The Star in the West

58 THE STAR IN THE WEST He swore the third time . But that Heaven's Lord Curbed their black wrath , the stars of Heaven's vault Had rushed to whelm the sun with vehement assault ." Such is the power of Love , undaunted , infuriated in the cause of Freedom , Justice , and Truth . Charicles plunges into the waves of destiny , “ And with his strenuous hands the emerald water gripped . ” Onward he swims striving against Poseidon , god of the ocean , who heaps the sea foam against him , as he makes for the Paphian isle to seek aid from the goddess of Love ; and in his blinding anger he sees her not , though she is by his side journeying homeward from Rome . She raises the swimmer to her pearly car and carries him to her fair home , where in the following beautiful symbolic action she promises to restore him his lost love-Archais . Then Aphrodite loosed a snake of gold From her arm's whiteness , and upon his wrist Clasped it. Its glittering eyes of amethyst Fascinate him . “ Even so ," the goddess cried , “ I will bind on thy arm the serpent bride Freed from her fate , and promise by this kiss The warmer kisses of thy Archais .”2 1 The Tale of Archais , vol . i, p . 12 . Cf. the Qabalistic Dogma of Pistorius : “ Schema misericordiam dicit , sed et judicium .” The Infinite Being when exercising his power upon the finite must necessarily chastise to correct and not to avenge himself . The strength of the sin does not exceed that of the sinner , and if the punishment be greater than the offence , he who inflicts it becomes executioner and the real criminal , who is wholly inexcusable , and himself alone deserving of eternal punishment . Any being who is tortured above measure , enlarged by an infinitude of suffering , would become God , and this is what the ancients represented in the myth of Prometheus , immortalized by the devouring vulture , and destined to dethrone Jupiter . - The Mysteries of Magic , p . 120 . 2 The Tale of Archais , vol . i, pp . 13 , 14 .