The Star in the West

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