94
THE STAR IN THE WEST
with Lust .
As every one of us has been
bred
on dead
flesh , so every one of us passes
along our way spiritu
ally encumbered
with the dead bones of our ancestors '
opinions ; and living
with
them
we
die , only to add
more mental tibias
and spiritual
metatarsals
to
the
groaning
back of the future .
In the Kingdom
of Love these extremes gave birth
to two forces ,
“ Neronic
Lust ” and
“ Platonic
Affec
tion .”
From
a heterogeneous
mass of
ics
,
ists
,
and
ians
,
sprang
the
idea
that there was
an
inherent evil
in
the culmination
of
the nuptial
state
;
and out
of
it
grew the preying vampirism
of
Paul
.
This inherent evil
supposed
to
lie
latent
in
matter
,
as
opposed
to
the
bliss
of
spirit
,
Crowley
sets
forth
very forcibly
in
several
of
his poems
.
In
“
The Growth
of
God
”
we
have most
of
the argument
in
the following
lines
:
The Shapeless
,
racked with agony
,
that grew
Into these phantom forms that change and shatter
;
The falling
of
the first toad
-
spotted
dew
;
The first lewd heaving ecstasy
of
matter
.”
1
The idea grows still more powerfully
in
the next verse
:
I
see
all
Nature claw and tear and
bite
,
All hateful
love and hideous
:
and
the brood
Misshapen
,
misbegotten out
of
spite
;
Lust after death
;
love
in
decrepitude
.
Thus
,
till the monster
-
birth
of
serpent
-
man
Linked
in
corruption with the serpent
-
woman
,
Slavering
in
lust and pain
-
creation's ban
.
The horrible beginning
of
the human
.”
In
Tannhäuser
,
which
is
an
intensely psychologic
drama
,
we find the Knight speaking thus
to
Venus
:
1
The Temple
of
the Holy Ghost
,
vol
.
i,
p
.
178
.
2
Ibid
.
vol
.
i,
p
.
198.
(
Also Tale
of
Archais
.)