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SEXUAL MAGIC AND CARNAL ALCHEMY
Magic is much more widely practiced than many believe. The famous magician Aleister Crowley once defined “Magick” as “the art and practice of causing changes to occur in conformity with Will.”1 Under this definition many things can be seen for the magic that they are. Too often our senses are dulled to just how magical our existences are. Crowley’s definition is, however, too limited in our post-modern age. A more exact definition is needed, especially if we are to work with the powers inherent in the polarity of pleasure and pain.
The true practice of magic depends on the legitimacy of the individual human will. The magician wills something to occur, which under ordinary circumstances would not occur, and thereby demonstrates the reality of his or her own individuality. Magicians make the world dance according to their tunes; religionists seek to find the tune of the world and have it teach them how to dance.
Perhaps the most practical theory of magic presupposes two basic “universes,” as human beings usually experience things. One is the subjective universe, which is the interior realm of conscious-ness—where we find the human will. The other is the objective universe, which is the exterior world with all its laws and forces.
There are two ways of working magic. First the magician can make strategic changes in the objective universe through ordinary physical media to communicate some message to other subjective universes (individual wills) outside their own. These means and the message they carry in turn cause a change to occur in the subjective universes receiving the message. In fact this is a form of communication through “normal channels” (speech, sight, and so on) in which there are also hidden factors working on an unconscious level. Recipients of this will then respond accordingly—depending on how skillfully the communication is done. This sort of magic is practiced in advertising, politics, sexual seduction, and all sorts of other forms of interpersonal communication where one person is trying to influence another to do his or her will. What makes this form of communication magic is that the laws by which this communication works are not open and ordinary, but rather hidden and extraordinary. One person does not simply tell another: “Buy this soap,” he uses hidden symbolism (such as sexual fetishes, appeals to ego, and so forth), which are associated with the soap he is trying to sell, only by contact. The buyer then unconsciously associates the two ideas (for example sexual pleasure and this soap) and finds himself buying it the next time he is at the store—but he doesn’t know why . . . This type of magic works from the subjective universe of the magician upon the objective universe, changes in which are symbolically responded to by the other subjective universes (human minds) in the area. This process is often known as “lesser magic.”
The other kind of magic works more mysteriously. Magicians may make deep internal changes in their own subjective universes, which, in turn, will cause changes to occur directly in the greater objective universe. Such alterations are dependent upon the power and precision of the change or impression made in the subjective universe—or “imagination”—of the magician. These changes will inevitably have their repercussions in the universe as a whole—causing analogous changes to occur there. This is magic as we usually think of it. The magician makes a change in his or her internal universe, and a corresponding change occurs in the outside world—with no logical or objective connection between the two events. This technique is also useful in making permanent changes in the mind or psyche of the magician—which is not as easy as it would at first appear to be. This type of magic symbolically works from the subjective universe of the magician, changes in which eventually surface as objective changes. In this type of magic, symbols are transformed into events or states of being.
How is this done? Magicians stimulate a certain form of consciousness in themselves, then perform certain symbolic acts—utter a set of words accompanied by certain gestures. The results of these acts are then felt at some remote time and place. This process is known as “greater magic.”
Most of the Sado-Magic we talk about in this book is of the greater magical variety. The use of sex (and certainly the symbolism of S-M sexuality) is quite common in lesser magic, and it can and should be used in conjunction with greater magical aims. The use of aesthetics, of employing symbolism to appeal to a sense of sexuality, beauty, and awesome power, is a key to triggering states of consciousness in which the magician can effectively express his or her will.
SEXUAL MAGIC
Who can deny the supernatural power of sex? Whether we see it as a conduit for the regeneration of life itself, or as a way to commune with the spirit and soul of another, or as a method for gaining power, over another, the whole subject sparkles with the aura of magic. Sexuality is the most abundant basic power source available to most human beings, and so harnessing it holds out the greatest promise for an abundance of magical power. There is so much free-floating sexual energy and symbolism in our society that it is used for all manner of things not strictly connected with sex. Again advertising examples spring to mind. How many cars, beers, and countless other products are sold on the basis of “sex appeal” despite the fact that the product itself has nothing to do with sex in any logical way? People are also sold a variety of things—cosmetics, diet products, exercise machines—all on the basis that if they don’t use them they won’t be attractive to potential sexual partners.
But how can this power be harnessed for magical purposes? This subject is often confounded with morality. There is nothing immoral or bad about sexual energies per se, although many religious teachings try to tell us there is. Certain “magical” or “religious” traditions regarding sexual energy or symbolism are designed to sublimate or transmute sexual energy or symbolism into something other than sexual. Sado-Magic tends, on the other hand, to view sexuality as something that is in and of itself “sacred,” “holy,” or just plain powerful. Therefore, the way to increase or give rise to sexual energy is simply to generate it in ways the individual finds most pleasurable and appealing.
