by Lionel
Based on what he had learned during his travels in the Middle East and beyond, Randolph taught a type of sexual magic that was the epitome of the first orgasmic theory. In his own words, “true sex-power is god-power.”
He believed that when orgasm took place the lovers were in contact with cosmic powers and therefore anything that they wished could be accomplished. Randolph believed that orgasmic sex enabled the participating lovers not only to reach new heights of spirituality and cosmic awareness but also to accomplish anything from wealth and temporal power to the highest peaks of physical health and fitness.
Randolph was also a trance medium and an influential supporter of the American nineteenth-century spiritualist movement. He was thought to have been associated with an organization known as the Hermetic Brotherhood of Luxor, with which Madam Blavatsky was also linked. Other prominent nineteenth-century occultists interested in sexual magic included Carl Kellner (1851–1905) and Theodor Reuss (1855–1923). Both were strongly influenced by Randolph’s ideas, as was Aleister Crowley.
Kellner, who was financed by his successful chemical paper business, founded and led the Ordo Templi Orientis. He was eventually succeeded by Reuss, and Crowley took over as leader when Reuss died in 1905.
During the years that Randolph, Kellner, Reuss, and Crowley were developing and deploying their theories of sexual magic, the syncretistic mystery religions were also increasing in strength and influence.
There would almost certainly have been significant and continuing contact between these two major strands of nineteenth and early twentieth century religious thought and practice.
Traditionally, the Languedoc region of France also had a long history of magical involvement, which was still flourishing at this time.
The authors were giving a series of lectures on the Rennes-le-Château mystery a few years ago at Penarth in South Wales. A member of the audience, Bremna Howells, who was very knowledgeable about magic in general, came up with a fascinating theory about how the mysterious Father Bérenger Saunière, priest at the church of St. Mary Magdalene in Rennes, had become so unaccountably wealthy. His sudden and inexplicable access to wealth lay at the heart of the mystery.
This lady had a friend who was an Ipsissimus, a rank in certain magical circles that is by definition “beyond the comprehension of the lower degrees.” An Ipsissimus is said to be totally autonomous — free from the needs and wants of all the subordinate ranks of less skilful and less experienced magicians. An Ipsissimus is thought of as one who has attained perfect harmony and balance, not only with this universe but with all universes — physical and spiritual. An Ipsissimus has, by definition, attained all that there is to attain.
Following the first Rennes lecture, Bremna had discussed the Saunière mystery with the Ipsissimus. In his opinion, the secret of the priest’s acquisition of great wealth after 1885 was centred on the sex-magic spell known as “The Convocation of Venus.” One of the curious things about the planet Venus — always associated with Venus-Aphrodite the sex goddess — is the way that the planet appears to make a pentagonal pattern every eight years.
There are also tenuous connections linking Mary Magdalene with Yemaja, also spelled Yemoja and Ymoja, the Orisha and Loa connected with seas, oceans, sexuality, and fertility. Yemaja is sometimes regarded as another persona of the goddess Venus.
Strange, mythological, hagiographical connections have also been made between Mary Magdalene and the ancient mermaid legends, forming yet another nexus between Mary and Yemaja. An association of this kind, however, may simply be a coded reference to the stories of Mary crossing the sea from Israel to France during the first century. Couiza Montazels near Rennes (Saunière’s birthplace) has a very old fountain decorated with mer-people known locally as griffouls.
More significantly, the area near Rennes-le-Château has a pentagram of landmarks: two of these have Templar connections; one is the ancient church in the village of Rennes itself (the church dedicated to St. Mary Magdalene, who is associated with Venus-Aphrodite); another is marked by a mysterious menhir; and the fifth is a large, white stone near Granès. In the centre of this curious pentagram is an area called La Pique, also known as the hill of Coume-Sourde. The mystical Rosicrucian saying “as above so below” might well apply to the Rennes-Venus pentagram phenomena.
Co-author Lionel with one of the mysterious griffouls.
According to the information supplied by the Ipsissimus, the Convocation of Venus spell is a remarkably accurate predictor of future events. In his opinion, Saunière’s wealth came from selling the prophecies that resulted from the successful performance of the Convocation of Venus — the magic being made triply effective by being performed within his Church of St. Mary Magdalene, in contact with the ground pentagram reflecting the celestial pentagram of Venus the sex goddess.
Sexual activity was the essential core of the spell, and the Ipsissimus concluded that this was performed by Saunière and Marie Denarnaud. She was his attractive young housekeeper — many years his junior — and utterly devoted to him. Marie would almost certainly have done whatever he requested of her.
Whether or not the Ipsissimus was right, the possibility that Bérenger and Marie were carrying out sex-magic together in the church as a form of worship to the goddess Venus is supported by the story of Bérenger’s deathbed confession on January 17, 1917. Allegedly, he told his confessor, Father Rivière, something so traumatic that Rivière left the dying man without absolving him. It was also widely alleged that Rivière — hitherto a calm and cheerful man — sank into such morbid depression that he was unable to carry out his priestly duties for months. Did Saunière confess to performing sexual magic with Marie in the name of a pagan goddess? A pious, sincerely devout and celibate priest like Rivière would have found Saunière’s behaviour shocking, repellent, and incomprehensible.
