The Star in the West

126 THE STAR IN THE WEST formerly murmured to her lover in the effusions of adultery . So it often happens that the most spiritual are at heart the most passionate . Passion and Re ligion are the divine Dioscuri , children of Nemesis . Man , when God became too intangible , too mag nificent to approach , conceived a mediator . Jahveh , surrounded by howling beasts and moulting angels , fenced in by thunder and lightning , was quite cut off from the simple minds of the Suburra , so Christ in those purlieus was manufactured ; but He in His turn grew exaltedly dim , magnified as the mist of ages crept around Him , and when romantic love was born , man being no longer able to worship man , enthroned the spotless Virgin in his stead ; for in his heart still lingered the sea -born form of Aphrodite , and on his lips the warm kisses of the Cytheræan goddess , Philommedis , Basilea , Isis , or Astarte , call her what you will , of passionate Love . So Christ was enthroned amongst the gods , and His tender mother , the ever chaste Virgin , set on the humbler throne over the destiny of men's hearts ; yet awake , the actual man loses the ideals of his dreaming hours , straining to his heart the form of her whom he loves best on earth , deserting his heavenly bride for his earthly spouse . Such is the duality of love-the mundane and the celestial . Which nations now are the most passionate , the man-worshippers or the woman -worshippers ? the latter , and it is for this reason that I included Tann häuser in the first part of this essay , rather than in the second , dealing with the philosophy of Aleister Crowley . It is this spiritual exaltation , curious as it may seem , which so often links the pure true love to the foul false love . Love of man and woman is