Showing posts with label kink. Show all posts
Showing posts with label kink. Show all posts

17 Sept 2023

Three Extracts from The Whip and the Wand (Paper VI in the 2005 Treadwell's Series Sex/Magic)

Artwork by Stephen Alexander for the Treadwell's Paper 
'The Whip and the Wand' in the Sex/Magic series (2005)
 
 
As an essay over 7000 words in length, 'The Whip and the Wand' is unfortunately too long to reproduce in full.
 
However, following publication of a recent post in which I mentioned this text [1], I thought it might be a good idea to offer three extracts from the opening sections on the perverse nature of witchcraft ... 
 

Extract 1: The Malleus Maleficarum is clear on one thing above all else: Witchcraft results from insatiable carnal lust and is a form of sexual depravity as well as religious heresy. 
 
 
It was widely accepted in the early modern period that witches consorted and copulated with demons and that their rituals involved obscene and unnatural acts including naked dancing, masturbation, bestiality, anal sex, and feasting on the flesh of infants. Via a combination of sodomy and sorcery, the witch threatened to subvert the very foundations of the moral and political order of society and this made her not only sinful, but dangerous. 
 
But what of twentieth century witchcraft à la Gerald Gardner and company? Alas, if Doreen Valiente is to be believed, then it has become a depressingly tame affair in comparison: "There is no doubt that witchcraft has evolved considerably […] Few covens now insist upon ritual nudity, or practice the more controversial rites involving sex or flagellation". [2] 
 
Thus, far from being an opportunity to form an erotic relationship with the divine and daemonic and indulge in a wide range of perverse pleasures, witchcraft is now merely the chance for personal development and an exploration of the "hidden powers of the human mind" [3]
 
Whether Valiente really believes this, I cannot say. But, happily, it's not quite true. In fact, modern pagan witchcraft remains inherently perverse, involving as it does many elements that the masochist and fetishist would instantly understand and appreciate ... 
 
 
Extract 2: The Erotic (and Kinky) Aspects of the Great Rite
 
Any list of the essential activities performed during the Great Rite would have to include the following: undressing, scourging, binding, kissing, dancing, chanting, touching, drinking, feasting, and fucking. And any list of the necessary paraphernalia involved would have to include: an altar, a whip, a wand, a length of cord, a knife, a sword, a bowl of water, a chalice of wine, a dish of cakes, some salt, and some incense to burn. 
 
If these objects have magical symbolic significance, then, likewise, the above activities in which they are used are invested with great ritual importance. But here, however, I'd like to examine some of the more erotic (and kinky) aspects of the Great Rite ...
 
To begin, all members of the coven - with the exception of the high priestess and the high priest - position themselves around the perimeter of the magic circle, each facing the centre; the priestess and priest stand facing each other in the middle of the circle. The latter then proceeds to give the former the five-fold kiss, which is actually a series of eight kisses beginning with the feet and then working up the body to the lips, via the knees, genitals, and breasts. 
 
The high priestess then lies down on her back, her arms and legs outstretched in order to form the pentagram, whilst the priest fetches a veil with which he covers her naked body. He then kneels between her ankles and delivers an invocation that begins: 
 
Assist me to erect the ancient altar, at which in days past all worshipped ... 
And the sacred place was within the centre of the Circle, 
the origin of all things
 
Following this hymn to her - or more precisely, to her reproductive organs - the rest of the coven leave the circle so that the high priest and priestess can fuck in what the Farrar's call "the dignity of privacy" [4], thereby betraying the bourgeois morality not only of their own vocabulary, but at the heart of modern pagan witchcraft. 
 
As for the idea of the body of the priestess serving as a living altar, I must confess I rather like this; it reminds me of Minski's furniture in Sade's Juliette, or the sculptures by Allen Jones. But it's not really an ancient idea, so much as one developed by 17th-century occultists as part of their Black Mass and simply borrowed by Gerald Gardner who, of course, made a fetish of nakedness and insisted upon it within his own neo-paganism. 
 
