The Star in the West

154 THE STAR IN THE WEST religion could not possibly restrain her octopus tenta cles of cupidity from the game of grab , she also hisses , Pray to God and he will tie a knot in his bandana and perhaps remember it some day ; but above all , sacrifice to me , or by Jove ! I will sacrifice you : and the fool , even in his folly , thought it were better to lose his wits than his brains , and his turnips than his turnip ; so he dug and he dug , and he slew and he slew , religion growing fatter and fatter , spawning churches and breeding sects , till unfortunate man found himself so hedged in by the spiritual , that in order to maintain his life in this world he had to acknowledge the Church's supreme authority , and grovel before her in the dust of degradation . Crowley gives a curious example of this growth , and the ulti mate sameness of all religions in that gruesome and weird drama , “ The God - Eater ." Maurya the sister of Criosda says : Criosda , ever the same ! The old world runs On wheels of laughter for us little ones ; To you , whose shoulders strain , the chariot seems A poised fiend flogging you to hell ." Criosda , the self - intoxicated God - Eater , drunk on the name of blood , slays his sister , and feasts in true re ligious frenzy off her corpse - a veritable black mass : Criosda . With red lips reeking from the sweet foul feast , I sang in tuneless agony the spell ; Rolled athwart space the black words : then some force Tore me : I heard the tears drop in my heart . I heard the laughter of some utmost god Hid in the middle of matter . That was I, The hideous laughter of the maniac laugh When loathing makes the bed to lust , and twine 1 The God - Eater , vol . ii, p . 131 .