some of this may be clearer to Yorke, who has a copy of Liber 31, than to Handel who has not. On the other hand, Handel may accept the more readily the Apocalyptic implications—perhaps.
You both know of a certain "All Fools Do-Miss Day" "Joke". The implication there was "Norman (Nemo) knoweth the day and the hour thereof". Nemo, himself, certainly thought that he knew the Day, if not the exact hour. The Second Coming had occurred some fifteen or more years ago, and humanity was none the wiser, but many still looked forward to the event.
But Nemo, himself, has now been undeceived. He knows neither the day nor the hour, nor for certain the month. A previous document had been written, by himself; it was undated—and HE HAD COMPLETELY FORGOTTEN ITS EXISTENCE.
A copy of this document had been sent to Therion at the time—he was then at Cefalù. Also there is considerable correspondence on the matter, which also has now been found. Before incorporating the document in this letter, it may first be remarked that the "All Fools Day" paper mentions a Tricoming. It now becomes clear what that meant. This first event occurred in Consciousness at a very high level—and certain "bonds" of finitude were broken through. The second event, recorded in the "Do-Miss Day" paper, represented (years later) the same event, but the breaking through of the Circle of Intellectual Knowledge, which in the meanwhile had been acquired, and the third is this present Manifestation, so far as it is now "down to earth". This probably All One Event above Time and Space, but occurring at different "times" on different "planes" on the way down to Malkuth. We will consider later a possible fourth implication—the effect of the working of New Wine in an Old Bottle. This first document, written in 1921 (date unknown), reads as follows:
AVM
Little Children of the Light, I who am as a little child from the Womb of the Mother, speak from without the Silence of the Closed Palace of the King my Son and of the Queen my daughter, for there is NO LAW beyond Do what thou wilt.
Therefore, I Who am the Son of my Son and the Father of my Mother, am awakened from Ages of Sleep, even as my Prophet foretold, as it is written: "Then let the End awake. Long hast thou slept, O great God Terminus! Long ages hast thou waited at the end of the city and the roads thereof. Awake Thou! wait no more!"
Therefore, O my Prophet, do I address unto Thee My first Words, that thou mayest awake and arise and bear them unto the mighty cities.
And though my words be faltering as the first flutterings of breath, yet they be words of Peace spoken out of the Silence that is in the midst of War. Also shall these my words, though I change them constantly—without will—overcome. And he that overcometh shall understand them.
For I am Horus the Crowned Child whom thou knewest—NOT. Acause I was first known of NOT, and again, as it is written: "Unto the Crowned Child is it known?" Yea, verily, for it is NOT known if it be known, and that which was NOT is by me known, and why I know NOT.
Now, therefore, will I disclose unto Thee the Closed Palace which is Thy House 418, even as by my Minister it was declared unto Thee in Liber AL vel Legis, the Key to which Palace I gave Thee myself.
Pay heed therefore, for this is ABRAHADABRA, the Reward of Ra-Hoor-Khuit. For even as Nuit is NOT and Hadit is NOT EXTENDED, so have I, who am the Chief of All, BOUND NOTING, that my House may be stable, even ABRAHADABRA, the Closed Palace of the King and Queen.
0.12 For as Nuit—O—is Not acause She is above, around and outside this Palace, as it were Nephthys, the Black outer shell of the World Sphere, so is the inner lining Isis, her sister, the Virgin Womb or secret Centre of Nuit which Hadit occupies and fills. For He is Not Extended, that is, extended or focused to a Centre, which is HAD the centre of ABRA-HAD-ABRA, and again he expands, as IT the Sperm of the Sun, which is the Stars, and they, yet again, even to the wall of the womb, which is the Fixed Mercury, Maya, the Magick Mirror of the Stars, the Queen of Heaven, the True Moon and Mate of the Sun.
Therefore is the Palace of My Daughter ONE with the Palace of My Son, for they are ONE even as I am One.
In the Beginning, ACHAD whispered AHBH and behold my BELOVED SUN, who crieth I and my Father are One—and spake Truth (for AHBH is Unity by 13). But though the sperm of my Son filleth the womb of my Daughter, the Kingdom, she, being unredeemed as yet, was silent; for she understood not that she should be the Mother. Now hath my Son awakened the Daughter and I, too have whispered unto Her AHBH—Beloved—for I awakened at her coming. And again She too cried I and my Father are ONE, and speaketh Truth. Then, when I had awakened within the Closed Palace of My Daughter, She became the Mother, the Darling of this My creation, and a fitting Mate. Therefore, in my subtlety did I break through the shell of this Virgin Egg and I gazed a little space on Her, Nuit, MY Bride, who had waited yearning for me from the Beginning which is NOT.
