What is Sex Magick?

Sexual magick is one of the greatest tools I am aware of for self realisation, creative expression and healing. It is a unique way to explore your subjective inner landscape and authentic self, including your sexuality and how that underlies who you are.

To begin I should define magick itself within the context of my work. Magick (spelt with a ‘K’ to differentiate it from stage tricks) 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. Many would draw parallels with Tantra, especially the Western interpretation, and there is overlap, but magickal practice is more far reaching as it has a history of BDSM practices, witchcraft, alterative gender expressions and a set of ideas that have their roots in Europe rather than Hinduism, so is more suited to those with a Western outlook on equality and self exploration rather than religion.

The focus of my approach to sexual magick is to strip away the inauthentic within ourselves and to grow. As we move through our lives we gain greater understanding of what is truly important to us and how to bring that into our lives consistently. This authentic experience has been called the True Will within the work of Aleister Crowley, who would be one of my key influences, as he is considered one of the major founders of sexual magick.

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 the above 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.’.

Sexuality is at the core of who we are, it is the most powerful driving force in our psyches. I 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, I aim to explore the light and shadow of our sexualities through ecstatic physical practice, symbolic meaning, scientific learning, as well as the art of magick.

The body 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 a richer life and realisation of our True Will or authentic self.