The
Cup
N the last line of “
The Star and Garter
" is con
centrated the whole of the ethical philosophy
of
Aleister Crowley .
It reads
as follows :
But—had it not been for the Garter , I might never
have
seen
the Star .
In it we find the sublime maxim , almost universal ,
which has been
postulated by
all
the greatest ethical
codes
of
the
world
.
It
is
the
moral
prototype
,
the
Favashi
of
the Zoroastrian
,
the Tree
of
Knowledge
of
Babylonia
and
Genesis
,
the
Light and Darkness
of
Isaiah
,
the Yakheen
and Boaz
of
Solomon
,
the Unique
Athanor
of
the Qabalist
,
the
Balance
of
Hegel
;
the
polarity
of
the
worlds
,
the
great
centripetal
and
centrifugal
forces
,
the
harmony
of
the
spheres
,
the
path
of
the stars
,
the life
of
the universe
.
Without
Vice
there
can
be
no Virtue
,
without
Virtue there can
be
no Vice
.
Without
the
one
,
the
other
becomes
absolutely
incomprehensible
,
and be
yond our judgement
.
Hegel held
:
“
that
a
thing can
only arise through
its
opposite
,"
and this idea was
also held
by
the Qabalists
.
Deity
created good
and
evil
;
and both
are
absolutely
necessary
to
the
ex
istence
of
each other
.
Further
,
the Qabalist
does not
even
recognize
their
independence
as
two
opposing
powers
,
but
as
one under
the
one
Supreme
Deity
;
the external visible matter world
of
evil and darkness
,
and the internal
spiritual
higher world
of
Goodness