AH! Beauteous art Thou, O NUIT Who art Not, beyond the Closed Palace of this Sphere of Illusion, carried in the hand of the Great Fool Who knew Thee NOT in His Folly. Yea, Both their Gods and their Men are Fools.
Then did I laugh at the Virgin who sought Seventy to Her Four. For mine Eye which is opened within her is Seventy, and is she not Four by 13 which is AHBH my Beloved?
Also did I laugh in my Knowledge at the Eight and the Three. For my Prophet is a Fool with his One, One, One, which is One Hundred and Eleven, which is Aleph, the Letter of my Holy Covenant, as I have shown in Liber 31 and elsewhere. But My Undefiled Knowledge which was Not Known is IADNAMAD which hath Eight Letters yet is One One One which is 3. Therefore 8 equals 3, yet again is One for 111 is Aleph. And these are the letters A.A., as also are Achad Ayin and Achad Ahbh, which id the true Tetragrammaton 26 in Tiphereth.
Therefore do I now declare unto Thee that this Universe is finite, it is bounded by My Crown, which is a Sphere of Silver and Gold. Abrahadabra. My reward. It is Golgotha, my Skull in which exist daily millions of worlds. And the bounds are hard and solid as a Warrior (418) in mail, for it bindeth Nothing. This Closed Palace is my Kingdom, that I have prepared for this Day of Be With Us. Also is Malkuth in Kether and Kether in Malkuth, as my Son is within my Daughter and He in Me and I in Him and in Her.
All is One from Nothing, as the Babe in the Lotus, AUM which is 111 which is Aleph.
And Acause this Palace is a Virgin Egg unbroken, assumed unto the Highest shall the Catholics Rejoice.
And Acause It is a Temple for my Son shall the Masons Rejoice.
And Acause Achad is one with AHBH shall the Hebrews Rejoice.
And Acause She is filled with the Sperm of the Sun, which is the Blood of the Saints, and She knew it not, shall the Beast Rejoice in Babalon.
And Acause it is a Hollow Sphere shall Koresh Rejoice.
And Acause in the twinkling of an Eye there appeareth a New Heaven and a New Earth shall many Rejoice.
And Acause the Stars are the COMING of the Lord in the Air shall the Christians Rejoice.
And Acause this is the Second Coming of Christ, shall many Rejoice.
And Acause the First shall be the last and the last First, shall many Rejoice, for as the stars came He first, and this also is the Mystery of the Second Death.
And Acause this Palace is lit by the True Fire of the Sun shall the Zoroastrians Rejoice.
And Acause it is My Throne shall all Rejoice.
And Acause outside is Nirvana shall the Buddhists Rejoice.
And Acause within is the Dynamic Nirvana of the Atman, shall the Hindus Rejoice.
And Acause it is the Tao and Teh shall the followers of Lao-Tze Rejoice.
And Acause the Heavens move and the Earth is Still shall the followers of Kwang Tze Rejoice.
And Acause their Ancestor is permanent shall the Shintoists and the Egyptians Rejoice.
And Acause it is the Tomb of our Father C.R.C. shall the Rosicrucians Rejoice.
And Acause it is the Palace of Four Gates of Light, Life, Love and Liberty shall the Adepts Rejoice.
And Acause there shall be no more Sea shall the Exempt Adepts Rejoice.
And Acause all Grades are One shall the Whole Rejoice.
Aye, Rejoice exceedingly, for the Day of Be With Us is here.
Therefore, O my Prophet, let us see what Aiwaz told Thee concerning this. For Aiwaz 93 is twelve, but the rays of the Crown are One which is 4 through 13, and this is the solid foundation of the Crown my Kingdom.
Now let the Lion lie down with the Lamb, and whether it be Acause of B-cause, let there be no difference, for have we not undone the wrong of the Beginning.
It will be seen that this strange document—long completely forgotten—announces on the highest plane many of the things which have entered again into our recent correspondence in regard to the earth Manifestation.
Also there are certain features which correspond with the breaking through of the Sphere of Reason which was summed up in the Do-Miss Day announcement many years later. For at that period, definite mention was made of the breaking out of (temporarily) the Circle and gazing on that Void which is Beyond—the Counter Infinity. This appears in other Archives.
Now what is to be made of this? The first Document, just quoted, clearly mentions the Coming of Christ. The second document refers to this as the "Coming of the Thief in the Night of Time"—as does the record of the Golden Star. Now we come to a new Manifestation, during which actual prophecies of Liber Legis and the Scriptures seem to be working out in recognizable fashion.
