The Star in the West

322 THE STAR IN THE WEST Nevertheless , though at heart one , many extraneous differences do exist , and it behoves any true searcher after Truth to discover for himself the straightest road towards his ultimate home which he long ago first left ; to ask help of none , to live alone , as he will have to die alone , to heed no man , to work out his own salvation , to see that his staff is stout , and that his lamp burns brightly , lest he fall into that great slough of rational dung -wallowing which besets his path . To voyage like our father Ambrose through thunder and lightning , past the sun , and the moon , and the stars , as Crowley most curiously depicts in “ Ambrosii Magi Hortus Rosarum ,” that mysteri ously symbolic progress through the Tarot , the ten numbers and the twenty -two letters . When along the shores of the Ægean sea a mys terious voice proclaimed : “ Great Pan is dead ! ” Christianity was born ; and like all the other great truths , it contained a great lie : Pan was not dead , but he was snoring in that drunken night which cloaked the debaucheries of the classic day , and as the night grew darker , and the dismal vapours of the middle ages rolled on , blotting out one by one the remaining stars of that past wonder which was Rome , great Pan stirred himself , and awoke . But the crystal wine of lacchus had long since soured in the thunders of those dark days , yet , with death - pale lips , he drank the blood - red wine of witchcraft . “ Hark ! the cock crows ! Farewell till to - morrow , to - morrow night ! A 1 Ambrosii Magi Hortus Rosarum , vol . ii, p . 212. I do not hesitate to add here that had this extraordinary Essay been written in the days of Albertus Magnus , it would now be con sidered one of the most important and curious of magical works ; many religions have been founded on less .