Like any other facet of the subject of sex, sexual magic is perhaps the most emotionally charged and misunderstood.

I think I "discovered" the power of sexual magic as a teenager. I was interested in the occult as a young lad, and a group of friends and myself fancied ourselves "witches", though we had read nothing about Gerald Gardner or Wicca. Our image of witchcraft was more infomed by Hammer Films than by Margot Adler. We were not interested in an "earth religion." We were interested in casting powerful spells of destruction on our "enemies" and getting laid.

We had no idea what we were doing, but that didn't stop us. We had found only a few books: Eliphas Levi's Dogma and Ritual of High Magic, Crowley's Magick In Theory And Practice and Tarot Revealed by Eden Grey. Along with Montague Sommers History Of Witchcraft we had all we thought we needed to practice magic.

As with most teenagers, the getting laid part was very important to us. There wasn't a whole lot about the subject in the books that we had, but (as is still the case today) it was a powerful motivator for the study of magic. We did seem to be getting a following of teenage girls anxious to be "witches", so there was clearly a practical reason to continue our studies. We knew there was such a thing as "love spells", and if we couldn't find them in books we'd make them up ourselves! Little did we know that much of what we considered unfathomable in Crowley's book was about that very subject.

Also, as with most teenage boys, masturbation fantasies were the major sexual expression we had. Somehow I hit upon the idea that if I concentrated on a particular girl while masturbating (not too hard to do) but added a visualization of sending my "magic power" to the object of my desire at the point of orgasm, it would enchant her into being sexually attracted to me. I added the refinement of writing out her name backwards -- it was in one of our books as a way to make up "magic words" -- and (ahem) "annointing" the paper with my sexual fluids. I was doing a form of sigil magic and I didn't know it at the time. The crazy thing was (and it may have inspired me onto this path for the rest of my life) it actually worked!

I wasn't the most gorgeous hunky guy as a teenager, although I was certainly no hideous beast either. Nonetheless, I seemed to drastically improve my number of sexual conquests once I discovered this technique. I even stole my best friend's girlfriend using this method. Though this may have occured even without the "sex magic" (it was, after all, the early 1970's and the sexual revolution was in full swing,) this was also one of my first lessons in magical technique -- and magical ethics.

Sex and Magical Orders

Some magical orders teach entire systems of sexual magic, like the Ordo Templi Orentis (O.T.O.) Others incorporate it closely into their teachings, like Gardnerian Wiccans with their emphasis on sexual duality in all things. Almost always it's cast in euphism and shrouded in confusion and secrecy. In the earlier parts of the 20th century, this was perhaps neccessary to avoid persecution by the civil authorities. This is seemingly less necessary as we move into the new millenium, but I suppose the old ways are hard to give up. We will focus for a moment on the two aforementioned groups and see how they approach sexual magic.

Ordo Templi Orientis

The OTO was not created by Aleister Crowley, but he came to dominate it after his induction and left it with his personal stamp. The OTO is a degreed hierarchy (see the chapter on Magical Groups) but the instruction is sexual magic does not occur until the three highest degrees, the 7th, 8th and 9th. Back in the early 1900's, they could keep up the front of being just another quasi-Masonic lodge to the outside world and to those in the lower degrees, and reserve their "inner secrets" only for those invited to join the high degrees.

According to Francis King in Secret Rituals of the OTO, the 7th degree initiate is taught a system of phallic worship, and is instructed to build a "phallic totem" altar and devote themselves to it's veneration. In the 8th degree they receive instruction on the use of masturbation as a magical technique. The 9th degree expands the teaching to include hetrosexual union as magic, in the manner of the Eastern Tantrists -- hence the "Orentis" of their name. There is in additon to this an "unoffical" grade called the "11th degree" (the 10th degree already having been designated as the being the leader of the Order) and refers to homosexual union as a magical technique, in particular anal intercourse.

The OTO still restricts access to it's "inner secrets" insofar as published accounts go. The aforementioned book, Secret Rituals of the OTO, was withdrawn from print by the publisher after the threat of legal action by the OTO for copyright violation. As a result, copies of the original hardcover book in good condition can fetch hunderds of dollars from collectors. However, descriptions of a similar magical order, the Fraternus Saturnus (also most active during the early 20th century) can be obtained in the book Fire and Ice by Eldred Thorrison (Llewellyn Publishing). This book is an excellent source of information on the quasi-Masonic style of sexual magic.

Wicca and the Great Rite

In organized Wicca, such as the sects of the Gardnarians and Alexandrians, there is a hierarchy of three degrees, designated 1st, 2nd and 3rd. Sexual magic is introduced in the 3rd degree, whose initation involves the so-called "Great Rite" -- hetrosexual union. As a religion based on dualism, Wicca stresses the dualistic description of all phenomena, based on their cosmology of a Goddess and a God. In the Great Rite, the initiate has sexual intercourse with the High Priest or High Preistess of the coven, who is assumed to be representing the appropriate deity.

