360 The Diary of a Drug Fiend
thrones of stone, and in the centre a hexagonal altar
of marble.
Four of the principals of the Abbey were already
robed for the ceremony ; but they furnished themselves
with four weapons—a lance, a chalice, a sword, and a
disk—from a pillar which had a door and a staircase
which formed the only means of access to the upper
rooms.
Basil seated himself in one of the thrones, Sister
Athena in another; while a very old man with a white
beard, and a young woman whom we had not yet seen,
took their places in the other two. Without formality
of any sort beyond a series of knocks, the ceremony
began. The impression was overwhelming. On the one
hand, the vastness of the amphitheatre, the sublimity
of the scene, and the utter naturalness of the celebrants ;
on the other, the amazing distinction of the prose, and
the sharp clarity and inevitability of the ideas.
I can only remember one or two clauses of the Credo :
they ran thus :—
“ And I believe in one Gnostic and Catholic Church
of Light, Life, Love and Liberty, the Word of whose
Law is THELEMA.
“‘ And I believe in the communion of Saints.
** And, forasmuch as meat and drink are transmuted
in us daily into spiritual substance, I believe in the
Miracle of the Mass.
“And I confess one Baptism of Wisdom, whereby
we accomplish the Miracle of Incarnation.
“‘ And I confess my life one, individual, and eternal,
that was, and is, and is to come.”
I have always told myself that I had not a spark of
religious feeling, yet Basil once told me that the text
“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom,”
ought to be translated ‘‘ The wonderment at the forces
of nature is the beginning of wisdom.”
He claims that every one who is interested in science
is necessarily religious, and that those who despise it
and detest it are the real blasphemers.