ON POLITICS

 

Many magicians adopt individualist, libertarian approaches to politics and I believe there is an uneasy relationship with the magical world and the political far right. I abhor this. You will never hear me call people who don’t practice magic the herd, or clay, or sheeple, or mundanes, or even muggles. I value humaneness and compassion. We all have our struggles and we are all on our way somewhere better. I work to eliminate my own racism and I attempt to own the privilege I have as a white cis woman.

I use Runes for divination, and I am aware of the use of Runes by Neo Nazis. I see this as its own form of cultural appropriation. There is no evidence that the Northern and Germanic cultures were any more racist than anyone else. The far right has always misunderstood history and the reconstruction of a race-based spirituality is a prime example.

I am a fan of Black Metal music and it has influenced my magical practice. Beherit’s chilly and powerful album ‘Drawing Down the Moon’ is the best thing for the darkest ritual, for example. There is power here and it was Black Metal music that inspired me to ask the great Left Hand Path question: What is out there in the primordial darkness and what can I know about it? However I am very aware of how the BM scene has used far right motifs and at times has promoted far right ideas. I do not hold with these ideas. I do not listen to the fash. The metal scene is a contested space and I am happy to contest it along with left leaning or anarchist BM musicians. 

'Illumined' is a word describing the view of history that sees hidden forces behind public events or trends. Conspiracy theories are obviously illumined, as is the new age idea that the earth is ascending in its vibration and that humans can help or hinder that. Some occultists such as the uber-fascist Julius Evola have used occult means to influence the course of  history. On the other side (whatever that is these days) there have been some fun stunts, for example the attempt by chaos magicians in the 1960's to levitate the Pentagon, or the 'spell to bind Trump' in 2017. I am not big on illumination. For me the world is already thoroughly wondrous and magical. I also have little relationship with the new age/conscious/wellness communities. I think magic is a different thing, although it uses similar language at times and there is obvious crossover which I will talk about later. There is a cultish tendency in such communities and as I have leftist and anarchist leanings I find this completely scary. 

So there is no grift here, I am not selling anything, I am not special and I have no particular insight. Just information and ideas. 

Blessings on you, gentle reader.

SEX MAGIC FOR PLEASURE AND PAIN: REASONS FOR WRITING ABOUT IT

 

All sex is magic. Most people don’t know it. The magic flickers, and is gone. This magical stuff, this spark of wild weird energy created by a human act, disappears into the void.

It could be used. It could be harnessed and made into something. Or it could be a stream of power, to be slipped into, ridden, ascended on.

The sex magic classics are almost all written by men, mostly cis het men. Women have written about sacred sex, Tantric approaches to sex, and sex for couples with magical flavour, but seldom about actual sex magic, and even less from a perspective friendly to Left Hand Path practitioners. I have never read a book about sex magic usable for sex workers. While some books on sex magic have a chapter on kink or BDSM, I want ideas about pain, transgression and power interwoven throughout my writing. This blog is written as I look back on an incandescent, antinomian part of my life where I practiced magic and sex work together. My perspective may be unique.

When you are whoring of course you have a lot a sex. That’s a lot of energy. Many wise hookers intuitively understand this. Some of what I am doing here is making explicit what they do anyway. I am advocating for conscious, reflective, wise praxis.

If you’re a sex worker, escort or dominatrix who suspects you are doing magic, you probably are in fact doing magic. You may already know that you’re messing with clients’ heads, that you rely on intuition rather than skill, and that occasionally some weird shit happens. If, while reading this, there are times when you think oh that’s obvious, I already know that, then you are on the right track and so am I. What I aim to do for you is make conscious what you already have as a hunch, enhance your practice, unlock your power as a magician, and keep you safe.

If you’re a magician, witch or sorcerer, who wants to explore sex magic in a practical fashion, this writing is for you. Chances are you have the self awareness and desire to develop yourself beyond the ordinary. But you will need more than that and you probably know it.

I am writing also for people who want to improve their sex lives, through magical means. There are times when I talk about ideas for magic, for sex work and for the bedroom. However, there are caveats.

To practise sex magic you need a spine, and a frontal lobe. For this reason I suggest such a practice is not for those under 25. It is at 25 our frontal lobes are fully developed. You need to be able to take responsibility for your actions, know something of who you are, and have lived a little. You need diabolical nerve and the willingness to transgress moral and aesthetic norms with intelligence and reflection.  You also need to be discerning enough not to be captivated by your own glamour.

