Star In the West TNR.pdf - The Hermetic Library

That I bade workers work, and lovers kiss;
Laughed with the Stoic at the dream of pain,
And preached with Jesus the evangel–bliss.*
*Mysteries: Lyrical and Dramatic, vol. i, pp. 109-112. (The metre though not the cadence
is that of “Laus Veneris.”)
Whilst such lines as the following in the second poem also remind us of the
astronomer poet:
O thou, zelator of this Paradise,
Tell thou the secret of’ the pillar! None
Can hear thee, of the souls beneath the sun.
Speak! or the very Godhead in thee dies.
For we are many, and thy name is One.*
*The Temple of the Holy Ghost, vol. i, p. 191.
Before we leave the glowing east, one more curious similarity still strikes us,
it is that though in so many ways the ideas of Aleister Crowley are akin to
those of Omar Khayyám, yet his fertile imagination also engenders flights as
spiritual as those contained in the melodious ghazals of Jeláladdín. In more
than one place we come across lines similar to these in Tannhäuser:
*Tannhäuser, vol. i, p. 261.
I say, then, “I;” and yet it is not “I”
Distinct, but “I” incorporate in All.
I am the Resurrection and the Life!
The work is finished, and the Night rolled back!
I am the rising Sun of Life and Light,
The Glory of the Shining of the Dawn!
I am Osiris! I the Lord of Life
Triumphant over death—
O Sorrow, Sorrow, Sorrow of the World!*
That such similarities as we have pointed out above show Aleister Crowley
to be a copyist, must be far from the minds of all his readers. Youth most
certainly tends towards certain ideals, and frequently results in a definite
hero-worship; but genius cannot be bound for long; it will eventually find its