{"id":170,"date":"2022-08-16T16:55:16","date_gmt":"2022-08-16T16:55:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thesynchromystic.com\/?p=170"},"modified":"2026-04-11T16:52:49","modified_gmt":"2026-04-11T16:52:49","slug":"10-sex-magic-cults","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/thesynchromystic.com\/index.php\/2022\/08\/16\/10-sex-magic-cults\/","title":{"rendered":"Top 10 &#8216;Sex-Magic&#8217; Cults"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">(And the People Associated With Them)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Top 10 \u2018Sex-Magic\u2019 Cults (&amp; Notorious &#039;Sex Magicians&#039;)\" width=\"525\" height=\"295\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/lfASE-8bQjc?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">For the necessarily age-restricted video version of this presentation, see our YouTube channel.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h1 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Introduction<\/h1>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"572\" src=\"http:\/\/thesynchromystic.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/Gemini_Generated_Image_bxx6klbxx6klbxx6-1024x572.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-224\" srcset=\"http:\/\/thesynchromystic.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/Gemini_Generated_Image_bxx6klbxx6klbxx6-1024x572.png 1024w, http:\/\/thesynchromystic.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/Gemini_Generated_Image_bxx6klbxx6klbxx6-300x167.png 300w, http:\/\/thesynchromystic.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/Gemini_Generated_Image_bxx6klbxx6klbxx6-768x429.png 768w, http:\/\/thesynchromystic.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/Gemini_Generated_Image_bxx6klbxx6klbxx6.png 1376w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 767px) 89vw, (max-width: 1000px) 54vw, (max-width: 1071px) 543px, 580px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Top 10 Groups That Practiced &#8216;Sex Magic&#8217;<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Sex magic?<\/em><a href=\"#_ftn1\">[1]<\/a> Yes, really! So what is one to make of this salacious, risqu\u00e9 and frankly vulgar phrase that has attained currency among contemporary cognoscente?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u2026Even as STDs (sexually transmitted diseases) supposedly spiral out of sight in Euro-American public health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">One gathers that this is, to some extent, from the baleful renown of a certain Edward Alexander \u201cAleister\u201d Crowley. Being featured on the cover of the Beatles\u2019 1967&nbsp;<em>Sgt Pepper\u2019s<\/em>&nbsp;record album \u2013 and even possibly as the <em>real identity<\/em> of the eponymous&nbsp;<em>Sgt.&nbsp;<\/em>\u2013seems to have clinched (or validated) the idea of psychoneurotic sexuality for credulous millions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The self-styled \u201cGreat Beast 666\u201d Crowley \u2013 the \u201cwickedest man in the world\u201d \u2013 was the personification of demented <em>eros<\/em>, even though he himself, for all his supposed powers, ended his days an impoverished terminal heroin addict in December 1947. We will meet \u201cMr. Crowley\u201d again, shortly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">All right: down to particulars. \u201cSex\u201d I suppose needs no special explication, except that \u2013 more precisely \u2013 it is the adjectival form, sexual, that is implied here.&nbsp;<em>Magic&nbsp;<\/em>(or&nbsp;<em>magick,<\/em>&nbsp;Crowley style) is much more historically reverberating, as we will see throughout this presentation. A definition supposedly popularized by Crowley and repeated by an admiring <em>Wikipedia<\/em> is: \u201ca technique for bringing about change in the physical world through the force of one\u2019s will.\u201d<a href=\"#_ftn2\">[2]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But with this basic groundwork in place, in this video, we will look at ten groups (and some of the often-notorious people associated with them) for whom sacred rituals have revolved around sexual intercourse, or what is sometimes given the lofty sounding title <em>magia sexualis <\/em>\u2013 that is, \u201csex magic.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Caveats and Disclaimers<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Just a few words of caution: As usual, no claim is being made for completeness. In other words, this presentation will merely be a survey, rather than an exhaustive exploration. Additionally, nothing herein should be construed as an allegation of wrongdoing on the part of any individual or organization. This isn\u2019t a legal brief; it\u2019s a video! And it\u2019s for entertainment purposes, only! We <em>will<\/em> be looking at some of the racier characterizations that have been made of various institutions. But we leave it to viewers to decide whether these accounts are exaggerations, fabrications, or reliable histories.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"260\" height=\"384\" src=\"https:\/\/thesynchromystic.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/Eyes_Wide_Shut_1999.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-172\" srcset=\"http:\/\/thesynchromystic.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/Eyes_Wide_Shut_1999.png 260w, http:\/\/thesynchromystic.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/Eyes_Wide_Shut_1999-203x300.png 203w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 260px) 100vw, 260px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Stanley Kubrick&#8217;s &#8216;Eyes Wide Shut&#8217; contains depictions of what &#8212; at least on the surface &#8212; appear to be the inner workings of a modern-day sex-magic cult. (Obtained from Wikipedia; By The poster art can or could be obtained from Warner Bros.., Fair use, https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/w\/index.php?curid=56814432; https:\/\/upload.wikimedia.org\/wikipedia\/en\/7\/73\/Eyes_Wide_Shut_%281999%29.png)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h1 class=\"wp-block-heading\">20<sup>th<\/sup> &amp; 21<sup>st<\/sup> Centuries<\/h1>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The phrase \u201csex cult\u201d may immediately recall images from the ritual-orgy sequence in the blockbuster erotic <em>tour de force<\/em>, <em>Eyes Wide Shut<\/em>.<a href=\"#_ftn3\">[3]<\/a> In the film, the late, inimitable Hollywood director Stanley Kubrick has main character Dr. Bill Harford, played by Tom Cruise, unwittingly infiltrate a group of wealthy debauchees. Harford observes masked participants <em>in flagrante delicto<\/em>. Ultimately, he himself is unmasked and threatened for his deception.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It is standard to hear movie analysts and critics (whether System-approved or self-proclaimed) issue blanket denials that Kubrick intended to lend his considerable weight to the opinion that such secret societies <em>actually<\/em> exist.<a href=\"#_ftn4\">[4]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It would be presumptuous of me to suppose that I could settle the question of what was on the famed movie-maker\u2019s mind. However, recent developments must surely call into question dismissals that are pronounced in the usual, all-too cavalier manner.<a href=\"#_ftn5\">[5]<\/a>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">After all, in 2018, major media outlets disclosed the arrest of one Keith Raniere. Raniere was ostensibly the head of a successful marketing company called NXIVM (\u201cnexium\u201d) that provided \u201cpersonal-development\u201d seminars to white-collar, executive types.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But, according to stories, underneath this sleek veneer, Raniere billed himself \u201cMaster of Slave Women\u201d<a href=\"#_ftn6\">[6]<\/a> and operated a sex-trafficking network with the help of a coterie of female accomplices, including actress Allison Mack and Seagram\u2019s-liquor heiress Clare Bronfman.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This was followed, one year later, by the re-arrest of sex-offender and former financier, Jeffrey Epstein.&nbsp; Epstein also appears to have had <em>some kind<\/em> of interaction or relationship with high-profile persons such as former U.S. presidents Bill Clinton and Donald Trump, Microsoft mogul Bill Gates, Britain\u2019s Prince Andrew, and numerous others. And he also supposedly utilized the \u201cfairer sex\u201d to entice fresh meat into his predatory (and sex-obsessed) orbit.<a href=\"#_ftn7\">[7]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Or, consider the earlier Children of God group, also sometimes referred to as the Family International. Once upon a time, the group enticed the parents of notables such as actress Rose McGowan as well as of the \u201cPhoenix\u201d siblings \u2013 Joaquin, Liberty, Rain, River, and Summer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">River Phoenix, you may remember, reportedly overdosed on drugs inside of Johnny Depp\u2019s Viper Room nightclub, along the Sunset Strip in West Hollywood in 1993. He was transported to the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, but died on Halloween night at the age of 23. According to an article that appeared in <em>Esquire Magazine<\/em> two years before his death, River supposedly called the Children of God \u201cdisgusting\u201d and claimed that it was \u201cruining people\u2019s lives.\u201d<a href=\"#_ftn8\">[8]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Apparently, the Children of God\u2019s sex-obsessed \u201c&#8230;leader, David Brant Berg\u201d recruited new members through seduction \u2013 \u201cproudly refer[ring]\u201d to his sexual missionaries \u201c\u2026as hookers for Jesus.\u201d<a href=\"#_ftn9\">[9]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Of course, this smacks of Charles Manson\u2019s notorious \u2013 and, ultimately, murderous \u2013 collection of hippie youths, who also referred to themselves as a \u201cfamily.\u201d<a href=\"#_ftn10\">[10]<\/a> It\u2019s not uncommon to see the Manson Family referred to as a <em>sex cult<\/em>. And it\u2019s worth point out that Manson himself seemed inexplicably well-connected with California movie-and-music-scene personalities like actress Doris Day\u2019s son Terrence \u201cTerry\u201d Melcher,<a href=\"#_ftn11\">[11]<\/a> actress Angela Lansbury\u2019s teenage daughter Didi,<a href=\"#_ftn12\">[12]<\/a> Rat-Pack member Dean Martin\u2019s daughter Deana,<a href=\"#_ftn13\">[13]<\/a> and \u2013 most famously \u2013 Beach Boys\u2019 co-founder Dennis Wilson.<a href=\"#_ftn14\">[14]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For his part, Manson may have been (partially) influenced by the London-based, and oddly named, Process Church of the Final Judgment. The brainchild of a pair of British occultists named Robert and Mary Anne De Grimston, the \u201cProcess\u201d was described in media reports as \u201can offshoot of\u201d Lafayette Ronald Hubbard\u2019s Church of Scientology \u2013 the outfit that has attracted Hollywood \u201cA-listers\u201d like Tom Cruise and John Travolta, as well as other big names like Kirstie Alley, Stanley Kubrick\u2019s daughter Vivian, Giovanni Ribisi, and others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But, as an offshoot, the Process was a more sinister variant \u2013 one \u201c\u2026which practice[d] black magic and glorif[ied] sexual excess.\u201d<a href=\"#_ftn15\">[15]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">According to Ed Sanders, some Process members were decidedly <em>Luciferian<\/em>,<a href=\"#_ftn16\">[16]<\/a> and \u2013 to help ourselves to Sanders\u2019 euphemism \u2013 \u201ccelebrated&#8230; sensuality\u201d<a href=\"#_ftn17\">[17]<\/a> by participating in what the pornographic-movie industry routinely calls \u201cgangbangs.\u201d<a href=\"#_ftn18\">[18]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Given all these cultish and sexual shenanigans, it seems fair to ask: What might some of these groups have been up to? Borrowing a phrase from Baroness Kessler (in Roman Polanski\u2019s 1999 film, <em>The Ninth Gate<\/em>), we may ask: are these just \u201csocial club[s] for bored\u201d degenerates \u201c\u2026who use \u2026meetings as \u2026excuse[s] to indulge their jaded sexual appetites\u201d? Or is there a deep secret, or <em>arcanum arcanorum<\/em>, lurking in the background?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h1 class=\"wp-block-heading\">\u2018Spermo-Gnosticism\u2019: Salvation Thru Sex?<\/h1>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In the West, no study of sex magic would be complete without <em>some<\/em> mention of ancient Gnosticism. So, we may as well start with that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I dealt with what you might call the \u201cmain lines\u201d of Gnosticism in a video titled \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=NTYL6TRoA4k\">10 Arcane Words<\/a>.\u201d<a href=\"#_ftn19\">[19]<\/a> So, for a sober-minded account of foundational philosophical-religious terms such as \u201cdualism\u201d and \u201cgnosis,\u201d with no hanky-panky, see <em>that<\/em> presentation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Here, we\u2019ll only be concerned with the more sensational possibility that some rivulets of Gnosticism involved members in risqu\u00e9 ritualism. Many of these offshoots would (sometime later) be described as \u201cspermo-gnostics,\u201d in order to differentiate them from their milder-mannered cousins.<a href=\"#_ftn20\">[20]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"664\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/thesynchromystic.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/Gospel-of-Judas_800px-Codex_Tchacos_p33-664x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-171\" srcset=\"http:\/\/thesynchromystic.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/Gospel-of-Judas_800px-Codex_Tchacos_p33-664x1024.jpg 664w, http:\/\/thesynchromystic.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/Gospel-of-Judas_800px-Codex_Tchacos_p33-195x300.jpg 195w, http:\/\/thesynchromystic.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/Gospel-of-Judas_800px-Codex_Tchacos_p33-768x1184.jpg 768w, http:\/\/thesynchromystic.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/Gospel-of-Judas_800px-Codex_Tchacos_p33.jpg 800w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 664px) 100vw, 664px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">The &#8216;Gospel of Judas&#8217; is reputed to be a Sethian-Gnostic text and it illustrates a common Gnostic fascination &#8212; not to say rehabilitation &#8212; of Biblical villains.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Cainism, Ophism, Sethianism: Revolt Against Jehovah?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But, to kick things off slowly, in a three-way tie <strong>at number ten<\/strong>, we\u2019ll look at some sects that have one conspicuous thing in common: their heroes come off as villains in the Bible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For instance, consider the Cainites. In the Old Testament <em>Book of Genesis<\/em>, chapter 4, Cain is the firstborn son of Adam and Eve. When God favors the sacrifice of his younger brother, Abel, Cain also becomes the first murderer.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And then there\u2019s the Ophites. The Greek root word \u2013 <em>ophis<\/em> \u2013 means \u201csnake.\u201d The reference, of course, is to the serpent that tempted Eve in the Garden of Eden, just two chapters before Cain and Abel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The significance of serpentine references was perhaps uncovered by Thomas Inman. As George Ryley Scott summarizes: \u201cThe power of erection possessed by certain snakes\u201d \u2013 and, here, he names \u201c[t]he Egyptian asp and the Indian cobra\u201d \u2013 \u201cwas likened to the same power exhibited by the male organ of generation.\u201d<a href=\"#_ftn21\">[21]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The case of the Sethians is more complex.<a href=\"#_ftn22\">[22]<\/a> But we can zero-in on a highly relevant detail by noting that they are widely believed to have been the composers of the <em>Gospel of Judas<\/em>, the first English translation of which was published to great media acclaim by the National Geographic Society in 2006.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In the canonical Gospels (according to Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John), Judas is portrayed as the wretched betrayer of Jesus; whereas, in the <em>Gospel of Judas<\/em>, he is the <em>beau id\u00e9al<\/em> of the enlightened Gnostic and the sole Apostolic custodian of the \u201ctrue teaching\u201d that the crucifixion was necessary to liberate the Christ from his bodily prison.<a href=\"#_ftn23\">[23]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Why did the Gnostics have this predilection for inverting the Biblical narratives? Firstly, they sought to learn and possess, <em>hidden<\/em> doctrines, or \u201cGnosis,\u201d lying <em>beneath<\/em> the literal storylines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But, secondly, they also viewed the Old Testament God, variously transliterated <em>Yahweh<\/em> or Jehovah, as a fool or as an evil entity.<a href=\"#_ftn24\">[24]<\/a> And they associated him with Plato\u2019s <em>Demiurge<\/em><a href=\"#_ftn25\">[25]<\/a> \u2013 the being responsible for the physical world of privation and suffering.<a href=\"#_ftn26\">[26]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This led to the Gnostic conviction that the only appropriate reaction was to \u201c[revolt] against\u201d the Hebrew and Christian God.<a href=\"#_ftn27\">[27]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In the words of agnostic New Testament critic Bart Ehrman: \u201cAnything that [the Old Testament] God commanded, [Gnostics] opposed, and anything that God opposed, they supported.\u201d<a href=\"#_ftn28\">[28]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The 19<sup>th<\/sup>-c. French occultist <em>\u00c9liphas L\u00e9vi<\/em> would later connect this mentality of revolt \u2013 which included \u201cprofanation of Christian mysteries\u201d \u2013 with \u201cblack magic\u201d that would arise \u201cin the Middle Ages.\u201d<a href=\"#_ftn29\">[29]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">With this backdrop, we\u2019re positioned to appreciate why many occult commentators have stated the \u201ctrue God,\u201d represented by the subversive serpent and Judas Iscariot, was in fact <em>Lucifer<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Something of this is echoed by 19<sup>th<\/sup>-century Freemasonic majordomo Albert Pike, who put it starkly in his monumental, if largely unreadable, tome <em>Morals and Dogma<\/em>. \u201cLUCIFER, the Light-bearer! Strange and mysterious name to give to the Spirit of Darkness! Lucifer, the Son of the Morning! Is it he who bears the Light\u2026? Doubt it not!\u201d<a href=\"#_ftn30\">[30]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Likewise, 20<sup>th<\/sup>-century Masonic philosopher Manly Palmer Hall states: \u201cWhen the Mason \u2026has learned the mystery of his Craft&#8230; [t]he seething energies of Lucifer are in his hands&#8230;\u201d.<a href=\"#_ftn31\">[31]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">How does one carry out this revolutionary and Luciferian project against Yahweh? In the words of the 18<sup>th<\/sup>-century French essayist Jean-Pierre-Louis de Luchet: You \u201cdestroy the works of God and \u2026commit every kind of infamy.\u201d<a href=\"#_ftn32\">[32]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This shows up in Elizabethan playwright Christopher Marlowe\u2019s <em>The Tragical History of the Life and Death of Doctor Faustus<\/em>, where Lucifer\u2019s servant-angel, Mephistophilis, tells the titular character:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cTherefore the shortest cut for conjuring<br>\u201cIs stoutly to abjure all godliness,<br>\u201cAnd pray devoutly to the prince of hell.\u201d<a href=\"#_ftn33\">[33]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If this magical connexion seems farfetched, recall that the founder of Gnosticism was reputed to be the sorcerer Simon Magus, who appears in the Acts of the Apostles attempting to bribe Jesus\u2019s apostles for the knowledge of how to \u201creceive the Holy Spirit.\u201d<a href=\"#_ftn34\">[34]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Apparently, Simon traveled with a Phoenician prostitute and encouraged his disciples to \u201c\u2026[follow] their own pleasure as though free\u2026\u201d.<a href=\"#_ftn35\">[35]<\/a> It seems that, in these conditions, any Jehovian revolt would spill over into sexual deviancy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Pretty salacious. But, you say: the case is merely inferential.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Okay, but what may be merely implicit for the Cainites, Ophites, and Sethians, becomes more obvious later, starting with a system called Valentinianism, <strong>which comes in at number nine<\/strong>.<a href=\"#_ftn36\">[36]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"235\" height=\"350\" src=\"https:\/\/thesynchromystic.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/The_da_vinci_code_final.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-173\" srcset=\"http:\/\/thesynchromystic.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/The_da_vinci_code_final.jpg 235w, http:\/\/thesynchromystic.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/The_da_vinci_code_final-201x300.jpg 201w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 235px) 100vw, 235px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Dan Brown&#8217;s &#8216;The Da Vinci Code,&#8217; and the movie by the same name, makes references to &#8216;sex rituals&#8217; as well as a purported romantic entanglement between Jesus Christ and Mary Magdalene. (Movie poster obtained from Wikipedia; Fair use, https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/w\/index.php?curid=5024537; https:\/\/upload.wikimedia.org\/wikipedia\/en\/e\/e9\/The_da_vinci_code_final.jpg.)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Valentinianism Introduces the \u2018Hieros Gamos\u2019<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For instance, the Valentinian-Gnostic<em> Gospel of Philip<\/em> uses \u201csexual imagery\u201d to describe a \u201csacral rite\u201d provocatively called the \u201cbridal chamber.\u201d<a href=\"#_ftn37\">[37]<\/a> \u201c[S]ome scholars [understand] the text as promoting <strong>sacred intercourse<\/strong> among group members&#8230;\u201d.<a href=\"#_ftn38\">[38]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This same Gnostic \u201cgospel\u201d is mentioned both by author Dan Brown, in his 2003 novel <em>The Da Vinci Code<\/em>,<a href=\"#_ftn39\">[39]<\/a> as well as in director Ron Howard\u2019s 2006 movie adaption featuring famed American actor Tom Hanks and French actress Audrey Tautou.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The frenetic plot centers around the adventures of Harvard symbologist named Robert Langdon (Hanks), and French police cryptographer, Sophie Neveu (Tautou). In an attempt to solve the murder of Sophie\u2019s grandfather, and lift suspicion from Langdon, the pair are pulled into the shadowy world of secret societies, and the search for the fabled Holy Grail.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In the course of the narrative, it is revealed that Brown\u2019s heroine<a href=\"#_ftn40\">[40]<\/a> \u201cwitnessed a sex rite\u201d in her youth.<a href=\"#_ftn41\">[41]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The character Langdon explains that this ritual \u2013 which he refers to as a <em>Hieros Gamos<\/em>, or \u201cSacred Marriage\u201d<a href=\"#_ftn42\">[42]<\/a> \u2013 was meant to \u201cachieve <em>gnosis<\/em>\u201d.<a href=\"#_ftn43\">[43]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"683\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/thesynchromystic.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/Thomas-683x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-184\" srcset=\"http:\/\/thesynchromystic.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/Thomas-683x1024.jpg 683w, http:\/\/thesynchromystic.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/Thomas-200x300.jpg 200w, http:\/\/thesynchromystic.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/Thomas-768x1152.jpg 768w, http:\/\/thesynchromystic.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/Thomas.jpg 900w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 683px) 100vw, 683px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Saying #114 in the Gnostic &#8216;Gospel of Thomas&#8217; &#8212; &#8216;Every female who makes herself male will enter the kingdom of heaven&#8217; &#8212; illustrates a preoccupation with androgyny and &#8216;gender-changing&#8217; that pervades some streams of sex magic. (Source: https:\/\/d28hgpri8am2if.cloudfront.net\/book_images\/onix\/cvr9781594770463\/the-gospel-of-thomas-9781594770463_hr.jpg.)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Proponents of this sex-for-knowledge idea frequently attribute it to Jesus himself who, in the Gnostic <em>Gospel of Thomas<\/em>, allegedly endorsed it with cryptic remarks about \u201c[making] the two one\u201d.<a href=\"#_ftn44\">[44]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Viewers will also remember that Dan Brown has the character Sir Leigh Teabing assert that Jesus was \u201cmarried\u201d to Mary Magdalene, as implied in the <em>Gospel of Philip<\/em>. If you\u2019re catching the drift, it\u2019s implied that Mary Magdalene would have been Jesus\u2019s sex-magic partner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Of course, in context of <em>The Da Vinci Code<\/em> story, the <em>Hieros-Gamos<\/em> participants \u2013 including Sophie\u2019s murdered grandfather, former Louvre museum curator Jacques Sauni\u00e8re \u2013 were members of a mysterious, and possibly fictitious, 20<sup>th<\/sup>-c. order called the <strong>Priory of Sion<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Priory of Sion Legend: Jesus\u2019s Sacred Marriage Begat Royalty<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The received view of the Prieur\u00e9 de Sion is that it is a product of the fevered imagination of Frenchman Pierre Plantard de Saint-Clair. Plantard claimed descent from an apparently long-extinguished line of kings known as the Merovingians.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Prevailing opinion has it that later writers, such as Anglo-Americans Michael Baigent, Richard Leigh, and Henry Lincoln,<a href=\"#_ftn45\">[45]<\/a> notably in their bestselling 1982 volume, <em>Holy Blood, Holy Grail<\/em>,<a href=\"#_ftn46\">[46]<\/a> provided Plantard\u2019s delusions of grandeur with a backstory. So it goes that, in the expanded legend, the Priory \u2013 via its enforcement arm, the Knights Templar \u2013 were the protectors of a supposedly royal bloodline going back to Jesus of Nazareth and Mary Magdalene.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Brown\u2019s fiction has a similar spirit. Or, at least, so it seemed to Baigent and Leigh, who brought an ultimately fruitless legal action against the <em>Da-Vinci-Code<\/em> creator for copyright infringement.<a href=\"#_ftn47\">[47]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Be that as it may, in his book, Brown has his lead male protagonist declare: \u201cSophie Neveu had unwittingly witnessed a two-thousand-year-old sacred ceremony.\u201d<a href=\"#_ftn48\">[48]<\/a> And <em>that<\/em> claimed pedigree, of course, situates Brown\u2019s imaginary <em>Hieros Gamos<\/em> in the context of the birth of ancient Gnosticism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"800\" height=\"1008\" src=\"https:\/\/thesynchromystic.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/800px-Arms_of_the_Most_Noble_Order_of_the_Garter.svg_.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-174\" srcset=\"http:\/\/thesynchromystic.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/800px-Arms_of_the_Most_Noble_Order_of_the_Garter.svg_.png 800w, http:\/\/thesynchromystic.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/800px-Arms_of_the_Most_Noble_Order_of_the_Garter.svg_-238x300.png 238w, http:\/\/thesynchromystic.