Supposing that the prophecies obtained via the Convocation of Venus were surprisingly accurate, where did that knowledge really come from?
In the authors’ opinion, human beings have valid choice, genuine decision-making powers, real autonomy, and free will. How can seers view what has not yet come to pass? They can’t and they don’t. At every moment of their lives, human beings can choose to take one path or another. That moment-by-moment choice steers and shapes their futures — and the futures of those associated with them.
There are avant-garde physicists who think that these unfulfilled futures — these choices that people did not make — these wheels of if — still have some kind of quasi-existence. What seems probable, then, is that gifted seers like Mother Shipton and Nostradamus have the ability to perceive some of these probability tracks. From time to time, the seer will glimpse one of the probability tracks that actually develops into shared, objective, experiential reality. Perhaps the seer’s powers actually include an evaluating gift as well as a perceptive one — so that he or she can discern which of the kaleidoscopic probability tracks is most likely to become experiential reality.
Enthusiasts for sexual magic like Randolph, Kellner, Reuss, and Crowley would possibly have argued that whether or not the goddess Venus existed — or was involved in any way with the Rennes ceremonies enacted in her name — the sexual magic working between Bérenger and Marie would have been powerful enough on its own to increase their perceptiveness of probability tracks and their ability to evaluate them.
Evaluations of the sexual elements in Santeria, Voodoo, and similar syncretistic mystery religions need to include the part played by tantra — and its profound influence on so many other religio-magical practices. The word tantra is an old term from Sanskrit that can convey the idea of “braided or woven together, knitted together.” Like many other ancient root words, however, tantra has associated meanings. One of these refers to “growth” and “expansion” combined with “emerging” or “being revealed.” Some etymologists reach this meaning by splitting the word into tan, signifying “growth and expansion,” combined with the suffix tra, which carries
the sense of “appearing” or “coming into view.”
A few ancient versions of Hindu worship and religious exercises seem to have included the veneration of human sexuality, either in actual practice or in symbolic form.
The earliest forms of tantric yoga go a long way further back into prehistoric human twilight than the famous erotic carvings on the Khajuraho Temples in India, built by Chandela rulers during the tenth and eleventh centuries, which are often thought of in connection with sexual magic and tantra practices. Experts on tantra history have suggested that it was being practised in the Harappa culture that flourished in the mysterious Indus Valley around five thousand years ago.
There were almost certainly trading connections between the Harappan peoples, Egyptian and sub-Saharan Africans, and the ancient Chaldean civilizations. An exchange of items for trade almost invariably led to exchanges of social, cultural, and religious ideas among the traders.
Sexual representation from Benin Palace.
The sexually oriented worship known generally among scholars and historians of pre-Hindu religion and magic as Shaktiism and Shaivism was concerned with the goddess in her various personas as well as the god — and this worship emphasized their distinctive female and male attributes and characteristics.
Their religious practices varied between the use of sexual statues and carvings and actual participating human partners. The ceremony honouring female aspects of the goddess was described as yoni puja. The ceremony venerating male aspects of the god was described as linga puja.
Male sexual models and replicas.
Sheela na Gig, symbol of female sexuality.
Authoritative archaeological theories concerning the history of religion have taken into account the ubiquitous discoveries of these carved yoni and linga at Stone Age sites all around the world. This raises the question as to whether attempts to control the environment by performing sexual magic (together with some very early forms of simplistic belief that might justifiably be described as “sex worship”) were among the earliest religions.
Over the millennia, many forms of sexual religion and sexual magic have evolved and developed from these primeval sources. These have included Kundalini yoga, the famous left- and right-hand paths of tantric yoga, tantric Taoism, and karezza.
There are unmistakable sexual connotations in the drumming, music, and dancing that form a prominent part of many Voodoo and Obeah gatherings. The colours and designs of the female costumes are sexually eye-catching and are intended to attract and — consciously or subconsciously — to appeal to male partners in the congregation as well as to honour the male Orishas and Loas believed to be present at the ceremony.
As the drum rhythm pervades the congregation, it too has powerful sexual connotations; so does the irresistible music to which the rhythmic percussion gives structure. There are also climactic factors in both the melodies and the drumming that again have unmistakable sexual connotations.
Some extreme, puritanical forms of Christianity seem to have found the whole idea of sexuality strangely disturbing and frightening and to have retreated from it, condemned it as sinful, or suppressed it. The syncretized mystery religions — with their powerfully liberating ancient African input — are free of this weakness and fear and are able to welcome and enjoy sexuality as one of the greatest gifts bestowed on humanity by a loving God. Followers of Santeria, Obeah, Lucumi, and the other syncretized faiths are able to understand and appreciate that sexual feelings and religious feelings match each other in intensity. Far from regarding these two powerful, primary emotions as being at war with each other, adherents of the syncretized mystery religions often see them as complementary. For them, sexuality and spirituality can be powerful allies, completing and enriching the two most dominant dimensions of human personality.
