The Star in the West

The Cup N the last line of “ The Star and Garter " is con centrated the whole of the ethical philosophy of Aleister Crowley . It reads as follows : But—had it not been for the Garter , I might never have seen the Star . In it we find the sublime maxim , almost universal , which has been postulated by all the greatest ethical codes of the world . It is the moral prototype , the Favashi of the Zoroastrian , the Tree of Knowledge of Babylonia and Genesis , the Light and Darkness of Isaiah , the Yakheen and Boaz of Solomon , the Unique Athanor of the Qabalist , the Balance of Hegel ; the polarity of the worlds , the great centripetal and centrifugal forces , the harmony of the spheres , the path of the stars , the life of the universe . Without Vice there can be no Virtue , without Virtue there can be no Vice . Without the one , the other becomes absolutely incomprehensible , and be yond our judgement . Hegel held : “ that a thing can only arise through its opposite ," and this idea was also held by the Qabalists . Deity created good and evil ; and both are absolutely necessary to the ex istence of each other . Further , the Qabalist does not even recognize their independence as two opposing powers , but as one under the one Supreme Deity ; the external visible matter world of evil and darkness , and the internal spiritual higher world of Goodness