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/800px-Arms_of_the_Most_Noble_Order_of_the_Garter.svg_-768x968.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 767px) 89vw, (max-width: 1000px) 54vw, (max-width: 1071px) 543px, 580px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">The Most Noble Order of the Garter is a British fraternal society &#8212; and possible heir of Neo-Carpocratian principles &#8212; to which some members of the royal family (including the now-disgraced Duke of York, Prince Andrew) belong. (Source: By This W3C-unspecified vector image was created with Inkscape. &#8211; Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/w\/index.php?curid= 10967471; https:\/\/upload.wikimedia.org\/wikipedia\/commons\/thumb\/a\/aa\/Arms_of_the_Most_Noble_Order_ of_the_Garter.svg\/800px-Arms_of_the_Most_Noble_Order_of_the_Garter.svg.png)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Carpocratianism Taught \u2018Deconditioning\u2019 Thru Sex Rites<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Another early variant of Gnosticism, Carpocratianism, <strong>takes us to number eight<\/strong>.<a href=\"#_ftn49\">[49]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Carpocratians took up Plato\u2019s idea that human beings have preexisting souls that reincarnate after death.<a href=\"#_ftn50\">[50]<\/a> But\u2026with a twist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Essentially, they maintained that, in order to facilitate the purification (and ultimate release) of the soul over its many cycles of reincarnation: \u201cOne must try everything, experience everything, unveil everything&#8230;\u201d.<a href=\"#_ftn51\">[51]<\/a> In order to grasp this, you must lay a lot of stress upon the word <em>everything<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThus bad deeds as well and good deeds were \u2026wrought in pursuance of this idea.\u201d<a href=\"#_ftn52\">[52]<\/a> Get the picture?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The late 20th-c. French classicist Jacques Lacarri\u00e8re calls this \u201cdeconditioning.\u201d It is something similar to \u201csensitizing,\u201d and it involved breaking down, through repeated exposure, a subject\u2019s resistance to something viewed as objectionable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">An allied concept surfaces in alchemy, where the Latin maxim <em>solve et coagula<\/em> refers (roughly) to a process whereby something \u2013 for example, the consciousness of the alchemist \u2013 is first \u201cdissolved\u201d and the resultant residue is \u201crejoined\u201d in a novel way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In later traditions, this would come to be expressed as the thought that, in order to advance spiritually, a person needs to destroy or otherwise \u201ctranscend\u201d his or her \u201cego.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And one way to do this, or so it is sometimes held, is to engage in activities that, although they may be morally or physically repugnant, facilitate \u201c[t]he terror, agony and despair\u201d that tamp down the ego.<a href=\"#_ftn53\">[53]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A kind of neo-Carpocratianism recurs in European movements beginning around the 14<sup>th<\/sup> century.<a href=\"#_ftn54\">[54]<\/a> One core notion held in common by these groups could be expressed, in English, as the thought that \u201c[t]here is nothing evil in nature except as men think it.\u201d<a href=\"#_ftn55\">[55]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">William Shakespeare appears to echo this sentiment when he has his Danish prince, Hamlet, exclaim: \u201cThere is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.\u201d<a href=\"#_ftn56\">[56]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In France, where many of the medieval revivals originated, it might have been phrased: \u201c<em>Honi soit qui mal y pense<\/em>,\u201d or (roughly) \u201cEvil to him who evil thinks.\u201d<a href=\"#_ftn57\">[57]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The French phrase is all the more curious since it is the motto of the Most Noble Order of the Garter, a chivalric association to which numerous members of the British Royal Family belong.<a href=\"#_ftn58\">[58]<\/a> (There\u2019s that royal connexion, again!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The concept of \u201csubjectivizing\u201d evil \u2013 or reducing morality to a matter of human convention \u2013 is, in this context, often related to something called \u201cantinomianism.\u201d And <em>this<\/em>, it turns out, is an overt part of another variety of ancient Gnosticism.<a href=\"#_ftn59\">[59]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"770\" height=\"555\" src=\"https:\/\/thesynchromystic.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/Agape_feast_03.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-175\" srcset=\"http:\/\/thesynchromystic.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/Agape_feast_03.jpg 770w, http:\/\/thesynchromystic.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/Agape_feast_03-300x216.jpg 300w, http:\/\/thesynchromystic.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/Agape_feast_03-768x554.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 767px) 89vw, (max-width: 1000px) 54vw, (max-width: 1071px) 543px, 580px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Painting depicting an &#8216;Agape,&#8217; or Christian &#8216;love feast&#8217; &#8212; a revel interpreted more carnally by Nicolaites, among others.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Nicolaism: \u2018Antinomianism\u2019<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Tradition holds that this system, Nicolaism, <strong>our number seven<\/strong>, also had a checkered past.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It may have originated with Nicholas, one of the first seven deacons in the Christian faith.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Interestingly, Fortean thinker Jim Brandon, in his 1983 study, <em>The Rebirth of Pan: Hidden Faces of the American Earth Spirit<\/em>,<a href=\"#_ftn60\">[60]<\/a> touches upon the relationship of particular \u201cnames of power\u201d with anomalism.<a href=\"#_ftn61\">[61]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cNick\u201d-names are among these dynamic words.<a href=\"#_ftn62\">[62]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Nicolaism was condemned outright in the New Testament <em>Book of Revelation<\/em>, where Jesus states to the church at Ephesus: \u201cYou hate the practices of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.\u201d<a href=\"#_ftn63\">[63]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The antipathy of the mainstream ancient church for Nicolaism stemmed, partially, from the suspicion that Nicholas had taught the aforementioned <strong><em>antinomian<\/em><\/strong> heresy. The word, coined in the 1530s by seminal Protestant Reformer Martin Luther, literally means being \u201copposed to the law.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Luther had argued with fellow reformer Johannes Agricola, because the guy taught not only that Christians could disregard the <em>Mosaic Law<\/em>, but also that they could set aside <em>all<\/em> moral constraints.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Agricola\u2019s basic idea was that if, as even Luther maintained, doing <em>good<\/em> works isn\u2019t going to <em>help<\/em> your chances of getting to heaven, then it\u2019s hard to see why doing <em>evil<\/em> would <em>hurt<\/em> your chances!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But Agricola\u2019s view was arguably a restatement of a belief that went back to the early days of Christendom. Specifically, it arose within various branches of Gnosticism.<a href=\"#_ftn64\">[64]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The basic rationale was this: your soul is \u201cfallen\u201d <em>just because<\/em> you\u2019re trapped in a dirty, physical body. It doesn\u2019t matter what you <em>do with<\/em> your body. You can\u2019t make things worse than they are already!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This, or something like it, may help to explain why the Nicolaites were known for leaning toward libertinism and \u201c&#8230;lead[ing] lives of unrestrained indulgence\u201d<a href=\"#_ftn65\">[65]<\/a><sup>,<a href=\"#_ftn66\">[66]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Nicolaites were notorious for defiling an early Christian ceremony tantalizingly known as an <em>Agape<\/em>, which \u2013 in the present context \u2013 roughly translates into \u201clove feast.\u201d<a href=\"#_ftn67\">[67]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Apparently, the Nicolaites may have drawn too close a parallel between erotic \u201chuman love,\u201d on the one hand, and \u201cheavenly love\u2026,\u201d on the other.<a href=\"#_ftn68\">[68]<\/a> And this is where the story takes a decidedly darker turn, with the inception of a group of Gnostics with an even more sordid reputation for sexual immorality during these \u201clove feasts.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"587\" height=\"855\" src=\"https:\/\/thesynchromystic.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/DemonsOfTheFlesh10.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-176\" srcset=\"http:\/\/thesynchromystic.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/DemonsOfTheFlesh10.jpg 587w, http:\/\/thesynchromystic.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/DemonsOfTheFlesh10-206x300.jpg 206w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 587px) 100vw, 587px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Satanist Anton S. Lavey&#8217;s daughter, Zeena Schreck, with her co-author and husband Nikolas, report on the significance of the consumption of sexual fluids during sex-magical rituals: namely, the act is variously believed to rescue imprisoned subtle energies and imbue the sex magician with spiritual powers.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Borborite\u2019s Secret Technique for Absorption of Magical Energies<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This deeply shadowy sect is perhaps best known by the disparaging term \u201cBorborites,\u201d which means \u2013 provocatively \u2013 \u201cfilthy ones,\u201d<a href=\"#_ftn69\">[69]<\/a> and <strong>brings us to number six<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Similarly to the Sethians, the Borborites may have venerated an obscure entity known as \u201cBarbelo.\u201d A religious text called the <em>Secret Book of John<\/em> calls \u201cBarbelo\u201d: \u201c\u2026the Mother-Father, the first man, \u2026the thrice-named androgynous one\u2026\u201d.<a href=\"#_ftn70\">[70]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cAndrogyny,\u201d of course, refers to the property of being sexually ambiguous in virtue of possessing both feminine and masculine properties. One of the prime symbols of alchemy has long been the androgyne \u2013 or \u201cman-woman,\u201d depicted here as the so-called <em>Rebis<\/em>, Latin for \u201cdual thing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Dan Brown mentioned \u201candrogyny\u201d numerous times in <em>The Da Vinci Code<\/em>. For example, he claimed that the sex of Da Vinci\u2019s Mona Lisa is ambiguous. He had participants in his fictional <em>hieros-gamos<\/em> sport \u201candrogynous masks.\u201d And, drawing from a Kabbalistic tradition that we will expound in a few minutes, he relates the belief that \u201c[t]he Jewish tetragrammaton YHWH \u2013 the sacred name of God \u2013 in fact derived from Jehovah, an androgynous physical union between the masculine <em>Jah<\/em> and the pre-Hebraic name for Eve, <em>Havah<\/em>.\u201d<a href=\"#_ftn71\">[71]<\/a> The theme of androgyny will come up again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For the moment turning aside from esoteric bisexuality, and toward claims of the 4<sup>th<\/sup>-c. Catholic heresiologist St. Epiphanius, the Borborites treated the previously mentioned <em>Agape<\/em> meals as occasions for orgies and wife swapping.<a href=\"#_ftn72\">[72]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Not only this, but \u2013 if Epiphanius\u2019s lurid retelling is credible \u2013 they also took semen,<a href=\"#_ftn73\">[73]<\/a> as well as \u201cthe unclean menstrual blood\u201d of the woman, when it was available, and consumed these as \u2026get ready for it: the \u201cbody\u201d and \u201cblood of Christ.\u201d<a href=\"#_ftn74\">[74]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Church of Satan founder Anton LaVey\u2019s daughter, Zeena Schreck, comments on \u201c[t]he practice of ritualized copulation\u201d and the \u201cconsumption of the sexual fluids,\u201d saying: \u201c\u2026the celebrants \u2026swallow the sexual elixir \u2026to devour magical energies\u2026\u201d.<a href=\"#_ftn75\">[75]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Though Zeena herself reportedly renounced her father\u2019s beliefs in favor of Tantric Buddhism, her heritafe is interesting since the Borborites <em>are<\/em> routinely cited as precursors to the establishment, in ostensibly Satanic circles, of the so-called \u201cBlack Mass.\u201d<a href=\"#_ftn76\">[76]<\/a> This dark ritual, it is alleged, is essentially an \u201cinversion,\u201d or mockery, of certain elements of the Catholic Mass.<a href=\"#_ftn77\">[77]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">When Satanism or other forms of supposed \u201cdevil worship\u201d recurred in France, beginning in the 17<sup>th<\/sup> century, certain features of those tales \u2013 such as abortion, child sacrifice, and cannibalism \u2013 hearken back to early accounts of the Borborites.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Of course, the socio-religious context is important. During the heyday of Christendom, it was believed that \u201c\u2026magic \u2026[was] taught by the Devil \u2026and the practices were \u2026more effective the more obscenely they were performed.\u201d<a href=\"#_ftn78\">[78]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Unsurprisingly, this seems to have raised some hackles. Epiphanius, who was regarded as a defender of Christian orthodoxy, was especially incensed, since he understood these activities simultaneously as affronts to natural law as well as parodies and perversions of the Catholic Eucharist, also known as the \u201cLord\u2019s Supper\u201d or \u201cHoly Communion.\u201d<a href=\"#_ftn79\">[79]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"509\" src=\"https:\/\/thesynchromystic.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/1920px-Spread_of_Manicheanism-1024x509.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-177\" srcset=\"http:\/\/thesynchromystic.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/1920px-Spread_of_Manicheanism-1024x509.png 1024w, http:\/\/thesynchromystic.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/1920px-Spread_of_Manicheanism-300x149.png 300w, http:\/\/thesynchromystic.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/1920px-Spread_of_Manicheanism-768x382.png 768w, http:\/\/thesynchromystic.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/1920px-Spread_of_Manicheanism-1536x763.png 1536w, http:\/\/thesynchromystic.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/1920px-Spread_of_Manicheanism.png 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 767px) 89vw, (max-width: 1000px) 54vw, (max-width: 1071px) 543px, 580px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Although initially a Persian (Parthian) movement, Manich\u00e6anism swept through the ancient world and influenced the development of later Gnostic &#8216;heretical&#8217; cults, such as the Albigensians (Cathars). (Source: By Aldan-2 &#8211; File:Relief_map_of_Eurasia.png, CC BY-SA 4.0, https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/w\/index.php?curid=73877040; https:\/\/upload.wikimedia.org\/wikipedia\/commons\/thumb\/0\/0c\/Spread_of_Manicheanism.png\/1920px-Spread_of_Manicheanism.png.)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Manich\u00e6ans Reserve Secrets for the \u2018Elect\u2019<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A similar charge (of defiling the Catholic Eucharistic host) was leveled against the next group that we\u2019ll consider \u2013 <strong>number five<\/strong> \u2013 the Manich\u00e6ans, a group that exerted a powerful influence over various Church-proclaimed \u201cheretics\u201d for at least one thousand years of European history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Manich\u00e6anism has been described as a blend of Persian Zoroastrianism and Gnostic Christianity.<a href=\"#_ftn80\">[80]<\/a><sup>,<a href=\"#_ftn81\">[81]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A chief Manich\u00e6an innovation was its two-tiered initiation system. At the entry level were the \u201cauditors\u201d (or \u201chearers\u201d) and, at the top, was a group of <em>\u00e9lites<\/em> known as the \u201cElect\u201d or \u201cPerfect.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">St. Augustine, the towering 4<sup>th<\/sup>-5<sup>th<\/sup>-c. \u201cdoctor\u201d of the Catholic Church, accused this upper echelon of engaging in \u201csecret vices,\u201d<a href=\"#_ftn82\">[82]<\/a> including ritual nudism and \u2013 like the Borborites \u2013 consumption of \u201c&#8230;a kind of eucharist including human sperm.\u201d<a href=\"#_ftn83\">[83]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Presumably, Augustine would\u2019ve known; he was a member of the group for several years!<a href=\"#_ftn84\">[84]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In typical Gnostic fashion, Manich\u00e6ans viewed the ingestion of human sexual fluids as means of freeing the latent \u201cdivine substances\u201d that had been trapped inside.<a href=\"#_ftn85\">[85]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In fact, some Manich\u00e6ans called themselves \u201c&#8230;<em>Catharists<\/em>,\u201d meaning \u201c<em>purifiers<\/em>\u201d. And they believed that they were redeeming or \u201cpurify[ing]\u2026part of God\u201d by eating sexual discharges.<a href=\"#_ftn86\">[86]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Interestingly, a kind of neo-Manich\u00e6anism surfaced in Europe during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. Its name? <em>Catharism<\/em>!<a href=\"#_ftn87\">[87]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Cathars \/ Albigensians<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">These <em>Cathari<\/em>,<a href=\"#_ftn88\">[88]<\/a> more commonly termed \u201cAlbigensians,\u201d flourished in the south of France.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">At the time, the region was geopolitically removed from the orbit of the French king, who was headquartered in Paris. And it was also free from direct control of the Roman Church, which operated out of Italy. Consequently, a form of anti-Catholic, Manich\u00e6an religion appealed to the people in this area.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Albigensianism included the Manich\u00e6an system of initiation: an upper level of \u201c\u2026a \u2018pure\u2019 \u00e9lite \u2026(<em>perfecti<\/em>, <em>parfaits<\/em>, <em>bonshommes<\/em> or <em>h<\/em><em>\u00e9r<\/em><em>\u00e9tiques<\/em>)\u2026\u201d and a \u201c\u2026mass of simple believers (<em>credentes<\/em>).\u201d<a href=\"#_ftn89\">[89]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Like the Borborites: \u201cThey were said to consume the ashes of dead babies and indulge in incestuous orgies.\u201d<a href=\"#_ftn90\">[90]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Troubadours<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">According to Freemasonic scholar Manly Palmer Hall, Albigensianism \u201cdescended from the same source\u201d as the tradition communicated by traveling minstrels called <em>troubadours<\/em>.<a href=\"#_ftn91\">[91]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">According to Hall, these medieval singers (and, later, the celebrated Italian writer Dante) transmitted features of the Manich\u00e6an gnosis through poems dealing with chivalry and \u201ccourtly love.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Writer Donald McCormick adds that \u201c\u2026the Troubadours \u2026had [a tremendous] influence in creating the [modern] idea of love\u2026\u201d.<a href=\"#_ftn92\">[92]<\/a> Tho, Shakespeare\u2019s <em>Romeo and Juliet<\/em> must surely also be mentioned in this regard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">These balladist and lyrists created a repository of folklore that would furnish the materials for the stories of Excalibur, the Holy Grail, and the Knights of the Round Table.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Recall that a principal plot point in the Arthurian Cycle revolves around the adulterous romance between King Arthur\u2019s bravest and most illustrious knight, Lancelot, and Queen Guinevere, retold \u2013 in a lighthearted fashion \u2013 to modern audiences in various performances (and <em>revisions<\/em>) of Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe\u2019s 1960 musical, <em>Camelot<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Suffice it to say, one or more of these Gnostic streams feed into later sex-magical currents. So much for one of the primary <em>western<\/em> roots of <em>magia sexualis<\/em>. Now, let\u2019s shift our attention to a different tradition with roots that stretch further East.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"724\" height=\"1024\" src=\"http:\/\/thesynchromystic.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/Tree_of_Life_2009_large-724x1024.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-178\" srcset=\"http:\/\/thesynchromystic.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/Tree_of_Life_2009_large-724x1024.png 724w, http:\/\/thesynchromystic.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/Tree_of_Life_2009_large-212x300.png 212w, http:\/\/thesynchromystic.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/Tree_of_Life_2009_large-768x1086.png 768w, http:\/\/thesynchromystic.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/Tree_of_Life_2009_large-1086x1536.png 1086w, http:\/\/thesynchromystic.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/Tree_of_Life_2009_large-1448x2048.png 1448w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 724px) 100vw, 724px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">The Kabbalistic symbol known as the &#8216;Tree of Life&#8217; simultaneously represents ideas of esoteric anatomy, cosmology, and mysticism. (Source: By Alan James Garner &#8211; Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/w\/index.php?curid=8542830; https:\/\/upload.wikimedia.org\/wikipedia\/commons\/1\/19\/Tree_of_Life_2009_large.png.)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h1 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Kabbalah: The Tree of Life<\/h1>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A second root comes from Jewish mysticism.<a href=\"#_ftn93\">[93]<\/a> Scholar Hugh Urban puts it this way: \u201c[O]ne of the most influential forces in the rise of modern sexual magic was the complex body of texts and traditions that make up Jewish Kabbalah. &#8230;Erotic symbolism is pervasive throughout Kabbalistic literature&#8230;\u201d.<a href=\"#_ftn94\">[94]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Rabbi Moses de L\u00e9on, probable author of the major Kabbalistic text known as the <em>Sefer Zohar<\/em> (or, \u201cBook of Splendor\u201d) was \u201c\u2026a disciple of \u2026\u2018Gnostic\u2019 kabbalists\u2026\u201d who were preoccupied \u201c\u2026the world of the demonic \u2026[and] with the sexual mysteries\u2026 [the alchemical] <em>mysterium coniunctionis<\/em> \u2026[that] lies at the very heart of the Zoharic teaching.\u201d<a href=\"#_ftn95\">[95]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A kabbalistic variation on the sacred-marriage theme was further developed in the anonymous, but highly influential, treatise titled <em>Iggeret Ha-Kodesh<\/em> (or, the \u201cHoly Epistle\u201d).<a href=\"#_ftn96\">[96]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The word <em>Kabbalah<\/em> itself signifies \u201ctradition.\u201d Specifically, we\u2019re talking about a mystical tradition in which \u201c[s]exual relations between a husband and wife were seen to replicate the union between [the] Shekinah and God.\u201d<a href=\"#_ftn97\">[97]<\/a> In Kabbalistic sex, \u201c\u2026the woman represents and to some extent <em>becomes<\/em> <em>Shekhinah<\/em> [<em>sic<\/em>],\u201d while her male partner identifies with masculine aspects of divinity.<a href=\"#_ftn98\">[98]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The dictionary definition of \u201cShekinah\u201d is the \u201cglory of the divine presence.\u201d<a href=\"#_ftn99\">[99]<\/a> In Kabbalistic circles, it is linked with another concept, <em>Malkhut<\/em>, and it is construed as the \u201cfeminine aspect of God\u201d \u2013 something like the Jewish version of the \u201cgoddess.\u201d<a href=\"#_ftn100\">[100]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Of course, this recalls the \u201csacred marriage\u201d \u2013 or <em>hieros gamos<\/em> \u2013 that we encountered with Valentinian Gnosticism.<a href=\"#_ftn101\">[101]<\/a> Though, in this case, it has a Jewish complexion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The topic of Kabbalah (and its origins) is, predictably, huge and multifarious. Once again, for its most basic \u2013 <em>and non-sexual<\/em> \u2013 contours, see \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=NTYL6TRoA4k\">10 Arcane Words<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">However, since knowledge of the Bible and history is instructive, for now, I\u2019ll simply lay it down that the Kabbalah appears to be an amalgamation of Hebrew and other traditions,<a href=\"#_ftn102\">[102]<\/a> some of which \u2013 like Gnosticism and Neoplatonism \u2013 we\u2019ve touched on both here and in our other videos.<a href=\"#_ftn103\">[103]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But, it\u2019s arguable that some influence came by way of the ancient Akkadian empire of Babylonia, which enforced a system of \u201csacred prostitution.\u201d In the words of the ancient historian Herodotus: \u201cThe foulest Babylonian custom is that which compels every woman of the land to sit in the temple of Aphrodite and have intercourse with some stranger at least once in her life.\u201d<a href=\"#_ftn104\">[104]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The influence that the Babylon sojourn exerted upon later Jewish religion is a complex and oft-debated matter. \u201cSome Biblical scholars\u2026 have interpreted the story of Judah and Tamar [in the <em>Book of Genesis<\/em>, chapter 38] as a case of sacred prostitution.\u201d<a href=\"#_ftn105\">[105]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Hargrave Jennings puts it directly when he asserts that ancient \u201cHebrew grove worship was \u2026Phallic worship.\u201d<a href=\"#_ftn106\">[106]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The case is hotly disputed, but we can get an intuitive \u201cfix\u201d on the overall, complicated situation another way. Subsequent Jewish religion would be importantly centered around a library of texts known as the Talmud. Although there are two versions of this encyclopedia-length corpus, arguably the most important of them is called the <em>Babylonian<\/em> <em>Talmud<\/em>.<a href=\"#_ftn107\">[107]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Whatever the extent of the comingling \u2013 and occultists sometimes go so far as to maintain that Moses encoded secret, ancient-pagan teachings into the <em>Pentateuch<\/em>, that is, the first five books of the Old Testament in the Bible \u2013 the fact is, Jewish interpretive tradition displays signs of syncretism.<a href=\"#_ftn108\">[108]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">On a lighthearted note, the phrase <em>mazel tov<\/em> \u2013 commonly used to express congratulations and for joyous occasions \u2013 literally means \u201cgood star,\u201d and invokes concepts of pagan astrology.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"487\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/thesynchromystic.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/Adamtree-487x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-179\" srcset=\"http:\/\/thesynchromystic.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/Adamtree-487x1024.jpg 487w, http:\/\/thesynchromystic.