Followers of the syncretized mystery religions employ large numbers of spells that are directed towards love and sexuality.
The invisible forces of their Orishas and Loas are frequently associated with the invisible powers of the breeze, especially when the wind is blowing on a night when there is a full moon. One of the oldest and simplest of the syncretistic religions’ love spells is in harmony with these ideas about the additional powers of the Loas and Orishas on a worshipper’s behalf when the moon is full and a night breeze is blowing.
According to this very simple spell, all that has to be done is for the spell worker to stand silently beneath the window of the loved one’s room and whisper his or her name three times. The spell is alleged to be even more effective if the name is whispered seven times. A slightly more complicated variation involves dropping seven blood-red rose petals — one at a time — below the loved one’s window each time the name is whispered.
One of the most frequently used sex-magic love spells is aimed at recovering a lost lover. Its users claim that it is so powerful that even if the lost lover has established a relationship with a new partner, the former partner can use this spell to re-establish the original relationship. The central aspect of this spell — like a significant number of others — is a bath. The names of Venus-Aphrodite, Lakshmi, or Oshun are invoked to bless the water. Patchouli, cinnamon, verbena, rose, and other herbal essences are put into to the bath. A few drops of almond oil, musk, and vanilla are then added. A lock of the lost loved one’s hair and a few of his or her nail clippings are mixed with a lock of the enchanter’s hair and some of his or her nail clippings. The hair and nail clippings are then placed in red paper — strong, vivid reds like scarlet and vermilion are preferred. The magical characters for love, prosperity, and joy are then written in gold ink on this bright red wrapping paper. This can be done using Japanese, Chinese, or Greek characters as shown below:
or
or
The spell worker’s name and the name of the lost love that is to be recovered are then written close together on the other side of the wrapping paper, again using gold ink. As with every spell that is genuinely believed in by the spell-maker, there is a note of warning. The originator of the spell cautions anyone who feels like using it that it has to be taken seriously. Failure to comply with the instructions can, according to the spell writer, result in disharmony and unhappiness instead of the desired effect of recovering the lost lover.
By adding the identifiers — the hair and nail clippings — the spell user is putting part of himself or herself into the spell and, although this adds power, it is also thought to be the psychic equivalent of a motorist’s SatNav equipment: it focuses on the spell worker and the lost lover, so that any errant or misdirected magical force will cause problems for both of them.
Tolkien used this basic magical theory when he described how part of Sauron’s personality had been integrated into the One Ring. When the One Ring was destroyed in the volcanic depths of Mount Doom, Sauron was destroyed with it because part of him was in it.
Many of the sex-magic love spells involve candles, which Freud would immediately have identified as linga, or male sex symbols. The mysterious Henri Gamache was apparently the collector, editor, and creator of a great many of these candle spells. Historians of magic are not certain of Gamache’s true identity, but interesting magical writings under his name came out during the Second World War in the U.S.A. His Afrocentrism makes him particularly relevant to a study of Santeria, Voodoo, and the other syncretistic mystery religions.
There is a modified version of this spell in his collection. It is intended to attract a loving and sexually enthusiastic partner of either gender. The spell begins with elaborate directions for laying out the spell worker’s altar. Preparations should ideally start on a Friday when the moon is waxing. The altar is said to need a photo or drawing of the desired partner, along with a lock of hair and nail trimmings if they can be obtained; a Bible; white candles in cross formation, which need to be anointed with what the spell workers call magical altar oil; a red candle anointed with lavender drops, or love oil; a candle of the appropriate colour for the love object’s zodiacal sign; an
d finally, another candle of the spell worker’s zodiacal colour.
The magician then reads from the Song of Solomon — the chapter chosen depends upon the magician’s gender. Incense can be burnt during the Bible readings, and the candles representing the magician and the love object are moved slowly closer to each other until they are touching — so that their melted wax combines as it flows down.
Other varieties of love and sex spells are focused on physical performance and potency once the desired partner has been attracted to the magician. One of these involves honey and cinnamon, different magical perfumes, and flowers with bright golden or orange petals. There are numerous magical powders available from specialist shops that cater to followers of Voodoo, Santeria, and the other syncretistic mystery religions, and two of these allegedly magical ingredients are referred to colloquially as “Love Me” and “Love Me More” or as “Want Me” and “Want Me More.” Priest-magicians recommend these powders for inclusion in this spell. Different perfumes such as lavender and rose are also recommended. If there is plenty of water available in the spell worker’s house, or in the temple where the spell is being performed, several baths full can be used. According to some versions of the spell, however, the ideal location is out of doors, near a stream of pure, clear running water. An essential component is a drawing or photograph of both partners close together with their arms affectionately around each other and looking lovingly and longingly towards each other.
As the lovers stand close together, they pull the golden petals from the flowers and drop them into the water. The petals are followed by the sticks of cinnamon, the honey, and the two magical powders. The intimate picture of the lovers is placed in their bedroom, while the lovers bathe together in the stream into which the ingredients were thrown. During the bathing, they repeat each other’s names lovingly and excitedly.