The Farrar's, unsurprisingly, are having none of this, however; they insist that whilst the Great Rite invocation "specifically declares that the body of the woman taking part is an altar, with her womb and generative organs as its sacred focus […] this has nothing to do with any 'Black Mass'" [5]. They continue: "The Black Mass was a Christian heresy, using perverted Christian forms […] in which the living altar was used to desecrate the Christian Host. Such obscenity is of course utterly alien to the spirit and intent of the Great Rite." [6] 
 
To which we can only say - what a pity! 
 
But there you go; Wicca, say the Farrar's, belongs to a tradition of "sincere and honourable pagan religions" [7] and is not performed by sophisticated degenerates who only know how to corrupt forms, symbols, and rituals. So concerned are the Farrar's that pagan witchcraft and its practitioners not be thought of as in any way perverse, that they call upon dear old Doreen Valiente in order to defend the fact that the Great Rite culminates in an act of ritual sexual intercourse. 
 
Such an act, asserts the latter, is "'obviously […] the very opposite of promiscuity'" [8], because it takes place between carefully selected partners at the right time, in the right place, and in the right way. "'It is love and only love that can give sex the spark of magic'" [9], dribbles Valiente in a manner which surely would have left witches of old helpless with laughter. 
 
 
Extract 3: The Whip and the Wand
 
Apart from the act of intercourse, Gardner's Great Rite also, crucially, involves plenty of ritual scourging and bondage as the following description makes clear: 
 
The priestess sits on a throne holding a knife in one hand and a whip in the other. The priest kneels before her and begs purification. The priestess then fetches a cord and ties his hands securely behind his back. The ends of the cord are tied in front of the throat and the priest is led by this around the circle like a slave. Following this, the priest kneels facing the altar once more, to which he is tied by his lead. His knees and feet are also firmly bound. If he complains of too great a level of discomfort, his bonds may be loosened slightly, whilst remaining tight enough so as to ensure absolute helplessness. 
 
Next, "the priestess fetches the scourge and gives him three light strokes with it" [10] before the roles are reversed; i.e. the priest ties and whips the priestess. Then, for good measure, she ties and whips him once more. Finally, once both parties have been purified in this manner, they are ready to engage in sexual intercourse.
 
As described earlier, this involves the priestess lying down and allowing the priest to adore and to kiss her body, whilst masturbating himself to erection. Following the act of intercourse, post-coital thanks to the Lords of the Watchtowers are offered and the rest of the coven rejoin their high priestess and priest for a celebration. 
 
What, then, are we to make of this? 
 
Firstly, I must say that the ludicrously affected language used throughout the ceremony is neither convincing, nor poetic as intended. To describe the phallus, for example, as the miraculous spear or lifted lance, is absurd and betrays a level of humiliating coyness rather than a sense of mystery. But what it also reveals is just how fetishistic and masochistic modern pagan witchcraft is. The above scene between high priestess and priest is replicated in bedrooms and dungeons all over London between the Illicit Lover and his Mistress. 
 
Ronald Hutton rightly points out that Gerald Gardner gave great importance to flagellation and it soon becomes obvious to any reader of the Book of Shadows that the whip "represents the essential component of the rituals" [11]. Even the Farrar’s cannot deny this, although it is clearly something that makes them uncomfortable and, claiming to never use the whip themselves during their own rituals, they then seek to justify Gardner's usage: 
 
"Some witches hold that Gardner was too fond of ritual scourging and many of his detractors maintain that he had a psychologically unhealthy addiction to flagellation. Quite apart from the fact that such a […] gentle person as Gardner is most unlikely to have had such leanings, all this is based on a complete misunderstanding. The technique of not-too-tight binding and gentle monotonous scourging is not even a symbolic 'suffering to learn' as it is in the first and second degree rites; it is a deliberate and traditional method […] to 'gain the Sight' by influencing the blood circulation." [12]
 
Now, I don't deny the second part of this at all; scourging undoubtedly has a stimulating effect on the blood and I've no doubt that visions can be induced via a wide range of ascetic techniques involving discipline and punishment. Even Christian mystics and penitents know this. 
 