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/Adamtree-143x300.jpg 143w, http:\/\/thesynchromystic.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/Adamtree.jpg 670w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 487px) 100vw, 487px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Chief among sex-magical &#8216;secrets&#8217; is the notion that humanity was originally androgynous. Concurrently, a main aim of some contemporary occultists is the application of the &#8216;gay science&#8217; (i.e., alchemy) to recreate, resurrect, or otherwise restore this primordial state.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">More centrally and seriously, the 5<sup>th<\/sup>-c. commentary<a href=\"#_ftn109\">[109]<\/a> known as <em>Bereshith Rabba<\/em> explains that when the <em>Book of Genesis<\/em> says that \u201cGod created man in His image \u2026male and female He created them,\u201d the text doesn\u2019t refer to Adam and Eve, as readers may assume. Instead, according to the commentator, <em>Genesis<\/em> is saying that the \u201cfirst man\u201d was androgynous.<a href=\"#_ftn110\">[110]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In the occult imagination, this <em>original human<\/em> (sometimes called \u201cAdam Kadmon\u201d) was supposed to have been a <em>composite<\/em> entity \u2013 similar to the previously mentioned Barb\u0113lo. In other words, the male Adam and the female Eve were formed from the preexisting, and <em>hermaphroditic<\/em>, \u201cAdam Kadmon.\u201d<a href=\"#_ftn111\">[111]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Some analysts connect this legendary Jewish character to \u201cBaphomet,\u201d the diabolical idol of the Knights Templar (according to some accounts), also known as \u201cthe Sabbatic Goat.\u201d Baphomet was drawn in its now widely recognized form \u2013 and embellished with the alchemical maxim <em>solve et coagula<\/em> \u2013 by \u00c9liphas L\u00e9vi as an illustration in his 1856 book, <em>Dogma and Ritual of High Magic<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The correct recombination of \u201csacred\u201d male and female energies is believed by some occultists to issue in the creation of the \u201cdivine child.\u201d This conjunction of opposites<a href=\"#_ftn112\">[112]<\/a> is sometimes said to be the mystical significance of symbols such as the right triangle in Freemasonry as well as the so-called \u201cStar of David\u201d hexagram in Judaism. Whether in Jewish-Masonic or Eastern lore, \u201c[t]he downward-pointing and upward-pointing triangles \u2026symbolize the sexual union of the female and male principles\u2026\u201d.<a href=\"#_ftn113\">[113]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Far from having been specifically a symbol of Jewishness from time immemorial, the <em>Magen David<\/em> (or \u201cShield of David\u201d) hexagram appears to have come from medieval grimoires, of spell books. This magical use was then funneled through the work of idiosyncratic and highly influential Kabbalist Isaac Luria. Ultimately, the so-called \u201cStar of David\u201d was adopted as a Jewish flag, first in 14<sup>th<\/sup>-century Prague. Prague was a hotbed for alchemy, astrology, and other occult arts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Either way, and \u201c\u2026ever since\u201d this primordial sex-change operation, human beings have sought their \u201csoul mates\u201d to restore the complete perfection of this supposedly original androgyny.<a href=\"#_ftn114\">[114]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Notice that these musings hearken back to the Gnostic-Kabbalistic interpretation of the Tetragrammaton: namely, that it is a symbol of a quasi-sexual combination of male and female divine energies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This principle also motivates some sexual magic since, as Kabbalists put it: \u201chumanity left Eden as a couple, \u2026as a couple they must return.\u201d<a href=\"#_ftn115\">[115]<\/a> Therefore, practitioners operating on this wavelength view <em>hieros<\/em>&#8211;<em>gamos<\/em>-type rituals as part of an elaborate program of \u201crepairing the world,\u201d<a href=\"#_ftn116\">[116]<\/a> resulting either in the creation of souls for ourselves or the restoration of our latent divinity (or perhaps both).<a href=\"#_ftn117\">[117]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This necessitates gaining self-knowledge; or, as the Delphic Oracle put it: \u201cKnow[ing] Thyself.\u201d<a href=\"#_ftn118\">[118]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For example, in esoteric anatomy, the Kabbalistic \u201cTree of Life\u201d is identified with the human spinal column. Said to contain the Freemasonically significant number of thirty-three vertebr\u00e6, the spinal column, also associated with the rod of Moses, is rooted in the sexual organs. The knowledgeable sexual Kabbalist will understand that the fiery, creative energy of Moses\u2019 brazen serpent (see <em>Numbers<\/em> 21:8) is generated during sex.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Incidentally, in Eastern traditions this business is sometimes called \u201craising the Kundalini\u201d and it connects back, in the minds of some authors (such as the 19<sup>th<\/sup>-c. British Freemason and Rosicrucian Hargrave Jennings) with Gnostic snake worship \u2013 which, we mentioned before.<a href=\"#_ftn119\">[119]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Kabbalists view themselves as custodians of hidden knowledge such as this. As we saw previously, in Greek, these secrets would be termed \u201cGnosis.\u201d In Hebrew, the word is <em>Da\u2019ath<\/em>.<a href=\"#_ftn120\">[120]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Both in the Bible and in other spiritual literature, the word <em>Da\u2019ath<\/em> is sometimes used as a euphemism for sexual intercourse.<a href=\"#_ftn121\">[121]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For example, in <em>The Book of Genesis<\/em>, chapter four, verse 1, when it says that \u201cAdam knew his wife,\u201d the plausible interpretation is that he and Eve had sex.<a href=\"#_ftn122\">[122]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Craft Freemasonry is said to be fascinated with some of these Gnostic-Kabbalistic concepts, as are depicted in what is perhaps the most recognizable masonic emblem. As it is typically presented, the compass and square \u2013 which, if completed, would represent the interlaced triangles of the Star of David<a href=\"#_ftn123\">[123]<\/a> \u2013 surrounds the letter \u201cG,\u201d often supposed to be shorthand for \u201cGnosticism.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Also remember that another major set of Kabbalistic-Masonic symbols revolve around the fabled Temple of Solomon. In occult lore, Solomon was a powerful sorcerer who could summon and control demonic entities and other aethereal forces. But, he also had \u201c700 wives and 300 concubines\u201d \u2013 who, collectively, led him into apostasy.<a href=\"#_ftn124\">[124]<\/a> This fact prompts some observers \u2013 like the previously named Rosicrucian Hargrave Jennings \u2013 to imagine that Solomon was a prodigious sex magician.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Apart from Freemasonry, another mysterious sect emerged from the syncretistic backdrop just sketched. <em>These<\/em> people, called \u201cFrankists,\u201d <strong>carry us to number 4<\/strong> on our list of sex-captivated cultists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"253\" height=\"333\" src=\"https:\/\/thesynchromystic.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/Jakub_Frank.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-180\" srcset=\"http:\/\/thesynchromystic.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/Jakub_Frank.jpg 253w, http:\/\/thesynchromystic.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/Jakub_Frank-228x300.jpg 228w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 253px) 100vw, 253px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Jacob Frank, an 18th-c. follower of the self-proclaimed &#8216;messiah&#8217; Shabbetai Zevi, advocated ceremonially reversing moral prescriptions, in a Jewish version of <em>Carpocratian<\/em> &amp; Tantric &#8216;deconditioning.&#8217; <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">\u2018Frankists\u2019 Invert Judaism<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">First, we need a little historical context. In the inauspicious-sounding 1666, the same year as the Great Fire of London, Jewish theologian Nathan of Gaza proclaimed that the Messiah had come.<a href=\"#_ftn125\">[125]<\/a> Nathan was the principal follower and promoter of the offbeat, 17<sup>th<\/sup>-c. Sephardic Kabbalist Sabbatai Zevi.<a href=\"#_ftn126\">[126]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Sabbatai Zevi had long garnered a reputation for having a \u201c\u2018Luciferan\u2019 [<em>sic<\/em>] side\u201d that issued in \u201cstrange acts.\u201d<a href=\"#_ftn127\">[127]<\/a> For instance, he once busted in on a synagogue service and, wielding an axe, \u201cforced [worshippers] to pronounce the sacred, always unspoken, four-letter Name of God\u201d<a href=\"#_ftn128\">[128]<\/a> \u2013 the previously mentioned <em>Tetragrammaton<\/em>. Or, another time, he \u201cpublicly [married] himself to a Torah scroll.\u201d<a href=\"#_ftn129\">[129]<\/a> One wonders whether that \u201cmarriage\u201d was ever consummated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Nevertheless, for a host of socio-political and other reasons, the pair initially won over a considerable number of followers, who became known as Sabbateans.<a href=\"#_ftn130\">[130]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Many of these disciples became disillusioned, however, when <a>Sabbatai Zevi <\/a>converted to Islam after being apprehended in Turkey.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Curiously, some of the Sabbateans remained faithful to their founder \u2013 and even converted with him, in solidarity. For example, to this day, in Turkey, one may still find a group called the D\u00f6nmeh, who endorse what, as a first pass, could be glossed as a blend of Islam and Judaism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">According to the <em>Jewish Encyclopedia<\/em>, and like the varieties of Gnosticism that we previously surveyed: \u201cThe mystical cult of the [Sabbateans]\u201d<a href=\"#_ftn131\">[131]<\/a> was a mixed bag. Some genuinely embraced asceticism, while others \u201cgave themselves over to licentiousness.\u201d<a href=\"#_ftn132\">[132]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThe Polish rabbis attempted the extermination of the \u2018Shabbethaian heresy\u2019\u2026, but\u201d \u2013 as is evidenced by the existence of the D\u00f6nmeh \u2013 \u201ccould not fully succeed, as it was kept alive mostly in secret circles which had something akin to a Masonic organization.\u201d<a href=\"#_ftn133\">[133]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Enter Jacob Frank. In 1726, he was born into a family of Sabbateans in what we would today know as Ukraine.<a href=\"#_ftn134\">[134]<\/a> Frank was raised to be a merchant, and he supposedly traveled back and forth between Podolia and Turkey, where the Sabbatean D\u00f6nmeh were headquartered.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">By 1755, Frank had somehow managed to attract his own congregation, which he turned on to his idiosyncratic version of Sabbateanism. His activities \u2013 and popularity \u2013 provoked the wrath of the local Rabbis, and the Frankists (as they began to be known) were dragged in front of rabbinical courts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As the <em>Jewish Encyclopedia<\/em> puts it: \u201c\u2026[M]any of the sectarians confessed to having broken the fundamental laws of morality; and women confessed to having violated their marriage vows, and told of the sexual looseness which reigned in the sect under the guise of mystical symbolism.\u201d<a href=\"#_ftn135\">[135]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For example, the \u201c\u2026<em>bet din<\/em> (Jewish court) \u2026found [the Frankists] guilty of breaking numerous halakhic prohibitions \u2026[including] adultery, \u2026wife swapping, stud[ying] banned Sabbatian books, and profess[ing] the faith of Shabetai Tsevi.\u201d<a href=\"#_ftn136\">[136]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Eventually, Frank claimed to be Sabbatai Zevi\u2019s successor. The form of religion that he evidently preached called for his followers to invert (or ritually break) the Jewish law.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And similarly to Sabbatai Zevi, who apparently converted to Islam, Frank and his Frankists converted <em>en masse<\/em> to Christianity and were collectively baptized in what is now Lviv, Ukraine<a href=\"#_ftn137\">[137]<\/a> in 1759.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Rabbi Marvin Antelman would link the Frankists with all manner of subversive movements, including the Illuminati.<a href=\"#_ftn138\">[138]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Frank himself went on the lam, as it were. He ended up in Germany and lived the remainder of his life in apparent luxury, assuming the title \u201cBaron of Offenbach.\u201d<a href=\"#_ftn139\">[139]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"179\" height=\"214\" src=\"https:\/\/thesynchromystic.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/Nikolaus_Ludwig_von_Zinzendorf_portrait_by_Balthasar_Denner.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-181\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Some of &#8220;Count&#8221; Nicolaus Zinzendorf&#8217;s Pietistic Moravians believed that Christian men would eventually change genders in order to fulfill their quasi-sexual functions in the church, which is often called the &#8216;Bride of Christ.&#8217;<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The Moravian Connexion<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Allegedly, he had contact with \u2013 and may have been partially funded by \u2013 a group of Protestants known as Moravians. The original Moravian Brethren go back at least to the 15<sup>th<\/sup> century.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In the 18<sup>th<\/sup> century, a Lutheran-Pietist<a href=\"#_ftn140\">[140]<\/a> named Nicolaus Zinzendorf \u2013 and known more commonly as \u201cCount Zinzendorf\u201d \u2013 resurrected the label \u201cMoravian,\u201d though \u201cthere is no real historical association between the two\u201d movements.<a href=\"#_ftn141\">[141]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Dusting off a teaching reminiscent of Nicolaism, Zinzendorf made \u201c\u2026sex into such an important act that Moravians referred to it as a \u2018sacrament.\u2019\u201d<a href=\"#_ftn142\">[142]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Zinzendorf also borrowed from the language of some \u201c[m]edieval mystics \u2026[and] held that sex \u2026both symbolized and reenacted the unification of Christ and his bride, the church\u2026\u201d.<a href=\"#_ftn143\">[143]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Married Moravians were \u2013 somewhat unbelievably \u2013 supposed to have sex \u201c\u2026while focusing on their union with Christ.\u201d<a href=\"#_ftn144\">[144]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But, if this imaginative effort alone made the difference between base and sacred sex, then it was hard to see why <em>unmarried<\/em> people couldn\u2019t, well\u2026 get in on the action, too \u2013 <em>provided only<\/em> that they achieved the proper mental state.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Zinzendorf appears also to have believed and taught that, since males are part of the church, and the church is the \u201cBride of Christ,\u201d males must somehow eventually become <em>female<\/em>. This <em>queer<\/em> notion initially issued in \u201chomoerotic \u2026liturgical language.\u201d<a href=\"#_ftn145\">[145]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Ultimately, Zinzendorf\u2019s son, Christian Renatus, and a group of likeminded brethren got the idea that they could effect this end state in the here and now. They did this by \u201c[performing] a gender-changing ceremony,\u201d after which they began calling themselves a \u201cchoir of sisters.\u201d<a href=\"#_ftn146\">[146]<\/a>&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Predictably, nowadays, enthusiasts insist that \u201c[t]he practice of sex magic does not require sex organs, male-female polarity, or a partner\u201d!<a href=\"#_ftn147\">[147]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"720\" height=\"864\" src=\"https:\/\/thesynchromystic.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/Emanuel_Swedenborg.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-185\" srcset=\"http:\/\/thesynchromystic.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/Emanuel_Swedenborg.jpg 720w, http:\/\/thesynchromystic.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/Emanuel_Swedenborg-250x300.jpg 250w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 720px) 100vw, 720px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Swedish mystic Emanuel Swedenborg imagined that permissible sexual intercourse (or, divine &#8216;Conjugial Love&#8217;) was not so much a matter of legal formalities (e.g., earthly marriage), but of having a proper mental disposition.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The \u2018Swedenborgian Church\u2019<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Speaking of redefining marital relations, 18<sup>th<\/sup>-c. Swedish mystic Emanuel Swedenborg came to believe that <em>Conjugal Love<\/em> (the title of his 1768 book) bordered on the liturgical. It seems relevant that, while he lived in London, Swedenborg associated with a group of English Moravians.<a href=\"#_ftn148\">[148]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">However, to bring things around full circle, we note that it has long been assumed that Swedenborg was influenced by erotic Kabbalism. Though, this hypothesis has seen scholarly challenges, lately.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But Marsha Keith Schuchard has argued forcefully that that Swedenborg was trained in Hebrew by one Johan Kemper, formerly known as Rabbi Moses Aaron of Krakow. Additionally, Swedenborg was almost certainly acquainted with Rabbi Hayyim Samuel Jacob Falk, better known as the \u201cBaal Shem of London.\u201d In the first place, for a while, the <em>Baal Shem<\/em> \u2013 which is Hebrew for \u201clord of the (divine) name\u201d \u2013 was practically Swedenborg\u2019s next-door neighbor while he lived in England. But, also importantly for our purposes, both Kemper and Rabbi Falk were suspected of Sabbateanism!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Count Cagliostro figures in this broader picture. For an introduction, see \u201cTop 10 Occultists.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In any case, Swedenborg exerted an influence on numerous, subsequent celebrities \u2013 for example, 18<sup>th<\/sup>-19<sup>th<\/sup>-c. English Romantic artist and poet William Blake.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">By some accounts, Blake, and a circle of associates \u2013 including engraver John Flaxman, portrait painter Richard Cosway, and the curious, androgynous, cross-dressing Freemason and spy known as the Chevalier d\u2019Eon \u2013 may have participated in nudism and orgies.<a href=\"#_ftn149\">[149]<\/a> Both of which were uncharacteristic for respectable Englishmen of the period.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Some of Swedenborg\u2019s followers would proceed to start congregations based upon his teachings, loosely designated \u201cSwedenborgianism.\u201d This \u201cNew Church,\u201d as it came to be called, has arms in Europe and North America where, according to <em>Wikipedia<\/em>, \u201c[i]t is \u2026liberal on social issues and sexual ethics, such as the ordination of women, homosexuality, and abortion.\u201d<a href=\"#_ftn150\">[150]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In this, it is faithful to Swedenborg, who advanced a \u201cview of sexual relationships outside marriage\u201d that was \u201cstartling at the time\u201d. \u201cUnlike modern Christian fundamentalists, he did not condemn all sexual activity outside marriage, but saw that there were degrees of behaviour. \u2026Just as subversive, \u2026was his teaching that truly conjugial love is enjoyed in heaven.\u201d<a href=\"#_ftn151\">[151]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"339\" src=\"https:\/\/thesynchromystic.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/Randolph-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-186\" srcset=\"http:\/\/thesynchromystic.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/Randolph-1.jpg 300w, http:\/\/thesynchromystic.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/Randolph-1-265x300.jpg 265w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">American occultist Paschal Beverly Randolph, and the erotic Rosicrucianism of his &#8216;Brotherhood of Eulis,&#8217; was a crucial link in the belt of transmission for &#8216;hieros-gamos&#8217; ritualism.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Erotic Rosicrucianism<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Still on the subject of revolutionary marriage-modifying movements, let\u2019s <strong>move to number three<\/strong>, and call it \u201cerotic Rosicrucianism.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Circa 1856, an American spiritualist named Paschal Beverly Randolph founded the <em>Fraternitas Ros\u00e6 Crucis<\/em>, first in San Francisco, and then in Boston and Philadelphia. This is the order for which he is primarily remembered \u2013 though, his heirs disclaim any connexion to sex magic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Though, according to Manly Palmer Hall, phallic and sexual symbolism was the original significance of the rose and cross, Rosicrucian emblems going back at least to the 17<sup>th<\/sup> century.<a href=\"#_ftn152\">[152]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Bear in mind that Randolph conducted paid lectures and published numerous handbooks and novels<a href=\"#_ftn153\">[153]<\/a> in which he advertised a mysterious set of <em>privately printed<\/em> manuscripts<a href=\"#_ftn154\">[154]<\/a> that \u2013 he claimed \u2013 taught <em>secret<\/em> techniques of sex magic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Randolph thus initiated select groups of customers during <em>sub rosa<\/em> meetings of his Brotherhood of Eulis \u2013 presumably introducing attendees our old notion of <em>hieros gamos<\/em>. His innovation was to place special attention on the idea that mutual climax \u2013 especially simultaneous orgasm of male and female partners \u2013 was especially powerful and can \u201c[open] a momentary pathway to the cosmos\u201d which, in turn, activates latent clairvoyant and psychic abilities.<a href=\"#_ftn155\">[155]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Randolph was interesting for several reasons, not least that he was of blended African-Caucasian extraction \u2013 which may have warmed him up to the alchemical-Rosicrucian notion known as <em>coniunctio oppositorum<\/em>, or the \u201cunion of opposites.\u201d<a href=\"#_ftn156\">[156]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">According to an apologetic offered in Hugh Urban\u2019s volume <em>Magia Sexualis<\/em>,<a href=\"#_ftn157\">[157]<\/a> Randolph would supposedly been horrified by any notion that a \u201csacred\u201d sexual union could occur anywhere other than on a marriage bed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">However, according to Lara Langer Cohen, Randolph endorsed something close to Swedenborg\u2019s view that \u201ccelestial marriage\u201d is <em>not<\/em> to be confused with anything as base as an exchange of legal formalities in front of a justice of the peace. Professor Cohen contends that, in Randolph\u2019s view, if mutual orgasm between two people is <em>good<\/em>, then the \u201cbest sex\u201d involves \u201cmore than two participants.\u201d<a href=\"#_ftn158\">[158]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In a CliffsNotes version, Randolph held that \u201ctrue Sex-power is God-power.\u201d<a href=\"#_ftn159\">[159]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Randolph\u2019s influence extended far beyond his initial, possibly restricted circle. Numerous later practitioners, for example, the Russian-born artist, mystic, and (according to some commentators) <em>Satanist<\/em> Madame Maria de Naglowska, would take his insights in a variety of directions \u2013 such as in the rituals of Naglowska\u2019s Parisian Brotherhood of the Golden Arrow. It is noteworthy that Naglowska claims to have <em>translated<\/em> \u2013 but may, in fact, have <em>written<\/em> \u2013 the volume <em>Magia Sexualis<\/em> that was published in Paris in 1931 with Paschal Beverley Randolph\u2019s name on it.<a href=\"#_ftn160\">[160]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In their book, <em>Demons of the Flesh<\/em>, Nikolas and Zeena Schreck conclude that Randolph\u2019s system has much in common with one final stream of sex-magical tradition,<a href=\"#_ftn161\">[161]<\/a> which we will now take up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"600\" height=\"903\" src=\"https:\/\/thesynchromystic.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/Tantra.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-187\" srcset=\"http:\/\/thesynchromystic.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/Tantra.jpg 600w, http:\/\/thesynchromystic.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/Tantra-199x300.jpg 199w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Indian Tantra may represent the earliest form &#8212; and ultimate source &#8212; of sexual magic in the world. Alternatively, it may simply be the far-Eastern variant of traditions that also show up in Gnosticism and Kabbalah. (Source: By Joe Mabel, CC BY-SA 3.0, https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/w\/index.php?curid=24774105; https:\/\/upload.wikimedia.org\/wikipedia\/commons\/thumb\/c\/cb\/Vajradhara_L2012.81_03.jpg\/800px-Vajradhara_L2012.81_03.jpg.)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h1 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Tantra<\/h1>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In fact, we\u2019ll cheat a little and count this third important strand (<em>in toto<\/em>) as our <strong>top-two \u201csex-magical\u201d cult<\/strong>. Of course, it\u2019s the one that derives from the <em>far<\/em>-eastern mystical tradition known as \u201cTantra.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Let me give a few prefatory words of caution, however.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">At least since famed British explorer Sir Richard Francis Burton published the first English translation of the <em>Kama Sutra<\/em>,<a href=\"#_ftn162\">[162]<\/a> there has been a tendency to sexualize wide swaths of Eastern philosophy. Although the <em>Kama Sutra<\/em> does contain portions that deal with sexual positions, which is the content it\u2019s famous for, it is overall a treatise on how to live well \u2013 and not generally classified as \u201cTantra.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Additionally, there are Eastern-religious <em>practices<\/em> that, for all their sexual appearance, are also distinguishable from Tantra, properly so-called. For instance, there is a maxim that, \u201c[t]o prove one\u2019s aloofness[,] one should lie with beautiful naked women in order to show self-control. Gandhi is said to have done this in the belief that it increased spiritual powers.\u201d<a href=\"#_ftn163\">[163]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">According to Donald McCormick: \u201cThe Tertiaries of the Catholic Order of St. Francis \u2026[also] slept by the side of naked women\u201d \u2013 and for similar reasons: supposedly \u201cto test their powers of resisting temptation.\u201d<a href=\"#_ftn164\">[164]<\/a> Our attention will be focused elsewhere.<a href=\"#_ftn165\">[165]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Tantra, or Tantrism, is something of a blend of its parent traditions of Hinduism and Buddhism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Pre\u00ebminently, it is concerned with ritualized sex that purports to approximate \u2013 or identify with \u2013 the union of the god and goddess, in this case, Hindu deities such as Shiva and Shakti.