Best of
Thelema

1922

Q.B.L.: Being A Qabalistic Treatise on the Nature and Use of the Tree of Life


Frater Achad - 1922
    is a masterpiece of Qabalah and controversy. Its importance to the world of modern occult literature can be measured not only by its value as a remarkably understandable textbook of the fundamental Qabalistic principles, but also because it offers us a rare glimpse into the heart and mind of a brilliant, sincere seeker of wisdom and truth.This book was controversial in 1922 when it was written and it continues to provoke passionate debate among 21st-century magicians, mystics, and Qabalists—some consider it an inspired advance in the evolution of Qabalistic though, others a damnable heresy.Charles Robert John Stansfeld Jones (1886-1950), known by his magical name, Frater Achad, was the prize student of Aleister Crowley (1875-1947) the most famous magician of the 20th century. Indeed, for several years Crowley considered Achad his Magical Son, a shining example of the efficacy of his program of Scientific Illuminism.Achad's revolutionary ideas concerning the basic structure of the venerable Qabalistic diagram, the Tree of Life, which he published in Q.B.L., however, drove a bitter wedge between the two men and sparked an ongoing controversy that to this day raises the blood pressure of otherwise mild-mannered mystics.