I cannot guarantee any results and any responsibility is your own. That is not an ethical ‘out’ on my part; it’s just how magic works.  You will require your entire emotional and intellectual range to make anything significant happen for you, but when it does happen, be prepared for joys and fears, delights and horrors, and bliss beyond anything in your mundane life. ‘Try this at home’ by all means, but be aware of the consequences. Magic, especially on this crooked and steep path, bites back. Never do anything unless you are willing for it to change you permanently.

As an ex dominatrix and sadist I am friendly to BDSM and fetish play. For anecdotes and practical tips I use my own experiences, and those of sex workers I know. Thus I am talking about cis het women and cis het men, as a rule. I am aware of sex workers from the rainbow community and I hope you can find some relatable content. Trans and gender diverse people traditionally have a particular magical power and I hope if that is you, you too will learn something here. There will be times I will refer to ‘people with vaginas’ or ‘people with prostates’, because that is exactly what I mean.

I have never been a practitioner of tantra as such, so the sex magic I will discuss will not be based on that careful and holy discipline. The whores I have known who have claimed to have a tantric practice usually mean that they pay extra special intuitive attention, are multi-sensual, or provide a ceremonial atmosphere. Any good whore does that anyway. Tantra is a lifetime discipline I don’t have.Thus I write more about the western magical tradition, because that is what I know.

I am friendly to Left Hand Path practitioners of all sorts, theistic or atheistic. But I will not any assume any particular knowledge, so if I am talking about things you already know, just skip on. I do. 

So I am writing for careful and conscious beginners, as well as the more experienced. If you are curious or merely prurient, read on and be entertained. This stuff may improve your bedroom sex, but it may also change your life.  

Blessings on you, gentle reader.

 

 

YOUR PLACE GOODLY AS HONEY: HOLY BRIDES AND HOLY WHORES

Bridegroom, dear to my heart,
Goodly is your beauty, honeysweet,
Lion, dear to my heart,
Goodly is your beauty, honeysweet,

You have captivated me, let me stand tremblingly before you,
Bridegroom, I would be taken by you to the bedchamber, 
You have captivated me, let me stand tremblingly before you,
Lion, I would be taken by you to the bedchamber.

Bridegroom, let me caress you,
My precious caress is more savory than honey, 
In the bedchamber, honey filled,
Let us enjoy your goodly beauty,
Lion, let me caress you,
My precious caress is more savory than honey.

Bridegroom, you have taken your pleasure of me,
Tell my mother, she will give you delicacies,
My father, he will give you gifts.

Your spirit, I know where to cheer your spirit, 
Bridegroom, sleep in our house until dawn,
Your heart, I know where to gladden your heart,
Lion, sleep in our house until dawn.

You, because you love me,
Give me pray of your caresses,
My lord god, my lord protector,
My Shu-Sin who gladdens Enlil’s heart,
Give me pray of your caresses.

Your place goodly as honey, pray lay (your) hand on it,
Bring (your) hand over it like a gishban-garment,
Cup (your) hand over it like a gishban-sikin garment. 

This is the song of the holy bride of the king Su-Shin, who ruled Sumer in about 2000 BCE. This is how she greeted her husband to be, as a priestess and votary of Innanna the goddess. It is an expression of the Innanna-Dumezil story, and it is that ancient story that is the heritage of magical sex in my culture. 

The images of honey are important in themselves, as honey is often a way of describing nectar, amrita, or manna - that golden, spirit-lit substance that develops at the floor of our skulls and vouchsafes the wonderful flow of union we experience in meditation, devotion - or sexual ecstasy. 

We, however, are here to do our own imagining. 

Sex magic is as old as the city. The Goddess is not a power of nature, but of artifice, a made power, an exotic and barely known thing. She is Innanna, Ishtar, Astarte, of Sumer or Egypt, or Babylon, or Babalon when she is Thelemic.

So imagine a city, on the crossroads of civilizations, sophisticated and barbaric. Imagine the marketplace, you know the one, with the well and the belching camels and the dusty tangle of all humanity. There are spices from the east, bronze and iron from the cold north, and exquisite fabrics bound for the sea. Herbs and meat are stewing and beer is brewing.

At the door of the big cool temple, among the fat pillars and on the shallow steps, sit women in their finery. They are there to be sold, for the night, as preparation for marriage. This is compulsory.