From a practical point of view the main thing about sex-magic is that it works on the basis of sexual energy or arousal. The higher the level of arousal or excitement, the more sexual energy the magician will have to work with.
Every object outside the inner world of the magician, each of which can be sensed by the working magician, is a potential magical tool. In more ordinary forms of traditional magic these can be things such as the sight of the wand, the feel of a dagger, the smell of incense, the sound of a gong, or the taste of wine. If these sensory objects can be symbolically so powerful, then how much more powerfully can the ultimate sensory experiences of sexual pleasure and pain be turned into magical tools?
These sensory objects have two levels of meaning. The first is purely physical or physiological. The buildup and release of energy, in sexual orgasm, for example, is a powerful and magically useful phenomenon. But on another more subtle level this sensation is interpreted symbolically by the psyche—and is thought of as a magical substance as malleable as the ink in the formation of magical sigills.
To work sexual magic most effectively magicians need to learn about themselves sexually. They need to find out what really excites and arouses them. Magicians must learn to ignore and discount social constraints or “peer pressure” when it comes to sexuality. Many people only permit themselves to find sexually exciting those things that have been approved by society, when, in fact, what they would find exciting are things that society would condemn them for. This ranges from the gender of their sexual objects to their sizes, shapes, and so on. How many men pursue the “Miss Suzy Sunshine” type because other men think she is the ideal? And how many women act out the role of “Miss Suzy Sunshine” when they really want to be a “Morticia Addams”? Or how many women, for similar motives, will only date the “Jock,” or “businessman-in-suit-and-tie” type, when their hearts might prefer the “Rebel” or “Artist”?
One aspect of traditional sexual magic, such as that found in Indian tantrism, that is often overlooked is the power of the forbidden. Very often instructions for sexual rites tell the participants to eat certain foods, drink certain things, or engage in certain practices in preparation for the actual sexual component of the rite. Almost always these actions are ones that are held to be taboo or forbidden by their society in general. Taboo things contain power. In our society today no type of sexuality is more forbidden than Sado-Masochism. It, therefore, holds out the possibility of being a great reservoir of power. But the Sadean magician should go beyond what society holds to be taboo and explore those taboo areas in his or her own soul as well. Breaking the taboos of society is one thing, but in breaking internal taboos great storehouses of magical power are to be found.
The potential Sado-Magician must know his or her sexual landscape, as it were, and that sexual landscape must include Sadean images and experiences. Make a “sexual inventory” of your fantasies and desires. Then work on expanding and extending them—always remaining “true to thine own self” in what you desire.
Part of what the Order of the Triskelion calls “the Triskelion Process” involves the exploration and expansion of the fantasy life. Many who are now interested in Sadean sexuality have had Sado-Masochistic fantasies since childhood—long before they knew what “vanilla sex” (conventional) was all about. Such people seem to have been “born to it.” These explorers are encouraged to return to the childlike spirit of fantasy to discover hidden or forgotten aspects of such a fantasy life. But there are also those who have realized the Sadean interests later in life. Such “late bloomers” probably had repressive childhoods in which they felt they had no internal permission to indulge in such fantasies—which they knew on some level to be forbidden. Some people can benefit from the existing fantasies of others, usually in the form of literature, to stimulate the faculty to fantasize. How many of us were stimulated in this way by reading Story of O? Everyone can expand his or her fantasy life by experiencing the stories and myths of others.
The potential sexual magician, whether Sadean or not, should also experiment widely with sexual responses and various ways of producing orgasms. This is usually best done autoerotically. See how long you can stimulate yourself without orgasm. See how many orgasms you can experience in a set period of time. Also refrain from having orgasms for a period of days—observe your response.
The Sado-Magician will also want to experiment autoerotically with various pain techniques. The chapter on “Working Techniques” provides many ideas for those who need some suggestions. Anything you would do to another you should, if possible, experience yourself first—either at the hands of another or at your own hands. In any event, try producing certain levels of pain and gauge your response to it. Learn how you deal with it. Then experiment juxtaposing the production of pain with that of sexual pleasure. Observe the interplay between them.
HISTORY OF SEXUAL MAGIC
Before going on to the next stage of practical work it will be useful for many readers to become familiar with the idea of sexual magic, or sexual mysticism. We do not have the space for an exhaustive treatment of this theme. For this we recommend books in the general bibliography. But what is important to realize at this point is that sexual magic is an ancient and widespread idea with deep roots and a profound meaning—and is not merely a hyperbolic formula for “really good sex” . . .
Perhaps the first thing that comes to mind when one hears the term sex-magic is “tantrism.” Tantrism is found in both Hindu and Buddhist religious traditions—and both have some connections to Chinese Taoist alchemy in some respects. The often happy amalgamation of sexuality and religion found in certain sects of the East is perhaps shocking to Christian sensibilities—but would, of course, seem as natural to our own pagan ancestors as it does to present-day post-Christian heathens.
