The Equinox (Volume III, Number I)

LIBER CLXV A MASTER OF THE TEMPLE Section I. Aprit 2, 1886, TO DECEMBER 24, 1909 CuHarLEs STANSFELD JONES, whom I shall usually men- tion by the motto V.I.O., which he took on becominga Pro- bationer of the A..A.., made his entry into this World by the usual and approved method, on April 2nd 1886 E.V., having only escaped becoming an April Fool by delaying a day to summon up enough courage to turn out once more into this cold and uninviting World. Having been oiled, smacked and allowed to live, we shall trouble no further about the details of his career until 1906, when, having reached the age of 20 years, he began to turn his attention toward the Mysteries, and to investigate Spiritualism, chiefly with the idea of disproving it. From this year his interest in the Occult seems to date, and it was about this time that he first consciously aspired to find, and get into touch with, a True Occult Order. This aspiration was, as we shall see, fulfilled three years later, when he had an oppor- tunity to become a Probationer of the A..A.., and immedi- ately grasped it; but during those three years his researches led him into varied paths:—Spiritualism, Faithism and other Isms on the one hand, and ‘The Europe,’ ‘The Leicester,’ and ‘The Cosy Corner’ on the other: last, but not least, into Mar- riage, a difficult thing to put on one side and perhaps best left onthe other. Having then plunged wholeheartedly into this 129