The Star in the West

THE MOTHER 141 Force , ” we find that of Motherhood . The true wife must sacrifice her children before the shrine of her lover , and the true mother must sacrifice her lover on the altar of her children . This is no paradox , no riddle , no twisting of words ; for Crowley offers us in the glittering chalice of Eternity the sacred blood of the Bull , the Second Christ ; and as the first, the Lamb of God, sprang from the immaculate womb of the Virgin -Mother , so shall this second incarnation spring blood -red from the snowy lips of the great Supernal Mother , androgynous, the Circe - Isis of the ages . In “ Alice , an Adultery ,” we see a woman passionate in her love , strenuous in her affection , yet in the end failing by abandoning her lover for her children . Not so , however , in “ Rosa Inferni ,” wherein we feel, as we read , a ferocity of passion which burns into us like a hail of molten glass : Aha ! the veil is riven ! Beneath the smiling mask of a young bride Languorous , luscious , melancholy -eyed ; Beneath the gentle raptures , hints celestial Of holy secrets , kisses like soft dew , Beneath the amorous mystery , I view The surer shape , a visage grim and bestial , A purpose sly and deadly , a black shape , A tiger snarling , or a grinning ape Resolved by every devilish device Upon my murder . 1 A vampire she rises over her lover : I see below the beautiful low brow (Low too for cunning , like enough !) your lips , A scarlet splash of murder . From them drips This heart's blood ; you have fed your fill on me .? 1 Rosa Inferni , vol . iii, p . 91. , 2 Ibid . vol . iii , p. 92 .