202
THE STAR
IN THE WEST
1
thought .
Science will say that intelligence
is last , and
that
matter
slowly evolves
into
animal
life ;
in fact,
that matter
(A ) is first, and intelligence
(B ) is second .
The idealists and
sankhyâs
will
put
intelligence
(B )
first ,
and
the
series
will
run
B ,A , B ,A ,B ,A .
Both ,
however , are indicating the same chain ; but Crowley,
like the philosophers
of the Vedanta , strides
beyond
both intellect
and matter
to find an “ I ”
(purusha) or
self, which
is
beyond
all
intellect
,
and
of
which
in
tellect
is
but the borrowed light
,
as
Patanjali says
in
one
of
his yoga aphorisms
:
“
The seer
is
intelligence
only
,
and though pure
,
sees through the colouring
of
the
intellect
.”
In
“
Pentecost
,"
Crowley writes
:
You know for me the soul
is
nought
Save
a
new phantom
in
the thought
,
That thought
itself impermanent
,
Save as
a
casual
element
With such another
may combine
To form now water
and now wine
;
The element itself may
be
Changeless
to
all
eternity
,
But compounds
ever fluctuate
With time
or
space
or
various
state
.
(
Ask chemists
else
!)
So
I
must claim
Spirit and matter
are the same
Or
else the prey
of
putrefaction
.?
And we intend
to
take
it
as
such
,
otherwise
,
like
This
is
the earlier
Fichtean
Crowley
,
though
he
has already
passed
through
Schelling
to
Hegel
,
and
grouped
this triad
in
one
,
as
it
were
Fichte
in
excelsis
;
not the
middle
,
who
has
called
the triad
“
Schelling
.";
still less the latter
,
who
,
perceiv
ing the antinomies
of
reason
,
dismisses alike the data and con
clusions
of
all
the sciences
with
an
all
-
embracing
scepticism
,
while
he
devotes
life
to
the perfecting
of
an
instrument
by
whose
aid we may eventually
be
able
to
make
a
fresh start
.
2
Sword
of
Song
,
Pentecost
,
vol
.
ii,
p
.
170
.
1