Diary of a Drug Fiend

360 The Diary of a Drug Fiend thrones of stone, and in the centre a hexagonal altar of marble. Four of the principals of the Abbey were already robed for the ceremony ; but they furnished themselves with four weapons—a lance, a chalice, a sword, and a disk—from a pillar which had a door and a staircase which formed the only means of access to the upper rooms. Basil seated himself in one of the thrones, Sister Athena in another; while a very old man with a white beard, and a young woman whom we had not yet seen, took their places in the other two. Without formality of any sort beyond a series of knocks, the ceremony began. The impression was overwhelming. On the one hand, the vastness of the amphitheatre, the sublimity of the scene, and the utter naturalness of the celebrants ; on the other, the amazing distinction of the prose, and the sharp clarity and inevitability of the ideas. I can only remember one or two clauses of the Credo : they ran thus :— “ And I believe in one Gnostic and Catholic Church of Light, Life, Love and Liberty, the Word of whose Law is THELEMA. “‘ And I believe in the communion of Saints. ** And, forasmuch as meat and drink are transmuted in us daily into spiritual substance, I believe in the Miracle of the Mass. “And I confess one Baptism of Wisdom, whereby we accomplish the Miracle of Incarnation. “‘ And I confess my life one, individual, and eternal, that was, and is, and is to come.” I have always told myself that I had not a spark of religious feeling, yet Basil once told me that the text “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom,” ought to be translated ‘‘ The wonderment at the forces of nature is the beginning of wisdom.” He claims that every one who is interested in science is necessarily religious, and that those who despise it and detest it are the real blasphemers.