In Hinduism the erotic component of spirituality is perhaps best known through the famous sexual sexo-magical scripture the Kamasutra of the sage Vatsyayana, written almost two thousand years ago. A thousand years after the Kamasutra the less well-known Ananga Ranga of Kalyana Malla was written. These works contain not only advice and instructions on how to practice the sophisticated arts of love but also magical recipes such as
The man who, after enjoying his wife, catches some of his own Kama-salila (seminal fluid) in his left hand, and applies it to her left foot, will find her entirely submissive to his will.
ANANGA RANGA, CHAPTER VII
The woman who, before engaging in sexual intercourse, will touch the linga (penis) of her husband with her left foot, and will make a practice of this, will undoubtedly subdue him, and make him her slave for life.
ANANGA RANGA, CHAPTER VII
Tantrism is essentiality a secret initiatory tradition focused on the worship of the Goddess. For the tantrics this Goddess is understood as the Shakti—or Power—that underlies and runs through everything. Conversely this Power is held or wielded by the God—or Shiva (the Lord). The traditional magic spells just given from the Ananga Ranga only fully make sense when one understands the shakti inherent in the seminal fluid, the penis, the (left) foot, and so forth.
The Goddess is present in the human body in the form of the Serpent Power (kundalini), which lies dormant and coiled at the base of the spine until one learns the secrets of raising it along the spinal column and out the top of the head to attain union either with one’s own divinity ( jivatman) or the absolute (Atman).
Tantrism cannot be simply reduced to its sexual practices, but such practices and forms of worship are essential to it—although they are often actualized only symbolically. One of the most important types of worship in tantrism is the Panchamakara—or “Five-Ms.” These stand for the Sanskrit words mansa (meat), matsya (fish), madya (alcoholic drink), mudra (grain), and maithuna (sexual intercourse). Each of these is thought in some way to be taboo in orthodox Hinduism—and therefore consciousness must be exercised in order to transmute these patently profane indulgences into sacred acts. After the first four Ms are consumed in a ritual carried out by a male and a female practitioner, they move on to the sexual component of the rite as described by Francis King in Sexuality, Magic and Perversion.
The ritual sexual intercourse begins with the male practitioner drawing a triangular diagram—symbolic of the Goddess and the Serpent Power which is her aspect in the human body—upon his couch. For some time the practitioner worships the Goddess, mentally projecting her image into the triangle he has drawn, and then he calls his female partner. After various ritual purifications lays her upon the couch and then, visualizing himself as the god Shiva and the woman as the wife of Shiva, “offers the father face to the mother face”—i.e., copulates, all the time repeating various traditional mantras . . . and mentally concentrating upon the idea of using the senses as a means of sacrificing to the Goddess.2
Clearly, ideas and practices similar to those found in tantrism were in one way or another widespread in the ancient world. The ancient Mesopotamians and Egyptians, as well as the Greeks and Romans and other Western Indo-European peoples had analogous beliefs about the powers of sex—but few if any were ever so explicitly outlined as were those of the tantrics. The tantrics had the added advantage of their tradition surviving and evolving until the present day, whereas in the West the advent of Christianity created an atmosphere hostile to the sacred aspects of sexuality.
In early modern times, however, more direct cultural contact between Europe and the East made it possible for Europeans to become acquainted with the sexual mysticism of Asia and the Middle East. Partially under the influence of this contact there was also a gradual revival of occultism and magic in European culture. This revival may be dated from as early as the beginning of the eighteenth century with the appearance of the Rosicrucians in Germany. One of the principal texts of this society was The Chymical Wedding of Christian Rosencreutz (1616), which placed alchemical teachings in a modestly erotic context. But the groundswell of sexual occultism in the West would only come after contact with the Eastern teachings had been established.
One of the first texts produced was that of Edward Sellon: Annotations Upon the Sacred Writings of the Hindus (1865). In the middle of the nineteenth century sexual mysticism was the specialized field of secret orders and associations such as the Hermetic Brotherhood of Luxor in Europe and the Brotherhood of Eulis in the United States. While in Germany sexual enlightenment and intellectual speculation on the powers of sex were reaching unprecedented levels of sophistication: in the late nineteenth century Max Ferdinand Sebaldt von Werth was producing volumes of material dedicated to sexual religion and sexual magic, while pioneering physicians such as Sigmund Freud were on the verge of publishing their theories of sexual repression as the root of individual and social ills. In this milieu of sexual reform and nudism there emerged a secret order called the “Ordo Templi Orientis” (O.T.O.). This group may have begun as early as 1895, but its first documented appearance was in 1904. The O.T.O. was founded by a wealthy German metallurgist, Karl Kellner. He, like Christian Rosencreutz before him, was supposed to have traveled to the East and learned the arts and practices of mysticism. That the secret of the O.T.O. was essentially a sexual one was revealed in print for the first time in the 1912 edition of the order’s journal the Oriflamme. There we read:
Our order possesses the which opens up all Masonic and Hermetic secrets, namely the teaching of sexual magic, and this teaching explains, without exception, all the secrets of Freemasonry and all systems of religion.
