The Star in the West

52 THE STAR IN THE WEST greater than wisdom , greater than the power of the Gods themselves ; for they too must worship at the shrine of Love , the shrine of the great World Mother , the mystic Isis , goddess of beauty , mother of love , queen of laughter , mistress of pleasure . “ I am all that has been , that shall be, and none among mortals has hitherto taken off my veil.” Innocent friendship or platonic love can never be a success where the rapture of a kiss is burning on the lips of two lovers ; the first spells ignorance and the second failure, for love will out , and if not as a limpid and sparkling stream , then as a turbid and roaring torrent , reckless and horrible . This extraordinary phase of diverted love is very strongly illustrated in “ The Fatal Force , " " The Mother's Tragedy," and also in “ Jezebel ” ; not so in “ Tannhäuser ” and “ The Nameless Quest," where love is not restrained , but rather cramped by the gnostic idea of evil in the objective. This curious idea we will go into more fully later on , at present we shall content ourselves in deal ing with the first phase of Love-love in youth . In “ Why Jesus Wept,” which is a satirical serio comedy , mingled with heterodox ribaldry , and a shrewd and sweeping cynicism on the utter rottenness of social life, we find love in youth depicted in the person of Sir Percy Percival , aged sixteen . The first effusion of puberty is described in the following three lines : what shall slake This terrible thirst , This torment accurst ? 3 1 Inscribed on the statue of the Goddess . 2 “ Perverted " I object to here , as it is but a synonym of ' converted ' from a different point of view. 3 Why Jesus Wept , vol . iii, p . 28 .