SEX MAGICK                                               SEXMAG01.TXT
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       From: Iris-Aphrodite Well anyhow...for those who came here with SERIOUS
       desire to learn about sex magick, here are some tidbits from Janet and
       Stewart Farrar looking at the rationale and uses of Sex Magick.
       The Farrars write:
       "A closely united couple who wish to use sex magick for a worthwhile
       objective will first discuss that objective and make sure that they
       have it clearly in their minds. They will then cast a Circle around
       themselves and make love unhurriedly and tenderly, with the maximum
       possible awareness of each other and their magickal objective. Once
       they have joined their bodies in coitus, if they have sufficient
       control they may even keep still for quite a while, building up the
       sexual tension-in-unity to the highest possible peak, so that their
       awareness of each other and of their purpose reaches as great a level
       of intensity as they can bear. When they are ready, they will aim at
       simultaneous orgasm, at which point they will hurl the whole power of
       the vortex into the achievement of the magickal objective. Even if
       their orgasms should not coincide, they should *both* `hurl the vortex' 
       at the moment of *each* orgasm.

       "Sex magick of this kind should not be used too often, because it is a
       memorably heightened experience and is better not devalued by over-
       familiarity.

       "One occasion when we used it ourselves is worth recording. We had been
       in Ireland a few months, having handed over our London coven to other
       leaders, and we were feeling frustrated because we now had no coven
       except for one already-initiated witch who had contacted us and who
       lived a hundred miles away. So we worked by this method to `set up an
       astral lighthouse' over our home, which would attract the kind of
       people we wanted. The very next day, we met the couple who became our
       first Irish initiates, and from then on our coven grew. The original
       couple were a great strength to us in this growth and are now running
       their own group. (It is perhaps significant of the kind of resonance
       our `lighthouse' set up, that the very first people it attracted were a
       married pair.)" 


       I think the Farrars have really said it all here...sex magick is not to
       be trivialized or abused. It is also highly suitable for attracting
       likeminded couples to form a working group--bearing in mind that this
       does NOT connote wife-swapping, swinging or orgies, as the essence of
       most Wiccan sex magick lies in the privacy of individual couples using
       it. IOW, a coven that does other magick as a group will perform sex
       magick only on rare occasions (usually it is the High Priestess and
       Priest who perform, with their deputies guarding the area in which the
       rite takes place, but not able to view the actions with their eyes. The
       guarding is obviously purely psychic in nature; the deputies' duty is
       to make sure no harmful energies are attracted in to contaminate the
       energy the priestly couple is raising.)

       Alternatively, all couples in the coven will perform the magick
       separately but simultaneously at an appointed, agreed-upon time in the
       privacy of their own homes. No orgy situation here; it would take away
       from the tone and purpose of the rite. After all, who can keep the
       purpose at hand in mind when they're busy being titillated by watching
       the Joneses perform? If nothing else, orgies are discouraged because
       they are too complex and distracting to make for effective practice of
       magick. The best way to make this magick work is the simplest. Remember
       the good old KISS theory?

       *K*eep *I*t *S*imple, *S*tupid!!!

       So, when it comes to sex magick, the best advice would still be: Don't
       forget to KISS! <g>

       Apropos kissing...remember that scene in Pretty Woman where Julia
       Roberts says she never kisses her clients on the lips because it's "too
       personal"? There's a lesson to be learned here too. Kissing can be
       tremendously intimate (for many of us, even more so than sex per se!)
       and thus, is a valid way of working sex magick too! A good point to
       remember in an age of rampant disease, when the exchange of body fluids
       common to the "alchemy" type of sex magick is medically unfeasible (eg
       during a genital herpes flare-up, or if one person has HIV and the
       other does not.) Kissing does not transmit any life-threatening
       diseases, whereas sex to the point of ejaculation may be deadly. And
       partner-swapping can multiply exponentially the threat of catching an
       STD. It only takes one infected person.

       The orgy mentality, alas, is not conducive to healthy practice of sex
       magick. Shallow pursuit of sensation alone undercuts the effectiveness
       of the magick. And the chance of distraction also undermines the power.
       Concentration is the essence of every kind of magick, and nowhere is it
       so delicate a balance as in the act of sex!