The Star in the West

238 THE STAR IN THE WEST From these ruins of experience Crowley now rises up a fiery phoenix , directing us to the only possible way which will lead us to our much -desired haven of rest . Motion must cease , irritation must be prevented , Time and Space annihilated , and the divine “ I ” set free from the sordid rags of the world , to be clothed in the brilliancy of God .' This added “ impulse " , which in the homogeneous protoplasm causes fission , is as mystical to - day as that added " something " which will cause the mind of one man to admire a Wagnerian opera , and another a drawing by Beardsley . No sound is in the air , vibrations only pass . No sound is in the brain , molecular changes only result . Where then is sound ? It is a creation in the mind by the divine “ I ” ; that unextended absolute Passivity , whose dwelling is in that equilibrating activity which balances action and reaction . Hegel (outside the realms of the divine philosophers ) was one of the very few who partially grasped the supreme truth of Crowleyanity , when he postulated : “ Being and Non -Being are the same.” He saw that pure being is , in its last analysis , beyond fertilization , development , or motion , and is practical nothingness . “ The fertilization of Being , according to Hegel , arose by the passing over , as it were , of Being into its antitheses , otherness , or complement — that is, into Non - Being . But this antithesis , otherness , comple 1 It should never for a moment be forgotten that any attempt to construct a positive philosophic system from these data would be strenuously repudiated by Crowley . The danger constantly recurs , because in the normal ( educated ) man the reason is master . Like the hydra of Hercules , its heads grow again ; they must be branded by the torch of illuminism , as well as smitten off by the sword of scepticism .