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Some resources suggest that Tantrics, or practitioners of Tantra, may follow either of two \u201cpaths,\u201d designated the \u201cright hand\u201d<a href=\"#_ftn166\">[166]<\/a> and the \u201cleft hand.\u201d<a href=\"#_ftn167\">[167]<\/a> As a first pass, and although practitioners would bristle at the notion, you could think of this distinction as something like that between \u201cwhite\u201d and \u201cblack\u201d magic in western occultism.<a href=\"#_ftn168\">[168]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">So, the next set of sex-magic enthusiasts we\u2019ll consider are those who adhere to this <em>sinister<\/em> track. (The word \u201csinister,\u201d of course, comes from Latin, where it originally meant \u201cleft.\u201d)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Left-Hand Tantrics: Taboo-Breaking<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Left-hand Tantra,<a href=\"#_ftn169\">[169]<\/a> or <em>V\u0101mam\u0101rga<\/em>,<a href=\"#_ftn170\">[170]<\/a> ties back in with the concept of \u201cdeconditioning\u201d that we mentioned, earlier. In Left-Hand Tantra, this deconditioning \u2013 or \u201cdestruction of the ego\u201d \u2013 is frequently associated with the \u201cbreaking of ethical or social taboos\u201d for the power that is believed to issue therefrom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">An entire procedure is prescribed, called (in English) the \u201cFive Ms,\u201d or <em>Panchatattva<\/em>.<a href=\"#_ftn171\">[171]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">On the surface, the first four of the \u201cM\u201d-words uncontroversially represent substances that are generally taboo in Indian culture: <em>madya<\/em> (liquor), <em>m\u0101\u1e43sa<\/em> (animal meat), <em>matsya<\/em> (fish), and <em>mudr\u0101<\/em> (roasted grain).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">However, the fifth word, <em>maithuna<\/em>, is of primary interest to us, here. Often translated \u201csexual intercourse,\u201d <em>maithuna<\/em> provides us with an opportunity to take a peek under the surface, as it were.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Exoterically, it might appear that <em>maithuna<\/em>, the culminating taboo, is an <em>action<\/em>. On this superficial interpretation, which is also a common assumption for Western observers, sexual intercourse itself is seen as \u201ctaboo.\u201d Therefore, having sex \u2013 <em>at all<\/em>; or, at least outside carefully circumscribed societal <em>r<\/em><em>\u00f4les<\/em> \u2013 is tantamount to \u201ctaboo breaking.\u201d<a href=\"#_ftn172\">[172]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But, seemingly more knowledgeable students of Tantra, such as Indologist David Gordon White,<a href=\"#_ftn173\">[173]<\/a> disclose the explanation held by insiders: namely, that <em>maithuna<\/em> actually involves the ritual consumption of some combination of male and female sexual discharges or fluids.<a href=\"#_ftn174\">[174]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Ritual \u201cconsumption\u201d or \u201creabsorption\u201d may either be through oral ingestion (e.g., via cunnilingus) or through \u201c&#8230;the drawing of the mixed essence \u2026back into [the] still erect penis,\u201d<a href=\"#_ftn175\">[175]<\/a> in an alleged \u201cflow reversal\u201d that is bound up with various semen- and urine-retention techniques collectively known as <em>amaroli<\/em>, or the <em>vajroli seal<\/em>.<a href=\"#_ftn176\">[176]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">We have seen ritual fluid ingestion before, with some forms of Gnosticism. Whether Tantra is, in some way now lost to history, the <em>source<\/em> of the Gnostic belief, or whether it is merely an allied system of thought, the fact is that later Western sex-magic practitioners recognized the similarities and began to look for ways to combine or syncretize the two.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This is sometimes put aphoristically to the effect that <em>the way up is down<\/em> or the adept must first <em>descend in order to ascend<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">So, for instance, some commentators reinterpret the Christian doctrine of \u201cOriginal Sin\u201d through this sort of lens, yielding the conviction that, with Gnostic-Tantric practices, \u201c\u2026the Fall into the body is reversed and human consciousness is able to escape its entrapment in matter.\u201d<a href=\"#_ftn177\">[177]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">On this view, Tantric sex is not simply an emblem for so-called \u201csocial liberation\u201d \u2013 but it is literally a vehicle for <em>spiritual liberation<\/em>. In some streams of Tantra, for example, where \u201closs of semen is loss of soul,\u201d having sex the \u201cwrong way\u201d may be spiritually deadly. Therefore, would-be yogis are either told to abstain totally, or else they are compelled to learn complicated breathing and meditative practices aimed at mastering the \u201ccorrect\u201d way to have sexual intercourse. There are competing theories, here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">\u2018Samael Aun Weor\u2019<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">One suggestion comes from the South American apostate Catholic and neo-Gnostic V\u00edctor Manuel G\u00f3mez Rodr\u00edguez, better known under the Hebraic-sounding appellation \u201cSamael Aun Weor.\u201d According to him, the aim is to have sex <em>without<\/em> achieving climax.<a href=\"#_ftn178\">[178]<\/a> The rationale is that the orgasm is a wasteful expulsion of life energy and seed.<a href=\"#_ftn179\">[179]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In his 1961 book, <em>The Perfect Marriage<\/em>,<a href=\"#_ftn180\">[180]<\/a> Aun Weor describes \u201cSexual Yoga\u201d as divisible into three subsorts: white, gray, and black. In \u201cwhite Tantra,\u201d ejaculation is forbidden;<a href=\"#_ftn181\">[181]<\/a> in \u201cgray\u201d and \u201cblack\u201d varieties, on the other hand, it is allowed \u2013 to one degree or other.<a href=\"#_ftn182\">[182]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The movement of Tantra into the Anglo-American world is probably best understood against the backdrop of the so-called \u201c19<sup>th<\/sup>-c. Occult Revival,\u201d part of which included the creation of the Theosophical Society \u2013 which was partially characterized by a syncretism that sought to fuse Eastern and Western forms of esotericism. For the basics, see (again!) my video titled \u201c10 Arcane Words.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Ida C. Craddock<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">One illustration of the Theosophical Society\u2019s influence can be seen in the curious figure of Ida C. Craddock. Craddock was born into a Quaker household in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1857. After a brief stint as a Unitarian, and ostensibly following some sort of contact with the Theosophical Society, Craddock founded a \u201cChurch of Yoga,\u201d and declared herself its head. She devoted her life to teaching and promoting eroticism and mystical sexuality, before committing suicide at the age of 45, due (according to some commentators) to despair over the constant barrage of obscenity charges that were leveled against her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Craddock\u2019s case might be thought an insignificant footnote \u2013 even for a study as specialized as this one \u2013 were it not that her posthumously published volume, <em>Heavenly Bridegrooms<\/em>,<a href=\"#_ftn183\">[183]<\/a> caught the attention of no less an occultist than Aleister Crowley who reportedly wrote: \u201cNo Magick [<em>sic<\/em>] library is complete without it.\u201d<a href=\"#_ftn184\">[184]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Crowley himself was influenced by both Buddhism and Tantra. He was an inveterate connoisseur of erotic occultism. At one time or other, he became a member of Freemasonry as well as the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn.<a href=\"#_ftn185\">[185]<\/a> And this brings us to our final sex-associated organization.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"897\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/thesynchromystic.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/Templars_composite_FINAL_oie_StXKrz48D9m7-897x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-188\" srcset=\"http:\/\/thesynchromystic.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/Templars_composite_FINAL_oie_StXKrz48D9m7-897x1024.jpg 897w, http:\/\/thesynchromystic.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/Templars_composite_FINAL_oie_StXKrz48D9m7-263x300.jpg 263w, http:\/\/thesynchromystic.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/Templars_composite_FINAL_oie_StXKrz48D9m7-768x877.jpg 768w, http:\/\/thesynchromystic.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/Templars_composite_FINAL_oie_StXKrz48D9m7-1345x1536.jpg 1345w, http:\/\/thesynchromystic.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/Templars_composite_FINAL_oie_StXKrz48D9m7.jpg 1401w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 767px) 89vw, (max-width: 1000px) 54vw, (max-width: 1071px) 543px, 580px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Of course, this study only hits highlights (or lowlights, depending on how you look at things). A more comprehensive treatment of sex magic would have to excavate traditions such as alchemy, Tarot, and Wicca, and would require in-depth study of groups such as the Knights Templar and &#8216;Palladian&#8217; Freemasonry.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h1 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Honorable Mentions<\/h1>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But\u2026 before that, let me name a few \u201crunners up\u201d for this list. Mainly, these systems (or associations) were \u2013 for one reason or other \u2013 simply too complicated to tackle, here. Each of them deserves fuller treatments \u2013 which I hope to provide in forthcoming videos.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The first notable \u2013 which we have mentioned in passing \u2013 is the esoteric discipline of <em>alchemy<\/em>, one ancient name for which was the \u201cGay Science.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Alternatively called the \u201cscience of god,\u201d<a href=\"#_ftn186\">[186]<\/a> its central theme is <em>transformation<\/em>. Many of the vivid images associated with alchemy contain sexual symbolism. Indeed, the mysterious process of alchemical transmutation itself is frequently likened to sexual intercourse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Secondly, we have the Knights Templar. This Catholic military order, founded in the 12<sup>th<\/sup> century \u2013 partly due to the fervent support of mystic and saint Bernard of Clairvaux, attained then-undreamed-of heights of power and wealth following the Crusades. However, as many people know, the order was disbanded in the 14<sup>th<\/sup> century by French King Philip IV and Pope Clement V, and many \u2013 though possibly not <em>all<\/em> \u2013 of its knights were jailed and executed. The pretext? The Templars were first of all accused of blasphemy and idolatry \u2013 specifically, the worship of the previously named goat-headed entity \u201cBaphomet.\u201d They were also charged with sexual immorality \u2013 especially homosexuality \u2013 in conjunction with their infernal rites.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As writer Donald Michael Kraig helpfully summarizes: \u201cThe accepted history is that the Templars learned sex magic from the Sufis of the Middle East, who had learned it from the Tantrics of India. The Medieval alchemists received this information from the Templars and encoded it into some of their works.\u201d<a href=\"#_ftn187\">[187]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Sufism, in brief, is a mystical tradition within Islam that has \u201cmany features of Gnostic doctrine\u201d. In fact, \u201c\u2026at various times, Sufis were \u2026called Gnostics,\u201d that is, \u201cknowers.\u201d<a href=\"#_ftn188\">[188]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Thirdly, I wish I had time to dive into the divining cards known as the Tarot deck. Several of the face or \u201cTrump\u201d cards allegedly have sexual interpretations. And, in any case, no study of the 19<sup>th<\/sup>-c. \u201cOccult Revival\u201d \u2013 which gave birth to modern sex magic \u2013 would be complete without considering the Tarot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a>Fourthly, of course, there\u2019s Satanism \u2013 and its many offshoots. In the modern period, one of the more sexual of these was the notorious, 18<sup>th<\/sup>-century \u201cHell-Fire Club.\u201d It was <em>revived<\/em> \u2013 if not <em>created<\/em> \u2013 by British politician Sir Francis Dashwood, and it attracted prominent American inventor and statesman Benjamin Franklin.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But if the Hell-Fire Club\u2019s Luciferianism is sometimes dismissed as irreverent mischief, it is worth noting that there were allegations \u2013 arising in late-19<sup>th<\/sup>-c. France, to the effect that <em>serious<\/em> devil-worshipping cults and even rogue Freemasons were engaging in sex magic. I have in mind the circle of the defrocked Abb\u00e9 Boullan, Henri Antoine Jules-Bois, and the so-called \u201cOrder of the Palladium.\u201d Whereas the former were accused of out-and-out black magic, the latter participants \u2013 called \u201cPalladists\u201d in some chronicles \u2013 were supposed to have been involved in a kinky variation on \u201cco-masonry\u201d (that is, a form of masonry that allowed the admission and initiation of women as well as men). However, since much of this is derided as a fraud perpetrated by a habitual double-dealer, operating under an assumed name, the affair is often dismissed as the \u201cL\u00e9o Taxil Hoax.\u201d Probably, given all attendant difficulties, a more responsible treatment of it would be in line. At any rate, it would take up more space than I could afford, presently. So\u2026call it a runner-up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Finally, a major \u2013 if not seminal \u2013 branch of contemporary neopaganism and witchcraft is Wicca. There are several varieties to consider \u2013 not least is \u201cGardnerian Wicca,\u201d principally established by Gerald Gardner, whom we mentioned in our \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=nI1soGDyB-g\">Top 10 Occultists<\/a>\u201d presentation. But, a few acknowledge a ritual, frequently termed the \u201cGreat Rite,\u201d which is a take-off from the <em>hieros-gamos<\/em> ceremonies that we have already examined.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But, without further ado\u2026 my pick for the <strong>number one \u201csex-magic\u201d cult<\/strong>, is a mashup of the <em>Ordo Templi Orientis<\/em> (\u201cO.T.O.\u201d), and an associated sex-suffused, <em>Thelemic<\/em> brand of \u201cGnostic Catholicism.\u201d Lemme try to explain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"800\" height=\"800\" src=\"https:\/\/thesynchromystic.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/OTO_Founders_composite_16593829009329.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-190\" srcset=\"http:\/\/thesynchromystic.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/OTO_Founders_composite_16593829009329.jpg 800w, http:\/\/thesynchromystic.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/OTO_Founders_composite_16593829009329-300x300.jpg 300w, http:\/\/thesynchromystic.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/OTO_Founders_composite_16593829009329-150x150.jpg 150w, http:\/\/thesynchromystic.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/OTO_Founders_composite_16593829009329-768x768.jpg 768w, http:\/\/thesynchromystic.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/OTO_Founders_composite_16593829009329-100x100.jpg 100w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 767px) 89vw, (max-width: 1000px) 54vw, (max-width: 1071px) 543px, 580px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">The &#8216;O.T.O.,&#8217; short for &#8216;Ordo Templi Orientis&#8217; (which phrase is variously translated <em>&#8216;Order of Oriental Templars&#8217;<\/em> or &#8216;Order of the Eastern Temple&#8217;) &#8212; originally founded by German occultists Carl Kellner and Theodor Reuss, and later infused by Aleister Crowley&#8217;s with the religious philosophy of &#8216;Thelema&#8217; &#8212; represents the attempted fusion all previous forms of erotic spirituality into one, &#8216;sex-magick&#8217; (Crowley&#8217;s spelling) tradition. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Ordo Templi Orientis<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Crowley joined the O.T.O. in 1912. But, it had reportedly been founded more than a decade earlier (circa 1897) by a professed German Rosicrucian named Carl Kellner, and his associate Theodor Reuss.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">At a high level of generality, the O.T.O. may be describable as a composite of magic and Masonic Templarism \u2013 both of which were largely focused through a lens of mystical sexuality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Specifically, \u201cKellner and Reuss had in mind that they would form a new esoteric order that would fuse craft Masonry, Rosicrucianism, and Hindu Tantra.\u201d<a href=\"#_ftn189\">[189]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Kellner\u2019s organization was downstream, and partially derived, from the 19<sup>th<\/sup>-c. American occultist and spiritualist Paschal Beverly Randolph, whose sex-magical system we mentioned, above.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But Randolph\u2019s admirers in the O.T.O. were also instructed and motivated by other currents.<a href=\"#_ftn190\">[190]<\/a> One of the most important was the sex-infused teachings of the Kabbalistic Hermetic Brotherhood of Luxor.<a href=\"#_ftn191\">[191]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Hermetic Brotherhood of Luxor<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Allegedly founded by Louis-Maximilian Bimstein, who operated under the pseudonym \u201cMax Th\u00e9on,\u201d The Hermetic Brotherhood of Luxor <em>may<\/em> \u2013 or may <em>not<\/em> \u2013 have exercised a formative influence on theosophist H. P. Blavatsky. But, in any case, its teachings were transmitted to the United States by the Scottish astrologer and psychic, Thomas Henry Burgoyne.<a href=\"#_ftn192\">[192]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">According to Joscelyn Godwin, \u201c\u2026the primary result of the Order was to introduce occultists to the practical methods of P. B. Randolph.\u201d<a href=\"#_ftn193\">[193]<\/a> This was especially important, since \u201c\u2026[Randolph\u2019s] detailed instructions in self-training were not easy to come by.\u201d<a href=\"#_ftn194\">[194]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It\u2019s not clear whether Kellner\u2019s sex magic came from Randolph. For his part, Kellner <em>claimed<\/em> that he had been initiated into erotic mysticism directly by Sufi and Tantric masters.<a href=\"#_ftn195\">[195]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">You\u2019ll recall that, rightly or wrongly, widespread popular Western interest in Tantra was \u2013 ahem! \u2013 <em>aroused<\/em> (mistakenly, as we have said) in part by the aforementioned British scholar Sir Richard F. Burton, through his privately published (in 1883) early English version of the <em>Kama Sutra<\/em>. The Indian text is, of course, best-known for it\u2019s explicit, illustrated representations of myriad sexual positions.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The \u2018Magnificent Oom\u2019<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But another, lesser-known, belt of transmission came by way of the mysterious American Pierre Arnold Bernard,<a href=\"#_ftn196\">[196]<\/a> who was known by the colorful \u2013 if nonsensical \u2013 nickname \u201cThe Great Oom.\u201d<a href=\"#_ftn197\">[197]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Bernard\u2019s family includes individuals with connexions both to Buddhism and Sufism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">He founded \u201cthe Tantrik Order of America in 1905\u201d and \u201c[promoted] self-hypnosis and yoga.\u201d<a href=\"#_ftn198\">[198]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In press reports, Bernard was depicted as a sex-obsessed philanderer who may have utilized hypnotism to debauch numerous women \u2013 and even young girls.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Enter Mr. Crowley<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Enter \u201cMr. Crowley.\u201d There\u2019s no question but that the main sex-magical practitioner of the 20<sup>th<\/sup> century \u2013 and possibly of all time \u2013 was British occultist Aleister Crowley.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">You may view an introduction to Crowley in \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=nI1soGDyB-g\">Top 10 Occultists<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Presently, we\u2019ll start in 1909, with Crowley and his Jewish-English acolyte, Victor Neuberg, a poetry student who, incidentally, is credited as an early publisher of 20<sup>th<\/sup>-c. Welsh poet Dylan Thomas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Venturing into the desert of Algiers, Crowley suddenly had the urge to have homosexual sex.<a href=\"#_ftn199\">[199]<\/a> As author Rosemary Guiley puts it: \u201cThe ritual marked a turning point \u2026in [Crowley\u2019s] view of the importance of sex in magic.\u201d<a href=\"#_ftn200\">[200]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This rite, which Crowley claimed put him in contact with a demon \u2013 \u201cChoronzon\u201d \u2013 that had been known to Elizabethan sorcerer John Dee, led him to seek out other sex-magic adherents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Crowley, who was by all accounts fairly sex-obsessed in any case (having had numerous partners of both sexes), would go on to found the Abbey of Thelema in Cefalu, Italy, on the Island of Sicily. The name was taken from a bawdy work of fiction titled <em>The Life of Gargantua and of Pantagruel<\/em>, written in the 16th century by the Renaissance humanist and supposed Catholic monk, Fran\u00e7ois Rabelais.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In 1923, Crowley\u2019s \u201cThelemic\u201d commune \u2013 with its sex-and-drugs experimentation<a href=\"#_ftn201\">[201]<\/a> \u2013 was closed, and he himself was expelled from the country, by order of Benito Mussolini no less.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The proverbial \u201clast straw\u201d had been the death of a young Oxford literature student, Frederick \u201cRaoul\u201d Loveday, allegedly following a depraved black-magical ritual involving the ingestion of cat blood.<a href=\"#_ftn202\">[202]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><em>Ecclesia Gnostica Catholica<\/em><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Crowley drew upon these \u2013 and myriad other<a href=\"#_ftn203\">[203]<\/a> \u2013 ceremonies to rewrite the O.T.O.\u2019s ceremonials to include \u201cthe ritual consumption of semen and vaginal fluids,\u201d masturbation, as well as heterosexual <em>and<\/em> homosexual intercourse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Crowley also influenced the Gnostic Catholic Church.<a href=\"#_ftn204\">[204]<\/a> In fact, Crowley\u2019s \u201cGnostic Mass\u201d would become its principal rite.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">One of the mainstays of this Mass is the consumption of a \u201cCake of Light.\u201d A useful summary of the ingredients is easily discovered by a visit to the pertinent <em>Wikipedia<\/em> page: flour, honey, oils, and \u2026sexual fluids.<a href=\"#_ftn205\">[205]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Crowley used the phrase \u201cElixir of Life,\u201d or the word <em>Amrita<\/em>, as euphemisms for these sexual secretions. Thus, he resuscitated themes found in ancient Gnosticism and Tantra.<a href=\"#_ftn206\">[206]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Not only these, but Kabbalism, too, is a huge part of Crowley\u2019s magical system.<a href=\"#_ftn207\">[207]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">One legendary \u2013 and widely fictionalized<a href=\"#_ftn208\">[208]<\/a> \u2013 facet of Kabbalistic lore, generally, is the so-called <em>Golem<\/em>.<a href=\"#_ftn209\">[209]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Not unlike Frankenstein\u2019s Monster, the creature of 19<sup>th<\/sup>-century gothic novelist Mary Shelley,<a href=\"#_ftn210\">[210]<\/a> the Golem is a subhuman entity that is animated by rabbinic magic \u2013 specifically, various, math-like manipulations of the Hebrew alphabet.<a href=\"#_ftn211\">[211]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">On this wavelength, would you believe that various Crowleyan sex rituals may have been geared toward the magical generation of a similarly soulless entity known as an <em>homunculus<\/em>?<a href=\"#_ftn212\">[212]<\/a> And with this, we arrive at what is (if true) perhaps the darkest of the secrets of this current of <em>magia sexualis<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The Homunculus<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">To start with, following particular strands of occult speculation, a fetus is held to be <em>soulless<\/em> until \u201c\u2026the third month of gestation.\u201d<a href=\"#_ftn213\">[213]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In fact, <em>Strong\u2019s Condordance<\/em>, a widely consulted Bible-reference book, defines \u201cgolem\u201d as \u201cembryo.\u201d<a href=\"#_ftn214\">[214]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In Crowley\u2019s imagination, this opens the door for the possibility that a rite of conception, properly performed according to formul\u00e6 derived from the Gnostic-Kabbalistic-Tantric tradition earlier rehearsed, will issue in the creation of an <em>apparently living<\/em> humanoid that is <em>actually<\/em> some incarnated \u201celemental or planetary spirit.\u201d<a href=\"#_ftn215\">[215]<\/a> The purpose of this operation is to create a minion \u2013 one variety of which Crowley termed a \u201cMoonchild\u201d<a href=\"#_ftn216\">[216]<\/a> \u2013 that will carry out the magician\u2019s bidding.<a href=\"#_ftn217\">[217]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Crowley intimates that this rarely succeeds.<a href=\"#_ftn218\">[218]<\/a> Though, it\u2019s a bit unclear just what \u201csuccess\u201d is supposed to look like. Consider the case of American occultist and \u201cThelemite\u201d rocket scientist John \u201cJack\u201d Parsons,<a href=\"#_ftn219\">[219]<\/a> possible inspiration for Marvel Comic character Howard Stark \u2013 father of the Iron Man superhero, Tony Stark.<a href=\"#_ftn220\">[220]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Parsons was initiated into a California-based branch of the O.T.O. The outfit\u2019s name \u2013 the Agape Lodge \u2013 recalls the ancient Christian \u201clove feast\u201d mentioned in conjunction with Gnosticism. Originally founded in Hollywood by one of Aleister Crowley\u2019s acolytes, an esotericist named Wilfred Talbot Smith, the Agape Lodge came under Parsons\u2019 control when it moved to Pasadena.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Parsons was said to have attempted (on several occasions, and failed in) the creation of homunculi with his then-wife Marjorie Cameron.<a href=\"#_ftn221\">[221]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">At least one of their sex-magical ceremonies, the \u201cBabalon Working,\u201d supposedly had this aim.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">There has also been speculation that Parsons was attempting some dangerous version of the homunculus rite when he died in a fiery explosion in his Pasadena home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">According to author John Carter, \u201c\u2026Cameron later claimed to have been impregnated by Parsons during their first two weeks together\u2026 She said she had an \u2026abortion<a href=\"#_ftn222\">[222]<\/a> with Parsons\u2019 consent (and another abortion later on), then just a few days later they were performing another working.