The Star in the West

116 THE STAR IN THE WEST 1 Aleister Crowley's estimate of society is certainly not a very high one , and more especially so when he takes into consideration the pudibonderie of the English . Society is but a gaping and toothed gin , as he well shows in “ The Honourable Adulterers ” where women , the frailer sex , are the unfortunate victims . Man made God , and God made woman out of one of man's wretched little ribs . Regardless of manners , man sucks the wretched little bone as he would the leg of a chicken , tears off the flesh and casts it into the bin . The masses are but sheep , following the bell - wether convention ; deprive them of their initial , and they become neither lambs nor tigers but merely asses . Ahinoam in “ Jephthah " well described them when he addressed the assembled multitude as : 1 Ye are as children ... I never hear your voice but know Some geese are gabbling .' Or again , in “ The Nameless Quest ," God's heart ! the antics , as they toil and shove ! One grabs a coin , one life , another love . All shriek .2 Cora Vavasour made a pretty just estimate of society when she called its stulti “ prurient licksores of society ,” for that is exactly what they are ; when poor , squalid ; when rich , vulgar ; the men fond of kitchen - maids , and the women painted and cosmetic ized , not only to hide the ravages of debauchery , but to catch new lovers ; the boys a breed of cads , and the girls a breed of prudes . 1 Jephthah , vol . i, p . 81 . 2 The Temple of the Holy Ghost , vol . i, p . 189 .