The Star in the West

THE NEW WINE 293 To attain this end eight stages of perfection have to be accomplished : Yama , Niyama, Asana , Prânâ yâma, Pratyâhâra, Dharanâ, Dhyâna , and Samâdhi, the last being that state of super -knowledge in which Self and its shadow become one , an extended form of Kant's à priori . Existence is change , and change is sorrow , there fore we must overcome existence . Existence , as we know it, spins A fatal warp , a woof of woe . There is no place for God or soul . Works , hopes , prayers , sacrifices , sins Are jokes . The cosmos happened so : Innocent all of guide or goal . Else , what were man's appointed term ? To feed God's friend , the coffin - worm ! Crowley further states in a short foreword to these Images of Life and Death ” : “ To me life and death have most often appeared in majesty and beauty , in solemnity and horror ; in emotions , to be brief , so great that man had no place therein . But there are moods , in which the heights are attained indirectly , and through man's struggle with the elemental powers ." 2 Only by energy and strife May man attain the eternal rest , Dissolve the desperate lust of life By infinite agony and zest . Thus , O my Kali ,I divine The golden secret of thy shrine ! The strife to attain to this golden secret we have already seen depicted in so many of Aleister Crowley's Gargoyles , vol . iii, p . 84 . 2 Ibid . 3 Ibid . vol . iii, p . 98 .