Sexual Magick Since Crowley

As is perhaps is well known amongst those here gathered the OTO claims

to have "a secret capable of realizing the world-old dream of the

Brotherhood of

Man.". In general the secret is sexual magick. But, other than in

generalities, no-one has the complete version of the secret – perhaps such

a thing never really existed. Those early exponents of the secret such as

Theodore Reuse and the OTO, had pretty much stumbled on the ‘secret’

and had some success in its use. Even so, its fairly obvious that nobody

was absolutely sure what the secret was or all of its applications. In many

ways we’re still waiting for the full explanation, and perhaps that’s how it

should be – that’s the sexual secrets remain work in progress. But there

are some commonly agreed definitions:

Using the Masonic style grade system there are five basic categories or if

you like grades:

© Mogg Morgan 2004 1

VIIº = Adorative/Meditative (Sexual) Technique

VIIIº = Autoerotic Sexual Technique

IXº = Heteroerotic Sexual Technique

Xº = Generative Sexual Technique

XIº = Homoerotic Sexual Technique

This conspectus comes from the late Francis X King’s book ‘Secret

Rituals of the OTO’ . This book has found it way onto the OTO’s own

index of forbidden books and costs a packet to buy. At its heart is a

special technique of sexual magick that was revealed to and

discovered by Crowley. The core of the mystery as summarised by,

Wilfred Talbot Smith (1885-1957) as

‘if you want to succeed you have to succeed’.

Smith was defacto leader of Crowley’s American followers, who in

1930s Hollywood incorporated the "Church of Thelema"--known to

Los Angeles newspaper readers as the "Purple Cult." His mentor in

Crowley’s AA organisation was G S Jones, Frater Achad. (Starr:

2003).

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The three main overt influences on Crowley sexual theorizing were

Theodor Reuss

Victor Neuberg

Rose Kelly

Each of these being associated with three magical texts viz:

1. Book of Lies

2. Vision & the Voice,

3. Liber Al Vel Legis

Each of these associated with three different styles of sexual magick

viz:

Magical Cunnilingus

Homoeroticism hence possible subtitle for this talk ‘100 years of

sodomy’

Blood magick

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If we look at each of them in turn

Magical Cunnilingus

(or as some authors would have it cunnilinctus)1

Famously Reuss, visited Crowley in 1912 and accused him of

publishing the ‘central secret’ of the IX degree of the OTO. Indeed

two years later, Crowley by his own account did publish it as chapter

69 of the Book of Lies. There’s a mystery there. (Starr 2003:22)

‘Kaphala 69’ – chapter 69

THE WAY TO SUCCEED – AND THE WAY TO SUCK EGGS!

COMMENTATORARY

The key to the understanding of this chapter is given in the number

and the title, the former being intelligible to all nations who employ

Arabic figures, the later only to experts in deciphering English puns.2

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Reuss founded his new OTO in 1906, a year after the death of his

Karl Kellner, his superior in then magical order. He obviously felt

liberated by the death of his teachers.1 In a letter to David Curwen,

quoted by (Starr 2003:22), Crowley wrote that the ‘the secret as at

that time possessed by the Order was in a very crude and unscientific

form and there was no explanation of the conditions which had to be

brought about to get it to work.’ Indeed the ‘secret’ has been in

development ever since. Indeed it could be said that the secret passed

out of the stewardship of the OTO long before Crowley’s death.

Hence the reliance in 1986, by members of the caliphate OTO on

popular works by Francis King. Ie why would they need to read King

if they knew it already from internal sources? (Satyr 2002)

Homoeroticism

(XI degree magick was discovered in a homoerotic context but

is not IMO a male only mystery. There has been some

discussion inside the OTO over the years about whether

women can really participate in XI degree mysteries I’m not

going to go into that today other than to state my personal

1
The constitution of the OTO was actually published in 1912.
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view that the XI is for both sexes – and that anything else

would be to contradict the creative qualities ascribed to

menstrual blood in Liber Al. XI degree may well be beyond

gender or an intersexual mystery. The XI degree has not really

been able to survive within the OTO structure, Kenneth Grant

has pretty much reinterpreted the degree as another variant

on the VIII degree work. Within the so-called Caliphate, an XI

degree project authorized by Grady Mcmurtry has been

disbanded by the new ‘regime’. Judging by Marcello Motta’s

published work, his organization would seem to be still into it,

but its influence on the global occult scene is as yet quite

marginal. Seems like the Caliphate and Typhonian found it too

disruptive a practice and have quietly taken it out at midnight

for burial. It survives best amongst the non-aligned Thelemic

majority.