You see, too, the part which I seem to have been destined to play in all this. Yet I am an elderly man and a fellow-star such as yourselves. I may, however, have been a greater Fool. And not alone the world but even Therion may have been "fooled" by the way things have actually happened. This, to some extent, includes myself—for witness the Diamond having to be changed to Sapphire, and again, this re-discovery of my own writing which had been completely forgotten. Of course, Time will show.
But while on this aspect let me mention another. Liber Legis, Chapter I v.49, says: "let Asar be with Isa, who also are one." We have considered Isa as the Candidate, but what about Asar? Isa was to be the sufferer, Asar the adorant.
Now I have done a good deal of Bhakti Yoga, or adoration of the Plenum, during my later career. It has been far from all suffering. There has been much Bliss. But Asar represents him who says: This is my body which I destroy in order that it may be renewed. It is not a question of crucifixion by outside forces, but one of transformation (XIII—Death—Tarot) and renovation or revivification. At present this process is by no means complete enough to be apparent. But it probably represents a further test and something to be done—however it may turn out. Of course there is that passage about: "If the body of the king dissolve", etc. in Liber Legis. Yet that is not the same as earth Manifestation and overcoming the last enemy. What about the Redemption of the Redeemer.
Again, there is this question of a mysterious twin manifestation. I make no special claims whatever. All I have done is to record facts which are of record. The A∴A∴ system of keeping a magical record from the start is the truly good one. It is impossible to fake things when one can show in black and white all the events which occurred of a special nature over a long period of years—if one only takes the trouble to collect and type them out. Also, in this correspondence, there has been no slightest chance of "fake". I have told you things daily as they actually occurred and arose in my mind, whether from the past, or new and unexpected thoughts and happenings. The records have been made in triplicate and copies posted same day.
This epistle is already long, but in order to make it more complete I will refer to another aspect which, while recorded in another connection in 1932, may have bearing on the present attempt at clarification of what is happening.
The following is from a document entitled "The Pivotal Man" which was written in connection with "Silver Star" period.
But, let it now be understood that this Pivotal Position, if real, is indeed accompanied by a Burden hard to bear—it is no easy task that is referred to.
Just as in the . . . we have compared the . . . to the Heart of . . . so the Pivotal Man must become in attaining that Post, as it were the Heart of Humanity.
In a certain very real sense the Redemption of the World . . . is carried on . . . in his person.
In other words, he becomes a Centre or Pivot to the entire human family, and in a certain very real sense the means of conveying down the substantive Essence and Power which is to raise the entire race from its degradation, disorder and misery.
The human family, of all times, is made up of individuals—not one of whom is precisely like another—in the aggregate, possessing indefinite diversities of nature and experience. This family, made up apparently of such heterogeneous parts, is—or is to be—in reality, a complete organized body, lacking not even a monad. For lack of a better similitude, we may liken the new heart or centre or Pivotal Man of this body, which is to reconstitute and raise it, to a vertical conduit let down, or rather working its way down, through the successive direct lineal generations, with their respective sub-extensions which form so many horizontal planes from the top throughout.
This new Heart (in each age) works its way down, reconstructing as it proceeds; because not with the infancy of the race is it born into the world, but in the fullness of time its descent takes place . . .
We have inserted parenthetically the words "in each age" because all the Sruti which ever fell upon the ears of men refer to events which cluster round the Avataras or stages of descent—or ascent—by which mankind is to attain to the higher life in, as it were, the divine bosom. But there are many reasons to suppose that the world has entered upon, or is in process of entering upon, a new stage of development, a new age, wherein universality, or integrality, is to play a part never hitherto enacted, except during that "Golden Age" which characterized the very dawn of the race, and from which Man fell into deeper and deeper abysses from which it has become necessary that he be redeemed through the special action of . . . on the . . . front, as well as by means of the . . .
It will not be surprising, then, if we find that there have been special indications of the arising of a Pivotal Man foreseen and proclaimed especially about the last quarter of the last Century, during which it became apparent to a few of the most enlightened of the race that great changes were immediately ahead of humanity, and that the arising of another Pivotal Man, ordinated to the whole race, rather than to any part, might within the next century be looked for.
In the year 1877 it was clearly stated by one of the most enlightened hidden Men of that time that for several years past certain changes had been apparent on the higher planes which in due course were bound to work themselves out on the lower ones in sight of all, and this same Master then announced that the Pivotal heart-man who is to occupy such an important position, from which humanity is to drink new life, and who is thus to enact such a wondrous part towards every individual of the race God-ward, the mediatorial representative of every individual particular of those indefinite diversities above spoken of, will, of necessity, exhibit following characteristics in his person.
