(NOTE: Some of the themes of these articles may not be appropriate for young readers. Please keep that in mind when sharing this information).
It is written:
“Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” (Genesis 1:28)
To better understand Pagan’s beliefs about the connections between magic and sex, please consider these writings from a modern day witch (one of the most famous in the world).
Keep in mind, this material is extremely graphic. I hesitate to even share these facts, but have decided to do so in the hope that Christians will better understand the background and beliefs of pagans that we encounter and study the Gospel with. One thing that I have learned from several fo the pagans that I have studied with is that there is a particular fascination with two elements in particular among pagans: blood and semen (which actually becomes clear when you read books written by adherents of the pagan religions). Indeed, of the pagans that I have studied with have told me about some of the sexual rites which they have been initiated in as part of their Craft, and how these things continue to play an important role in the paganism that is practiced throughout the Kentucky area.
“Witchcraft does not need to apologize for involving sex magic….There is an indefinable magical element about sex, which people have been conscious of ever since the beginning of time….The spiritual side of Tantra was first described in books having any wide degree of publication among English-speaking people by Sir John Woodroffe, who wrote at first under the pen-name of ‘Arthur Avalon’. His book Shakti and Shakta set out to defend the Tantras from their detractors, both British and Hindu. In it he describes the worship of the pre-Aryan Great Mother Goddess of the ancient East, in terms which are often strongly reminiscent of the practices of European witchcraft, though he shows no signs of being aware of this. However, in Shakti and Shakta we read of the secret circle, often held at midnight, in which men and women worshippers were seated alternately. It was under the direction of a leader, and the object of adoration was a beautiful naked priestess who was regarded as the incarnation of the goddess. A ritual meal was partaken of, which was followed by sexual intercourse as an act of worship to the divinities invoked. This ritual was called the Panchatattva, meaning the Five Elements, because the constituents of it symbolized earth, fire, air, water and spirit or Akasha. It was also called the Panchamakara, or ‘Five M’s’, because each of these constituents according to its name in Sanskrit began with the letter M: wine (madya), meat (mangsa), fish (matsya), grain (mudra), and sexual union (maithuna). The wine corresponds to the element of fire, the meat to that of air, the fish to water, the grain to earth, and sexual union to spirit….It is the Tantras which contain the descriptions of the subtle bodies of man and woman, which surround and interpenetrate the physical body. These subtle bodies are a complex network of energies, which contain power centres or chakras. The latter are likened to wheels or to flowers, hence they are sometimes called lotuses. The diagrams of the subtle body bear an obvious resemblance to the western mystical diagram of the Tree of Life as depicted in the books of the Cabbala….These basic ideas of the great cosmic sacred marriage and its reflection at the human level, of the use of the sexual act as a sacrament and an act of worship, taken in conjunction with the antiquity of Tantric teaching and practice, seem to indicate that what became Tantra in the east became witchcraft in the west. Certainly, the Tantric chakrapuja, or circle of worship, bears resemblance to the practices of the witches’ Sabbat, both of today and yesterday. An even more striking reminiscence of the witches’ Sabbat is to be found in the stories of the Hindu god Krishna and his moonlight revels with the cow-girls of Brindaban. Among the exhibits at the previously-described exhibition of Tantric art was a painting of the Rasa Mandala, or ecstatic round-dance of Krishna and the cow-girls by the light of the full moon in the forest glade. By his magical power, Krishna had provided a male dancing partner for each girl who was the semblance of himself, while his partner was Radha, his favourite beloved. The resemblance to the joyful moonlight revels of witches needs no stressing. Moreover, Krishna himself bears a remarkable resemblance to the Greek god Pan, as previously mentioned in Chapter 1. Both are manifestations of the Universal Form as described in the famous passage of the Bhagavad Gita and often depicted in Indian art. Both are associated with round dances at the full moon and with fertility ceremonies, Pan with the Lupercalia and Krishna with the spring-time Holi festival. Both are musicians, Pan playing the mysterious music of his seven-reeded pipes in the depths of the forest, while Krishna, in the same way, plays upon his flute and enchants all who hear its sound. Both are associated with orgiastic revelry, Pan with the nymphs and Krishna with the Gopis or cow-girls. Both were probably ancient fertility gods, who were adopted into later and more sophisticated pantheons. The erotic love between Radha and Krishna is a favourite theme of Indian painting and poetry….The ancient cult of Tantra in its Vamacharin or ‘left-hand’ form has become more or less secret, its followers having gone underground like the witches did. ‘Left-hand’ in this sense simply means those circles who celebrate their worship with actual sexual intercourse, and are so called because the woman who represents the goddess sits upon the left hand side of the male worshipper….Crowley and his followers also made use of alchemical terms to describe the operations of sexual magic. The male organ was called the athanor and the female the cucurbite, both names of alchemical vessels. The word ‘athanor’ is derived from the Arabic at-tannur, meaning ‘the furnace’, with its obvious association with the purest male element, fire. ‘Cucurbite’ is from the Latin cucurbita, meaning ‘a gourd’, after the original alchemist’s vessel used in distilling, which was shaped like a gourd; that is, a containing vessel in which an alchemical transmutation could take place. The semen was called ‘the blood of the red lion’, from Leo, the fixed sign of fire; while the female secretion which lubricates the vagina at the time of sexual excitement was called ‘the gluten of the white eagle’, the eagle being the esoteric symbol of Scorpio, the fixed sign of water, the purest feminine element. The semen was also called ‘the serpent’ or ‘the lion-serpent’, the latter being an old Gnostic symbol. It is indeed rather curious that the Gnostics had an emblem of an egg encircled by a serpent as a symbol of universal life, long before modern medicine and microscopy revealed the secrets of the ovum and the spermatozoon. The mingling of the male and female fluids during sexual intercourse produced what was called ‘the first matter’, which was believed to be transmuted by ritual and by the concentrated mind-power of the participants into ‘the elixir’, which was then partaken of and consumed by both as a sacrament. (‘Elixir’ is again from the Arabic, the words al-iksir meaning the Philosopher’s Stone, by means of which base metals were turned to gold and wonders accomplished.) It is this to which Aleister Crowley refers in the cryptic phrases of that chapter in his book Magick in Theory and Practice, which is entitled: ‘Of the Eucharist and of the Art of Alchemy’: The highest form of the Eucharist is that in which the Element consecrated is One. It is one substance and not two, not living and not dead, neither liquid nor solid, neither hot nor cold, neither male nor female.… The highest sacrament, that of One element, is universal in its operation; according to the declared purpose of the work so will the result be. It is a universal Key of all Magick. This practice is also mentioned in the oldest Buddhist Tantra, the Hevajra, which describes how the master administers this sacrament: ‘Then with thumb and fourth finger he drops the bindu (semen) in the pupil’s mouth.’ The Tantra called the Karpuradistotram also advocates the partaking of the mingled sexual fluids by the male partner in the ritual from the vagina of the female, which is precisely the Ninth Degree Instruction of the O.T.O.* However repugnant sexually inhibited people may feel this practice to be, it is undoubtedly of great antiquity in the realm of magic.” (Doreen Valiente, Witchcraft For Tomorrow, 2348-2399 (Kindle Edition); Ramsbury, Marlborough Wiltshire; Robert Hale)
The gift of sex which God designed for husband and wife in the covenant of marriage (Genesis 1:26-28; 1 Corinthians 7:1-3) and procreation (Genesis 1:28) has thus been in many ways defiled by paganism.
In our next study, we will see how the ancient Gnostics and the group known as the Illuminati have similarly thus perverted the teachings of Christ.
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