The Star in the West

132 THE STAR IN THE WEST of a libidinous papacy . Many witty and lascivious books , which in those times were openly enjoyed , have been handed down to us . In the north the puritanic upheaval , still so felt, set in ; and in its first stages it probably was strictly anti - vicious , but in its second merely a screen to hide vice from the public gaze . This , in its turn , led to the good feeling a disgust for the bad , which in our age has developed into an in born shame which condemns open vice , but tolerates , even endows it, when hidden . Open vice , unscreened and esotericised by religion , would have in the sequence of events led to an open feeling of disgust , for Nature never permits man to borrow without paying back , the general settlement day will always sooner or later arrive , and then a new epoch of time will be heralded in . Secret vice is the very worst form of vice ; like a hidden gin we fall betwixt its jaws unawares . The crass and studied silence that mothers and fathers maintain over their children as regards all subjects of sex is probably responsible for fifty per cent : and more of all the sexual crimes and sexual ills of the present day . When mankind has grasped the fact that its organs of reproduction are no more disgusting than its organs of respiration , it will then have grasped a greater truth than all philosophies have ever pro mulgated , than all religions have ever revealed . " And they were both naked , the man and his wife , and were not ashamed ” : THIS IS VIRTUE . " And the eyes of them both were opened , and they knew that they were naked ” : THIS IS VICE . Know Thyself , Be Thyself , Honour Thyself , are the three greatest commandments we can follow . This truth , universal and in its totality , Crowley thunders forth midst sunshine and lightning . If, it is good to