Sex magic

Paschal Beverly Randolph

The earliest known Western teachings on practical sex magic originated with the 19th-century American occultist Paschal Beverly Randolph, who was influenced by the English Rosicrucian and phallicism scholar Hargrave Jennings. Randolph taught that orgasm represents the most intense human experience, during which the soul opens to the divine and the breath of God is infused, leading him to state that true sex-power is God-power. He believed that the power of orgasm could be directed by a man and woman for worldly and spiritual gains. In his work The Mysteries of Eulis, Randolph specified that success requires the assistance of a superior woman who is not a harlot, not a virgin, not under eighteen, not another's wife, and capable of intense mental and affectionate energy along with perfect sexual and orgasmal ability.

He prescribed a 49-day experiment involving an upper room, absolute cleanliness, and the formulation of a desire kept in mind throughout, especially during a silent nuptive prayer where the desired outcome is strongly thought. Randolph insisted that both partners must achieve orgasm simultaneously for the magic to be effective. His teachings later influenced secret societies in Europe, most notably the Ordo Templi Orientis founded by Carl Kellner and Theodor Reuss.

Aleister Crowley

Aleister Crowley became involved with Theodor Reuss and the Ordo Templi Orientis after the publication of The Book of Lies between 1912 and 1913. According to Crowley, Reuss accused him of revealing the innermost sexual secret of the O.T.O. in a cryptic chapter of that book; when Reuss realized Crowley had done so unintentionally, he initiated Crowley into the IX° and appointed him Sovereign Grand Master General of Ireland, Iona and all the Britains.

As head of the Order, Crowley expanded the existing sex magick teachings and associated them with specific degrees: the VIII° taught masturbatory or autosexual techniques (the Lesser Work of Sol), the IX° taught heterosexual techniques, and the XI° taught anal intercourse techniques. Crowley wrote extensively on sex magick, producing both public and secret works. Among these are Liber IAO, which gives three methods of attainment through a willed series of thoughts; De Nuptis Secretis Deorum Cum Hominibus; Liber Stellae Rubeae, a secret ritual of Apep veiled in symbolism; Liber Agape vel C vel Azoth, secret instructions of the ninth degree; Liber Cheth vel Vallum Abiegni, concerning the task of the Exempt Adept; Liber A'ash vel Capricorni Pneumatici, analyzing the creative magical force; and The Book of Lies, which includes techniques in symbolic language such as extended mutual oral sex while intoxicated on hashish.

Maria de Naglowska

Maria de Naglowska was a Russian occultist, mystic, author and journalist active in Paris, where she established and led the Confrérie de la Flèche d'or (Brotherhood of the Golden Arrow) from 1932 to 1935. In 1931 she compiled, translated and published a French collection of writings by Paschal Beverly Randolph on sexual magic and magic mirrors, augmenting it with some of his oral teachings, which became the source of Randolph's subsequent influence in European magic.

The following year she published a semi-autobiographical novella, Le Rite sacré de l'amour magique, and later La Lumière du sexe, a mystic treatise and guide to sexual ritual required reading for initiates of her brotherhood. Her later book Le Mystère de la pendaison detailed advanced teachings on the Third Term of the Trinity, the spiritually transformative power of sex, and the practice of erotic ritual hanging and other sensory deprivation practices. Naglowska also influenced the surrealist art movement; the Lexique succinct de l'érotisme in the catalog of the 1959 International Surrealist Exhibition noted her important influence, and surrealist Sarane Alexandrian wrote a detailed account of her life.

Samael Aun Weor

The central teaching of Samael Aun Weor is what he calls white sexual magic, whose paramount tenet is to conclude the sexual act without orgasm or ejaculation from either partner, thereby transmuting sexual energy through willpower and the sacrifice of desire. According to Aun Weor, the magnetic induction produced by crossing the active phallus and passive uterus causes lunar, solar and akashic currents to flow through the Brahmanic cord (the ida, pingala and sushumna nadis) of the couple, providing an active connection between the pineal gland (Ajna chakra) and the solar and lunar principles within the seminal system at the muladhara chakra.

The transmuted energy, populated by what he calls billions of christic atoms, ignites the pure akasa of the triune Brahmanic cord, and through many years of work causes the ascent of the kundalini through the thirty-three chambers or degrees of the spinal medulla. Aun Weor states that along with this ascent, the crystallization of the Solar Bodies occurs, described as the christic vehicles of emotion, mind and will. He further indicates that through sexual magic one can eliminate any previously comprehended psychological defect, achieving the radical removal of the egocentric vehicles related to one's evolutive animal transmigrations, and thereby be elevated to the angelic state and beyond.

Did You Know?

• Ida Craddock published works on sacred sexuality such as Heavenly Bridegrooms and Psychic Wedlock in the late 19th century.
• Aleister Crowley reviewed Heavenly Bridegrooms in his journal The Equinox, calling it one of the most remarkable human documents ever produced.
• Sexual techniques from Craddock's Psychic Wedlock were later reproduced in Sex Magick by O.T.O. initiate Louis T. Culling.