\u201d<a href=\"#_ftn223\">[223]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Was the human fetus supposed to have been the \u201cclay\u201d out of which a flesh-and-blood homunculus was produced? Or was the sexual act merely intended to generate (or summon) some sort of \u201castral\u201d or ethereal entity? At the end of the day, we\u2019re left to guess whether the physiological pregnancies were the unintended byproducts of the rite, or whether the abortions were, so to speak, magical sacrifices.<a href=\"#_ftn224\">[224]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In any event, in Aleister Crowley, we have something of the Mount Everest of sex magic \u2013 a long and perilous climb to a mythical peak from which some, in attempted ascent have plunged headlong into inhospitable depths. Perhaps this is a fitting metaphor since Crowley was, in his youth, a mountaineer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h1 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Concluding Thoughts<\/h1>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As a coda, Crowley\u2019s O.T.O. brings us back, full circle, to some of the groups touched on in the introduction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For the \u201cSolar Lodge of the Ordo Templ[i] Orientis\u201d has been characterized as a \u201cmagical cult specializing in blood-drinking [and] sado-sodo sex magic\u201d \u2013 and that has ties to none other than Charles Manson.<a href=\"#_ftn225\">[225]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The upshot is that, even with Aleister Crowley\u2019s death in 1947, Thelemic \u201cmagick\u201d \u2013 including, one presumes, its <em>sexual<\/em> varieties \u2013 apparently lives on, probably in one or more of the myriad groups that dovetail (or identify themselves) with it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Scattered reports even suggest that heirs of Crowleyite sex magic may even have wormed their ways into unlikely places \u2013 such as the Roman Catholic Church. But, that will have to be a study for another time!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In summary, though, <em>magia sexualis<\/em> preexisted Crowley, and it will certainly survive him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If you have found something of interest in this presentation, please \u201cLike\u201d the video, subscribe to the channel, and turn on \u201cnotifications\u201d for immediate access to forthcoming content. If you would like to assist with future production efforts, please consider sponsoring us via Patreon. Your one-time or ongoing gifts are much appreciated and make possible programs like this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>End Notes:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-css-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref1\">[1]<\/a> I first became aware of \u201csex magic\u201d through various presentations, such as: James Shelby Downard\u2019s <em>King Kill 33<\/em> (1998), Michael Hoffman\u2019s <em>Judaism\u2019s Strange Gods<\/em> (2000) and Hoffman\u2019s <em>Judaism Discovered: From Its Own Texts<\/em> (2008) \u2013 all publications of Independent History and Research (operating out of Coeur d\u2019Alene, Idaho) \u2013 as well as Jim Brandon\u2019s audio recording <em>Sirius Rising<\/em> (privately circulated; ca. 1970s). Subsequently, I discovered that the topic had been taken up, to one degree or other (or, at the very least, <em>touched upon<\/em>), by numerous others, including (without limitation): Bob Dobbs, <em>Phatic Communion With<\/em> (Toronto: Perfect Pitch Eds., 1992); Francis King, <em>Sexuality, Magic and Perversion<\/em> (Port Townsend, Wash.: Feral House, 2002); Nikolas Schreck and Zeena Schreck, <em>Demons of the Flesh: The Complete Guide to Left-Hand Path Sex Magic<\/em> (London: Creation, 2002); John Carter, <em>Sex and Rockets: The Occult World of Jack Parsons<\/em> (Los Angeles, Cal.: Feral House, 2005); Peter Levenda, in his trilogy titled <em>Sinister Forces: A Grimoire of American Political Witchcraft<\/em>: <em>Book One: The Nine<\/em> (Walterville, Ore.: Trine Day, 2005), <em>Book Two: A Warm Gun<\/em> (Walterville, Ore.: Trine Day, 2005), and <em>Book Three: The Manson Secret<\/em> (Springfield, Ore.: Trine Day, 2006); former \u201cBlondie\u201d bassist, Gary Lachman, e.g., in his <em>Swedenborg: An Introduction to His Life and Ideas<\/em> (New York: Penguin, 2012); S. K. Bain, <em>The Most Dangerous Book in the World: 9\/11 as Mass Ritual<\/em> (Walterville, Ore.: Trine Day, 2012); Sherwood Kent, <em>Most Dangerous: A True Story<\/em> (Walterville, Ore.: Trine Day, 2015); and Allen H. Greenfield, <em>Dr. Randolph\u2019s Magical Elixir: The Story of the 19th Century Genius Who Created WESTERN Sexual Magic<\/em> (Martinez, Cal.: Paranoia Publ., 2020). Recently, the topic has been undertaken by academics as well, for example, in: Joscelyn Godwin, Christian Chanel, and John Patrick Deveney, <em>The Hermetic Brotherhood of Luxor: Initiatic and Historical Documents of an Order of Practical Occultism<\/em> (York Beach, Me.: Samuel Weiser, 1995); John P. Deveney, <em>Paschal Beverly Randolph: A Nineteenth-Century Black American Spiritualist, Rosicrucian, and Sex Magician<\/em> (Albany, N.Y.: State Univ. of New York Press, 1997); and Hugh B. Urban, <em>Magia Sexualis: Sex, Magic, and Liberation in Modern Western Esotericism<\/em> (Berkeley, Cal.: Univ. of Cal. Press, 2006).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref2\">[2]<\/a>&nbsp; \u201cMagic,\u201d <em>Wikipedia<\/em>, May 14, 2022, &lt;<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Magic\">https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Magic<\/a>&gt;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref3\">[3]<\/a> Warner Bros., 1999.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref4\">[4]<\/a> For one example, see Rob Ager, \u201cAre satanic societies really depicted in EYES WIDE SHUT?\u201d Collative Learning (channel), YouTube, Apr. 27, 2018, &lt;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=22UjKH-yrQw\">https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=22UjKH-yrQw<\/a>&gt;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref5\">[5]<\/a> Not that I am accusing Ager, specifically, of being \u201ccavalier,\u201d necessarily. Though, in his brief (publicly available) analysis, he states that he has consulted the Kubrick Archives, and he evidences familiarity with Peter Brookesmith\u2019s <em>Cult and Occult<\/em> (London: Guild Publ., 1985) \u2013 some claims of which he dismisses as \u201cdownright wacky.\u201d It\u2019s not obvious to me that this is a cogent counterargument. However, confessedly, I do not currently possess a copy of the book. Ager also references Francis King\u2019s <em>The Secret Rituals of the O.T.O.<\/em> (originally published: London: Daniel, 1973), which \u2013 in a scanned copy of the American edition \u2013 I will have occasion to quote later, myself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref6\">[6]<\/a>The pseudo-Latin phrase that crops up repeatedly, here, is <em>Dominus Obsequious Sororium<\/em> (or \u201cD.O.S.\u201d).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref7\">[7]<\/a> This included Epstein\u2019s private island \u2013 Little St. James \u2013 which contained one odd, temple-looking structure (said to have been \u201ca music pavilion\u201d and which seems to have been the scene of innumerable crimes of molestation and rape in the synchromystically significant \u201cU.S. Virgin Island\u201d chain. See Mary K. Jacob, \u201cJeffrey Epstein \u2018pedophile island\u2019 gets price cut after two months for sale,\u201d <em>N.Y. Post<\/em>, Jun. 9, 2022, &lt;<a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2022\/06\/09\/jeffrey-epsteins-virgin-islands-properties-undergo-price-cut\/\">https:\/\/nypost.com\/2022\/06\/09\/jeffrey-epsteins-virgin-islands-properties-undergo-price-cut\/<\/a>&gt;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref8\">[8]<\/a>Tad Friend, \u201cRiver, With Love and Anger,\u201d <em>Esquire<\/em>, vol. 121, no. 3, pp. Mar. 1994, 108<em>ff<\/em>; reproduced at &lt;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.aleka.org\/phoenix\/zines\/phoenix7.html\">http:\/\/www.aleka.org\/phoenix\/zines\/phoenix7.html<\/a>&gt;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref9\">[9]<\/a><em>Ibid<\/em>. Berg allegedly called the \u201ctactic \u2026\u2018flirty fishing\u2019,\u201d <em>ibid<\/em>. Continuing, the article took a darker tone: \u201cBerg also advocated incest and sex with toddlers, and mailed circulars with graphic pictures of molestation,\u201d <em>ibid<\/em>. The cult was in the news as recently as 2020, when a former Family International \u201cmissionary,\u201d Derek Lincoln, was apprehended after a five-year manhunt, charged, and convicted of sex crimes going back several decades. (Lincoln is also a curious name, synchromystically speaking.) See, e.g., Paul O&#8217;Hare, \u201cChildren of God cult rapist jailed for \u2018horrific\u2019 offences,\u201d BBC Scotland, Aug. 7, 2020, &lt;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-53448774\">https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-53448774<\/a>&gt;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref10\">[10]<\/a> A forerunner, at least in name, seems to have been \u201cFamilism,\u201d associated with the <em>Familia Caritatis<\/em>, or the \u201cFamily of Love.\u201d This sect had been founded in 1539 by Henry Nicholis (see further on for a few remarks about \u201cNick\u201d names), a native of Germany who was alleged to have had taken part in a political uprising known as the \u201cM\u00fcnster Rebellion.\u201d Following this, he seems to have moved about \u2013 from various cities in Germany (including Cologne and Emden) to England and the Netherlands. Nicholis was inexplicably well-connected. His compatriots included humanist printer Christophe Plantin, artist Pieter Brueghel the Elder, and the cartographer Abraham Ortelius, who was in John Dee\u2019s circle. John Dee, whom we highlighted in our video \u201cTop 10 Occultists,\u201d was best remembered as Queen Elizabeth I\u2019s \u201castrologer royal.\u201d Presumably exploiting some political connexions, the Familists requested religious toleration around 1604, during the reign of Scottish King James I. But the petition was rejected. Subsequently, they were lampooned in the anonymous play \u201cThe Family of Love,\u201d possibly written by Thomas Middleton and Thomas Dekker and published in 1608. As <em>Wikipedia<\/em>\u2019s summary puts it: \u201cThe play satirises the sect\u2019s reputation for sexual lasciviousness&#8230;\u201d. See \u201c<em>The Family of Love<\/em> (Play),\u201d <em>Wikipedia<\/em>, Jan. 22, 2022, &lt;https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/The_Family_of_Love_(play)&gt;. As a coda, Jakob B\u00f6hme&#8217;s foremost English apologist, John Pordage (who established \u201cBehmenism\u201d on the British Isles), might have been operating on the periphery of the Familist movement. \u201cPossibly, Pordage&#8217;s opinions owed something to furtive influence of the <em>Familia Caritatis<\/em>, followers of the sectarian prophet Henry Nicholis (alias H. N.). In 1637, Pordage&#8217;s brother-in-law, Henry Faldo, was accused of Familism.\u201d According to \u201cJohn Pordage,\u201d <em>Wikipedia<\/em>, Aug. 28, 2020, &lt;https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/John_Pordage&gt;; citing David Como, \u201cThe Family of Love and the Making of English Revolutionary Religion: The Confession and \u2018Conversions\u2019 of Giles Creech,\u201d <em>Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies<\/em>, vol. 48, 2018, pp. 562-65.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref11\">[11]<\/a>This connexion is well-known. But, for a sample, see: Tommy Udo, <em>Charles Manson: Music Mayhem Murder<\/em>, London: Bobcat Books, 2012, <em>passim<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref12\">[12]<\/a>See, e.g., Jeff Guinn, <em>Manson: The Life and Times of Charles Manson<\/em>, New York: Simon &amp; Schuster, 2013, p. 134. Supposedly, Manson may also have been in contact with actress Candice Bergen, via Terry Melcher. See: James Buddy Day, <em>Hippie Cult Leader: The Last Words of Charles Manson<\/em>, Toronto: Optimum Publ., 2019, back matter, &lt;<a href=\"https:\/\/books.google.com\/books\/about\/Hippie_Cult_Leader.html?id=IdtAxQEACAAJ\">https:\/\/books.google.com\/books\/about\/Hippie_Cult_Leader.html?id=IdtAxQEACAAJ<\/a>&gt;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref13\">[13]<\/a> H. Allegra Lansing, \u201cThe Children of the Stars,\u201d <em>Medium<\/em>, Sept. 28, 2020, &lt;<a href=\"https:\/\/themansonfamily-mtts.medium.com\/the-children-of-the-stars-b231f52ad59c\">https:\/\/themansonfamily-mtts.medium.com\/the-children-of-the-stars-b231f52ad59c<\/a>&gt;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref14\">[14]<\/a>Again, this has been widely commented upon and reported. But, see: William McKeen, <em>Everybody Had an Ocean: Music and Mayhem in 1960s Los Angeles<\/em>, Chicago: Chicago Review Press, 2017, esp. pp. 317<em>f<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref15\">[15]<\/a> Jerry Cohen, \u201cPossible Links Between Tate, Scientology Murders Studied,\u201d <em>Los Angeles Times<\/em> via <em>Greeley Daily Tribune<\/em>, Dec. 10, 1969, p. 13; archived at &lt;<a href=\"https:\/\/access-newspaperarchive-com.eu1.proxy.openathens.net\/us\/colorado\/greeley\/greeley-daily-tribune\/1969\/12-10\/page-12\/\">https:\/\/access-newspaperarchive-com.eu1.proxy.openathens.net\/us\/colorado\/greeley\/greeley-daily-tribune\/1969\/12-10\/page-12\/<\/a>&gt;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref16\">[16]<\/a>Ed Sanders, <em>The Family<\/em>, New York: E. P. Dutton, 1971, p. 79. The other two were supposedly \u201cthe Satanists and the Jehovans,\u201d <em>ibid<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref17\">[17]<\/a><em>Ibid<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref18\">[18]<\/a>To be sure, Sanders admits, \u201c&#8230;in the early phases of &#8230;[Process] initiation sexual celibacy is practiced. Further on, however, in the trek toward higher ranks, all sorts of bunch-punchings take place,\u201d <em>Ibid<\/em>., p. 84. Sanders\u2019 prose can be nearly equal parts colorful and opaque. For those unfamiliar with the lingo, \u201cbunch punch\u201d is slang term for: \u201cA sexual encounter between one woman and multiple men.\u201d<sup>[18]<\/sup> See \u201cBunch Punch,\u201d <em>The Free Dictionary<\/em>, citing <em>Farlex Dictionary of Idioms<\/em>, &lt;<a href=\"https:\/\/idioms.thefreedictionary.com\/bunch+punches\">https:\/\/idioms.thefreedictionary.com\/bunch+punches<\/a>&gt;. On the porno-flick term, see \u201cGangbang,\u201d <em>UrbanDictionary<\/em>, Sept. 21, 2004, &lt;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.urbandictionary.com\/define.php?term=gangbang\">https:\/\/www.urbandictionary.com\/define.php?term=gangbang<\/a>&gt;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref19\">[19]<\/a> For the companion text, see \u201c10 Arcane Words,\u201d TheSynchroMystic.com, May 23, 2022, &lt;<a href=\"https:\/\/thesynchromystic.com\/index.php\/2022\/05\/23\/10-arcane-words-that-are-easily-confused\/\">https:\/\/thesynchromystic.com\/index.php\/2022\/05\/23\/10-arcane-words-that-are-easily-confused\/<\/a>&gt;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref20\">[20]<\/a> See, e.g., Peter-Robert Koenig, \u201cOrdo Templi Orientis: Spermo-Gnosis, Carl Kellner, Theodor Reuss, Aleister Crowley,\u201d lecture, <em>ParaReligion<\/em>, 1994 \/ Mar. 2000 [these are the dates that appear at the following URL], &lt;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.parareligion.ch\/spermo.htm\">https:\/\/www.parareligion.ch\/spermo.htm<\/a>&gt;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref21\">[21]<\/a> George Ryley Scott, <em>Phallic Worship<\/em>, reprint ed., London: Random House, 1996 [London: Luxor Press, 1966], pp. 68-69; citing Thomas Inman, <em>Ancient Faiths Embodied in Ancient Names<\/em>, Liverpool: privately printed, 1868, n.p.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref22\">[22]<\/a> The name \u201cSeth\u201d seems to have been a reference to Adam and Eve\u2019s third son by that name. The Gnostics appear to have read the <em>Book of Genesis<\/em> as if it were presenting a mythological cosmogony in disguise. In other words, as in certain pagan world-formation narratives, where one reads that Marduk slew Taimat or Cronus castrated Uranus, and it is perhaps not taken to have been literal, so too when Cain killed Abel, this was presumably understood as allegorical.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref23\">[23]<\/a> See: G\u00e9za Vermes, <em>The Real Jesus: Then and Now<\/em>, Minneapolis, Minn.: Augsburg Fortress; Fortress Press, 2010, p. 168; online at &lt;<a href=\"https:\/\/books.google.com\/books?id=M1RsWXhXXogC&amp;pg=pa168\">https:\/\/books.google.com\/books?id=M1RsWXhXXogC&amp;pg=pa168<\/a>&gt;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref24\">[24]<\/a> \u201cIn general, Gnostics held that the \u2026<em>demiurge<\/em> \u2026was a fool (\u2018<em>saklas<\/em>\u2019)\u2026 [and they identified this entity with the] god of the Old Testament,\u201d according to Bart D. Ehrman, \u201cChristianity Turned on Its Head: The Alternative Vision of the Gospel of Judas,\u201d Rodophe Kasser, Marvin Meyer, and Gregor Wurst, eds., <em>The Gospel of Judas<\/em>, Washington, D.C.: National Geographic, 2006, p. 90.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref25\">[25]<\/a> For the cosmos is \u201c\u2026the product of rational, purposive, and beneficent agency,\u201d <em>ibid<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref26\">[26]<\/a> \u201cIn the [dialog titled] <em>Tim\u00e6us<\/em> Plato \u2026proposes \u2026[that the universe] \u2026is \u2026the handiwork of a divine Craftsman ([also known as the] \u201cDemiurge,\u201d [or the] <em>d\u00eamiourgos<\/em>\u2026 [citing Plato, <em>Tim\u00e6us<\/em>, 28a6.])\u2026,\u201d Donald Zeyl and Barbara Sattler, \u201cPlato\u2019s Timaeus,\u201d <em>Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy<\/em>, Summer 2022 Ed., Edward N. Zalta, ed., &lt;<a href=\"https:\/\/plato.stanford.edu\/archives\/sum2022\/entries\/plato-timaeus\/\">https:\/\/plato.stanford.edu\/archives\/sum2022\/entries\/plato-timaeus\/<\/a>&gt;. Continuing: The Demiurge \u201cimitate[es] an unchanging and eternal model, [and] imposes mathematical order on a preexistent chaos to generate the ordered universe (<em>kosmos<\/em>). The governing explanatory principle of the account is teleological: the universe as a whole as well as its various parts are so arranged as to produce a vast array of good effects. For Plato this arrangement is not fortuitous, but the outcome of the deliberate intent of Intellect (<em>nous<\/em>), anthropomorphically represented by the figure of the Craftsman who plans and constructs a world that is as excellent as its nature permits it to be,\u201d <em>ibid<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref27\">[27]<\/a> Nesta Helen Webster, <em>Secret Societies and Subversive Movements<\/em>, London: Boswell Printing &amp; Publ. Co., 1924. According to Webster: \u201c\u2026to whom they referred under the Cabalistic term of the \u2018demiurgus\u2019,\u201d Nesta Helen Webster, <em>Secret Societies and Subversive Movements<\/em>, reprint ed., Escondido, Cal.: The Book Tree, 2000, p. 30.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref28\">[28]<\/a> Ehrman, <em>loc. cit<\/em>. \u201c&#8230;all the figures in Jewish and Christian history who stood against [the Old Testament] God\u201d \u2013 like the Serpent in Eden and the fallen angel, Lucifer, as well as \u201cCain, the men of Sodom and Gomorrah, and eventually Judas Iscariot \u2013 were the ones who had seen the truth and understood the secrets necessary for salvation,\u201d <em>ibid<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref29\">[29]<\/a> According to Webster\u2019s summary of L\u00e9vi in <em>Secret Societies<\/em>\u2026, 2000, p. 30.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref30\">[30]<\/a> Albert Pike, <em>Morals and Dogma of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry<\/em>, Richmond, Va.: L. H. Jenkins, 1947, p. 321; capitalization in original. Besides Pike\u2019s Scottish Rite, this Gnostic-Luciferianism arguably surfaces in other esoteric such as Helena Blavatsky\u2019s Theosophical Society. Further evidence for this will have to be the preoccupation of a forthcoming video. But, for now, see, \u201cAre the Pyramid and All-Seeing Eye Symbols \u2018Masonic\u2019?\u201d <em>Bell Curve<\/em> [weblog], Jun. 6, 2015, &lt;<a href=\"http:\/\/curveofbell.blogspot.com\/2015\/06\/are-pyramid-and-all-seeing-eye-symbols.html\">http:\/\/curveofbell.blogspot.com\/2015\/06\/are-pyramid-and-all-seeing-eye-symbols.html<\/a>&gt;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref31\">[31]<\/a> Manly P. Hall, <em>The Lost Keys of Freemasonry<\/em>, Mineola, N.Y.: Dover Publ., 2009, p. 48.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref32\">[32]<\/a> Again, Webster quoting, <em>op. cit<\/em>., p. 30; citing De Luchet, <em>Essai sur la Secte des Illumin\u00e9s<\/em>, Paris &amp; Londres [London]: 1789, p. 6. Webster: \u201c\u2026The glorification of evil \u2026[also] constituted the creed of the Ophites, who worshipped the Serpent because he had revolted against Jehovah\u2026 and \u2026of the Cainites,\u201d <em>ibid<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref33\">[33]<\/a> Christopher Marlowe, <em>The Tragical History of the Life and Death of Doctor Faustus<\/em>, ca. 1588 \/ 1592; archived online at &lt;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.lem.seed.pr.gov.br\/arquivos\/File\/livrosliteraturaingles\/faustus.pdf\">http:\/\/www.lem.seed.pr.gov.br\/arquivos\/File\/livrosliteraturaingles\/faustus.pdf<\/a>&gt;. Marlowe\u2019s work is understood as an adaptation of a preexisting folk legend regarding the life of the (ostensibly) real, 15<sup>th<\/sup>-16<sup>th<\/sup>-c. German Renaissance alchemist and sorcerer, Johann Georg Faust (sometimes called John Faustus). Later, famed German Romantic writer Johann Wolfgang von Goethe would also pen his own version (<em>Faust<\/em>, ca. 1780 \/ 1806). In 1947, Nobel Prize-winning author Thomas Mann published <em>Doktor Faustus: Das Leben des deutschen Tonsetzers Adrian Leverk\u00fchn<\/em> (Berlin: Surkamp), which was a retelling of the basic \u201cDoctor Faustus\u201d story as it pertained to the imaginary \u201c\u2026Life of the German Composer Adrian Leverk\u00fchn\u2026\u201d. Additionally, there are innumerable film and stage performances \u2013 based on one of the underlying traditions \u2013 including Richard Burton and Nevill Coghill\u2019s <em>Doctor Faustus<\/em> (Columbia Pictures, 1967).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref34\">[34]<\/a> <em>The Books of Acts<\/em>, chapt. 8, verses 18-19, <em>New International Version<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref35\">[35]<\/a> Iren\u00e6us, Against Heresies, book I, chapter 23, paragraphs 2 &amp; 3; as quoted by the 19<sup>th<\/sup>-20<sup>th<\/sup>-c. Gnostic and Theosophist G. R. S. Mead, in <em>Simon Magus: An Essay on the Founder of Simonianism Based on the Ancient Sources With a Re-Evaluation of His Philosophy and Teachings<\/em>, London: The Theosophical Society, 1892, electronic version, online at &lt;<a href=\"http:\/\/gnosis.org\/library\/grs-mead\/grsm_simon_magus.htm\">http:\/\/gnosis.org\/library\/grs-mead\/grsm_simon_magus.htm<\/a>&gt;. Mead\u2019s citation reads: \u201cIren\u00e6us (<em>Contra H\u00e6reses<\/em>, I. xxiii. 1-4). Text:&nbsp;<em>Opera<\/em>&nbsp;(edidit Adolphus Stieren); Lipsi\u00e6, 1848,\u201d <em>ibid<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref36\">[36]<\/a> For some Gnostics, such as the Valentinians, even cosmic emanation was reinterpreted sexually. The various syzygies were construed as \u201csexually complementary pairs,\u201d \u201cValentinus,\u201d <em>New World Encyclopedia<\/em>, &lt;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.newworldencyclopedia.org\/entry\/Valentinus\">https:\/\/www.newworldencyclopedia.org\/entry\/Valentinus<\/a>&gt;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref37\">[37]<\/a>Paul Foster, <em>The Apocryphal Gospels: A Very Short Introduction<\/em>, Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press, 2009, p. 41.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref38\">[38]<\/a>\u201c&#8230;with the voyeuristic participation of the &#8216;sons of the bridal chamber&#8217; as a type of &#8216;sacramental practice&#8217; in the group.\u201d <em>Ibid<\/em>.; <strong>emphasis<\/strong> added. Foster himself demurs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref39\">[39]<\/a>See Dan Brown, <em>The Da Vinci Code,<\/em> New York: Anchor; Random House, 2006, p. 266; &lt;<a href=\"https:\/\/books.google.com\/books?id=hbZ0Yfz-NG8C&amp;pg=pa266\">https:\/\/books.google.com\/books?id=hbZ0Yfz-NG8C&amp;pg=pa266<\/a>&gt;. (The original U.S. Edition, was New York: Doubleday, 2003, [where the reference is on p. 246].)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref40\">[40]<\/a> Her given name (Sophie) means \u201cwisdom.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref41\">[41]<\/a><em> Ibid<\/em>., pp. 333<em>f<\/em>, &lt;<a href=\"https:\/\/books.google.com\/books?id=hbZ0Yfz-NG8C&amp;pg=pa333\">https:\/\/books.google.com\/books?id=hbZ0Yfz-NG8C&amp;pg=pa333<\/a>&gt;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref42\">[42]<\/a><em> Ibid<\/em>., p. 334, &lt;<a href=\"https:\/\/books.google.com\/books?id=hbZ0Yfz-NG8C&amp;pg=pa334\">https:\/\/books.google.com\/books?id=hbZ0Yfz-NG8C&amp;pg=pa334<\/a>&gt;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref43\">[43]<\/a> \u201c\u2026by means of \u201c[p]hysical union with the female,\u201d <em>ibid<\/em>. (Brown\u2019s <em>italics<\/em>.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref44\">[44]<\/a> <em>Gospel of Thomas<\/em>, Thomas O. Lambdin, transl., Milwaukee, Wis.: Marquette Univ., n.d., &lt;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.marquette.edu\/maqom\/Gospel%20of%20Thomas%20Lambdin.pdf\">https:\/\/www.marquette.edu\/maqom\/Gospel%20of%20Thomas%20Lambdin.pdf<\/a>&gt;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref45\">[45]<\/a> \u201cLincoln\u2019s\u201d real name was Henry Soskin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref46\">[46]<\/a> Michael Baigent, Richard Leigh, &amp; Henry Lincoln, <em>Holy Blood, Holy Grail<\/em>, London: Jonathan Cape; New York: Delacorte Press, 1982.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref47\">[47]<\/a> \u201cDan Brown Wins <em>Da Vinci Code<\/em> Case,\u201d <em>Guardian<\/em> (U.K.), Apr. 7, 2006, &lt;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/media\/2006\/apr\/07\/pressandpublishing.danbrown\">https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/media\/2006\/apr\/07\/pressandpublishing.danbrown<\/a>&gt;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref48\">[48]<\/a><em> Op. cit.<\/em>, p. 334.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref49\">[49]<\/a>It was started by Carpocrates in the important Mediterranean port city of Alexandria, in Egypt. Alexandria had been founded by Alexander the Great in the 4th century B.C. Not only was it crucial militarily and politically, Alexandria also became a hub of learning and was the location of a library that was the most famous in antiquity. Additionally, Alexandria had long preserved the intellectual legacy of the great ancient Greek philosopher Plato. It was ground zero for a modified version of that school of thinking, now called \u201cNeoplatonism,\u201d that was heavily influenced by neo-Pythagoreanism. Neoplatonism was sparked by the mysterious Ammonius Saccas and given its seminal formulation by Plotinus. (I touched on Neoplatonism in the previously named video \u201c10 Arcane Words.