The Star in the West

PREFACE 55 in one harmonious light ; thence shall we travel to the holy and humble house of the heart , wherein our God is born , whose name is ineffable, a Crown of Glory , exalted forever above the Balance of Righteousness and Truth . T.A.R.O. As author of the following essay to you my readers , I can but say with the four beasts of the Apocalypse : " Come and See . ” “ Behold the Lion ... hath prevailed to open the Book and to loose the seven seals thereof. " For until now “ No man in heaven , nor in earth , neither under the earth , was able to open the Book , neither to look thereon .” Yet through the astrolabe of his mind and in the alembic of his heart Aleister Crowley has opened the book , breaking not only the first six seals , but the seventh also . For those who read and understand , the heavens shall depart as a scroll , and the stars shall fall, and the mountains be moved out of their places ; and they shall become as kings in a new kingdom , and be crowned with that Crown which passes Under standing I have attempted in the following seven chapters to interpret the Book of the Seven Seals , and to paint its splendour , as an artist would incarnadine his can vas with the red blood of his mistress , love - kissed from the bloom of her crimson lips . I have not , as Samuel , hacked and hewn Agag into pieces before the Lord in Gilgal ; but rather Elijah - like have called upon Wis dom and Understanding so that my sacrifice , and even the wood and stone of the altar , and the water which floweth about it, may be licked up by the fire of the great Coronation .