However, it's what is said in the first part of the above passage - and the manner in which it is said - that troubles me. The Farrar's seem to share the same virulent hatred of dissident sexuality and fear of queerness that is found in Dion Fortune's writings of the 1920s, where she described masturbation as an activity which undermines health and "condemned homosexuality, sadism, and masochism as perversions" [13] - branding the first of these in particular as an infectious mental disease
 
Obviously, Gardner was not a typical flagellant: "Nor are the operations involved in the rituals standard acts of sado-masochism" [14]. But Gardner does at least admit the erotic aspect of what he calls the virtue of bonds. He writes: "'It has been found that this practice doth often cause a fondness between aspirant and tutor, and it is a cause of better results if this be so … [15]'" 
 
They may not like it, but the Farrar's are reluctantly obliged to admit that the longest non-ritual passages in the Book of Shadows concern ritual bondage and scourging, all carefully explained in meticulous detail (a sure sign of the ardent fetishist). Nevertheless, they repeat their by now familiar line: 
 
"The purpose of the not-too-tight binding and the deliberately light scourging is plain: to help bring about [… an] expansion of consciousness […] or communion with the Goddess […] To distort this into an allegation that Gardner himself had an unhealthy urge to flagellation, whether sadistic or masochistic […] is nonsense." [16] 
 
Actually, it's this denial of the perverse aspect of sex magic which is the only nonsensical thing. To deny the sado-masochistic elements of ritual witchcraft is almost in itself perverse. But the Farrar's are not alone in making this denial and Doreen Valiente is ever-on-hand to support them in this: "'The reason we used the scourge is a very simple one - it works!'" she exclaims, before adding: "'Perhaps it has become associated with kinky sexual matters; but long before that it was part of ancient mystical and magical practices'" [17]
 
Personally, I cannot understand this determination to make an absolute distinction between the erotic and the sacred and it seems at odds with Wicca's own philosophy; doesn't the Goddess demand ecstasy both of the spirit and of the flesh? Even Starhawk, to her credit, declares the relationship between witches and the divine to be "erotic, sensual [and] carnal" [18] - even if she mistakenly suggests this to be a perfectly natural relationship, rather than a perverse one. 
 
The fact is, in all the great pagan cultures of the past, sex is esteemed as a sacrament and the orgy is the great religious festival and celebration par excellence. Prostitution, too, was a sacred institution; in the Babylonian temples of Ishtar, for example, young girls known as the ishtaritu devoted themselves to the service of their goddess by indulging in sexual congress with any male worshipper who wished for the blessing of the latter (and was able to make the necessary financial offering). Why then do the Farrar's find the inherent kinkiness of modern pagan witchcraft so difficult to accept? 
 
It's left to Ronald Hutton to admit that Gardner's rituals "possess certain idiosyncrasies which seem particularly suited to his own tastes and views" [19], and by this we assume he refers to Gardner's own sexual dispositions. I would argue that these are crucial to Wicca and should be accepted, affirmed, and developed as such; not shamefully glossed over, explained away, or rejected outright. Better Gardner and his love of naked women, sharp knives, and bondage than the moral fanatics who have come after him and turned witchcraft into a form of therapy, or just another liberal theology. 
 
Gardner - the pervert and religious fanatic who declares that to do magic, one must be in a state of frenzy - is an infinitely more interesting figure than either of the Farrar's. And the magic circle as a sacred space in which to consort with demons and dance naked round the bonfire, is a much more exciting prospect than the coven as self-help centre for the disappointed and disillusioned.
 
 
Notes
 
[1] The post to which I refer is 'On the Whip and the Wand: A Response to Joanne Pearson' (17 Sept 2023): click here.
 
