Sexuality, Magic and Perversion (29 page)

Reich was also unhappy about the growing Freudian tendency to psychologise the somatic, to argue that most diseases were the result of unconscious wishes or fears, to argue that a patient developed, say, tuberculosis, because he
wished
to develop tuberculosis. It was not that Reich denied the existence of evidence in favour of such concepts, rather it was that he felt that no unconscious wish—using the word
wish
in the sense comprehended by Freudian analysts—could produce deep organic changes; he was confident that the so-called unconscious wish must be an expression of some deep-seated biological process.

In 1934 Reich began physiological experiments designed to discover whether such a biological process actually took place. The earliest of these experiments were designed to ascertain whether sexual excitement was assorted with an increase of bio-electric charge in the genitals and the erogenous zones—Reich found that it was. On the basis of his experimentation Reich evolved a theory which, so he believed, solved the theoretical conflict between vitalism and mechanism; he had been interested in this dispute since his student days and was rather inclined towards vitalism—his contemporaries at Vienna University had regarded him as “a crazy Bergsonian”. Reich’s theory accepted the mechanists’ belief that living material was controlled by the same physical laws as the rest of the universe but, on the other hand, averred that living material was unique in that in it electrical and mechanical functions were combined in a specific manner not found in non-living matter.

In the period 1936–9 Reich carried out an ambitious biological research programme designed to elucidate the origins of life itself. He claimed to have discovered what be called “bions”; energy vesicles transitional between organic and inorganic matter produced by a process of heating and swelling and capable of developing into protozoa,
cancer cells etc. Reich believed that he had produced bions from wood, grass, muscle tissue, wool, coal and soot; in 1939 he began experiments with radiating bions allegedly derived from sea-sand and, as a result, “discovered” orgone energy.

It would take too long to fully recount the course of Reich’s experiments and supposed discoveries. Suffice it to say that he believed that in orgone energy he had discovered the basic life-stuff of the universe, the explanation of all emotional and some physical illnesses (e.g. cancer) and the explanation of all philosophical and religious problems.

Subsequently he built Orgone Energy Accumulators—devices intended to extract orgone energy from the atmosphere—put forward the hypothesis that hurricanes and galaxies resulted from the “cosmic superimposition” of two streams of orgone energy and came to accept the reality of Flying Saucers. These latter, he held, were to be considered hostile, their object being the stealing of orgone energy from our planet!

There are remarkable similarities between the magical conception of the Astral Light (something referred to as ether of the wise) and Reich’s conception of orgone energy. It is not surprising that as a consequence of this similarity some Reichian analysts have begun to study magical techniques in general, and (because Reich so greatly emphasised the importance of the orgasm) sexo-magical techniques in particular. On the other hand some magicians have taken up the study of Reich and incorporated at least parts of his teaching into their own personal philosophical syntheses—thus one well-known American occultist has evolved his own system derived from Crowley, from the Golden Dawn “Middle Pillar” magical techniques and from Reichian vegetotherapy.

¹
Vegetotherapy—which Reich himself would have preferred to term orgasm therapy—is a method of physical manipulation designed to destroy the muscular “armouring” (i.e. state of permanent muscular spasm) of the human body, thus supposedly liberating the powers of the vegetative (autonomic) nervous system and enabling full “orgastic potency”—a state in which completely relaxed, uninhibited and pleasurable orgasm can be experienced.

²
He did, however, read a paper on
The Concept of Libido from Forel to Jung
in the summer of 1919.

³
Reich seems to have been unduly impressed by
The Sexual Life of our Time
and the other writings of Bloch. In reality Bloch was a considerable plagiarist; whole sections of his
Sexual Life in England
were lifted bodily from Pisanus Fraxi’s
Index Librorum Prohibitorum
, a book I have previously referred to in connection with Edward Sellon.

⁴
Catatonia, a disease characterised by a complete withdrawal from the environment, total silence and (frequently) complete immobility, was extremely common in the psychiatric wards of fifty years ago. Today, for reasons too complex to be entered into in this brief note, it has become extremely rare and some psychiatrists have never even seen a case!

As I pointed out in the first chapter of this book most of the covens that make up the contemporary witch-cult have moved away from the heavy bias towards sexuality that characterised Gerald Gardner and many of his immediate followers. Nevertheless some covens, notably the one of which “my” witch, Marian,
¹
is a member have gone to even greater lengths than Gardner himself. Marian’s coven performs rituals designed to produce the maximum possible pain/terror/pleasure/disgust in those who participate in them. This is not mere “kinkiness”, not a desire to indulge in sexual perversion under the cloak of magic and religion—although I am sure that such a desire is present on an unconscious level in at least
some
members of the coven— but a deliberate technique designed to overload the nervous system with sensations. The object of this overloading is, to continue the electrical analogy, the achievement of a psycho-spiritual short-circuit which will violently shatter the normal mental reaction patterns of the person concerned and lead to a transcending of his or her normal state of consciousness.

Marian’s coven does not apply all its techniques (flogging, sexuality etc.) to any one member, for its chiefs argue that it would violate all the principles of what they refer to as “energy-economy” to inflict upon any individual either a pain or a pleasure to which he or she was particularly tolerant. Thus an initiate of the group who has a low pain threshold is subjected to flogging in order that he or she may achieve the disassociation of consciousness which is believed to lead to what the coven sometimes call “the ecstasy of magic”. Similarly, if a member has neither the taste nor the talent for a vigorous sex life that same
member is encouraged to indulge in sexual intercourse to the point of exhaustion; frequently the effect of this is heightened by ensuring that the particular form of sexuality indulged in is one that is either psychologically repellent or physically disgusting to the member concerned; a homosexual, for example, will have to have physical relations with one of the opposite sex. As might be expected (considering the physiological basis of male sexuality) such indulgence in sex-that-repels is sometimes found difficult by men initiates, but this problem has been largely overcome by the importation from Germany of rotary vibrators and other mechanical aids to sexual excitement!