The O.T.O. would be reformed by an English magician, Aleister Crowley, in the years to come—but more about him later.
In essence, the O.T.O. was styled along pseudo-Masonic lines with secrets revealed to members only after they had reached certain stages of initiation. The O.T.O. originally had ten degrees, and it was only in the eighth of these that the secret of sexual magic was revealed. In the eighth degree the initiate was instructed in the practice of masturbatory sexual magic and thus learned how to manage and channel his or her own sexual energies. In the ninth degree various forms of sexual intercourse were introduced. A major offshoot of the O.T.O. is another German order: Fraternitas Saturni—the Brotherhood of Saturn. This was founded by Gregor A. Gregorius in 1926. The documents relating to this order reveal a vast sexual ideology, which is reviewed in our book, Fraternitas Saturni,*1 on the subject.
Throughout the latter part of the twentieth century sexual magic and mysticism had virtually become mainstream with articles on tantric sex in women’s magazines hawked on supermarket racks. However, the essential nature of sexual magic as something secret—and at least to some extent forbidden—remains. The secret lies in the fact that sexual magic is not something that can be known from books, it must be experienced and only then can it be understood. Sexual magic is a form of physical knowledge. Therefore, any knowledge you gain must be made physical or carnal in order for it to be impressed on your soul and spirit.
PRAGMATIC SEXUAL MAGIC
Despite all the cultural specific systems of magic and religion mentioned in the previous section, the basic precept of Carnal Alchemy remains essentially pragmatic. That is, it is based not on culturally specific symbol systems, but on the strength of the sexual responses to the symbols.
Once your preliminary and exploratory sexual experiments have been done, proceed on to attempt an act of sexual magic. This may or may not contain elements of Sado-Magic. An act of sexual magic will generally have four parts: 1) preparation, 2) intensification, 3) release, and 4) breaking. The important thing is to maintain the pragmatic edge. Do not fall into the trap of using unnecessary symbols or culturally specific accoutrements, which may detract from the pure individualized raising of sexual energy.
1) Preparation: Always have a definite magical goal in mind before doing any experiment. Take care of all preparations for the Working: clarify the aim and make it unambiguous, make ready all symbols, and fix the procedure you are to follow in your mind. It is useful to have some set way of beginning magical Work. This ritual can be invented by you. It could be as simple as putting on a certain piece of jewelry or speaking a certain set of words, or as complex as a whole ceremony. The important thing is to set time and space apart from the routine world. By doing so you create a “space” where magic can be made to happen. Once ritual space/time has been entered the Working of sex-magic itself can begin.
2) Intensification: Pragmatic magicians use whatever means are at their disposal to intensify and build sexual excitement and energy. The most important thing at this point is the buildup of sexual energy itself. Allow the magical focus of the Working to hover in your mind, and be ready to implement it at just the right moment magically. Let your consciousness oscillate between the erotic focus and the magical focus during this phase. Some schools of thought have it that you should concentrate on your magical focus throughout, while others maintain that it should be brought to bear only at the moment of orgasm.
3) Release: After you have built up this energy to the level you desire, “release” it toward its magical aim to do its Work. This may be accomplished with the help of the orgasm or you may sublimate or “swallow” the orgasm. This is done by concentrating on the aim, visualizing its completion while holding the sexual energy at its peak level, then allowing it to dissipate. In either case, a sense of satisfaction or completion is the sign of a successful “release.” The symbolic preparations you made for the Working ensure as much as possible that the released energies find their willed target. The actual release is a highly concentrated event of intense power. It is your Work as a magician to have a concentrated aim attached to this event.
4) Break: Immediately after the release of “energy” make a psychological break with the conscious magical aim of the Working. If you remain attached to the aim at this point this will perhaps keep the subtle, even unconscious, parts of the process from working on their own as they can. To aid in this you may allow the erotic atmosphere and feelings to rise up full force again as a pleasurable diversion. The formal part of the ritual is now ended, and this formal break is to be consciously recognized by a gesture or other symbolic act.
Experiment with small things at first. Perhaps use these techniques to make subjective changes in yourself to overcome internal blockages or inhibitions. Then move on to more objective changes.
There are many different theoretical models of sexual magic. No one is correct or incorrect. All have something to be said for them. But no one theory or practice can explain everything. Sexual magic is the most subjective form of magic known, because it necessitates sexual responses in the magician, and because these responses are in and of themselves subjective and individualistic. Experimentation is the key to success.