The reconnection with a very ancient magical tradition came about

through the tempestuous, some would say abusive love affair between

Victor Neuberg and Crowley that was played out over an eight year

period in the early part the 20th century.

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It was November 1909, just ten years after the Oscar Wilde trial,

when Victor Neuberg and Crowley made that fateful walk out into

Algeria mountains. They took with them Calls of the 30 Aethyrs, the

famous Enochian text of John Dee, with the intention of making the

calls in the desert. Israel Regardie, in his introduction to the magical

record of this time, published as The Vision and the Voice,3 implies

that Crowley had deliberately brought his Enochian notebook for the

purpose of repeating his earlier experiments. It could be said that it

was at this moment that Crowley and Neuberg were about to

rediscover sexual magick albeit in its homoerotic guise. They climbed

mount Sal’lel Addin in order to call the fourteenth4 Aethyr. It

obviously wasn’t that successful as on their decent Crowley received

an instruction to return to the summit and have another go. They

made a circle of small stones, tracing words of power in the sand. In

the centre they built an altar and placing themselves ‘in the sight of

the sun’ Neuberg made love to Crowley. This was a public sacrifice to

the god Pan. The footnote to this passage says that this was by the XI

degree OTO formula. Regardie (1972: 134fn) rather coyly

commenting that Crowley ‘constantly sought to glorify and excuse

[IT] at the same time.’

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Crowley’s concept of the fully attained adept was that they be

epicene. I suggest a better word might be bisexual, the magician

pursuing the goal of androgyny or fusion of the sex within.5 This

public sacrifice of himself to Pan in the full light of the sun, marks a

turning point. It was in fact regarded by Crowley as an initiation as

Magister Templi (8=3) in which one has to resolve the dualistic

conflict of the spiritual and the physical. An abyss had been crossed

between both realms, in which all alienation was dissolved. The old

antagonism of Golden Dawn type magick for the sensual was ditched

along with the temperance card.

Soon after that Crowley performed a public act of masturbation with

a London follower. This is more than supposed Crowley

exhibitionism. One interpretation of the magical ordeal of crossing

the abyss is this reconciliation of sex and religion. The command to

‘interpret all events as dealings of the gods with the soul’ makes sense

in terms of viewing one’s sexuality, whatever its orientation, as a

divine attribute. The organs of sexuality should be venerated, much

as the yoni and phallus are worshiped as the most holy religious

symbol by many millions of people.6

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Rose Kelley

Crowley’s first wife Rose Kelly was the medium for the reception of

the holy book received one hundred years ago. Perhaps a

controversial statement to some who focus on Crowley’s statement

that he ‘entered the room alone.’ But examination of all the factors

points towards Rose Kelley’s assistance in the reception of Liber Al.

The third chapter contains instructions for a simple but effective

sexual ritual. In its description of ‘Cakes of Light’ it keys into a very

ancient Egyptian rites that revolves around the magical techniques of

ejaculations/spitting, licking and swallowing.7 The following is based

on Alex Bennett’s paper Eucharist Magick.

Liber Al , Chapter III vs 23-25

23. For perfume mix meal and honey & thick leavings of red wine:

then oil of Abramelin and olive oil, and afterward soften & smooth

down with rich fresh blood.

24. The best blood is of the moon, monthly: then the fresh blood of a

child, or droppings from the host of heaven; then of enemies; then of

the priest or the worshippers; last of some beast, no matter what.

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25. This burn: of this make cakes & eat unto me. This hath also

another use; let it be laid before me, and kept thick with perfumes of

your orison: it shall become full of beetles as it were and creeping

things sacred unto me.

[Digression if time]

Interestingly, the Book of the Law is here pointing to a ritual with

very ancient and significant antecedents. There’s an important and

illuminating Old Testament example:

Adultery curse from Bible, Number 5: 23-24

“Then the priest shall write these curses in a book and wash them off

into the water of bitterness; and he shall make a woman drink the

water of bitterness that brings the curse, and the water that brings

the curse shall enter into her and cause bitter pain.

