‘The whole power of Magic is founded on Eros. The way Magic works is to bring things together through their inherent similarity. . . . [I]n our body, the brain, the lungs, the heart, liver and other organs interact, favour each other, intercommunicate and feel reciprocal pain. From this relationship is born Eros, which is common to them all; from this Eros is born their mutual rapprochement, wherein resides true Magic.‘ – Marsilio Ficino (1433–1499)
To begin I should define magick itself within the context of our work. As we are a Left-Hand Path group the focus is on self development and transformation with a focus on taboo breaking, transgression, and the stripping away of the inauthentic from our experience. Magick in this context is a key method for exploring these areas. Magick is a technology of the subjective experience, a way to step outside of the norms and structures of the everyday and liberate the psyche. The process used is a symbolic landscape that can be drawn from one linage or another, and then developed through direct experience of altered states of consciousness. This authentic experience has been called the True Will within the work of Aleister Crowley, who would be one of our key influences.
Crowley’s definition of magick is commonly used, and I feel with good reason, so I will include it here also, magick is “the Science and Art of causing Change to occur in conformity with Will.”. However, usually the definition is left at that, but there is a deeper layer to this and a deeper understanding of Will. Crowley viewed ‘every intentional act is a Magickal Act.‘. Yet he goes further even than this, in the footnote to this statement in Magick in Theory and Practice he writes, ‘By “Intentional” I mean “willed.” But even unintentional acts so-seeming are not truly so. Thus, breathing is an act of the Will-to-live.’. So Crowley here is including fundamental automatic aspects of our nature as a part of Will, and thus magick. This suggests that some aspects of Will are to be observed, discovered, or brought into awareness. In this way True Will is something we attune to. In the Theorums outlined in Magick in Theory and Practice he makes this clearer with the statement, ‘Magick is the Science of understanding oneself and one’s conditions. It is the Art of applying that understanding in action.’.
Although we are not a Thelemic group as such, we draw upon Crowley’s model of the Great Work, the Babalon current, and some of his sexual magick ideas.
Sex magick
Sexuality is at the core of who we are, it is the most powerful driving force in our psyches. We see lust as the force that drives creativity, procreation, as well as the negative forces of late capitalism. Therefore to fully realise our nature and to heal from the hypocritical sex negative attitudes prevalent in our culture, we explore the dark and the light of our sexualities through the ecstatic, symbolic, scientific, and art of magick.
The body too is central to any understanding of sexual magick. In this sense the exploration of our biology and physiology give rise to a deeper understanding of our wider drives and motivations. This can extend to cultivating wellness and what sexual choices bring the greatest happiness, passion, and inner peace.
BDSM is a key area of sexual practice that allows us to work with pain responses, unconscious drives, and the limits of experience. Pain, sensory deprivation, and bondage, can lead to altered states of consciousness. These actions cause changes in the body, the very fabric of who we are, and lead to a connection with the core of our being, the subjective realm that is not readily available to us in mundane states of consciousness. All of these can lead us towards self awareness, sexual pleasure and ecstasy, as well as ultimately the Great Work.