Some are up for it. They call out to the passing men, flirting and dancing. Others are more reserved. Maybe they are older, not attractive by the conventions of the time, or damaged in some way. Some women are there for a long time. It's not fair, this system. It is brave, at best, but I never said it was fair. 

You are there too. You are wearing a white robe, just a bit transparent, with red embroidery. Two gold bracelet adorn your brown plump arms, and you have red sandals. It is the best your parents could afford. You are nervous as hell, and it seems you have been there all morning. 

Then you catch his eye as he strolls past. He is old, over thirty probably, lean and scarred as if he has seen battle. His white teeth gleam as he grins at you. There is a look of pure wicked joy in his eyes, and it is wicked, but it is also pure, and you get up and follow him. 

The two of you pass the tower. It is slim and made of something unearthly, and it seems to pierce the heavens. It is not an ordinary tower. Nothing ordinary happens there. Today, in the high heavens, the king and queen are fucking. Today they are Dumezil and Innanna, and they are making the sun turn and the crops grow. 

This is your heritage. 

Blessings on you, gentle reader. 

 

REFERENCE:

https://www.penn.museum/sites/expedition/the-biblical-song-of-songs-and-the-sumerian-love-songs

 

DEADLY SERIOUS: INFECTION CONTROL

I am posting about the boring stuff first because it is essential and I would be remiss if I did not address these issues. The magical sexy fun comes later. 

So, infection control. 

Infection does not care that you are fluid bonded. 

Infection does not care that you love each other. 

Infection does not care that you are a powerful sorcerer.

Use protection.

On the subject of condoms, they have some other related uses. Burst one and use the resulting ring as a cheap temporary cock ring. They are obvious first temporary choices for storing cum. They are great for beginning digital anal play if you don’t want to use a glove. I did not know when I started that condoms come in different sizes – and I was amused to discover that like a McDonalds shake, there is no size ‘small’!

Use gloves. Change them often. You can’t be fisting your partner, reach round and get a piece of equipment, and go back in without risking infection. Wiping with a tissue doesn’t cut it. Use hand sanitizer. A lot.

Clean toys and equipment. Choose gear that can be properly cleaned, not like fur or leather. Use branded toy cleaner or hydrogen peroxide. Hydrogen peroxide is cheap and effective and safe. I recommend Oxyvir. If you do work with a piece of kit that can’t be throughly cleaned, like a leather gimp hood or a (fake) fur anal bunny tail, inform your partner or client of the risk and do your best. Put condoms on any toys others might use. Serious people own autoclaves, but if you can sterilize equipment, clean it first or you’re just baking on proteins.

Wash your hands often. Chlorhexidine is cheap and it is what they use in hospitals. Like hydrogen peroxide, it’s a simple substance that is safe. Wash your hands for twenty seconds. Sing ‘The Red Flag’ (or similar) as you go, and that gives you twenty seconds. Use hand sanitizer.

For anal play, douche. Unless you like shit of course, but I sure don’t. Douche only when you need to, because it can cause tears in the anal walls. Use water hotter than blood temperature because it needs to break down fat. I sometimes used a drop of tea tree oil. You can buy a unisex douche in sex shops or online. If needs must, any squeeze bottle will suffice. Expect anyone you do anal play with to be clean, and teach them to douche.

Also related to infection control, is lube. Lube minimises the risk of tearing flesh and thus infection. Lube is essential on toys and good on your douche. Use it even if you think you don’t need it.

Visit a sexual health service regularly even if you think you don’t need to. If you are a sex worker, you can get checked for all forms of hepatitis and for other STI’s such as syphilis which is making a comeback in large urban areas. Get checked for HIV. Staff at the clinics can give you free or cheap condoms.They can also vaccinate you against the different forms of hepatitis. 

 Below is a link to Coil's deathly beautiful version of the Marc Almond song Tainted Love. It is replete with images of decay, sensuality, and magical transgression. It breaks my heart. And it is absolutely relevant here. It is a complete downer, so don't watch it unless you want to feel truly sad and disturbed for the rest of the day.

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4GUnUGKgWDY

 In these times of Covid we are inserting infection control measures into our daily lives. It is an edgy and difficult time, reminiscent perhaps of the AIDS epidemic where so many of us feared that making love would kill someone. Honour to those who died, love to those who survived.