And the priest shall take the cereal offering of jealously out of the

woman’s hand and shall wave the cereal offering [cakes of light!!]

before the Lord and bring it to the altar; and the priest shall take a

handful of the cereal offering, as its memorial portion and burn it

upon the altar, and afterward shall make the woman drink the water.
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And when he has made her drink the water, then, if she has defiled

herself and has acted unfaithfully against her husband, the water that

brings the curse shall enter her body and cause bitter pain, and her

body shall swell, and her thigh shall fall away, and the woman shall

become an execration among her people. But if the woman has not

defiled herself and is clean, then, she shall be free and shall conceive

children.’

And this is turn is regarded as being derived from ancient Egyptian

body magick. The following example is Ptolemaic but the divine

precedent is the creation of the Egyptian cosmos by Atum-Re from

his own spittle/semen. (for more see my Seth the Ombite on ‘Hekau’)

‘He put the book [of Thoth] into my hand and I read aloud the first

formula which was written. I enchanted the skies, the earth, the

world of the night, the mountains and the waters: I understood

clearly what birds were saying, as well as fish and the four-footed

beasts. Then I read aloud the second formula that was written, and I

saw the sun appear with its escort of gods. I saw the moon at its rising

and all the stars of the sky in their places.

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I wanted to absorb these marvellous formulae, and as I did not know

how to write, I had to rely on Nenofer, my brother and my husband,

who was a skilled scribe and a very learned man. He sent for a piece

of papyrus, and on it he carefully copied all the words that were in

the book. Then he moistened the papyrus with beer and dissolved it

all in water. When he was certain that it had melted, he drank, and in

this way contained within himself all that was in the book. And then

he did it all again for me.’ (Divin 1969: 114)

[end digression]

In the blood magick of Liber Al, the blood types are listed in

descending order of strength:

1, Blood of the moon, monthly (menstrual blood);8

2, The fresh blood of a child (placental blood) or droppings from the

host of heaven (semen);

3, Of enemies (blood taken from the veins of anti Thelemites);

4, Of the priest or of the worshippers (blood taken from the veins, as

self sacrifice or from you or other Thelemites);

© Mogg Morgan 2004 12

5, Of some beast, no matter what (blood taken from any animal

whether it be from the veins, menstruation or semen).

These are both used in Tantric or Tankhem ( Egyptian Tantra ) rites

and are best done solitarily or with a Sex Magick partner.

Conclusion

Crowley’s sexual magick techniques look even more relevant today

than they did 100 years ago!

One of the key differences revolves around this issue of safe sex. The

first Thelemites weren’t much concerned with contraception, in fact

they almost certainly believed that contraception might somehow

spoil the elixir or form a barrier to the unimpeded flow of sexual

energy. The results were several unplanned pregnancies, the burden

of which fell largely on the women. These Thelemites were in no way

‘new men’. In fact I was surprised to learn that abortion was

prohibited amongst members of the OTO, perhaps an indication of

everyone’s, men and women’s, social conservatism (Starr 2003: 287).

Modern thelemites tend, with some notable exceptions, to see a

conflict between normal family life and thelemic magick. Dadaji, the
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last guru of a Tantrik Thelemic Order, was known to say that’s

‘tantriks don’t breed.’

There is the additional problem of sexual transmitted diseases and of

course AIDS. These issues cannot be ignored but they can be

managed for example membership of a coven or circle of ‘swingers’

requires a regular aids/STD test etc etc.

There are few who would really trust these matters entirely to the

gods and the power of magick. Afterall why should we trust the gods

to look after our sexual health?

Thelemic sexual magick has always had a number of techniques that

are safe or where the risk can be significantly reduced. But it requires

imagination – and maybe that’s what is really important in modern

game.

Oral sex – is certainly safer and conforms to the doctrine ‘if you want

to succeed succeed.

Masturbation and mutual masturbation are safe and effective

© Mogg Morgan 2004 14

Anal intercourse is to be followed by fellatio of the passive partner.9

An AIDS/STD test may be necessary– and the starfire elixir can be

purified by baking into cakes of light. But the whole process is as safe

as oral sex.

Which is the Thelemic trump card– the making of cakes of light

pretty much makes everything safe and it was a remarkable thing

that section in Liber AL quoted above.

Bondage and fetishism: no surprise that ten years or so ago this

emerged amongst the magical community but has now gone global.

This is also a strong Gnostic technique amongst gardnerian wiccans.

It’s a shame that Gardner purged early wicca of many of the oral sex

techniques he must have known were common amongst Thelemites

(and France Bardon see Richel).

This raises an additional point of sexual position - the wiccan ‘grand

rite’ valorises the missionary position. Thelema means never having

to lay back and think of England…. .

