Jones, Charles Stansfeld (1886-1950)

views updated May 17 2018

Jones, Charles Stansfeld (1886-1950)

British occultist and author who lived in Canada and assumed the name Frater Achad. Jones was an accountant in Vancouver when he became a disciple of magician Aleister Crowley. Crowley would later come to consider Jones his "magical son" as prophesied in Crowley's early channeled text, The Book of the Law.

Crowley believed that Jones had discovered a kabalistic key to The Book of the Law. As a disciple Jones progressed to the grade of master of the temple in Crowley's secret order A A , while Crowley moved on to become a magus. There is a record of his achievement in Liber 165, partially published in Crowley's journal The Equinox (vol. 3, p. 127).

In attempting his mystical rebirth as a "Babe of the Abyss," Jones had a nervous breakdown. He returned briefly to England and joined the Roman Catholic Church, hoping to convert other Catholics to Crowley's Law of Thelema. Upon returning to Vancouver he wandered around the city wearing only a raincoat, which he threw off in public, crying that he had renounced all the veils of illusion. After his recovery Jones became somewhat hostile to Crowley, who had expelled him from his order.

Over the years Jones wrote a number of books, including The Anatomy of the Body of God (1925), which attempts a three-dimensional projection of the kabalistic Tree of Life.

(See also Kabala )

Sources:

Achad, Frater [Charles Stansfeld Jones]. The Anatomy of the Body of God. Chicago: Collegium ad Spiritum Sanctum, 1925.

. Chalice of Ecstacy. Chicago: Yogi Publication Society, 1923.

. Liber 31. San Francisco: Level Press, 1974.

. Q.B.L. or the Bride's Reception. The Author, 1922.

Achad, Frater (1886-1950)

views updated May 11 2018

Achad, Frater (1886-1950)

The magical name assumed by Charles Stansfeld Jones (1886-1950), a British occultist and author who lived in Canada and founded the Fellowship of Ma-Ion. He was a follower of magician Aleister Crowley who designated him his magical child.

Jones is to be distinguished from theosophical writer George Graham Price who channeled two popular texts, Melchizedek Truth Principles (1963) and Ancient Mystical White Brotherhood (1971), both published under the pseudonym Frater Achad. Little is known of Price's life apart from his channeling the two books.

Sources:

Achad, Frater [Charles Stansfeld Jones]. The Anatomy of the Body of God. New York: Samuel Weiser, 1969.

Achad, Frater [George Graham Price]. Ancient Mystical White Brotherhood. Lakemont, Ga.: CSA Press, 1971.

. Melchizedek Truth Principles. Phoenix, Ariz.: Lockhart Research Foundation, 1963.