The chiefs of this coven have a high regard for Aleister Crowley and his writings although it is very probable that they evolved their own sexual magic independently of his influence. Indeed, there are many similarities between their ideology and his. It is particularly interesting to compare the coven’s doctrine of ecstasy through exhaustion with Chapter Fifteen of an O.T.O. document entitled
De Arte Magica
(unpublished in English although a German translation appeared
circa
1914). This chapter, entitled
Of Eroto-Comatose Lucidity
, gives details of a rite involving the magician engaging in protracted sexual intercourse until he reaches the point of death, and assures the O.T.O. initiate that death achieved in this way is greatly to be desired. It also avers that the most favourable of the many forms of death is “that occurring during orgasm, and is called
Mors Justi
. As it is written: Let me die the death of the righteous and let my last end be like his”.

Other witch-covens than Marian’s have been more directly affected by Crowley’s teachings. Few of them would admit this influence, however, and, in any case, such covens seem to have little understanding of the inner significance of much of Crowley’s writings. I have heard reports of a number of odd magical operations which seem to have taken place because witches had taken Crowley literally when he was using metaphorical language and
vice-versa
. Thus Crowley talked, in his
Book of Wisdom or Folly
, of the creation of a “magical child”—the exact meaning of this phrase is difficult to understand without studying the book in question—and some witches have taken this literally and attempted to create a child by sexual magic. I strongly suspect that just such a misunderstanding of Crowley was responsible for an incident recorded in
King of the Witches
, Miss June Johns’ biography of Alex Sanders. The story, which I presume Miss Johns derived from Mr. Sanders himself, tells how the King of the Witches—i.e. Mr. Sanders—
had become engaged and how his assistant, a young witch named Paul, had become very lonely and asked his chief to provide him with a permanent companion. The story goes on:

“For some time Alex had been toying with the idea of trying an experiment. He had studied it but never performed it, nor heard of any other living person who had. Many of the ancient magicians, however, could apparently conjure up a familiar and make it appear in the flesh, not only visible to themselves but also to other magicians present, and Alex wanted to emulate them. He put the idea to Paul. ‘Let’s make her a real beauty,’ was his typical reaction.

“Alex then had to explain that what he planned to create was a baby, the spiritual son of Paul. They would combine their powers to conceive it and give it birth, and in the spirit world it would be able to develop its own character under their guidance.

“Many of the purification rituals necessary for the three-day ceremony were identical with those of the Abra-Melin system, including the preliminary nine-day fast. The whole thing was performed in Paul’s room, the attic of a Victorian house owned by a Church of England clergyman, blessedly unaware of his tenant’s beliefs. The divan bed was stood on end, draped with freshly laundered sheets and positioned between Paul and Alex, one of the instructions being that they must not be able to see one another throughout the rituals. Invocations were said to the Egyptian gods Hapy, Qebehsenuf, Duamutef and Imset: …

“Clad in white robes which opened down the front, and with feet bare, they burnt Kyphi—incense—during the rites. On the third day, they prayed to the Goddess Isis, the Earth Mother: …

“Now both men fixed their eyes upon a silver pentacle. The curtains were closed against the winter evening; one candle only burned. Earthenware bowls of olive oil stood at each cardinal point. Imploring the four sacred names of God, Yod, He Vau and He, Alex and Paul recited the final proclamation and, at the same time, masturbated, ejecting their sperm on to the pentacle.

“As they both slumped back exhausted from their long vigil, a baby’s cry broke the silence. There on the pentacle, still moist with semen, lay what appeared to be a human baby of normal size except that it had no navel, nor umbilical cord, and it appeared to be bisexual, its genitals part male, part female.

“Paul bent to pick it up, but Alex, following the Hebrew ritual, stopped him.

“ ‘But you said it was my son,’ said Paul. ‘I want to christen it.’

“ ‘How can we christen it if we aren’t Christians? You can baptize it. Here, use the consecrated water, but do not touch the child with your hands.’

“Paul flicked his moistened fingers over the baby and gave him the name ‘Michael’. Neither of them knew what next to do with the wailing infant, and Alex tried to conjure up a familiar to help him. None would come, so he then went into a trance to see if Nick would help.

“When Alex awakened, Paul was in tears and the baby gone. ’We shall never see him again,’ he told Alex. ‘Nick told me that we were to train Michael to be obedient in Wicca so that he could be as a son to me. But he won’t stay a baby; in the spirit world he’ll mature so quickly that within twenty-four hours he’ll be older than I am now.’

“Until now Alex had gone into a trance only when he wished, but Michael altered that. Within the space of a few days he stopped being a helpless baby and became a precocious nuisance. He began by invading Alex’s body, taking him over so completely that when Alex came to, he would find that he had insulted old friends, flirted with their wives and done all sorts of things he would not normally have dreamed of doing.
²
Michael was not only too big for his boots, but too big for his host. Seams literally began to split after Michael manifested himself and Alex was compelled to buy a new suit several sizes too large. It hung on him in folds but the moment he was ‘taken’ by Michael, he filled it out.

“Alex’s reputation was being tarnished by the wild parties his body attended when Michael was in residence. He could understand a little better now the unfortunate victims of the ancient witch trials—for here he was possessed of a devil of his own making! In addition to his taking advantage of Alex’s body at will, Michael had to be bribed to give information asked of him and for which he had been created. Alex, who has frugal tastes, would recover from an involuntary trance to find he had eaten a pound of chocolate biscuits demanded
by Michael in return for information. The spirit had begun to take over, demanding the exclusive use of Alex’s body, demanding to be born human.”