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GENERAL THEORY OF CARNAL ALCHEMY AND SADO-MAGIC

 

 

All of the theories and “laws” pertaining to the practice of sexual magic in general apply to the practice of Carnal Alchemy. However, Sado-Magic takes these theories and ideas a few steps further. Most obviously, Sado-Magical techniques could be employed to deepen levels of sexual excitement in individuals oriented toward this kind of eroticism. This is empowering according to the general rule: “The higher the level of arousal, the more sexual energy the magician has to work with.”

Beyond this, however, there are magical—physiological and spiritual—aspects to which only “Strong Medicine,” to use Robert North’s term, can give access. This is due to the fact that only in S-M sexuality are all of the human potentials for extreme polarities of psychosensual experience present and manifest.

In the realm of theory this is manifest in the two poles of the sources of power in Sado-Shamanism: the physiological and semiotic or symbolic. The physiological pole is focused on the actual physical, somatic (body-centered), chemical processes, alterations, and manipulations, which are caused to occur in the participants. This pole of the theory underscores such somatic mechanisms as the production of endorphins through painful stimuli, the physiological effects of prolonged physical stress, sensory deprivation, and so on—always in conjunction with sexual or erotic excitement. The presence of the erotic dimension clearly separates this type of shamanism from all others. Here again are keys to what is called “Carnal Alchemy.”

Alchemy is the spiritual or magical discipline in which chemical or metallurgical processes are carried out in an analogical relationship to inner transformations. Alchemy is best known for its promise to hold the secret to the philosophers’ stone by which the alchemist could transform lead into gold. By analogy, “Carnal Alchemy” can transform pain into pleasure, powerlessness into empowerment.

Some might argue that the only “real” level of power is contained in these physiological processes. But the human being is a spiritual “animal,” the symbol-making animal, who can only exist in a world of symbolic culture. This is why, for real transformations to take place, the symbolic pole of the theory of Sado-Shamanism cannot be ignored.

With the physiological aspect of the theory we remain on fairly predictable ground. There is only one basic “chemistry” of the human body, and so methods of manipulating that chemistry can be fairly well understood in a universal way. This is not true of the semiotic or symbolic level. In this world, quite to the contrary of the physiological world, every individual system is in some way different and unique.

In fact, as all who have experienced these forms of sexuality can probably attest, the act of even playing games of bondage and discipline requires that there be an ongoing synthesis between the body-level experience and the head-level experience, between the body game and the head game. This must be so for the scene to “work.” This experience is the beginning of the understanding of what Sado-Magic is all about.

In our times the “head game,” the symbolic game, seems to be played out on two significant levels: the psychological and the social. Many are again becoming comfortable calling the psychological realm “spiritual” (which it really is) while others might insist that the social aspect is really more political. In this last regard we are speaking in terms of what might be called “sexual politics.” Postmodern Western society has become obsessed with the relationship between the sexes, and the ratio of power vested in the symbolism of the two sexes. As Carnal Alchemy is a system concerned with power and the exchange of power in symbolic and actual carnal ways, it may hold a key to the transformation of not only individual bodies and souls but also of whole segments of our society as well.

Essential to how alchemy works, how base things are transformed into nobler things, it is the process technically known as solve et coagula—a Latin phrase that implies “breaking down into component parts and recombining them in a new and more perfect form.” In Carnal Alchemy every time the submissive is “broken down,” humiliated, caused to submit to the power of the dominant, he or she is made the object of transformation into a more “perfect” being. The broken down elements are recombined in a more ideal form. This is the essence of “training.”

By the way, this mode of working is, in fact, the way in which such things are done. This is why the would-be Marine is broken down, dehumanized, crushed—both physically and mentally—so that he can be recombined (physically and mentally) into what the Marine Corps wants a Marine to be. This is true of monastic orders, and many other institutions in which profound personal transformation is essential.

The total theory of Carnal Alchemy only becomes clear after a certain degree of practice has been engaged in. The essential transformative secret of this lies in the proper use of the Fire: sexual excitement and orgasm. This is the element used to fix the coagulated state in the submissive.

We will also come back to this alchemical model to illustrate points in chapters 4 and 5. With the ancient formula of solve et coagula all kinds of transformations and transmutations are possible.

Perhaps the greatest power of Carnal Alchemy lies in the depth of the reality of the polarities being used. There is nothing more fundamental to basic human existence than the experience of the difference between pleasure and pain, no realization more profound than the dichotomy between the self and not-self of the world, or, in a subjective reflection of that dichotomy, the difference between one’s own body and one’s own mind (or spirit). Carnal Alchemy takes these most fundamental of polar opposites and endeavors to transmute one into the other—all the while in a conscious state. To do this a third term is necessary. This third term is a Mystery. Some call it “God,” others “a god,” still others “the Principle of Isolate Intelligence.” The point is that there exists a “higher power,” the exact character of which remains categorically Unknown to us. Into the darkness of the Unknown we have room to grow.

A basic element of sexual magic in general, and one that is even more pronounced in the practice of all forms of Sado-Magic, is the “deification” of the partner in the subjective universe—in the mind’s eye—of each participant. In tantrism the man invokes “the Goddess” in the woman and the woman invokes “the God” in the man. This is easy to see in the way the submissive sees the dominant. The submissive wants to view the dominant as a God/dess-like ideal, and this vision can be of great psychological benefit in the actual performance of the rites of Sado-Magic. But it is equally true that the dominant must be able to see in the submissive an equally divine quality. To the dominant, however, the divinity of the submissive is that inherent in Nature, or that which is seen as the eternal “Other,” which is always sought but rarely found. By seeing the Divine in each other both the dominant and submissive come to discover more precisely the Divine within themselves—not through abstract meditation but through carnal experience.

The fundamental polarities inherent in Carnal Alchemy are reflected in its theory: it works with those things, which are at once the most Known and the most Unknown about individual existence in this world.