Natural Magic by Doreen Valiente

Author:Doreen Valiente
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780719826924
Publisher: Crowood

The dance of the witches’ Sabbat

Modern medical science supports these contentions, insofar as it has proved that a woman can only conceive for a brief time of a few days out of her monthly cycle of ovulation and menstruation. Yet she is fully capable of enjoying sexual intercourse throughout the cycle, except when she is actually menstruating. So what are the rest of the days of the cycle for?

As there are three functions of sex, so it exists in three forms of activity: auto-sexual, homosexual and heterosexual. That is, sexual enjoyment by oneself, or with a member of one’s own sex, or with a member of the opposite sex. Again, the idea of the magical number three, or the triad, appears. All these forms of sexual activity have been used, both in magic and religion, from time immemorial.

Old-time moralists made a tremendous fuss about so-called ‘self-abuse’, or masturbation. It was even supposed to be ‘the sin against the Holy Ghost’ as well as being responsible for just about everything from criminal lunacy to ingrowing toenails. Today, however, psychologists regard it as a perfectly natural thing; so what was the agitation really about? Just possibly, because of the use of human sexual secretions for magical purposes. This applies both to the male sperm and to the secretion of the Bartholin glands in the female. The latter are a pair of small glands, situated one on either side of the entrance to the vagina, that secrete a fluid which moistens the vagina when the female is sexually aroused.

These human sexual secretions, both male and female, are alluded to under the symbolism of alchemy; the male as the blood or essence of the Red Lion, and the female as the gluten or essence of the White Eagle. The ‘Lion’ is the emblem of Leo, the fixed sign of fire; the ‘Eagle’ is the emblem of the higher aspect of Scorpio, the fixed sign of water. Fire is regarded as a masculine element and water as a feminine one. Similarly, the alchemical vessels could represent the sexual organs. The athanor could be a synonym for the penis and the cucurbit (a gourd-shaped vessel) for the vagina. Old alchemical manuscripts sometimes have illustrations of these vessels, in which their shapes are clearly reminiscent of sexual significance. The mingled sexual fluids constitute the ‘First Matter’, out of which is transmuted the ‘Elixir of Life’.

The strange symbolism of alchemy was one way in which secret brotherhoods concealed the sexual nature of their rites, which might otherwise have been denounced as ‘abominations’ simply because they involved sex. (Although, of course, not all alchemical symbolism should be interpreted in this way).

Aleister Crowley, in his notorious book Magick in Theory and Practice, had a joke at the expense of the credulous, when he wrote that “a male child of perfect innocence and high intelligence” was the most suitable victim for a magical sacrifice; claiming that he himself had been making such a sacrifice “on an average about 150 times every

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