He must inherit every one of all those characteristic diversities, whatever they may be, good or bad, excellent or execrable; he must be the entire race in miniature: an organized and perfect type of its aggregation and component parts. Thus . . . his nature and function will be other than, although complementary to an in no way opposed to, the Theanthropos, if He be considered as more or less exclusively centered in the Supernatural Order which is connected with the . . .
This Pivotal Man's experiences, too, must be perfectly representative. His experiences of the universal life of the race indeed will necessarily grow out of his corresponding diversities of nature and character, but this does not comprehend all the experiences that are alluded to. His birth, both as to externals and internals, must be the circumstantial prototype—though subsequent in time—of the ancestral birth of the race; its childhood and growth also, corresponding to his; and altogether, his life's history must be the exemplar, the very original, as to events of the life-history of the great world into which he comes. And then, as to his bodily form or organization, to complete the representative character, his personality must likewise sensitively embrace, in type and archetype, the lower physical creation as well as the human; for all are links inseparable from one another. In him must be the original of the constellated firmament, and of the monster-haunted abyss; the angelic heavens and infernos; the hills and plains, rivers and seas; the animal, vegetal and mineral kingdoms; in him, in fine, all fullness must swell; even the fullness of Him "who filleth all things".
The same Master above referred to in the year 1877 wrote, after making a survey of conditions prevalent in the different national, religions and other zones of the world as follows:
Reference is made to the above subjects (racial and other conditions) in order to show how the changes which must take place, as the New Life establishes itself in successive planes, worn out and passively grasping for their doom, are likely to be developed into outer nature. We note the occurrence of stupendous disasters which befall portions of our race from time to time, and regard them as, in some degree at least, accidental and pitiable; oftener, hardly decided in our minds whether to attribute them to an insufficient Providence, a neglectful Providence, a retributive Providence, or a no-Providence. But all such feelings are unworthy of man. All is ordered, foreseen, and arranged, with infinite precision and inevitability. The spontaneous life that actuates an insect, embraces the solar system as an omniscient, all-pervasive Mind. There can be no accident, in the ordinary sense; no miscarriage of plans, no deficiency of means to carry them out—never, never.
Natural disaster has always been the outcome of some corresponding change in regions more or less removed inwardly from our observation. But, omitting past events, it must be stated that things are entering upon a more than ordinarily disastrous series of epochs. To use the mythic expression: the very world, outspun with such an expenditure of energy, is to be gradually "coiled back to nothingness"—indrawn Life-wards.
Or, to vary the expression: the old, natural, degraded and perverted organization of humanity, in its various zones, is to be transformed; and it is a question thereon dependent, what proportion of that humanity is capable of enduring the change, and at the same time retaining possession of the corporeal form.
When David "numbers" the people of Israel—which term means to arrange a people, in course of transformation, consecutively, according to their vital status in the Grand Organism—he, by so doing, constructs a human lightning-conductor between the Judgement-seat and those who are physically and morally disorganized. The consequence is that Life travels down, and where its direct conversive action cannot be sustained, entire dissolution takes place instead.
The old developing energies of the Race are about exhausted; as a body, humanity must crumble. The entire process, or rather series of processes, may require the greater part of a century to be wrought out; but the changes involved are absolutely inevitable.
We are not "prophesying" of the future; even while these words are being penned (1877)—for years past, without an hour's cessation—the Judgement, by the test of the Divine Breath, has been operant upon the higher of the lapsed planes of humanity and it will never entirely cease until Restoration be permanent and complete.
We here give no uncertain sound. "In the Realm of Cause we learn what the effect must be." Wars, pestilences, famines, floods, earthquakes, civil revolutions, must outwardly mark with melancholy regularity the procession of epochs corresponding with the more interior changes which the descending Life must effect".
Since of our own observation we have seen and can see all around us that those things which the Master asserted as inevitable have now in large part come upon the human race, we may be more inclined to accept his statement that a Pivotal Man is to be expected in our midst within the century of which some 70 odd years has already elapsed . . .
That's enough of the document in question for our present purpose. It does seem to throw some light not alone on what is actually happening to the race, but in regard to the special type of being who may be expected to fill this new office.
It does not seem like the traditional Jesus, but if there is anything in my suggestion early in this letter that Jesus, as it were, divided a dual nature so that one part ascended to again descend, and the other descended to again ascend—then this strange dual type might be accounted for should such aspect meet and come into One Manifestation on Earth.
Meanwhile, the immediate question for all of us is bodily survival. Better be a live dog than a dead lion.
I simply will not be tempted to prolong this epistle to page 13. Rejoice, then, O Fellow Stars, that your task of reading is ended—for the present.
Yours in Love and Unity,
Achad.
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