284
THE STAR IN THE WEST
of mundane tar , declaring
we have discovered
that
light which
moved
on
the face of the waters , before
sun
or moon
or stars were created .
We
rank
the
great adepts with the madmen of God , whose miracles
are
mere
imitations , whose powers are mere
preten
sions , and whose illumination
is mere
reflection ; but
what is it then
these great beings imitate , pretend to ,
or reflect ? Here lies the dark question which no denial
can
disprove ,
no
assertion
comprehend , and
which
work
alone through
the alembic of our
hearts
can
reveal and accomplish .
THE ADEPTS
It is this something , this light
which
every Adept
sets
out to discover ; for, whether in the
dark
night
of the
neophyte ,
or
the
noonday
brilliancy
of
the
supreme magus , Reason deserts us , and we at length
are forced to seek a diviner illumination
beyond those
dark realms of rational understanding .
Crowley writes on thispoint, in " Eleusis ," as follows
:
Not while reason is , as at present , the best guide known
to men , not until humanity has developed a mental
power
of an entirely
different kind .
For , to
the philosopher , it
soon
becomes
apparent that reason
is a weapon inadequate
to
the task .
Hume saw it, and became
a sceptic in the
widest sense of the term .
Mansel saw it and counsels
us to
try
Faith ,
as if
it was
not
the very fact that Faith
was
futile that bade us appeal to reason.
Huxley saw it, and,
no remedy presenting itself but a vague faith in
the pos
sibilities of human
evolution , called himself an agnostic :
Kant saw it for a moment , but it soon
hid itself behind his
terminology ; Spencer saw it , and tried to gloss it over by
smooth
talk , and to bury it beneath
the ponderous tomes of
his unwieldy erudition .
| Eleusis , vol .
iii,
p
.
228
.