The Star in the West

THE NEW WINE 251 Many of the poems in “Songs of the Spirit " and “ The Holy of Holies ,” hold fast to this idea ; and it is this ideal , the progression from the Kingdom to the Crown , from Malkuth to Kether , which constitutes one of the most beautiful doctrines of the older and simpler Qabalah . The Qabalah guides us to a divine theurgy . Ac cording to the Zohar it is impossible to know God , herein the Qabalah is Agnostic , it forbids the repre sentation of God , herein it is Rational . The Ain Soph is the “ All-pervading ,” the “ Non Ens ” dwelling in the “ Non Est , " it is inscrutable to man's mind ; this vast Pleroma , Corona Summa , The All , is formless , and is symbolized by a circle , it is Nothing. As the Ain Soph is the closed eye of the Unknown Darkness , so is Macroprosopus , who resides in the crown Kether , the open eye of the Vast Countenance . And from Macroprosopus through Wisdom (Chokmah , -mascu line ) and Understanding (Binah ,-feminine ) there is emanated the Lesser Countenance -- Microprosopus . The relation between these two is idealistic , being the relation of the Absolute as it really is , to the Absolute as it is conceived by man . And it is the search after this relationship —God — that Crowley so frequently and ardently depicts . Awful and terrible is its path ; the very blood of the heart hisses , as water on hot iron , as it rushes through its fiery veins fanned by a flaming soul : By the sun's heat , that brooks not his eclipse And dissipates the welcome clouds of rain . God ! have Thou pity soon on this amazing pain ." Struggling on , the hideous path is strewn with | Songs of the Spirit , vol . i, p . 41 .