Many Wiccan covens, especially the Gardnarians, also incorporate scourging (whipping) into their initiation ceremonies. Although it is presented as a "purification" rite, being whipped by a naked member of the opposite sex, while one is naked as well, has undeniable sexual overtones.

In some covens, these techniques of initiation have devolved to mere symbolism. The scorging is done with a silk cord. The Great Rite is a purely symbolic, with the female holding a chalice and the male inserting a dagger into it in a parody of sexual union. Sometimes the coven leaders offer the initiate the choice of performing the Great Rite in either symbolic or actual terms, which tends to allow the more sexually squemish to participate in Wicca than would otherwise be interested in joining the religion. In my opinion, this has diluted the original magical power that the originators designed into the religion. In Western culture, sexual union with a "stranger" in the context of ritual magic is an act of glorious blasphemy against the norms of society, and consequently great magical power is unleashed. Symbolic substitutes simply cannot have the same "punch" as the real thing.

Practical Sex Magic

Teenage fantasies and religious symbolism aside, sex can be a powerful magical tool, if not the most powerful. One can build an entire magical system out of sexuality, but this subject is fit for an entire book and I'll not try to describe it in depth here. If you're interested in this, I recommend Secrets of the Sex Magicians by Frater U.D. or Modern Sex Magic by Don Michael Kraig, both from Llewellyn Publications. Both describe a system of training and technique based on magical sexuality.

But you need not immerse yourself completely in the sex magic paradigm to use the tools of sex magic. The basics are almost astonishingly simple.

One of the simplest is to create a sigil (using the method described in the chapter on sigils), masturbate to the point of orgasm, and as climax occurs, gaze unblinkingly at the sigil and "drink it in" to your mind. DO NOT concentrate on the meaning of the sigil, but rather see it as nothing more than a "meaningless" symbol.

This can also be done with a partner -- Taping sigils to each other's foreheads is one of my favorite techniques. Or one partner can orally or manually stimulate the other while he or she concentrates on the sigil.

A little creativity and imagination will yield many useful variations. Sexual fluids can be used to annoit the physical basis of a sigil, or to draw the sigils themselves.

Partnered Sex Magic

While the above description of taping sigils to foreheads is "partnered", it's really only a form of mutual masturbation as far as sex magical work is concerned. Working with another person is probably the facet of sexual magic that is the most encumbered with obfuscation, superstition and inaccuarcy.

The vast majority of written works on sex magic focuses on hetrosexual partnering. In the "classic" works, such as those by Crowley, Beverley or Culling, the female is invariably in the position of "assistant" to the male magician. By contemporary standards, the sexist attitude is so blatant as to appear almost quaint.

The other major category of books on "magical sexuality" seem to be of the "New Age" persuasion, all chock full of psuedo-mystical gobbledy-gook. Books by authors such as Margo Anand (The Art Of Sexual Ecstacy) and various reprints of the Hindu text Kama Sutra are full of glossy, "vasaline-on-the-lens" photography of pretty people with dreamy expressions doing the wild thang in a very sedate sort of way. The true aim of these books seems to be as self-help tomes for people with realtionship problems. They are not very useful as a guide to using sex for practical magical purposes.

Group Sex Magic

In my experience, group sex magic has incredible power and a tendency to blow up in your face.

Anti-Sexuality and Magic

As often as sexuality is used as a guiding principle of magic, it is also actively surpressed. The Catholic Church is the premier example of this, with their insistance on a celebate priesthood. But one need not look as far as the Christians to find this attitude prevailing.

One often finds "enforced celebacy" as a part of some magical training system. There is nothing inherently wrong with this, for denial of sexual outlet can be used as a means of building tension, which can be re-directed toward other uses.

However, the problem as I see it is that denial of sexuality is often seen (thanks to the aforementioned Christians with their monks and nuns and priests) as somehow "holy" or more "enlightened" than simply having a normal, healthy sexual life. I lay this charge on the Christians becasue I don't see this attitude prevailing in other non-Western cultures where Christianity has little or no influence. Quite the opposite, really. While the Western magicians were struggling with finding a way to teach the techniques of sexual magic without being arrested on morals charges, the Eastern Tantrists had been doing so for thousands of years, their temples covered with carvings and paintings depicting every sexual position concievable. Same with the "pillow books" of the Medieval Japanese.

Celebacy can be approached as a "sacrafice" and put to use as a magical tool, but I fail to see the great advantage of a magician denying his or her sexuality as a way of life. Like fasting, it can be useful up to a point, but to deny oneself food (or sex) for too long is NOT HEALTHY. Far too many bogus "mystical" groups have used this as a ploy, substituting worship of the leader for sexual desire to keep the followers in line while waitng for the flying saucers to come pick them up.

Chaos Magic is not about denial , but living life to the hilt, of going out on a limb, of immersing oneself in experience. Use sex as a magical tool if you will, or not if you will. But don't let anyone tell you that you need to eliminate sexuality from your life in order to gain magical power. If you must, simply keep your sexuality and your magic in seperate boxes and have a healthy sex life. Please.

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