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well that probably more than enough to get you going. Sexual magick

has changed a lot since Crowley although the original Thelemic

material has proved itself versatile enough to thrive in modern times.

I hope you all succeed in whatever you do

'i am a practitioner of life endangering sex-magick down amongst the

old ones. i am also an advocate of long periods of contemplative

celibacy in preparation for the moment when the invisible cold flame

of sexmagick transforms our physical shells and through ecstasy an

inspired path towards truth is manifest.'

Mary Hedger

Notes

Crowley, A (1913) The Book of Lies (1980 Weiser paperback)

Starr, Martin P. (2003) THE UNKNOWN GOD: W. T. SMITH AND

THE THELEMITES, Teitan Press, Inc.

Satyr (2002)“The Black Lodge of Santa Cruz” in Biroco, Joe, Kaos 14

(Supplement).
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© Mogg Morgan 2004 17
1
A misprint in one of KG, AC & Hidden God
2
Actually several techniques are implied here – including mutual conlingus, felatio, intercourse followed by either etc.
3
Crowley, A C (1972) The Vision & the Voice, edited and explained by Israel Regardie, Sangreal)
4
Lunar number
5
See C4 Secret Intersex, 5-6th April 04. Men’s XY structure perhaps makes them natural androgynes.
6
A version of this appeared in an article called ‘The Moon Above the Tower’ by Katon Shual in Nuit Isis magazine circa

1990.
7
Le Satanisme Paris 1896.

Vain Observance

The screen of the choir opens in response to the knocking of a hand thrust out of a huge mantle. From the folds of it emerge

three books. The wearer of the mantle places them symmetrically upon the altar in the middle and at each end. The clock

strikes twelve. At the twelfth stroke, the black coped priest extends his hands in the form of a cross. He stands rigid, silently

invoking the magick powers....... Four o'clock. The flames of the great candles waver. The celebrant goes back to the

sacristry to vest himself with maniple, stole and chasuble. He covers the chalice with a black veil, a chalice mixed in

reverse, first the water and then the wine. He takes also a reliquary closed with three seals. It contains three human heads so

old that they might be skulls of the first sons of Adam (Able, Cain and Seth). Great astrologers,' mutters the priest, 'your

dust prophesies. The flame of your hearts still inspires; and the more because you are dust, and your hearts have gathered

the wisdom found beyond the tomb.' The priest begins to say the gospel of St John, reversing the sense. He says instead of

"The word was made flesh", "The flesh was made word". The celebrant takes some of the dust from the reliquary and puts it

into the chalice.... " Be Blessed, breath of death, blessed a thousand times more than the bread of life, for you have not been

harvested by any human hands nor did any human creature mill and grind you. It is the evil God alone who took you to the

mill of the sepulchre, so that you should thus become the bread of revelation." The celebrant takes the host and mixes it with

more dust from the reliquary. He eats and drinks the bread and wine. After dragging the cross from the altar, he tears off his

vestments, and tramples them under his naked foot. " O cross, I cast you down, in memory of the ancient Master of the

Temple, because you are the instrument of torture of Jesus. I cast you down because you preach punishment and shame to

those who would emancipate themselves and repudiate slavery. I cast you down because your reign is finished, and it is no

longer necessary for men to return to darkness and despair. They can arise to find the spirit of the Mani which is the Holy

Ghost." Looking down at the torn vestments and at the discarded ornaments, the celebrant says: " These ornaments, badges

of authority, serve only to conceal the nakedness which is alone agreeable to our God and our Lady. You remind men of the
lie of the false apostle Peter." There is a long silence, and then the priest again takes up his incantations. "Life listen; Death

speak." He regards the relics. " All powerful dust that from the east came to salute the star, Jesus of the Mani. First you,

Gaspard, who bring riches to relieve our poverty, give us the wisdom of the future and the precious gift of our counsel. You,

Melchior, proud old man of the long beard, you who offer incense to humility. You, Balthazar, who are the closet to us, you

who love the 'Queen of the Sabbat'. Unloose the all-powerful passion of my senses, wed me to blind ecstasy that I shall be

inspired, if not by grace, at least by desire.

8
Apparent contradiction here with Liber 4 Ch IV Formula of Alim – where the power of blood not acknowledged when

compared with semen. (see The Inscrutable Palace)

9
The ‘blind eye of Horus’ and the ‘eye that weeps’ are the appropriate terms her.