devours the
dead body of his beloved, in terms which do not shock us in English any
more than such descriptions
usually shock
us in French.
This is a very exceptional
accomplishment,
as anyone may realize who has read French
novels in English.
Here is one of Mr. Crowley’s
typical climaxes:
The host is lifted up.
Behold
The vintage spilt, the broken hreadl
l feast
upon
the cruel cold
Pale body that was ripe and
red.
Only
her held,
her palms,
her feet,
I kissed
all night, and did not eat.
"But
had
it
not
been
for
the
garter, I might
never
have
seen
the
star,”
Mr.
Crowley
says.
Hence we look from the garter to
the
more starry part of Mr. Crow
ley’s work,
for he
has
learned
a good deal about Eastern
philoso
hy at first hand,
which
is
well
worth
consideration.
Captain
Fuller
describes
“
rowleyanity”
as
being “ the conscious communion
with God on the part of an Atheist,
a transcending
of reason
by sce
ticism of the instrument,
and
the limitation
of scepticism by direct
consciousness
o
the Absolute.”
He defines God
later on
as the Relation
between
man
and
the Absolute,
and
he
says “it is the search after this relationship—God—
that Crowley
so frequently and ardently depicts. " He cries in one place:
By the sun's heat,
that brooks not his eclipse
And dissipates
the welcome
clouds of rain.
God I have Thou pity soon on this amazing pain.
And in another describes the mystic goal:
So shalt thou conquer Space, and lastly climb
The
\gyalliof 'Iiidme;
m m
h
0d
And
tego
enpa
egreat
avetr
Reach up to God-
’
He grapples
with
the problems
of human
consciousness and has realized
the ab
soluteness of zero.
He perceives that when consciousness, as we know
it,
is
absolutely
indrawn,
so that
it
exists in
ure isolation,
it
knows
an ecstasy
which can only be
ex—
pressed
in the thought, “
I
0
not exist."
This last paradox of human manifestation
as been perceived by every school of mystics.
“ Man’s darkness
is
a leathern sheath,
Myself
the sun-bright
sword,”
is
the feeling of the consciousness
as
it
returns to its
human
state,
admirably
expressed by Mr. Crowley
in “Mysteries”
(vol.
i,
p.
105).
Finally he
is
driven to the utterance of one who has gained final liberation from human
illusion:
So lifts the agon
of the world
From this my
end that bowed
awhile
Before the terror sudden!
shown.
The nameless
fear for self,
ar hurled
By death to dissolution vile,
Fades as the royal truth
is
known
:
Though
change
and sorrow range
and roll,
There
is
no self—there
is
no so
.
The
essay on Science
and
Buddhism
(p.
244,
vol.
ii
of The Collected
Works)
is
valuable,
proving
as
it
does that Buddhistic
philosophy
is
a
logical development from
observed
facts.
Captain
Fuller declares that
the
Agnostic
principles
of “ Crowley
anrty " may be summed up as follows:
Believe nothing till you find
it
out for yourself.
Say not “
I
have
a
soul " before
you feel that you have
a
soul.
Say not “ There
is
a God" before
you experience
that there
is
a
God.
You can
never understand till you have experienced.
You
can never
experience till you get beyond reason.
In
a
word, his command to his followers
is,
Know or Doubt;
do not believe.
We
are,
he says,
“surrounded
with
an appearance of Truth,” and Reason
is
our guide.
To become part of Wisdom
we must leave
Reason on one side.
No doubt men difl'er
II