The Star in the West

164 THE STAR IN THE WEST "91 greater part of fifteen hundred years an immense power , few can deny ; that it has been a power of good , few will deny , though not a few would like to ; that it has been a dragonading power of harm few will assert , and still fewer are aware of ; for it has ever been the craft of the Christian Church to pass off on her paramours her worn -out old body as that of untasted virginity . The Catholic Church , the harlot of the seven hills , comes in for sparse mercy . In Tannhäuser we find the head of this infallible and august body of swindlers mocked as a mountebank , and his power as a “ barren staff .' In “ Ascension Day ” the whole Christian Church as a lie , “ abortion and iniquity ,” ? whose soldiers are no ardent warriors in triple steel , but loathly and disgusting worms , who only show fight when cornered and not always then- “ speared wild cats bravely spit .". Neither does Crowley spare that anachronism , Present - day Christianity , which fondly imagines it has succeeded in solving the problem of how to sit on two sides of the fence at one and the same time , to offer Christ to the simple - minded with the one hand and drain their pockets with the other . Amennatep's description of the pathic Ratoum in “ The Fatal Force ” may fitly be quoted here as an apt description of modern - day Christianity : Her power is gone , and we behold her go , Haggard and weary , through the palace courts And through the temple , lusting for strange loves And horrible things , and thirsting for new steam Of thickening blood upon her altar steps . | Tannhäuser , vol . i, p . 260 . 2 Sword of Song , vol . ii, p. 154 . + The Argonauts , vol . ii, p . 119 . 3 Ibid . vol . ii, p . 141 .