[2] Doreen Valiente, An ABC of Witchcraft Past and Present, (Robert Hale, 1994), p. xi. 
 
[3] Ibid
 
[4] Janet and Stewart Farrar, The Witches' Bible, (Phoenix Publishing, 1996), p. 49. 
 
[5] Ibid
 
[6] Ibid
 
[7] Ibid., p. 50. 
 
[8] Doreen Valiente, quoted by Janet and Stewart Farrar in The Witches' Bible, p. 49. 
 
[9] Ibid
 
[10] Janet and Stewart Farrar, The Witches' Bible, p. 36. 
 
[11] Ronald Hutton, The Triumph of the Moon, (Oxford University Press, 2001), pp. 234-35. 
 
[12] Janet and Stewart Farrar, The Witches' Bible, pp. 34-5. 
 
[13] Ronald Hutton, The Triumph of the Moon, p. 182. 
 
[14] Ibid., p. 235. 
 
[15] Gerald Gardner, quoted by Janet and Stewart Farrar in The Witches' Bible, p. 58. 
 
[16] Janet and Stewart Farrar, The Witches' Bible, p. 60. 
 
[17] Doreen Valiente, quoted by Janet and Stewart Farrar in The Witches' Bible, p. 60. 
 
[18] Miriam Simos (aka 'Starhawk), Dreaming the Dark, (Beacon Press, 1982), p. xii. 
 
[19] Ronald Hutton, The Triumph of the Moon, p. 239. 
 
 

19 Jul 2018

D. H. Lawrence: Priest of Kink

Ooh, he was awful - but I like him!


In a famous letter written to Sallie Hopkin on Christmas Day, 1912, Lawrence insists that once you know what love can be, then - even if the skies have fallen - "there's no disappointment anymore, and no despair". He then announces that his future task as a writer will involve "sticking up for the love between man and woman".

And, in the years and books that followed, he did indeed posit heterosexual coition as central to his erotics and defend what he called in his late work phallic marriage, i.e., marriage founded upon complimentary gender opposition, the seasonal and sacred rhythm of each calendar year, and a penis that only ever ejaculates inside a vagina.  

However, despite his own sexual politics forever oscillating between the romantic and the reactionary, Lawrence's work also provides us with an explicit A-Z of perversions, paraphilias and fetishistic behaviours, obliging readers to think about subjects including adultery, anal sex, autogynephilia, cross-dressing, dendrophilia, female orgasm, floraphilia, gang rape, garment fetishism, homosexuality, lesbianism, masturbation, naked wrestling, objectum-sexuality, podophilia, pornography, psychosexual infantalism, sadomasochism, and zoophilia.       

One is almost tempted to suggest that Lawrence was, in fact, a priest of kink ...


See: The Letters of D. H. Lawrence, Vol. I, ed. James T. Boulton, (Cambridge University Press, 1979), pp. 492-3. 

See also Jonathan Dollimore, Sexual Dissidence, (Oxford University Press, 1991). I am very much in agreement with Dollimore when he writes that there is a perverse dynamic at work within Lawrence's text and that he audaciously eroticises (and queers) Western metaphysics. Certainly, Lawrence is far more than a prophet of heterosexual experience conceived in a conventional manner and ultimately he deconstructs his own phallogocentrism; thus his continued importance and interest as a writer. 


28 Feb 2018

On the Aesthetico-Perverse Appropriation of Objects (With Reference to the Work of Christoph Niemann)

Two Sunday Sketches by the brilliant German illustrator
 and graphic designer Christoph Niemann


Members of the kinky community pride themselves on their ability to re-imagine the world around them and see things from a queer perspective. They take giggly pleasure, as Steven Connor says, in the idea of so-called pervertibles; common household items that can be put to a sexual use of some kind.

At first, this sounds philosophically intriguing; a creative attempt to appropriate objects and further the pornification of the everyday.