\u201d) Of course, I&#8217;m skipping some intermediate steps. To remedy the deficit, see Maren Niehoff, who summarizes some of the relevant history and notes: \u201cAlexandria occupies a special place in the history of Platonism. The first edition of Plato\u2019s works with text-critical signs was produced here in the second century BCE by Aristophanes of Byzantium. The same scholar also introduced the trilogical division of the corpus, based on literary criteria, which was subsequently replaced by the tetralogical division of Tiberius\u2019 court philosopher Thrasyllus. Other Alexandrians significantly contributed to the interpretation of Plato\u2019s works. Eratosthenes, the famous scientist and literary critic of the mid-third century BCE, was known as a Platonist interested in the mathematical aspects of philosophy. More importantly, Eudorus in the first century BCE played a decisive role in the revival of Platonism. He may also have authored the anonymous commentary on the Theaetetus, our earliest extant, running commentary on any of Plato\u2019s works. Another anonymous Platonic treatise most likely stems from Alexandria, namely On the Nature of the World and the Soul. Finally, the city hosted important harbingers of Neo-Platonism. Ammonius Saccas, the \u201cSocrates\u201d of the new movement, taught here influential thinkers, such as Plotinus, who spent eleven years in Alexandria before establishing himself in Rome.\u201d Maren R. Niehoff, \u201c<em>Dossier Philon d&#8217;Alexandrie<\/em>: Philo\u2019s Role as a Platonist in Alexandria,\u201d <em>Etudes Platoniciennes<\/em>, no. 623, Jul., 2010, pp. 35-62; online at &lt;<a href=\"https:\/\/journals.openedition.org\/etudesplatoniciennes\/623\">https:\/\/journals.openedition.org\/etudesplatoniciennes\/623<\/a>&gt;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref50\">[50]<\/a> For instance, Plato had maintained that human beings are \u2013 at least partially \u2013 immaterial \u201csouls\u201d that had somehow \u201cpreexisted\u201d our current, earthly lives. Additionally, Plato advanced a doctrine known as \u201cmetempsychosis,\u201d whereby the soul also survives the death of the body, only to be physically \u201creincarnated\u201d again in the future. The peculiarly Neoplatonic take on this had been to extend the metaphysical speculations by claiming that these preexistent souls had come out of, or \u201cemanated from,\u201d an absolute divine entity known only as the \u201cOne.\u201d The One&#8217;s involvement was said to have been mediated via the Logos and the \u201cWorld Soul.\u201d Neoplatonists frequently framed the precise chain with material gleaned from Aristotle&#8217;s \u201cfour causes.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref51\">[51]<\/a>Jacques Lacarri\u00e8re, The Gnostics, Nina Rootes, transl., London: Owen, 1977; orig. Jacques Lacarri\u00e8re, <em>Les gnostiques<\/em>, Paris: Gallimard, 1973; reproduced online at: <em>The Anarchist Library<\/em>, &lt;<a href=\"https:\/\/theanarchistlibrary.org\/library\/jacques-lacarriere-the-gnostics\">https:\/\/theanarchistlibrary.org\/library\/jacques-lacarriere-the-gnostics<\/a>&gt;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref52\">[52]<\/a>Blunt, <em>op. cit.<\/em>, p. 102.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref53\">[53]<\/a> \u201cIn these experiences the ego will be totally altered or completely destroyed in the death that must precede a rebirth into life. The terror, agony and despair that accompany this process cannot be minimized,\u201d John Whiteside \u201cJack\u201d Parsons, <em>&#8216;Freedom Is a Two-Edged Sword&#8217; and Other Essays<\/em>, Marjorie Cameron and \u201cHymenaeus Beta,\u201d eds., New York: Ordo Templi Orientis; Las Vegas: Falcon Press, 1989, p. 56; quoted by John Carter, <em>Sex and Rockets: The Occult World of Jack Parsons<\/em>, Port Townsend, Wash.: Feral House, 2004, p. xvi.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref54\">[54]<\/a> Some of these include the Beghards, Beguines, and Brethren of the Free Spirit \u2013 and (possibly) such notables as Marguerite Porete and Meister Eckhart, though these associations are contentious.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref55\">[55]<\/a> <em>Ibid<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref56\">[56]<\/a> William Shakespeare, Hamlet, act II, scene 2, &lt;<a href=\"http:\/\/shakespeare.mit.edu\/hamlet\/hamlet.2.2.html\">http:\/\/shakespeare.mit.edu\/hamlet\/hamlet.2.2.html<\/a>&gt;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref57\">[57]<\/a> See <em>Oxford Reference<\/em> online, &lt;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.oxfordreference.com\/view\/10.1093\/acref\/9780199539536.001.0001\/acref-9780199539536-e-703\">https:\/\/www.oxfordreference.com\/view\/10.1093\/acref\/9780199539536.001.0001\/acref-9780199539536-e-703<\/a>&gt;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref58\">[58]<\/a> Seemingly for popular-level, public consumption, the French is alternately translated \u201cShame on him who thinks evil of it.\u201d However, we believe that the rendering given by <em>Oxford Reference<\/em> (and quoted in the main text)is more faithful to the original sense.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref59\">[59]<\/a> I may as well address (even if only briefly) what, for at least some viewers, will be a lingering concern. Specifically, many questions exist about whether Gnostic ritual was <em>actually<\/em> sexual in nature, or whether some opponents \u2013 or possibly some injudicious and unrestrained Gnostic rhetoric itself \u2013 simply made sensational use of sensual metaphor. As evidence for this, some writers, seemingly keen to offer a defense of Gnosticism, point out that there are parallel reports describing many sects as abstaining from marriage and sex and encouraging their followers to live chastely \u2013 even in an austere and (if I may be forgiven the anachronism) \u201cPuritanical\u201d manner. Probably, the truth of the matter is that there was what one writer calls a \u201cGnostic spectrum\u201d, with&nbsp; \u201cascetic or libertine morality\u201d on either extreme. Kenneth Cyril Carveley, <em>Ecclesiological Docetism in Early and Medieval Dissent and Heresy in Eastern and Western Christianity<\/em>, PhD. dissertation, Dept. of Theol. &amp; Rel. Studies, Leeds, U.K.: Univ. of Leeds, Sept., 1990, p. 431, &lt;<a href=\"https:\/\/etheses.whiterose.ac.uk\/624\/1\/uk_bl_ethos_278360.pdf\">https:\/\/etheses.whiterose.ac.uk\/624\/1\/uk_bl_ethos_278360.pdf<\/a>&gt;. If this is so, then Gnostic groups \u2013 and individual Gnostics themselves \u2013 may have been variously situated at either pole of such a continuum, depending upon personal or psychological factors. Indeed, it is conceivable that certain people may even have swung back and forth from one extreme to the either.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref60\">[60]<\/a>Dunlap, Ill.: Firebird Press.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref61\">[61]<\/a>See, esp., pp. 180<em>ff<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref62\">[62]<\/a> That includes \u201cNicholas\u201d and other cognate forms, such as \u201cNichole\u201d and \u201cNicholai\u201d \u2013 whether feminine or masculine. For an introduction to this theme, take a look at the article titled \u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/curveofbell.blogspot.com\/2013\/12\/re-alias-st-nick.html\">Alias Saint Nick<\/a>\u201d posted at the <em>Bell Curve<\/em> weblog.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref63\">[63]<\/a><em>Revelation<\/em> chapt. 2, verse 6b, <em>New International Version<\/em> (NIV).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref64\">[64]<\/a> One reason Gnosticism was friendly to antinomianism was that, according to the Gnostic worldview, we live \u201c\u2026in a precarious world\u201d; Carveley, <em>op. cit<\/em>., pp. 30-31; humans have been \u201c&#8230;thrown into an alien environment from which gnosis is the only release for the self&#8230; This frees [the Gnostic believer] from the constraints of morality&#8230; This [freedom] could display itself in extremes of libertinism or austere asceticism&#8230;,\u201d <em>Ibid<\/em>. In the middle, \u201c\u2026[m]any Gnostic groups were indifferent to moral issues,\u201d <em>ibid<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref65\">[65]<\/a> At least, if the Catholic Church Father St. Irenaeus is to be believed! Patrick Healy, \u201cNicolaites,\u201d <em>Catholic Encyclopedia<\/em>; vol. 11, New York: Robert Appleton Co., 1911, [p. 67a], &lt;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.newadvent.org\/cathen\/11067a.htm\">http:\/\/www.newadvent.org\/cathen\/11067a.htm<\/a>&gt;; citing Irenaeus, <em>Adversus H\u00e6reses<\/em>, I, xxvi, 3; III, xi, 1.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref66\">[66]<\/a> Some investigators, such as John Henry Blunt, thought that these references pertained to \u201cfornication connected with religious rites.\u201d John Henry Blunt, <em>Dictionary of Sects, Heresies, Ecclesiastical Parties and Schools of Religious Thought<\/em>, London: Rivintons, 1874, p. 371. Irenaeus\u2019s (previously cited) charge appears to be a restatement of a claim found in the aforementioned <em>Book of Revelation<\/em>, also called the <em>Apocalypse<\/em>, where we read the somewhat mysterious comment that \u201csome [people] &#8230;[held] to the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to entice the Israelites to sin so that they &#8230;committed sexual immorality,\u201d <em>Revelation<\/em>, chapt. 2, verse 14, NIV. Balaam, by the way, was a magician some of whose exploits were discussed in the Old Testament <em>Book of Numbers<\/em> (e.g., chapt. 22.) Blunt connected this sex magic with the common pagan practice of \u201critual\u201d or \u201ctemple prostitution\u201d that had periodically crept into the Hebrew religion and perverted it from a pure worship of Yahweh (Blunt cites, <em>inter alia<\/em>, Genesis 38:21, Deuteronomy 23:18; 2 Kings 23:7; and Hosea 4:14.) \u2013 as, indeed, some of the Old Testament prophets testified. E.g., Ezekiel; in the <em>Book of Ezekiel<\/em>, chapt. 23.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref67\">[67]<\/a> According to the analysis of the 19<sup>th<\/sup>-c. Anglican scholar John Henry Blunt, gesturing toward the New Testament <em>Book of Jude<\/em>, Blunt, <em>op. cit<\/em>., p. 372; cf. \u201cfollow[ing] &#8230;evil desires\u201d (Jude [1]:16, NIV), resulting in unspecified \u201cungodly acts\u201d (Jude [1]:15, NIV). Cf. Jude [1]:12, NIV; cf. 2 Peter 2:13. (As the Bible is conventionally divided, the <em>Book of Jude<\/em> has only one chapter.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref68\">[68]<\/a> Blunt, <em>op. cit<\/em>., p. 372.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref69\">[69]<\/a>See \u201cBorborites,\u201d <em>Wikipedia<\/em>, Apr. 13, 2022, &lt;<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Borborites\">https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Borborites<\/a>&gt;. The word is a play on the Greek word <em>B\u00f3rboros<\/em>, meaning \u201cmire, filth\u201d or \u201cmud.\u201d For the former definition, see: \u201cBorboros,\u201d <em>Wiktionary<\/em>, Mar. 8, 2022, &lt;<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/%CE%B2%CF%8C%CF%81%CE%B2%CE%BF%CF%81%CE%BF%CF%82#Ancient_Greek\">https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/%CE%B2%CF%8C%CF%81%CE%B2%CE%BF%CF%81%CE%BF%CF%82#Ancient_Greek<\/a>&gt;; for the latter, see \u201cBorborite,\u201d <em>Wiktionary<\/em>, Oct. 10, 2017, &lt;<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/Borborite#English\">https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/Borborite#English<\/a>&gt;. Though, they are referred to by an array of alternate names including the <em>Borbeliotes<\/em>, <em>Borborians,<\/em> and <em>Barbelites<\/em> or <em>Barbeliotes<\/em>. They appear to have been named after <em>Barb\u0113l\u014ds<\/em>, an entity held to have been a part of a complicated Gnostic-mythologic scheme of <em>emanation<\/em>. I sketch the rudiments of \u201cemanationism\u201d \u2013 in both Gnostic and Neoplatonic varieties \u2013 in \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=NTYL6TRoA4k\">10 Arcane Words<\/a>.\u201d See, also, the succeeding paragraph in the main text (and the next footnote) of the present work for the reference to \u201cBarbelo.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref70\">[70]<\/a> <em>The Apocryphon of John<\/em> (<em>The Secret Book of John<\/em> \u2013 <em>The Secret Revelation of John<\/em>), Frederik Wisse, transl., The Nag Hammadi Library, online at &lt;<a href=\"http:\/\/gnosis.org\/naghamm\/apocjn.html\">http:\/\/gnosis.org\/naghamm\/apocjn.html<\/a>&gt;. (The <em>Apocryphon of John<\/em> and <em>The Secret Book of John<\/em> are the same book.) It also says: \u201cThe first power, the glory of Barbelo, the perfect glory in the aeons, the glory of the revelation, she glorified the virginal Spirit and it was she who praised him, because thanks to him she had come forth. This is the first thought, his image; she became the womb of everything, \u2026the holy Spirit, the thrice-male, the thrice-powerful, \u2026and the eternal aeon among the invisible ones, and the first to come forth,\u201d <em>ibid<\/em>. The \u00c6ons were supposed to have been \u201cgood\u201d emanations and stood opposed to the \u201cbad\u201d Archons. Contrast this notion with the Kabbalistic notions of the \u201cTree of Life\u201d that has a Side of Holiness (<em>Sitra Kedusha<\/em>), producing divine emanations called the <em>Sefirot<\/em>, and the Other Side (of Evil; <em>Sitra Achra<\/em>) that emanates the impure <em>Qliphoth<\/em> (also spelled <em>Kelipot<\/em>), on which, see: Nissan Dovid Dubov, \u201cKelipot and Sitra Achra,\u201d Chabad.org, n.d., &lt;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.chabad.org\/library\/article_cdo\/aid\/361900\/jewish\/Kelipot-and-Sitra-Achra.htm\">https:\/\/www.chabad.org\/library\/article_cdo\/aid\/361900\/jewish\/Kelipot-and-Sitra-Achra.htm<\/a>&gt;. And compare it with the Tantric Right-hand Path (<em>Daksini<\/em> <em>Marga<\/em> or <em>Dakshinachara<\/em>) and Left-hand Path (<em>Vama<\/em> <em>Marga<\/em> \/ <em>Vamachara<\/em>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref71\">[71]<\/a> Brown, <em>op. cit<\/em>., pp. 130, 334, and 336.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref72\">[72]<\/a>Epiphanius, <em>Panarion<\/em>, ca. A.D. 375, book 1, part 26, section 4, par. 1-4; reproduced at &lt;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.masseiana.org\/panarion_bk1.htm\">http:\/\/www.masseiana.org\/panarion_bk1.htm<\/a>&gt;; archived at &lt;<a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20160304002946\/http:\/www.masseiana.org\/panarion_bk1.htm\">https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20160304002946\/http:\/\/www.masseiana.org\/panarion_bk1.htm<\/a>&gt;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref73\">[73]<\/a> I.E., \u201cthe man\u2019s emission,\u201d <em>ibid<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref74\">[74]<\/a><em>Ibid<\/em>., book 1, chapt. 4, par. 5-8.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref75\">[75]<\/a> Nikolas Schreck and Zeena Schreck, <em>Demons of the Flesh: The Complete Guide to Left Hand Path Sex Magic<\/em>, London: Creation, 2002, p. 189. Gnostics, being preoccupied with escaping materiality, \u201c\u2026believed that drinking the sperm or menstrual blood would prevent souls from being born, delivering the unborn beings \u2026to \u2026a spiritual realm above \u2026the sphere of matter,\u201d <em>ibid<\/em>. The \u201csafe,\u201d spiritual realm \u2013 termed the <em>Pl<\/em><em>\u0113roma<\/em> \u2013 is the province of the <em>\u00c6ons<\/em>; while the \u201cunsafe,\u201d material realm is controlled by the <em>Archons<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref76\">[76]<\/a> E.g., see \u201cBlack Mass,\u201d <em>Wikipedia<\/em>, Jan. 19, 2022, &lt;<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Black_Mass\">https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Black_Mass<\/a>&gt;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref77\">[77]<\/a> Anton LaVey himself at times downplayed the <em>r<\/em><em>\u00f4le<\/em> of the Black Mass in Church of Satan ritual, once writing: \u201cThe usual assumption is that the Satanic ceremony or service is always called a Black Mass. A Black Mass is not the magical ceremony practiced by Satanists. The Satanist would only employ the use of a Black Mass as a form of psychodrama. Furthermore, a Black Mass does not necessarily imply that the performers of such are Satanists. A Black Mass is essentially a parody on the religious service of the Roman Catholic Church, but can be loosely applied to a satire on any religious ceremony,\u201d Anton Szandor LaVey, <em>The Satanic Bible<\/em>, electronic ed. [orig. New York: Avon Publ., 1969], online at &lt;<a href=\"https:\/\/ia802809.us.archive.org\/23\/items\/the-satanic-bible\/the-satanic-bible.pdf\">https:\/\/ia802809.us.archive.org\/23\/items\/the-satanic-bible\/the-satanic-bible.pdf<\/a>&gt;. Though, in another place, LaVey speaks more admiringly, for example stating: \u201cHistorically, there is no ritual more closely linked with Satanism than the <em>Black Mass<\/em>,\u201d Anton Szandor LaVey, <em>Satanic<\/em> <em>Rituals<\/em>, New York: Harper Collins, 1976, p. 31.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref78\">[78]<\/a> Charles Ponc\u00e9, <em>Kabbalah<\/em>, Wheaton, Ill.: Quest Books, 1997, p. 17.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref79\">[79]<\/a> See, e.g., N.a., \u201cWhat is the Eucharist? The Tradition of Communion from the Lord\u2019s Supper,\u201d Christianity.com, May 24, 2010, &lt;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.christianity.com\/jesus\/following-jesus\/communion\/communion-lords-supper-eucharist.html\">https:\/\/www.christianity.com\/jesus\/following-jesus\/communion\/communion-lords-supper-eucharist.html<\/a>&gt;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref80\">[80]<\/a> Blunt, <em>op. cit.<\/em>, p. 286.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref81\">[81]<\/a> \u201cManichaeism: Manichaeism In Iran,\u201d Encyclopedia.com, &lt;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.encyclopedia.com\/environment\/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps\/manichaeism-manichaeism-iran\">https:\/\/www.encyclopedia.com\/environment\/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps\/manichaeism-manichaeism-iran<\/a>&gt;; citing Manfred Hutter, <em>Encyclopedia of Religion<\/em>, 2005.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref82\">[82]<\/a>Malcolm <a>Lambert, <\/a><em>Medieval Heresy: Popular Movements From the Gregorian Reform to the Reformation<\/em>, Oxford (U.K.); Malden, Mass.: Blackwell Publ., 2003, p. 6.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref83\">[83]<\/a><em>Ibid<\/em>. Specifically, he alleged, they developed a sex rite called the <em>ischas<\/em>. The word <em>ischas<\/em> \u201c\u2026means\u2026wild fig.\u201d In Christianity, the fig serves as a \u201c\u2026symbol of lewdness\u201d and nudism, because Adam and Eve were said to have covered themselves with fig leaves once they realized they were naked in the Garden of Eden. St. Augustine, <em>De H\u00e6resibus<\/em>, XLVI; reproduced in Roland Teske, transl., <em>Arianism and Other Heresies<\/em>, John Rotelle, ed., <em>The Works of Saint Augustine, a Translation for the 2lst Century<\/em>, Hyde Park, N.Y.: New City Press, 1995, p. 43, &lt;<a href=\"https:\/\/wesleyscholar.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/Augustine-Arian-Other-Heresies-1995.pdf\">https:\/\/wesleyscholar.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/Augustine-Arian-Other-Heresies-1995.pdf<\/a>&gt;; Blunt, <em>op. cit.<\/em>, p. 289. Cf. The <em>Book of Genesis<\/em> chapter 3, verse 7: \u201cThen the eyes of both of them [i.e., Adam and Eve] were opened, and they realized they were naked; so, they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves,\u201d <em>New International Version<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref84\">[84]<\/a> However, the Manichaeans are one of the sects that are also \u2013 and quite oppositely \u2013 said to have lived celibate lives of purity and self-denial. For example, see the doctrine of the so-called \u201cthree seals.\u201d According to this, the Elect vowed abstinence as related to their mouths (e.g., they didn\u2019t eat meat or drink alcohol), hands (they didn\u2019t perform physical labor or go to war), and hearts (they renounced marriage and sex). \u201cThree Seals (Manichaeism),\u201d <em>Wikipedia<\/em>, Apr. 4, 2022, &lt;<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Three_Seals_(Manichaeism)\">https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Three_Seals_(Manichaeism)<\/a>&gt;.Besides simply dismissing one of these contradictory reports as spurious, there are three possible resolutions to this apparent difficulty. Or, perhaps, there are three facets to a possible resolution. The first may lie in the already observed dual-membership structure of the cult. The idea is that one of the divisions (e.g., the Elect) had licentious sexual practices, while the other (the Auditors) did not. There is room for dispute even here, though. Others, like John Henry Blunt, suggest that it may have been the low-level \u201cauditor[s] or catechumen[s],\u201d instead, <em>loc. cit<\/em>. To add to the confusion, it\u2019s sometimes unclear if commentators are referencing what might be called \u201chuman weakness\u201d \u2013 and associating sex rites with <em>that<\/em>; or ruling on the issue of whether Manichaean theology countenanced a form of \u201choly sex.\u201d In Blunt&#8217;s phraseology: The auditor&#8217;s \u201c&#8230;enjoyed the license of the weaker nature and was not bound to the ascetic life,\u201d <em>ibid<\/em>. Interestingly, he adds: \u201cEven the elect &#8230;were permitted to retire, if strength failed them, into the humbler condition of the catechumen,\u201d <em>ibid<\/em>. This brings us to the second possibility, that Manichaeans distinguished various types of sexual encounter. As one writer puts it, it may be wise to \u201c&#8230;[differentiate] between sex during religious ceremonies and sex during the perfects\u2019 day-to-day living,\u201d James Edward Myers, \u201cMorality Among Cathar Perfects and Believers in France and Italy, 1100-1300,\u201d master&#8217;s thesis, Kalamazoo, Mich.: Western Mich. Univ., Dec., 1976, p. 58, &lt;<a href=\"https:\/\/scholarworks.wmich.edu\/cgi\/viewcontent.cgi?article=3378&amp;context=masters_theses\">https:\/\/scholarworks.wmich.edu\/cgi\/viewcontent.cgi?article=3378&amp;context=masters_theses<\/a>&gt;.To round things out, a third possible resolution turns on the related question of the meaning of the word \u201cpurity.\u201d Many viewers may assume that the word \u201cpurity\u201d is a synonym for <em>sexual abstinence<\/em>. But, one of the innovations of Manichaeanism seems to have been its move <em>away<\/em> from the notion that \u201cenlightenment\u201d necessarily involved violating the commandments. The alternative view was that sex was a divine sacrament. And, again according to Augustine, the Manichaeans viewed themselves as God-ordained to the task of purifying the world. In their system of beliefs, this included \u201cdivine substances\u201d \u2013 including human souls \u2013 imprisoned inside of physical bodies. Whereas we think in terms of digestion, the Manichaeans, in their pre-scientific era, apparently associated \u201cpurification\u201d process with <em>eating<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref85\">[85]<\/a>See Teske, <em>op. cit.<\/em>, pp. 42<em>ff<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref86\">[86]<\/a>Augustine, <em>De H\u00e6resibus<\/em>, XLVI; in Roland Teske, <em>op. cit.<\/em>, p. 44; <em>emphasis<\/em> added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref87\">[87]<\/a>In one place, Blunt defines \u201cCathari\u201d as \u201cPuritans,\u201d <em>op. cit.<\/em>, p. 16. Though, he is of course not insinuating that the 16<sup>th<\/sup>-17<sup>th<\/sup> c. English Protestants whose ambition was to reform the Church of England (which they viewed as too Catholic) were thereby implicated in this debauchery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref88\">[88]<\/a> Author Stephen O\u2019Shea relates: \u201cTheir name, once thought to mean \u2018the pure,\u2019 is not their own invention; Cathar is now taken as a twelfth-century German play on words implying a cat worshiper. It was long bruited about that Cathars performed the so-called obscene kiss on the rear end of a cat,\u201d Stephen O\u2019Shea, <em>The Perfect Heresy: The Revolutionary Life and Death of the Medieval Cathars<\/em>, New York: Walker, 2000, p. 13. They were ostensibly related to the Bogomils, about which connexion O\u2019Shea comments: \u201cAlso common [in application to the Cathars] was the epithet <em>bougre<\/em>, a corruption of <em>Bulgar<\/em> \u2013 a reference to a sister church of heretical dualists in eastern Europe. <em>Bougre<\/em> eventually gave English [the word] <em>bugger<\/em>, which is yet another proclivity once ascribed to Cathar enthusiasts,\u201d <em>ibid<\/em>.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref89\">[89]<\/a> Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie, <em>Montaillou: The Promised Land of Error<\/em>, Barbara Bray, transl., New York: Vintage Books; Random House, 1979, p. viii. The pathway for turning Believers into Perfecti, and supposedly the only sacrament professed by Albigensians, was a ritual called the <em>Consolamentum<\/em>. Cathar expert Malcolm Lambert described it this way: \u201c\u2026[T]he consolamentum, of the act of consoling, \u2026was \u2026the rite \u2026whereby entry was made into the small, dedicated elite of the perfect\u2026 It was described as the baptism of the Spirit, or the baptism by fire, in contrast to the conventional baptism by water, despised as the work not of Jesus but of John the Baptist, which made use of evil matter and, so far from incorporating the baptized into the Church of Christ, put him or her into the power of Satan,\u201d Lambert, <em>op. cit<\/em>., p. 21. This passage is interesting because it suggests that there is a connexion between Catharism and what would later become Pentecostalism. Indeed, this appears to be an acknowledged link in some circles. See, e.g., \u201cThe Pentecostal Tradition,\u201d Christian History Inst., 2022, &lt;<a href=\"https:\/\/christianhistoryinstitute.org\/magazine\/article\/pentecostal-tradition\">https:\/\/christianhistoryinstitute.org\/magazine\/article\/pentecostal-tradition<\/a>&gt;. Although the Perfecti were supposedly chaste and renounced both marriage and sexual relations, one writer plausibly comments that \u201c[a]s long as the Believers had not received the full initiation, if need be[,] they could live with a woman, but outside the bonds of marriage. Any sexual intercourse was undoubtedly bad, but cohabitation could be tolerated, but not marriage because, in the event of complete initiation, it seemed easier to sever an illegal bond,\u201d \u201cThe Albigensian Crusade (3),\u201d FSSPX.news (communication agency of the Priestly Society of St. Pius X; <em>Fraternitas Sacerdotalis Sancti Pii X<\/em>), Aug. 10, 2021, &lt;<a href=\"https:\/\/fsspx.news\/en\/news-events\/news\/albigensian-crusade-3-67996\">https:\/\/fsspx.news\/en\/news-events\/news\/albigensian-crusade-3-67996<\/a>&gt;. In his book <em>Secret Societies and Psychological Warfare<\/em>, Michael Hoffman attributes the licentiousness ritualism to the Perfecti.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref90\">[90]<\/a> O\u2019Shea, <em>op. cit<\/em>., p. 13.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref91\">[91]<\/a> Manly Palmer Hall, <em>The Adepts in the Western Tradition: Orders of the Quest<\/em>, reprint ed., Los Angeles: Philosophical Research Society, 2013 [orig. 1949], p. 45.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref92\">[92]<\/a> McCormick, <em>Temple of Love<\/em>, New York: Citadel Press, 1965, p. 172.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref93\">[93]<\/a> Bear in mind, these strands overlap. E.g., Daniel Matt describes a \u201cGnostic Kabbalism,\u201d <em>loc. cit<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref94\">[94]<\/a> Hugh Urban, <em>Magia Sexualis: Sex, Magic and Liberation in Modern Western Esotericism<\/em>, Berkeley, Cal.: Univ. of Cal. Press, 2006, p. 42. Though, as Michael Hoffman has summarized, sexualization of religious concepts is not exclusive to Kabbalah. For instance, Talmudic interpreters compare <em>Aggadah<\/em> (or, non-legal, narrative texts) to the male penis, which <em>membrum virile<\/em> \u2013 incidentally \u2013 Rabbis sometimes identify with the \u201cimage of god.