THE NEW WINE
319
of the
senses .
St.
Bonaventura
calls
this
mystic
identification
synderesis ,
and
describes
it
as
"
the
joy of being
uplifted
to
a
super -intellectual
love."
St. Theresa , that
in the ecstatic state :
“
the soul no
longer knows what it is doing
.
.
. whether it speaks
or is silent : it is a blissful extravagance
.
.
I have
often been carried away by it
.
.
. there is such per
fection of joy that soul and body cannot express it ...
if they could the perfect union of
all
the powers would
be at an
end
."
So Crowley
finely describes
:
.
Death from the universal force
Means
to
the forceless universe
Birth
.
I
accept the furious course
,
Invoke the
all
-
embracing curse
.
Blessing and peace
beyond may
lie
When
I
annihilate the
“
1.
"
Therefore
,
O
holy mother
,
gnash
Thy
teeth
upon
my willing flesh
!
Thy chain
of
skulls wild music
clash
!
Thy bosom
bruise my own afresh
,
Sri Maharani
!
draw my breath
Into the hollow lungs
of
death
!
There
is
no
light
,
nor any motion
.
There
is
no
mass
,
nor any sound
.
Still
,
in
the lampless
heart
of
ocean
,
Fasten me down and hold me drowned
Within thy womb
,
within thy thought
,
Where there
is
nought
-
where there
is
nought
!?
“
Is
there
a
faculty
of
perception
?
”
asks
St.
Au
1
Gargoyles
,
vol
.
iii,
p
.
99
.
And yet what bliss
,
When
,
dying
in
the darkness
of
God's light
,
The soul can pierce these blinding webs
of
nature