164
THE
STAR
IN THE WEST
"91
greater
part
of
fifteen
hundred
years
an
immense
power , few can
deny ;
that it
has
been
a power of
good , few will deny , though not a few would like to ;
that it has
been
a dragonading
power of harm few
will
assert , and
still
fewer
are
aware of ; for it has
ever
been the craft of the Christian
Church to pass off
on
her
paramours
her worn -out old body as that of
untasted virginity .
The Catholic
Church , the harlot of the
seven
hills ,
comes
in for sparse mercy .
In Tannhäuser
we find
the head of this infallible and august body of swindlers
mocked as a mountebank , and his power as a “ barren
staff .'
In
“ Ascension
Day ”
the
whole
Christian
Church
as
a
lie
,
“
abortion
and
iniquity
,”
?
whose
soldiers
are
no
ardent
warriors
in
triple
steel
,
but
loathly and
disgusting
worms
,
who only show fight
when cornered and not always then-
“
speared
wild
cats bravely spit
.".
Neither does Crowley
spare
that
anachronism
,
Present
-
day Christianity
,
which
fondly
imagines
it
has
succeeded
in
solving
the problem
of
how
to
sit on two sides
of
the
fence
at
one
and the
same
time
,
to
offer Christ
to
the simple
-
minded with
the one hand and drain their pockets with
the other
.
Amennatep's
description
of
the
pathic
Ratoum
in
“
The Fatal
Force
”
may fitly
be
quoted
here
as
an
apt description
of
modern
-
day Christianity
:
Her power
is
gone
,
and we behold
her
go
,
Haggard
and weary
,
through the palace courts
And through the temple
,
lusting for strange loves
And horrible things
,
and thirsting for new
steam
Of thickening blood upon her altar steps
.
|
Tannhäuser
,
vol
.
i,
p
.
260
.
2
Sword
of
Song
,
vol
.
ii,
p.
154
.
+
The Argonauts
,
vol
.
ii,
p
.
119
.
3
Ibid
.
vol
.
ii,
p
.
141
.