Heavenly bodies
Dec 11th, 2012 by houghtonmodern
This post is part of an ongoing series featuring items from the newly acquired Santo Domingo collection.
Drugs and sexuality constitute the primary subject matter in Santo Domingo, but the collection’s larger function is to investigate the many altered states of the human mind. The collection therefore contains a substantial number of volumes on the occult, such as this work: The anatomy of the body of God, by occultist Charles Stansfield Jones (1886-1950), a member of Aleister Crowley’s order. Jones here writes under the name of Frater Achad, one of many titles and pseudonyms he adopted during his career. Several diagrams accompany this cabalistic text, including this colored frontispiece.
This edition”This first edition of The anatomy of the body of God consists of 22 copies, lettered Aleph to Tau, and 228 copies numbered 1 to 228″–Colophon. This copy is number 6.
Frater Achad. The anatomy of the body of God. Chicago: Collegium ad Spiritum Sanctum [i.e. Will Ransom], 1925. BF1999 .J55.
Thanks to rare book cataloger Ryan Wheeler for contributing this post.