\u201d In the comparison, Rabbinical <em>Pardes<\/em> hermeneutics is thought of as the manipulation or massaging of texts in order to \u201cpull them\u201d from a limp state (in which deep meanings are hidden under the surface, <em>Peshat<\/em>), to a fully erect state (in which deeper meanings, such as <em>Remez<\/em>, <em>Derash<\/em>, and \u2013 especially \u2013 <em>Sod<\/em>, become visible). For an introduction, see Hoffman, <em>Judaism Discovered<\/em>, <em>op. cit<\/em>., p. 237.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref95\">[95]<\/a> Daniel Matt, <em>The Zohar<\/em> (<em>Sefer ha Zohar<\/em>), Stanford, Cal.: Stanford Univ. Press, 2004, p. xliii; also quoted in Hoffman, <em>Judaism Discovered<\/em>, <em>op. cit<\/em>., p. 282.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref96\">[96]<\/a> See Joseph Dan, \u201cIggeret Ha-Kodesh,\u201d Encyclopedia.com, &lt;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.encyclopedia.com\/religion\/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps\/iggeret-ha-kodesh\">http:\/\/www.encyclopedia.com\/religion\/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps\/iggeret-ha-kodesh<\/a>&gt;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref97\">[97]<\/a> \u201cKabbalah, Tantra, and Sexual Gnosis,\u201d <em>Tibetan Buddhist Encyclopedia<\/em>, &lt;<a href=\"http:\/\/tibetanbuddhistencyclopedia.com\/en\/index.php?title=KABBALAH,_TANTRA,_AND_SEXUAL_GNOSIS\">http:\/\/tibetanbuddhistencyclopedia.com\/en\/index.php?title=KABBALAH,_TANTRA,_AND_SEXUAL_GNOSIS<\/a>&gt;. In the video presentation, I display the following: \u201cThis &#8230;is the Zoharic recipe for sex magic&#8230; In his <em>Prayer of Moses<\/em>, [Moshe] Cordovero develops the Zoharic model into a complete ritual script&#8230; [T]he text adds to this an imaginative preparation for role play, which determines the later placement of the participants\u2019 bodies&#8230; \u201c\u2018Here is its mystery and the meditation required with regard to it: firstly one will wash one&#8217;s hands at midnight or during the hours that follow and will purify one&#8217;s consciousness and void the spirit of all evil thought&#8230; The [the man] will gladden his wife with speech relating to the commandment [of sexual union], at the same time he will bring his awareness closer to the sacred&#8230; Then he will undertake to meditate on the secret of the embrace: he is at the level of <em>Tiferet<\/em>, she is at the level of <em>Malkhut<\/em>&#8230;\u2019,\u201d Brian Ogren, Kabbalah in America: Ancient Lore in the New World, Leiden, Netherlands &amp; Boston, Mass.: Brill, 2020, p. 362; quoting Charles Mopsik, <em>Sex of the Soul: The Vicissitudes of Sexual Difference in Kabbalah<\/em>, Los Angeles: Cherub Press, 2005, p. 140. Cf. Michael Hoffman, <em>Judaism Discovered: From Its Own Texts<\/em>, Coeur d&#8217;Alene, Id.: Independent History and Research, 2008 and Marla Segol, <em>Kabbalah and Sex Magic: A Mythical-Ritual Genealogy<\/em>, University Park, Penn.: Penn State Univ. Press, 2021. Mopsik draws, in part, from the work of a student of 13th-c. Kabbalist Abraham Abulafia, one Joseph ben Abraham Gikatilla \u2013 specifically, <em>Le secret du mariage de David et Bethsab\u00e9e<\/em> [\u201cThe Secret of the Marriage of David and Bathsheba\u201d]. Although the title is in French, the text is (presumably) in Hebrew.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref98\">[98]<\/a> Elliot Kiba Ginsburg, <em>The Sabbath in the Classical Kabbalah<\/em>, Albany, N.Y.: State Univ. of N.Y. Press, 1989, p. 292. Continuing: The Shekinah is the woman\u2019s \u201c\u2026archetype. At the same time she enters into relation with (and in some sense is completed by) <em>Tif\u2019eret<\/em>, the divine Other,\u201d <em>ibid<\/em>. As the book\u2019s title indicates, Ginsburg is principally concerned with the Jewish Sabbath. In this context, he writes: \u201cAs in virtually all rituals, timing is of the essence here: the mystic and his wife must engage in marital intercourse at the appropriate moment. Although ordinary Jews may engage in marital intercourse during the week, the adept is bidden to wait until Shabbat, Edenic time par excellence, the hour when the divine hieros gamos occurs,\u201d <em>ibid<\/em>. Jewish scholars Daniel Matt and Arthur Green amplify this, writing: \u201cFor the mystic, sex is not merely a personal act; it is an occasion for communion with God\u2026 See [Rabbi Moses] Cordovero\u2019s comment on this passage\u2026: \u2018Their desire, both his and hers, was to unite <em>Shekhinha<\/em>. He focused on <em>Tif\u2019eret<\/em>, and his wife on <em>Malkhut<\/em> (<em>Shekhinah<\/em>). His union was to join <em>Shekhinah<\/em>; she focused correspondingly on being <em>Shekhinah<\/em> and uniting with Her Husband, <em>Tif\u2019eret<\/em>.\u2019 This corresponds to the Tantric ritual of <em>maithuna<\/em>, in which the human couple focuses on identification with their divine models\u2026,\u201d Daniel Chanan Matt and Arthur Green, eds., \u201cTheir desire focused on joining <em>Shekhinah<\/em>&#8230;,\u201d <em>Zohar, the Book of Enlightenment<\/em>, Mahwah, N.J.: Paulist Press, 1983, pp. 236-237; citing Rabbi Abraham ben Mordecai Azulai, <em>Or ha-Hammah<\/em> (\u201cThe Light of the Sun\u201d), \u201c<em>ad loc<\/em>;\u201d Mircea Eliade, <em>Yoga: Immortality and Freedom<\/em>, New York: Pantheon Books, 1958, pp. 200-73; and Agehananda Bharati, <em>The Tantric Tradition<\/em>, London: Rider, 1965, n.p. Or ha-Hammah is a commentary on the <em>Zohar<\/em> that is an expansion of, and extensively quotes form, Rabbi Moses Cordovero\u2019s treatise <em>Pardes Rimmonim<\/em> (\u201cGarden \/ Orchard of Pomegranates\u201d). Matt and Green also (<em>ibid.<\/em>, p. 236) bid the reader \u201c\u2026cf. <em>Zohar<\/em> 1:49b-50a; 2:89a-b; 3:81a-b; 168a,\u201d and (<em>ibid<\/em>., p. 237) \u201ccf. above [in their own volume], \u2018Male and Female\u2019,\u201d which is a major section beginning on page 55 (and following).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref99\">[99]<\/a> \u201cShekinah,\u201d <em>Lexico<\/em>, 2022, &lt;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.lexico.com\/en\/definition\/shekinah\">https:\/\/www.lexico.com\/en\/definition\/shekinah<\/a>&gt;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref100\">[100]<\/a> The proliferation of innumerable goddess cults is viewed by some as remediation for the supposed, earlier, \u201cpatriarchal Christian\u201d view that \u201c[t]he Devil worked through women &amp; [sic] women worked their evil through sex,\u201d Ponc\u00e9, op. cit., p. 19.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref101\">[101]<\/a> According to the Talmud (see BT <em>Yoma<\/em> 54a-b), the cherubim on the Ark of the Covenant were depicted as being locked \u201cin intimate embrace.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref102\">[102]<\/a> Jewish Studies Professor Nathaniel Deutsch further claims that the Kabbalah was cross-fertilized with the near-Eastern religious tradition of the Mandaeans \u2013 not to be confused with the Manichaeans discussed a moment ago. \u201c\u2026[I]nteractions [between Mandaeans and Jewish mystics in Babylonia from Late Antiquity to the medieval period] resulted in shared magical and angelological traditions,\u201d Nathaniel Deutsch, \u201cThe Date Palm and the Wellspring: Mandaeism and Jewish Mysticism,\u201d <em>ARAM<\/em> (Journal of the Aramaic Society for Syro-Mesopotamian Studies), vol. 11, no. 2, 1999-2000, p. 222. Deutsch continues: \u201cDuring this phase the parallels which exist between Mandaeism and Hekhalot mysticism would have developed. At some point, both Mandaeans and Jews living in Babylonia began to develop similar cosmogonic and theosophic traditions involving an analogous set of terms, concepts, and images. At present it is impossible to say whether these parallels resulted primarily from Jewish influence on Mandaeans, Mandaean influence on Jews, or from cross fertilization. Whatever their original source, these traditions eventually made their way into the priestly \u2013 that is, esoteric \u2013 Mandaean texts &#8230; and into the Kabbalah,\u201d <em>ibid<\/em>. \u201cSex to the pious Mandaean is the holiest mystery of life and it is enjoined upon him to regard it as such and to pronounce the most sacred name, \u2018the great Life,\u2019 before performing a sexual act. \u2026[S]exual metaphors and images employed by initiates are protected by special oaths of silence\u2026,\u201d E. S. Drower, <em>The Secret Adam: A Study of Nasoraean Gnosis<\/em>, London: Oxford Univ. Press, 1960, p. 10; archived at &lt;<a href=\"http:\/\/khazarzar.skeptik.net\/books\/mandaean\/adam.pdf\">http:\/\/khazarzar.skeptik.net\/books\/mandaean\/adam.pdf<\/a>&gt;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref103\">[103]<\/a> In the first place, it proceeds from Merkabah mysticism, which recalls a vision of God beheld by the Old Testament prophet Ezekiel. But, Kabbalah was also informed by the time the Israelites spent exiled in Babylon. You should also keep in mind the twists and turns of Jewish history, as the Bible records it. After the period of the \u201cjudges,\u201d the people clamored for, and instituted, a monarchy. This created what later became known as the United Kingdom of Israel and what was ruled first by Saul, then by David and finally by David\u2019s son, Solomon. After Solomon died, circa 930 B.C., his son Rehoboam inherited the throne. Owing to Rehoboam\u2019s heavy-handed and poor leading, a revolt was led by an apparently influential nobleman named Jeroboam. The resulting civil war split the nation into the Northern Kingdom of Israel and the Southern Kingdom of Judah. Around 720 B.C., the Northern Kingdom fell to Assyria. Assyria itself eventually fell to neo-Babylonia which, in short order, ransacked the Southern Kingdom around 586 B.C., destroyed Solomon\u2019s Temple, and spirited many of the inhabitants of Judah to captivity in Babylon. Once Babylonia was conquered by Persia, some of these Judahites would be permitted to return to their homeland where, approximately 516 B.C., they constructed a smaller \u201csecond temple\u201d that stood until A.D. 70 when it was leveled by the Roman Empire. But, before this return, the Judahites were interacting \u2013 and sometimes marrying \u2013 with Babylonians.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref104\">[104]<\/a> Herodotus, <em>The Histories<\/em>, 199; A. D. Godley, ed. &amp; transl., London: Heinemann; Cambridge: Harvard Univ. Press, 1922; archived at the <em>Perseus Project<\/em>, Tufts Univ., &lt;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.perseus.tufts.edu\/hopper\/text?doc=Hdt.+1.199\">https:\/\/www.perseus.tufts.edu\/hopper\/text?doc=Hdt.+1.199<\/a>&gt;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref105\">[105]<\/a> Staff writers, \u201cSacred Prostitution in the Story of Judah and Tamar? Edward Lipi\u0144ski on the influence of Canaanite Ashtoreth worship in ancient Israel,\u201d Biblical Archaeology Society, Mar. 6, 2022, &lt;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.biblicalarchaeology.org\/daily\/ancient-cultures\/ancient-israel\/sacred-prostitution-in-the-story-of-judah-and-tamar\/\">https:\/\/www.biblicalarchaeology.org\/daily\/ancient-cultures\/ancient-israel\/sacred-prostitution-in-the-story-of-judah-and-tamar\/<\/a>&gt;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref106\">[106]<\/a> For the details, see Hargrave Jennings, <em>Phallism<\/em>, London: privately publ., 1889, p. 98.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref107\">[107]<\/a> Also called the <em>Bavli<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref108\">[108]<\/a> Esotericists frequently hold that Judaism was partially informed by the traditions of Sumeria and Babylonia. See, e.g., <em>Sex: The Secret Gate to Eden<\/em>, dvd, Brooklyn, N.Y.: Thelema Press, 2006.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref109\">[109]<\/a> For the dating, see \u201cGenesis Rabbah,\u201d <em>Britannica<\/em>, &lt;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/Genesis-Rabbah\">https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/Genesis-Rabbah<\/a>&gt;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref110\">[110]<\/a> <em>Genesis Rabbah<\/em> (a.k.a. <em>Bereshith Rabba<\/em>), 8:1, &lt;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.sefaria.org\/sheets\/115214.1?lang=bi&amp;with=all&amp;lang2=en\">https:\/\/www.sefaria.org\/sheets\/115214.1?lang=bi&amp;with=all&amp;lang2=en<\/a>&gt;; quoting one Rabbi Yirmiyah ben Elazar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref111\">[111]<\/a> According to Craig Heimbichner: \u201cIn the sub-rosa mythos of Judaism, God <em>is the<\/em> \u2018Jewish male\u2019 as personified by \u2018Adam Kadmon\u2019\u2026Adam Kadmon \u2026[is the] Kabbalistic concept of the archetypal man, the primordial being who is simultaneously the Judaic male and the \u2018body of God.\u2019 Adam Kadmon is the androgynous and balanced, completed male Jew who manifests his own deity in this world through emanations of sefirot, which include evil in the left-hand pillar of severity or judgment \u2013 one half of which must be balanced with the opposite right-side pillar of mercy \u2026[on the] Tree of Life\u2026,\u201d <em>Blood on the Altar: The Secret History of the World\u2019s Most Dangerous Secret Society<\/em>, Coeur d\u2019Alene, Id.: Independent History and Research, 2005, pp. 124 and 136. According to Robert Graves and Raphael Patai: \u201cPrimeval man was held by the Babylonians to have been androgynous. \u2026[T]he Gilgamesh Epic gives Enkidu androgynous features: \u2018the hair of his head like a woman\u2019s\u2026\u2019 The Hebrew tradition evidently derives from Greek sources, because both terms used in Tannaitic midrash to describe the bisexual Adam are Greek: <em>androgynos<\/em>, \u2018man-woman\u2019, and <em>diprosopon<\/em>, \u2018two-faced\u2019,\u201d Robert Graves and Raphael Patai, <em>Hebrew Myths: The Book of Genesis<\/em>, Manchester, England: Carcanet, 2005, p. 67, n. 2. Graves and Patai continue: \u201cPhilo of Alexandria, the Hellenistic philosopher and commentator on the Bible, contemporary with Jesus, held that man was at first bisexual; so did the gnostics. This belief is clearly borrowed from Plato. Yet the myth of two bodies placed back to back [<em>sic<\/em>] may well have been founded on observation of Siamese twins, which are sometimes joined in this awkward manner. The two-faced Adam appears to be a fancy derived from coins or statues of Janus, the Roman New Year god,\u201d <em>ibid<\/em>. \u201c\u2026Graves\u2019 embedded, passing mention of Plato refers to the dialogue entitled the Symposium \u2013 or \u2018Drinking Party\u2019 \u2013 in which the notion of \u2018love\u2019 is the main topic of discussion and reflection. \u2026The basic idea of the androgyne, or man-woman, was that this combined state was part of the original order,\u201d according to \u201cNow Playing at the Century 16 Ampitheater of Eternal Wisdom: Aurora Consurgens, Part 2,\u201d <em>Bell Curve<\/em> (weblog), Sept. 1, 2012, &lt;<a href=\"http:\/\/curveofbell.blogspot.com\/2012\/09\/now-playing-at-century-16-ampitheater.html\">http:\/\/curveofbell.blogspot.com\/2012\/09\/now-playing-at-century-16-ampitheater.html<\/a>&gt;. Of course, in Greek mythology, it was \u201cZeus [who] divided the androgyne as punishment for hubris\u2026,\u201d <em>Ibid<\/em>. In Judaism, on the other hand, this division was attributed to the Hebrew God.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref112\">[112]<\/a> Or, in alchemy, <em>coniunctio oppositorum<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref113\">[113]<\/a> Gudrun B\u00fchnemann,&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/product\/8124603987\/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;tag=ellactor-20&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=9325&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;creativeASIN=8124603987&amp;linkId=1ec6c42cbaf94183bf936bb587a8ea1b\"><em>Ma\u00f2n\u00f2dalas and Yantras in the Hindu Traditions<\/em><\/a>, Leiden: Brill, 2003, pp. 43-44.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref114\">[114]<\/a> \u201cNow Playing\u2026,\u201d <em>loc. cit<\/em>. Continuing: \u201c\u201cAnd Aristophanes&#8217; speech presents [erotic or romantic] love as a sort of searching for, discovering, and restoring this division of halves. On Aristophanes&#8217; conception, the pair need not be male-female, but could be female-female or male-male,\u201d <em>ibid<\/em>. Cf. Graves and Patai, <em>loc. cit<\/em>. Cf., also, Manly Palmer Hall, <em>The Secret Teachings of All Ages<\/em>, reprint ed., Garden City, N.Y.: Dover, 2010, p. 351.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref115\">[115]<\/a> <em>Sex: The Secret Gate to Eden<\/em>, <em>loc. cit<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref116\">[116]<\/a> In the Kabbalist\u2019s lexicon, this is known as <em>Tikkun Olam<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref117\">[117]<\/a> Whether \u201cthe Divine\u201d is an external deity or an \u201cinner god\u201d is debated among occultists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref118\">[118]<\/a> Greek: <em>gn\u014dthi seauton<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref119\">[119]<\/a> See, e.g., Hargrave Jennings, Ophiolatreia: An Account of the Rites and Mysteries Connected with the Origin, Rise, and Development of Serpent Worship, N.p.: privately publ., 1889.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref120\">[120]<\/a> A key notion is that soon after this separation of the sexes, humanity was expelled from Paradise. Rabbi and <em>Zohar<\/em> translator Daniel Matt, commenting upon what he views as a possible, alternative interpretation for Genesis 3:24 \u2013 which is conventionally and straightforwardly read as God\u2019s expulsion of Adam from the Garden of Eden \u2013 says, instead: \u201cAdam drove out, divorced, <em>Shekhinah<\/em> (the divine feminine), splitting Her from Her divine partner and from himself. Once, as Adam, humanity was wedded to God. The original sin lies in losing intimacy with the divine, thereby constricting our unbounded awareness.\u201d \u201c<em>Zohar<\/em> Questions \u2013 Daniel Matt,\u201d &lt;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.sup.org\/zohar\/QADM.pdf\">https:\/\/www.sup.org\/zohar\/QADM.pdf<\/a>&gt;. Matt continues: \u201cThis loss is inevitable\u2014a consequence of tasting the fruit of knowledge, the price we pay for maturity and culture. But the spiritual challenge is to search for that lost treasure\u2014without renouncing the self or the world.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref121\">[121]<\/a> Biti Roi, \u201cIggeret Ha-Kodesh,\u201d <em>The Shalvi \/ Hyman Encyclopedia of Jewish Women<\/em>, updated Jul. 12, 2021, &lt;<a href=\"https:\/\/jwa.org\/encyclopedia\/article\/iggeret-ha-kodesh\">https:\/\/jwa.org\/encyclopedia\/article\/iggeret-ha-kodesh<\/a>&gt;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref122\">[122]<\/a> K. J. Aaron, \u201cBiblical Euphemisms for Sexual Activity,\u201d, posted by Brian Worley, Ex-Minister.org, Jan. 21, 2010, &lt;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.exminister.org\/Aaron-one-biblical-euphemisms.html\">https:\/\/www.exminister.org\/Aaron-one-biblical-euphemisms.html<\/a>&gt;. I\u2019m quoting from \u201cEx-Minister.org\u201d for the sake of convenience. Though, any number of Bible expositors, theologians, and <em>current<\/em> ministers readily admit the point.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref123\">[123]<\/a> Cf. Michael A. Hoffman II, <em>Secret Societies and Psychological Warfare<\/em>, Coeur d\u2019Alene, Id.: Independent History and Research, 2001.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref124\">[124]<\/a> See the <em>Holy Bible<\/em>, <em>First Kings<\/em>, chapter 1.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref125\">[125]<\/a> These messianic pretensions had begun to be voiced almost two decades earlier: \u201cIn 1648 a scholar declared himself as a Messiah, fracturing the Jewish World,\u201d Marsel Russo, \u201cSabbatai Zevi \u2013 The Messiah That Converted to Islam,\u201d <em>TheJ.ca<\/em>, Apr. 22, 2021, &lt;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.thej.ca\/2021\/04\/22\/sabbatai-zevi-the-messiah-that-converted-to-islam\/\">https:\/\/www.thej.ca\/2021\/04\/22\/sabbatai-zevi-the-messiah-that-converted-to-islam\/<\/a>&gt;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref126\">[126]<\/a> Alternately, <em>Shabbetai Tzvi<\/em>, 1626-1676.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref127\">[127]<\/a> David J. Halperin, <em>Sabbatai Zevi: Testimonies to a Fallen Messiah<\/em>, New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 2012, p. 8, &lt;<a href=\"https:\/\/books.google.com\/books?id=bHJvEAAAQBAJ&amp;pg=PA8\">https:\/\/books.google.com\/books?id=bHJvEAAAQBAJ&amp;pg=PA8<\/a>&gt;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref128\">[128]<\/a> <em>Ibid<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref129\">[129]<\/a> <em>Ibid<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref130\">[130]<\/a> Also spelled <em>Sabbatians<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref131\">[131]<\/a> Here, the <em>Jewish Encyclopedia<\/em> uses the slang abbreviation \u201cShebs.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref132\">[132]<\/a> Thus, the sect \u201c\u2026included the elements of both asceticism and sensuality: some did penance for their sins, subjected themselves to self-inflicted torture, and \u2018mourned for Zion\u2019; others disregarded the strict rules of chastity characteristic of Judaism,\u201d and turned to the sexual shenanigans that have been our preoccupation, herein. All this, according to Herman Rosenthal and S. M. Dubnow, \u201cFrank, Jacob, and the Frankists,\u201d <em>Jewish Encyclopedia<\/em>, 1906, online at &lt;<a href=\"https:\/\/jewishencyclopedia.com\/articles\/9736-lejbowicz\">https:\/\/jewishencyclopedia.com\/articles\/9736-lejbowicz<\/a>&gt;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref133\">[133]<\/a> <em>Ibid<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref134\">[134]<\/a> Specifically, Podolia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref135\">[135]<\/a> Ibid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref136\">[136]<\/a> Pawel Maciejko, \u201cFrankism,\u201d <em>The YIVO Encyclopedia of the Jews in Eastern Europe<\/em>, New York: YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, 2010, &lt;<a href=\"https:\/\/yivoencyclopedia.org\/article.aspx\/frankism\">https:\/\/yivoencyclopedia.org\/article.aspx\/frankism<\/a>&gt;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref137\">[137]<\/a> The <em>Jewish Encyclopedia<\/em> gives the location as \u201cLemberg.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref138\">[138]<\/a> See Marvin S. Antelman\u2019s (possibly born Mosheh Shelomoh An\u1e6delman) twin volumes: <em>To Eliminate the Opiate<\/em> (volume 1), New York; Tel Aviv: Zahava, 1974 and <em>To Eliminate the Opiate: Volume 2<\/em>, Jerusalem: The Zionist Book Club, 2007.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref139\">[139]<\/a> \u201cFrank, Jacob\u2026,\u201d <em>loc. cit<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref140\">[140]<\/a> The 17<sup>th<\/sup>-c. German Lutheran theologian Philipp Jakob Spener is known as the \u201cFather of Pietism.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref141\">[141]<\/a> Blunt, <em>op. cit<\/em>., p. 342.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref142\">[142]<\/a> Paul Peucker, \u201c\u2018Inspired by Flames of Love\u2019: Homosexuality, Mysticism, and Moravian Brothers around 1750,\u201d <em>Journal of the History of Sexuality<\/em>, vol. 15, no. 1, Jan. 2006, pp. 30-64, &lt;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.researchgate.net\/publication\/236722092_Inspired_by_Flames_of_Love_Homosexuality_Mysticism_and_Moravian_Brothers_around_1750\">https:\/\/www.researchgate.net\/publication\/236722092_Inspired_by_Flames_of_Love_Homosexuality_Mysticism_and_Moravian_Brothers_around_1750<\/a>&gt;. One could also factor in Donald McCormick\u2019s comment that \u201cthe troubadours\u2026 tried to raise love to the dignity of a spiritual exercise,\u201d <em>Temple of Love<\/em>, New York: Citadel Press, 1965, p. 170.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref143\">[143]<\/a> <em>Ibid<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref144\">[144]<\/a> According to history Professor Jared S. Burkholder, in \u201cSects &amp; Sex,\u201d PietistSchoolman.com [weblog], Jan. 17, 2014, &lt;<a href=\"https:\/\/pietistschoolman.com\/2014\/01\/17\/sects-and-sex\/\">https:\/\/pietistschoolman.com\/2014\/01\/17\/sects-and-sex\/<\/a>.&gt;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref145\">[145]<\/a> Peucker, <em>loc. cit<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref146\">[146]<\/a> <em>Ibid<\/em>. Cf. \u201cChristian Renatus von Zinzendorf,\u201d <em>Wikipedia<\/em>, Jun. 26, 2021, &lt;<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Christian_Renatus_von_Zinzendorf\">https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Christian_Renatus_von_Zinzendorf<\/a>&gt;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref147\">[147]<\/a> According to Donald Michael Kraig, <em>Modern Sex Magick<\/em>, Woodbury, Minn.: Llewellyn Publ., 2006, p. 220. Continuing: \u201c\u2026ask any transexual sex magician!\u201d <em>Ibid<\/em>. Note that \u201ctransexual\u201d is an alternate spelling for \u201ctranssexual.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref148\">[148]<\/a> Richard Lines, \u201cThe Erotic Dreams of Emanuel Swedenborg,\u201d Public Domain Review, Jan. 24, 2013, &lt;<a href=\"https:\/\/publicdomainreview.org\/essay\/the-erotic-dreams-of-emanuel-swedenborg\/\">https:\/\/publicdomainreview.org\/essay\/the-erotic-dreams-of-emanuel-swedenborg\/<\/a>&gt;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref149\">[149]<\/a> At least, so says Rosemary Guiley in her <em>The Encyclopedia of Magic and Alchemy<\/em>, New York: Checkmark Books, 2006, p. 40.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref150\">[150]<\/a> \u201cSwedenborgian Church of North America,\u201d <em>Wikipedia<\/em>, Jul 3, 2022, &lt;<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Swedenborgian_Church_of_North_America\">https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Swedenborgian_Church_of_North_America<\/a>&gt;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref151\">[151]<\/a> Richard Lines, \u201cEros, Sexuality &amp; The Spirit,\u201d SwedenborgStudy.com, n.d., &lt;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.swedenborgstudy.com\/articles\/marriage\/rl02.htm\">http:\/\/www.swedenborgstudy.com\/articles\/marriage\/rl02.htm<\/a>&gt;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref152\">[152]<\/a> Manley Palmer Hall, <em>The Secret Teachings of All Ages<\/em>, reprint ed., Garden City, N.Y.: Dover, 2010, p. 410.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref153\">[153]<\/a> For a list, see \u201cPaschal Beverly Randolph,\u201d <em>Wikipedia<\/em>, Jun 22, 2022, &lt;<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Paschal_Beverly_Randolph#Published_works\">https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Paschal_Beverly_Randolph#Published_works<\/a>&gt;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref154\">[154]<\/a> Including, the <em>Anseiretic Mystery<\/em>, the <em>Golden Letter<\/em>, the <em>Golden Secret<\/em>, and the <em>Mysteries of Eulis<\/em>. See Lara Langer Cohen, \u201cPaschal Beverly Randolph\u2019s Occult Undergrounds,\u201d Zoom lecture, Univ. of Penn., Nov. 2, 2020; recorded and posted to <em>Penn\u2019s Workshop in the History of Material Texts<\/em> (channel), YouTube, Nov. 3, 2020, &lt;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=NoIeQTbW7cE\">https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=NoIeQTbW7cE<\/a>&gt;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref155\">[155]<\/a> <em>Ibid<\/em>. Author Donald Michael Kraig speculates that Franz Anton Mesmer, whose \u201canimal-magnetism\u201d techniques \u2013 which were called \u201cmesmerism\u201d and prefigured contemporary hypnosis \u2013 also used his powers (including the stimulation of supposedly healing \u201csexual arousal\u201d) \u201cto induce psychic abilities\u201d, Kraig, <em>op. cit<\/em>., pp. 21 &amp; 23.