Sex Magick and the Right-Hand Path and Left-Hand Path

Tantra, a set of esoteric Indian traditions with roots in both Hinduism and Buddhism, is often divided by its practitioners into two different paths: Dakshinachara and Vamachara, translated as Right-Hand Path and Left-Hand Path respectively. Doesn’t really matter what we see, what we believe or wich way we go, a question always comes back obsessively: what is “right” and what is “wrong”, what is “black” and what is “white” and finally it makes me wonder if our perception of “good and evil“ is… right or wrong? And once again I will repeat: I don’t believe in a right or in a wrong way and nobody have an exclusive monopoly on “truth”. Dakshinachara consists of traditional Hindu practices such as asceticism and meditation, while vamachara also includes ritual practices that go against the grain of mainstream Hinduism, including sexual rituals, consumption of alcohol and other intoxicants, flesh eating, even animal sacrifice. The two paths are viewed as equally valid approaches to enlightenment, but, however, Vamchara,  is considered to be the faster and more dangerous of the two, not suitable for anybody. You may ask why? My answer is quit simple. Magick is a tricky thing, if you are not capable to control it, it will control you. And this is where I actually draw the line between “Black Magic” and “White Magic”. Magick it’s not  “white” because you communicate exclusively with angels and done only “good works” while “black” Magic involved demons and doing “evil” things – perhaps become rich, get laid and that sort of things, but it’s “white” while you are in the control and becomes “black” when that force, that energy we call it “Magic” (or Magick) took over the control of you. A magician should know, work and control Magick in both directions because Magick is one.
George Lucas use this allegory while he create the “Star Wars” story in 1977. The “Jedis” were “the good guys”, kind of “white magicians” while the “Siths” – probably inspired by Seth – were the “bad guys”, the “black magicians”. What Lucas named as “the Force” is actually Magick and is a binding, metaphysical and ubiquitous power. It has been described by Obi-Wan Kenobi in “A New Hope” as “It surrounds us and penetrates us. It binds the galaxy together.” The Jedi’s compassionate and selfless use of the Force has come to be known by inference as “the light side”, but the Force has a “Dark side”, which feeds off emotions such as anger, jealousy, fear, and hate, whereas the Jedi use the Force only for peaceful purposes. So, when speaking of Darth Vader, Kenobi says: “Vader was seduced by the dark side of the Force”.
It’s pretty  hard to program a computer without having the knowledge and  the precise understanding of how things works or while we haven’t decided yet what we want from the machine to do. A computer will always do what we command it to do, but never what we have in our mind. Sticking for just one more moment to this parallel with the computers, we also know how addictive the computers may be and from a “tool” sometimes computers become leading our life. All this goes pretty similar with Magick as well.

The prevalence of these terms within the New Age movement, particularly occultism and Satanism, is often attributed to the influence of Helena Blavatsky, who first used the term Left-Hand Path to describe “immoral” religions. This usage was popularized by Aleister Crowley. Crowley would eventually introduce the practice of sex magick into O.T.O. (Ordo Templi Orientis, or Order of the Temple of the East, or the Order of Oriental Templars) for he believed it to be one of the most powerful formula. Sex magic is a term for various types of sexual activity used in magical, ritualistic or otherwise religious and spiritual pursuits. One practice of sex magic is using the energy of sexual arousal or orgasm with visualization of a desired result. A premise of sex magic is the concept that sexual energy is a potent force that can be harnessed to transcend one’s normally perceived reality. Crowley probably was influenced by some Tantric teaching while he was traveling through China in 1906. Crowley discussed sex magick and sexual gnosis in various forms including masturbatory, heterosexual, and homosexual practices. Crowley spelled Magick with a ‘k’ to distinguish it from stage magic and I prefer as well his approach to distinguish it from what I actually call simply illusionism. Crowley saw in sex magick a kind of “short-cut” to enlightenment. It may be subject of discussions if Crowley succeed to control this power or he “was seduced” by it. It’s always a thin line between genius and madness and as well, between “good” and “evil”, it’s hard to draw a line between and it’s even harder to realize when we cross the line.

