The Star in the West

THE CUP 175 indeed become man , but not until the Word has be come woman will the world be saved ." It is this that Crowley sets vividly out before us in his following ethical philosophy . “ To behold sin in its naked Deformity , is the most certain method to oblige us to love Virtue ,” such is to be read in the prefatory note of a curious little volume to be found in the British Museum library under the attractive title of “ The prostitution of Quality or Adultery à- la- mode ." It was through the Garter that in the end the Star was seen , in other words it was through the intimate knowledge of the lewd , bad and vicious , that the tender weeping heart was discovered ; the rough matrix contained a gem of surpassing beauty , the horny shell a pearl of perfect loveliness . Charicles had to tread the thorny path before he won his Archais , and so must we , before we can win knowledge , weep many bitter tears . The incessant search after Truth carries us through desert lands of misery , and oases of temptation , as is only too vividly illustrated in Tannhäuser . Aphrodite before she could overcome the wiles of Jove had to seek aid from Priapus ;' thus so have we all to do , we must eat of the “ Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil ” before we can pluck the fruit of the “ Tree of Life .” The mediaeval spiritualism of “ Paracelsus " is curiously modernized , if we may use so crude a word , in the mystical poem “ Aceldama .” The strife in the former from the kingdom to the crown , in the latter seems to be that of Vice towards Virtue , and though quite one of Crowley's earlier poems , it is, however , 1 The Tale of Archais , vol . i, p . 18 .