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref156\">[156]<\/a> Randolph was also a \u201cPre-Adamite\u201d; that is, he believed that humans existed on the earth prior to the Biblical Adam and Eve. This is too large a topic to cover, presently. But, the relevant Wikipedia article associates Pre-Adamism with \u2013 what it calls \u2013 various \u201cracist\u201d anthropological speculations. See \u201cPre-Adamite,\u201d <em>Wikipedia<\/em>, Jul 2, 2022, &lt;<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Pre-Adamite#Racist_pre-Adamism\">https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Pre-Adamite#Racist_pre-Adamism<\/a>&gt;. Again, Randolph\u2019s \u201cmixed\u201d heritage may have motivated his interest in this doctrine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref157\">[157]<\/a> Urban, <em>loc. cit<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref158\">[158]<\/a> Cohen, <em>loc. cit<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref159\">[159]<\/a> P. B. Randolph, The Anseiretic Mystery; reproduced in John Patrick Deveney, <em>Paschal Beverly Randolph: A Nineteenth-Century Black American Spiritualist, Rosicrucian, and Sex Magician<\/em>, Albany, N.Y.: State Univ. of N.Y. Press, 1996, p. 317. According to Randolph, \u201cthe list of powers attainable by the human being \u2026number hundreds of distinct energies,\u201d <em>ibid<\/em>.; quoted by Arthur Versluis, <em>The Secret History of Western Sexual Mysticism: Sacred Practices and Spiritual Marriage<\/em>, New York: Simon &amp; Schuster, 2008, pp. 125-126 (of electronic edition), &lt;<a href=\"https:\/\/books.google.com\/books?id=Q14oDwAAQBAJ&amp;pg=PT125\">https:\/\/books.google.com\/books?id=Q14oDwAAQBAJ&amp;pg=PT125<\/a>&gt;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref160\">[160]<\/a> Paschal Beverly Randolph, <em>Magia Sexualis<\/em>, Maria de Naglowska, transl., Paris: Robert G\u00e9lin, 1931. On the angle that Naglowska may have written it herself \u2013 and on the description of her as a \u201cSatanist\u201d \u2013 see Schreck and Schreck, <em>op. cit<\/em>., <em>passim<\/em>, but esp. p. 183. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref161\">[161]<\/a> <em>Op. cit<\/em>., pp. 178<em>ff<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref162\">[162]<\/a> V\u0101tsy\u0101yana (attributed), <em>The Kama Sutra of Vatsyayana<\/em>, Richard Francis Burton and Forster Fitzgerald Arbuthnot, transl., eds., \u201cCosmopoli\u201d [probably London]: Kama Shastra Society of London and Benares, 1883 (privately circulated).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref163\">[163]<\/a> Richard Osborne, <em>Introducing Eastern Philosophy<\/em>, Borin Van Loon, illus., Cambridge, U.K.: Icon Books, 2001, p. 47.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref164\">[164]<\/a> Donald McCormick, <em>loc. cit<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref165\">[165]<\/a> Though, in fairness, a Gnostic sect called the Adamites was said to have adopted practices for \u201c\u2026extirpating carnal desire by familiarizing the senses to strict self-control under the extremest [<em>sic<\/em>] form of temptation,\u201d Blunt, <em>op. cit<\/em>., p. 5.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref166\">[166]<\/a> Called <em>Dak\u1e63i\u1e47im\u0101rga<\/em> or <em>Dak\u1e63i\u1e47\u0101c\u0101ra<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref167\">[167]<\/a> Referred to as <em>V\u0101mam\u0101rga<\/em> or <em>V\u0101m\u0101c\u0101ra<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref168\">[168]<\/a> In Kabbalah, similarly, there is a \u201cleft side\u201d or \u201cother side\u201d (<em>sitra achra<\/em>) of the Tree of Life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref169\">[169]<\/a>E.g., in Kaula (or Kula) Hinduism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref170\">[170]<\/a>Or, for Kaula practitioners, <em>Kulam\u0101rga<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref171\">[171]<\/a>A.k.a., <em>pancha makara<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref172\">[172]<\/a>For instance, an online version of the <em>Encyclopedia of Hinduism<\/em> states: \u201cSexuality outside marriage is looked upon as a negative thing.\u201d Constance Jones and James Daniel Ryan,\u201cPancha Makara,\u201d <em>Encyclopedia of Hinduism<\/em>, New York: Facts on File, 2007, n.p., &lt;<a href=\"https:\/\/hinduism.en-academic.com\/576\/pancha_makara\">https:\/\/hinduism.en-academic.com\/576\/pancha_makara<\/a>&gt;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref173\">[173]<\/a>See, e.g., David Gordon White, <em>Kiss of the Yogini: &#8216;Tantric Sex&#8217; in its South Asian Contexts<\/em>, Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press, 2003, pp. 77<em>ff<\/em>. Cf. The reference to the sacredness of \u201cseminal fluid\u201d by George Small, <em>A Handbook of Sanskrit Literature: With Appendices Descriptive of the Mythology, Castes, and Religious Sects of the Hindus<\/em>, London: Williams &amp; Norgate, 1866, p. 182, &lt;<a href=\"https:\/\/books.google.com\/books?id=k9A9AAAAIAAJ&amp;pg=pa182\">https:\/\/books.google.com\/books?id=k9A9AAAAIAAJ&amp;pg=pa182<\/a>&gt;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref174\">[174]<\/a>And, for some Tantrics, perhaps other \u201cpolluting substances,\u201d such as excrement, menses (menstrual expulsion), urine, etc. White compares similar practices among the \u201cB\u0101uls of Bengal\u201d and the \u201cNizarpanthis, &#8216;Hinduized&#8217; Isma&#8217;ilis of Western India\u201d (<em>op. cit<\/em>., p. 77; where the \u201cNizarpanthis\u201d are, presumably, followers of Nizari Isma&#8217;ilism and the Aga Khan [currently, number IV], and may be related to the Khojas.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref175\">[175]<\/a> Schreck and Schreck, <em>Demons of the Flesh<\/em>, op. cit., p. 96.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref176\">[176]<\/a> See, e.g., \u201cUrine Therapy,\u201d Wikipedia, Jun 21, 2022, &lt;<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Urine_therapy\">https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Urine_therapy<\/a>&gt;; and \u201cVajroli Mudra,\u201d <em>Wikipedia<\/em>, Dec. 15, 2021, &lt;<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Vajroli_mudra\">https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Vajroli_mudra<\/a>&gt;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref177\">[177]<\/a> \u201cBob Dobbs,\u201d <em>Phatic Communion With<\/em> [Bob Dobbs], Toronto: Perfect Pitch Ed., 1992, p. 51. The name \u201cBob Dobbs\u201d is frequently associated with a loose-knit organization known as the \u201cChurch of the SubGenius.\u201d <em>Wikipedia<\/em> calls the so-called \u201cChurch\u201d a \u201cparody religion,\u201d and claims that it was established in the 1970s by individuals such as \u201cIvan Stang\u201d (born Douglas St. Clair Smith), \u201cPhilo Drummond\u201d (born Steve Wilcox), and \u201cDr. X\u201d (born Monte Dhooge). See \u201cChurch of the SubGenius,\u201d <em>Wikipedia<\/em>, May 30, 2022, &lt;<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Church_of_the_SubGenius\">https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Church_of_the_SubGenius<\/a>&gt;. To confuse matters further, my copy of <em>Phatic Communion\u2026<\/em> has a sticker on the publication-information page stating that the copyright holder is one \u201cRobert Dean\u201d \u2013 who <em>may<\/em> (or may <em>not<\/em>) be one and the same person as the now-deceased career-military man who became a fairly prominent \u201cufologist\u201d during the 1990s. See \u201cRobert Dean (ufologist),\u201d <em>Wikipedia<\/em>, Nov. 18, 2021, &lt;<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Robert_Dean_(ufologist)\">https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Robert_Dean_(ufologist)<\/a>&gt;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref178\">[178]<\/a> For an illustration, see the Home Box Office (HBO) network\u2019s \u201cThe Master of Non-Ejaculation,\u201d <em>Real Sex<\/em>, episode 7, 1993; at one point, archived at &lt;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.tv.com\/shows\/real-sex\/\">http:\/\/www.tv.com\/shows\/real-sex\/<\/a>&gt;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref179\">[179]<\/a> See, e.g., <em>Sex: The Secret Gate to Eden<\/em>, <em>loc. cit<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref180\">[180]<\/a> New York: Amer. Inst. of Universal Charities, 1961.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref181\">[181]<\/a> Donald Michael Kraig (<em>Modern Sex Magick<\/em>, <em>op. cit<\/em>., p. 25) suggests that others advocating similarly include Alice Bunker Stockham (via her <em>Karezza<\/em> techniques) and John Humphrey Noyes (through his idea of \u201cmale continence\u201d). Noyes, remembered for Utopian-Socialist Oneida Community in New York, also encouraged \u201ccommunal\u201d or <em>group marriage<\/em>, <em>ibid<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref182\">[182]<\/a> \u201cThree types of Tantras exist in India; first White Tantra, second, black Tantra, third, grey Tantra. In White Tantra, Sexual Magic is practiced without the spilling of semen. In black Tantra there is spilling of semen. In grey Tantra, the semen is and is not spilled. [That is, s]ometimes the semen is spilled, and sometimes it is not spilled. This type of Tantra leads the devotee to black Tantra.\u201dSamael Aun Weor, <em>The Perfect Matrimony<\/em>, reprint ed., Brooklyn, N.Y.: Thelema Press, 2001, p. 253.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref183\">[183]<\/a>Ida C. Craddock, Heavenly bridegrooms; <em>An Unintentional Contribution to the Erotogenetic Interpretation of Religion<\/em>, Theodore Schroeder, ed., New York: n.p., 1918 (reprinted: Whitefish, Mt.: Kessinger, ca. 1990).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref184\">[184]<\/a>Cited by \u201cIda Craddock,\u201d Wikipedia, Jun. 11, 2022, &lt;<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Ida_Craddock\">https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Ida_Craddock<\/a>&gt;; citing \u201cBaphomet\u201d [Aleister Crowley], <em>The Blue Equinox<\/em>, vol. III, Detroit: Universal, 1919. No link was provided by way of primary documentation. However, Googling yielded the following URL, especially following the words \u201cHeavenly Bridegrooms.\u201d &lt;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.the-equinox.org\/vol3\/eqv3n1\/eq0301275.htm\">http:\/\/www.the-equinox.org\/vol3\/eqv3n1\/eq0301275.htm<\/a>&gt;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref185\">[185]<\/a> Ordinarily, the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn isn\u2019t thought of as pre\u00ebminent in this subject. But, Kraig (<em>Modern Sex Magick<\/em>, <em>loc. cit.<\/em>) summarizes recent scholarly work suggesting that various Dawn members \u2013 including Edward Berridge (following Thomas Lake Harris), Dion Fortune (born Violet Mary Firth), and most prominently Samuel Liddell \u201cMacGregor\u201d Mathers and his wife Moina Mathers (<em>n\u00e9e<\/em> Mina Bergson) \u2013 were at least aware of (or obliquely wrote about) sex magic. Possibly, the Mathers exhibited these \u201cmysteries\u201d of <em>magia sexualis<\/em> in Paris while performing their Rites of Isis. (For the claim, see Kraig, <em>ibid<\/em>.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref186\">[186]<\/a> E.g., see Carl Gustav Jung, <em>Collected Works of C.G. Jung: Alchemical Studies<\/em>, vol. XIII, London: Routledge; Taylor &amp; Francis, 2014, p. 96.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref187\">[187]<\/a> Kraig, <em>op. cit<\/em>., p, 4.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref188\">[188]<\/a> Andrew Phillip Smith, <em>The Gnostics<\/em>, London: Watkins Publ., 2008, pp. 152 &amp; 150.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref189\">[189]<\/a> Nevill Drury, <em>Stealing Fire from Heaven: The Rise of Modern Western Magic<\/em>, Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press, 2011, p. 93.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref190\">[190]<\/a> This includes the speculative \u201cPhallicism\u201d of Hargrave Jennings, the oriental pornography of Edward Sellon, the compilations of Hindu mythology produced by W. J. Wilkins, and the Sanskrit translations of \u201cArthur Avalon\u201d (Sir John George Woodroffe).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref191\">[191]<\/a> Nevill Drury: \u201cThe bridging link between Randolph and the O.T.O. is provided by two American esoteric orders, the Hermetic Brotherhood of Luxor and Randolph\u2019s Brotherhood of Eulis,\u201d <em>ibid<\/em>., p. 100. Donald Michael Kraig, <em>op. cit<\/em>., p. 4, says that Randolph \u201cwas initiated into the Hermetic Brotherhood of Luxor.\u201d Who knows?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref192\">[192]<\/a> There are also sporadic mentions of the \u201cHermetic Brotherhood of Light.\u201d See, \u201cHermetic Brotherhood of Light,\u201d <em>Wikipedia<\/em>, Mar. 17, 2022, &lt;<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Hermetic_Brotherhood_of_Light\">https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Hermetic_Brotherhood_of_Light<\/a>&gt;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref193\">[193]<\/a> Joscelyn Godwin, <em>The Hermetic Brotherhood of Luxor: Initiatic and Historical Documents of an Order of Practical Occultism<\/em>, New York: Weiser Books, 1995, p. 61.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref194\">[194]<\/a> <em>Ibid<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref195\">[195]<\/a>Kellner supposedly named these as Soliman ben Aifa (Sufi), Bhima Sena Pratapa (Hindu), and Sri Mahatma Agamya Paramahamsa (Hindu).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref196\">[196]<\/a>Tho, Bernard was reportedly born either Perry Arnold Baker or Peter Coon. And he may also have sometimes employed the alias \u201cHomer Stansbury Leeds.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref197\">[197]<\/a>Or \u201cOom, the Magnificent.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref198\">[198]<\/a> Isabel Stirling, <em>Zen Pioneer: The Life and Works of Ruth Fuller Sasaki<\/em>, Emeryville, Cal.: Shoemaker &amp; Hoard; Avalon Publ., 2006, p. 7.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref199\">[199]<\/a> Crowley refers to his spells as \u201ccalls,\u201d and says that they were spoken in \u201cEnochian,\u201d an alleged ancient angelic language that owes its initial compilation and \u201cdiscovery\u201d to the Elizabethan sorcerer John Dee and his companion, Edward Kelley. This early linguistic material, which included an alphabet, was an important part of the communication, conducted over a period of years, that Dee and Kelley supposedly had with an assortment of preternatural entities during various sessions of crystal-ball gazing (or \u201cscrying,\u201d to use the technical term for it). Enochian largely faded into obscurity until it was rediscovered, as it were, by the British-based, 19<sup>th<\/sup>-c. Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. The Golden Dawn assigned it great importance, along with the grimoires (or spell books) known as the <em>Key of Solomon<\/em> and the <em>Book of Abramelin<\/em>. For a time, Crowley was a member of the Golden Dawn. But its emphasis on magic and Crowley\u2019s differed precisely over the question of sex magic. For example, after resignation of William Wynn Westcott from his headship of the Golden Dawn, the position of leading \u201cmagus\u201d (or Chief Adept) was assumed by Florence Beatrice Farr. Farr expressly objected to Aleister Crowley\u2019s advancement on the grounds of his \u201csex intemperance,\u201d Guiley, <em>op. cit<\/em>., p. 101.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref200\">[200]<\/a> Guiley, <em>op. cit<\/em>., p. 57.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref201\">[201]<\/a> P. B. Randolph experimented with hashish and other drugs as well. The Schrecks (<em>loc. cit<\/em>.) perceive that Crowley may have derived many principles from Randolph without crediting him. They mention the similarity of Crowley\u2019s maxim \u201cLove is the Law; Love under Will\u201d to Randolph\u2019s Will reigns omnipotent; Love lieth at the foundation,\u201d p. 181. One wonders whether Randolph\u2019s \u201cEulis\u201d may have put Crowley onto the \u201cRites of Eleusis,\u201d which Crowley (and others) \u201cperformed\u201d in London. See \u201cRites of Eleusis,\u201d <em>Wikipedia<\/em>, Jan. 16, 2022, &lt;<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Rites_of_Eleusis\">https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Rites_of_Eleusis<\/a>&gt;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref202\">[202]<\/a> Recall that one possible derivation of \u201cCathar\u201d had to do with cat worship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref203\">[203]<\/a> There were other instances of sex magic, as well. E.g., on another such occasion, in 1918, Crowley and a female ritualist, one Roddie Minor (a.k.a., Roddie Warwick) reportedly engaged in a sexual \u201cworking\u201d called the <em>Almalantrah<\/em>. There was also Crowley\u2019s seminal \u201cCairo Working\u201d in 1904 where his first wife, Rose Edith Kelly, allegedly made spiritual contact with a supernatural being referred to as \u201cAiwass.\u201d Subsequently, Rose \u201cchanneled\u201d a text that would become foundational for \u201cCrowleyanity\u201d and the religion of Thelema: namely, \u201cThe Book of the Law\u201d (<em>Liber Al vel Legis<\/em>). Although the Cairo rituals are not generally considered sex-magical, <em>per se<\/em>, they occurred during Aleister and Rose\u2019s honeymoon. Later Thelemites are careful to explain that the \u201choneymoon\u201d has its origins in pagan fertility religions in which newly married couples essentially took religious pilgrimages to be taught sacred sexual techniques. (E.g., see <em>Sex: The Secret Gate to Eden<\/em>, dvd, Brooklyn, N.Y.: Thelema Press, 2006.) So, I guess, you do the math.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref204\">[204]<\/a> For more on this, see \u201c10 Arcane Words.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref205\">[205]<\/a> \u201cThe Cake of Light is the eucharistic host found within Thelema, the religion founded by British author and occultist Aleister Crowley in 1904 and some neo-Gnostic religions. A common \u2018cake of light\u2019 contains kamut flour, honey, a few drops of Abramelin oil, olive oil, beeswing, ash, and sometimes particular bodily fluids such as semen, vaginal fluids, or a mix of both\u2026,\u201d \u201cCake of Light,\u201d <em>Wikipedia<\/em>, May 28, 2022, &lt;<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Cake_of_Light\">https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Cake_of_Light<\/a>&gt;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref206\">[206]<\/a> Explicitly and literally in a form that many modern scholars deny had ever been actualized (until the 20th century). Moreover, Crowley definitely had Buddhist or Eastern-mystical influences, not least from his friend and teacher Allan Bennett, as well as from his experiences living in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka). A major Buddhist revival had been launched in Ceylon in the 1880s by (among others) Colonel Henry Steel Olcott, one of the main co-founders, with H. P. Blavatsky, of the Theosophical Society.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref207\">[207]<\/a> As, indeed, it had been to precursor organizations like the Hermetic Brotherhood of Luxor, the Hermetic Brotherhood of Light, and the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref208\">[208]<\/a> See e.g., numerous retellings of the most infamous of these, the \u201cPrague Golem,\u201d allegedly created by the \u201cMaharal,\u201d Rabbi Judah Loew ben Bezalel. But the stories go back at least to the Talmudic rabbi known as \u201cRava.\u201d In Talmud Tractate <em>Sanhedrin<\/em> (section 65b), Rava generates a mute \u201cmanikin\u201d that is destroyed by Rabbi Zeira. Gustav Meyrink wrote about the creature in his novel <em>Der Golem<\/em> (\u201cThe Golem,\u201d Leipzig: Kurt Wolff, 1915). More recently, Golem folklore was taken up by writer Howard Gordon and director Kim Manners in an episode (\u201cKaddish,\u201d season 4, no. 15, Feb. 16, 1997) of the Fox Network\u2019s <em>X-Files<\/em> television show. For an accessible overview of all this, see \u201cGolem,\u201d <em>Wikipedia<\/em>, Jun. 29, 2022, &lt;<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Golem\">https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Golem<\/a>&gt;. For a scholarly study, see Moshe Idel, <em>Golem: Jewish Magical and Mystical Traditions on the Artificial Anthropoid<\/em>, Albany, N.Y.: State Univ. of New York Press, 1990.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref209\">[209]<\/a> See, also, Michael Hoffman, <em>Judaism Discovered: From Its Own Texts<\/em>, Coeur d\u2019Alene, Id.: Independent History and Research, 2008.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref210\">[210]<\/a> Mary Shelley, <em>Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus<\/em>, London: Lackington, Hughes, Harding, Mavor &amp; Jones, 1818.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref211\">[211]<\/a> These manipulations are cryptically communicated in a (circa) 3<sup>rd<\/sup>-century Jewish text known as the <em>Sefer Yetzirah<\/em> (the Book of Formation\u201d). Although the <em>Sefer Yetzirah<\/em> is by no means a Golem-how-to manual, numerous rabbinic commentators, such as Eleazar of Worms (e.g., in his <em>Perush \u2018al Sefer Ye\u1e93irah<\/em>), have understood the text to contain all the necessary ingredients.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref212\">[212]<\/a> On this, see: Michael Hoffman, <em>Secret Societies and Psychological Warfare<\/em>, Coeur d\u2019Alene, Id.: Independent History &amp; Research, 2001, especially material deriving from Hoffman\u2019s contact with synchromystic James Shelby Downard. As first reported by Jim Brandon in his Sirius Rising audio interviews, Shelby Downard had long speculated the U.S. government\u2019s creation of an atomic bomb (spearheaded by General Leslie Groves and nuclear physicist Robert Oppenheimer), at Los Alamos Laboratory in New Mexico (the \u201cLand of Enchantment\u201d), under the name the \u201cManhattan Project,\u201d may have involved \u2013 whether centrally or tangentially \u2013 an attempt to create a homunculus. &nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref213\">[213]<\/a> According to Francis King, <em>The Secret Rituals of the O.T.O.<\/em>, scanned version [orig. New York: Samuel Weiser, 1973], p. 184; &lt;<a href=\"https:\/\/archive.org\/details\/FrancisKing-TheSecretRitualsOfTheO.t.o.-1973\/page\/n183\/mode\/2up?q=gestation\">https:\/\/archive.org\/details\/FrancisKing-TheSecretRitualsOfTheO.t.o.-1973\/page\/n183\/mode\/2up?q=gestation<\/a>&gt;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref214\">[214]<\/a> James Strong, \u201c1564. Golem,\u201d <em>The Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible<\/em> (\u201cStrong\u2019s Concordance\u201d), Cincinnati: Jennings &amp; Graham, 1890; Nashville, Tenn. &amp; N.Y.: Methodist Press, 1890; reproduced on <em>Bible Hub<\/em>, &lt;<a href=\"https:\/\/biblehub.com\/hebrew\/1564.htm\">https:\/\/biblehub.com\/hebrew\/1564.htm<\/a>&gt;. The word <em>golem<\/em> is, from a biblical standpoint, a <em>hapax legomenon<\/em> \u2013 it is used only once, in the <em>Book of Psalms<\/em>, chapter 139, verse 16.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref215\">[215]<\/a> <em>Ibid<\/em>., p. 185.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref216\">[216]<\/a> Crowley wrote a novel in which this procedure is aimed at producing a homunculus imbued with a \u201clunar spirit.\u201d See Aleister Crowley, <em>Moonchild<\/em>, N.p.: Mandrake Press, 1929.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref217\">[217]<\/a> Not unlike Rabbi Judah Loew\u2019s <em>Golem of Prague.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref218\">[218]<\/a> See remark: \u201c\u2026to have corn of so subtle a seed is a great thing once; to achieve it twice were the mark of a primal energy so marvellous, that We doubt whether there be one man born in ten times ten thousand years that hath such wonder-power,\u201d King, <em>op. cit<\/em>., p. 188.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref219\">[219]<\/a> Birth name \u201cMarvel Whiteside Parsons.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref220\">[220]<\/a> Either him, or Howard Hughes. See Loren Coleman, \u201cSynchromystic Howard Hughes,\u201d <em>Copy-Cat Effect<\/em> [weblog], Nov. 28, 2016, &lt;<a href=\"http:\/\/copycateffect.blogspot.com\/2016\/11\/Howard-Hughes.html\">http:\/\/copycateffect.blogspot.com\/2016\/11\/Howard-Hughes.html<\/a>&gt;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref221\">[221]<\/a> Born Marjorie Kimmel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref222\">[222]<\/a> Which was illegal at that time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref223\">[223]<\/a> John Carter, <em>Sex and Rockets: The Occult World of Jack Parsons<\/em>, Port Townsend, Wash.: Feral House, 2004, p. 151. Carter comments that \u201c[t]his abortion story \u2026casts doubt upon the literal application of the term Moonchild\u201d and \u201c\u2026actually serves as good evidence that Parsons was looking for an adult female to arrive,\u201d (<em>ibid<\/em>.) were the ritual to have accomplished its intended objective.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref224\">[224]<\/a> To put it slightly differently, there appear to be two primary possibilities. On the one hand, it could be that a physiological pregnancy is interpreted as a <em>failure<\/em> of the sex magic to create the desired homunculus \u2013 which, on this view, could be seen as some sort of \u201cspiritual pregnancy.\u201d On the other hand, it could be that the termination of a physical pregnancy \u2013 as a kind of magical sacrifice \u2013 is understood to be a <em>sine qua non<\/em> of the rite.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref225\">[225]<\/a>Ed Sanders, <em>The Family<\/em>, New York: E. P. Dutton, 1971, p. 64.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>(And the People Associated With Them) Introduction Sex magic?[1] Yes, really! So what is one to make of this salacious, risqu\u00e9 and frankly vulgar phrase that has attained currency among contemporary cognoscente? \u2026Even as STDs (sexually transmitted diseases) supposedly spiral out of sight in Euro-American public health. One gathers that this is, to some extent, &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"http:\/\/thesynchromystic.com\/index.php\/2022\/08\/16\/10-sex-magic-cults\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Top 10 &#8216;Sex-Magic&#8217; Cults&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[185,192,194,175,190,183,173,193,172,187,182,191,180,197,196,178,174,171,181,177,179,189,186,195,176,188,4,184],"class_list":["post-170","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-alternative-cosmologies","tag-arcane-traditions","tag-belief-systems","tag-comparative-religion","tag-conspiratorial-narratives","tag-countercultural-movements","tag-cult-analysis","tag-cultural-taboos","tag-esoteric-traditions","tag-forbidden-knowledge","tag-fringe-spirituality","tag-hidden-orders","tag-initiation-and-secrecy","tag-magia-sexualis","tag-magick","tag-myth-and-symbolism","tag-new-religious-movements","tag-occult-studies","tag-power-structures","tag-psychology-of-charisma","tag-ritual-theory","tag-ritualized-beliefs","tag-secret-histories","tag-sex-magic","tag-sociology-of-belief","tag-symbolic-transgression","tag-synchromysticism","tag-underground-history"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/thesynchromystic.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/thesynchromystic.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/thesynchromystic.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thesynchromystic.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thesynchromystic.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=170"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"http:\/\/thesynchromystic.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":226,"href":"http:\/\/thesynchromystic.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170\/revisions\/226"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/thesynchromystic.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=170"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thesynchromystic.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=170"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thesynchromystic.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=170"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}