162
THE STAR IN THE WEST
1
as in the latter .
In fact,
all
were
as
the ground from
which
they had sprung and
on
which
they grew
.
In
“
The Triumph
of
Man
,
”
a
magnificent
poem
in
heroic
verse
,
Crowley unfurls the oriflamme
of
Reason
against the bunting
of
God
,
leading
us
on
from
the
realms
of
gloating anthropophagi
to
the
"
magical
brotherhood
of
kings
."
The absolute
crown
and king
dom
of
desire
,
the one God sealed
in
the seas and be
tokened
in
the winds
.
“
The Spirit
of
Mankind
!”
Before
the darkness
,
earlier than being
,
When yet thought
was not
,
shapeless
and unseeing
,
Made misbegotten
of
deity
on
death
,
There brooded
on the waters
the strange
breath
Of an incarnate
hatred
.
Darkness fell
And chaos
,
from prodigious
gulphs
of
hell
.
Life
,
that rejoiced
to
travail with
a
man
,
Looked where
the cohorts
of
destruction
ran
,
Saw darkness
visible
,
and was afraid
,
Seeing
.
There grew like Death
a
monster
shade
,
Blind
as
the coffin
,
as
the covering sod
Damp
,
as
the corpse
obscene
,
the Christian God
.
So
to
the agony
dirges
of
despair
Man cleft the womb
,
and shook
the icy air
With bitter
cries for light and life and love
.
But these
,
begotten
of
the world above
,
Withdrew their glory
,
and the iron world
Rolled
on
its
cruel way
,
and passion
furled
Its pure wings
,
and abased
itself
,
and bore
Fetters
impure
,
and stopped
,
and was
no
more
.
But resurrection's
ghastly
power grew strong
,
And Lust was born
,
adulterous
with Wrong
,
The Child
of
Lies
;
so
man was blinded
still
,
Garnered
the harvest
of
abortive
ill,
For wheat
reaped
thistles
,
and for worship
wrought
A
fouler
idol
of
his meanest
thought
:
A
monster
,
vengeful
,
cruel
,
traitor
,
slave
,
Lord
of
disease
and father
of
the grave
,
?
Jephthah
,
vol
.
i,
p
.
76
.