But some of the earliest known practical teachings of sex magic in the Western world come from 19th century American occultist Paschal Beverly Randolph. In the latter part of the 19th century, sexual reformer Ida Craddock published several works dealing with sacred sexuality, most notably ” Heavenly Bridegrooms” and “Psychic Wedlock”. Aleister Crowley reviewed “Heavenly Bridegrooms” in the pages of his journal The Equinox and sexual techniques from Craddock’s “Psychic Wedlock” were later reproduced in “Sex Magick” by O.T.O. initiate Louis T. Culling.
Carl Kellner, the founder of Ordo Templi Orientis, claimed to have learned the techniques of sex magic from three adepts in this art. O.T.O. included, from its inception, the teaching of sex magick in the highest degrees of the Order. Professor Hugh Urban, Professor of Comparative Religion at Ohio State University, noted Crowley’s emphasis on sex as “the supreme magical power”.
“I am the flame that burns in every heart of man, and in the core of every star. I am Life, and the giver of Life, yet therefore knowledge of me is the knowledge of death.” (Liber AL, II, 6.)

On the other hand, according to Samael Aun Weor, Arnold Krumm-Heller taught sexual magic and alchemy without ejaculation. The crux of Samael Aun Weor’s teachings is what he calls “white sexual magic”, the paramount tenet of which is to conclude the act without orgasm or ejaculation from either the man or woman. hus, instead of the sexual energy being released in a spasm, this energy undergoes sexual transmutation via willpower and the sacrifice of desire.According to Weor, the magnetic induction produced by crossing the active (phallus) and passive (uterus) creative organs causes lunar, solar and akashic currents to flow through the Brahmanic cord (the ida, pingala and sushumna nadis respectively) of the couple. Weor says that this current then provides an active connection between the magnetic center at the root of the nose (the pineal gland, Ajna chakra) and the solar and lunar principles located within the seminal system at the muladhara chakra. The transmuted energy, through willpower, is populated by what Weor says are “billions of christic atoms” that when rising meet the pure akasa of the triune Brahmanic cord, igniting it, and through many years of work this causes the ascent of the kundalini through the thirty-three chambers or degrees of the spinal medulla.
Weor also states that when the orgasm is reached the christic atoms are expelled and replaced, via genital orgasmic contraction, with what he believed were impure “atoms” of fornication. When, through willpower the akashic current meets the “atoms of fornication”, Weor said, that instead of rising the energy is rejected by the divine triad (atman-buddhi-manas) and is forced downward into the atomic infernos of the human being, forming the “tail of satan”, (the kundabuffer, or negatively polarized kundalini). Weor says that the repetition of orgasm over time divorces the divine triad from the inferior “quaternary” (physical, vital, astral and mental bodies) through the severing of the antakarana. This brings about, according to Weor, “the fallen Bodhisattva”, “the Fall of Lucifer” as described by the author Dante, or what amounts to the same thing: the Fall of Man. Weor refers to any type of sexual magic that uses the orgasm for spiritual or magical purposes as “black sexual magic”, and he believed that those who perform it are black magicians who acquire negative powers. Although many of the metaphysical concepts expounded by such authors as Blavatsky, Steiner, and Gurdjieff lay a conceptual foundation within Samael Aun Weor’s teachings, he considered these works and movements conceptual preparation for the real unveiling of occultism or gnosis that he taught. His primary goal was not to simply elucidate a myriad of metaphysical concepts, but rather to teach the way to achieve self-realization through the “Direct Path of Christ.”

 
Sex Magick remains entangled in glamorous and misconceptions and is “drowned” in symbolic asides and allusions. The basis of Sex Magick is to understand, and experience sexuality as sacred or “Magical”. Sexuality is probably the most powerful means of transformation, discovery and knowledge that humanity has. This is why sexuality is effectively put under ‘lock and key’ by our society. The
Judeo-Christian attitude to sexuality has become “embedded” in the cultural psyche, to the extent that many of us feel that sexual expression is “naturally” followed by shame and guilt. For orthodox Christianity, sexuality can never be entirely sinless, and such as can not be considered a path to enlightenment.

There is no “right way” or “wrong way”, but only the way you choose to go on. But only if you are conscious of your own choices. I just wanted to say, think carefully before your next step, don’t matter wich way you go.