The Star in the West

THE NEW WINE 245 existence , neither can it quench the thirst of man. Since Christianity has suffered from senile decay , what have we found ? A new religion ? No. An old religion ? Yes . Rejuvenated ? Yes. Man is too lazy to build if he can reconstruct . The great mass of the people yearn for something better than the existing concep tions of Faith ; leaderless , disunited , they fall an easy prey to the charlatans who ever keep their finger on the social pulse , and are ever as willing to pose , when opportunity is offered , as seer, clairvoyant , or palmist , as they are as trickster , tout , or quack . And the result ? A vast drift of earnest aspirations seething in an ocean of ignorance . The great thoughts of old prostituted to the gains and stupidity of modernity , a great libel foisted on the past to satisfy the credulity of the present ; a systematized thieving from the statue of Isis to adorn the idol of Mammon , god of bankers , brigands , and beggars . Astrology gave us astronomy , and Alchemy gave us chemistry , both were antagon istic to the ideas of their day ; let us hope that Psychical Research will give us a purer metaphysics. Now the question before us here , is : how does all this decaying and growing of ideals affect the poetic philosophy of Aleister Crowley ? And the answer is as follows : To the writer of this essay it seems on reading Aleister Crowley's poems that the revolt against ex isting ideals and morals is more the outcome of spon taneous intuition than of meditative scepticism : and so strong is the current , and so diverse and intricate are its eddies , that for one who is not an adept , it seems almost a forlorn hope to plunge into the boiling cataract of his ontologic philosophy , with any expecta tion of reaching the further bank in safety . It would