Sadly, however, necessity is more often than not the mother of invention and the rationale behind pervertibles is usually financial in character; an attempt to become a sadomasochist on a budget, or masturbate on the cheap as well as on the sly. Why purchase expensive lubes and sex toys when you can just use cooking oil, clothes pegs, and a toilet brush?

To the outrage of genuine objectophiles, the majority of those who enjoy playing with pervertibles possess no affection for (or concern with) things as actual entities existing outside of any erotico-utilitarian function. For most perverts, things interest only when they are on hand to stimulate a variety of sensations and help facilitate orgasm; they have little or no time for ontological reflection. 

And that's why - as I've said before and will doubtless have occasion to say again - even perverts disappoint.

They're so intent on finding everything sexy and turning the world into their own private toybox, that they miss entirely the wider allure and fascination of objects. It's a failure of sensitivity and it demonstrates the limits of a pornographic imagination which remains tied to what Foucault termed the austere monarchy of sex (that most ideal form of modern agency).   

And it's why being an artist is more than being a pervert. For when an artist looks at an object, he or she sees an infinite number of possibilities and not just something that might possibly substitute for a dildo, butt plug, or nipple clamp.

Thus it is that, for Duchamp, a urinal can become a fountain; for Dalí, a lobster can become a telephone; for Picasso a shovel, a tap, and a pair of forks bound together with wire can become a magnificent bird; and for the genius of Christoph Niemann, pretty much anything can become the inspiration for one of his Sunday Sketches ...     


See: Christoph Niemann, Sunday Sketching, (Abrams, 2016).


14 May 2015

The Charm of Kink (with Reference to the Case of Mrs. Peel)

The charm of kink is that it has charm. And the nature of this appealing quality is camp.

In other words, whilst it would be wrong to set up a false dichotomy and seek to salvage kink from a more problematically perverse aesthetic with origins deep in the pornographic imagination, it is certainly more playful than pathological; a kind of frivolous form of fetishism in which stylization and mannerism matters far more than actual sexual activity. 

The kinky individual delights in props, costumes, and role playing as pleasures in their own right and not simply as methods of enhancing orgasm and camp perversity is ultimately more about fashion, fun, and theatre than fucking in dreadful earnest which, if it does take place, does so off-stage, as all forms of obscenity should. It relies upon (and is happier with) suggestiveness rather than anything overt; a sophisticated and teasing combination of imagination, irony and innuendo.  

This is perfectly illustrated by the case of Mrs. Peel, played by Diana Rigg in sixties spy-fi series The Avengers. Mrs. Peel is the personification of kinky charm and English cool, whether she's wearing her trademark leather catsuit, fancy dress, or groovy get-ups created by John Bates and, later, Alun Hughes, to emphasise her youthful, contemporary character.    

Perhaps her most notorious outfit was the Queen of Sin costume, worn in the most viewed and much discussed episode entitled 'A Touch of Brimstone'.

As can be seen in the photo accompanying this text, the Queen of Sin costume consists of a black embroidered corset laced tightly at the back and cut straight across the breast. The corset comes with a barely-there, see-through black lace micro-mini that just about reaches the top of her naked thighs and fails to conceal the black satin high-cut bikini briefs worn beneath. The look is complemented with a spiked leather collar (complete with leash), evening gloves, stiletto heeled boots (also back-lacing) and, somewhat lamely, a live snake.     

For many fans of the show, the moment that Mrs. Peel strips away a long black cloak and stands revealed in her Queen of Sin costume constitutes a real highpoint or kinky consummation of some kind. It certainly makes Steed's eyes - and one suspects not just his eyes - bulge with surprise and delight.

But for me, as for the censors at the time, with its explicit visual references to the world of BDSM, 'A Touch of Brimstone' goes too far; the cat is let out of the bag so to speak. I prefer Mrs. Peel kept under wraps and think she is at her most seductive when she manages to combine the perverse with the prim and proper; the deviant with the demure.


Notes

'A Touch of Brimstone', episode 21 of series 4 of The Avengers, written by Brian Clemens and directed by James Hill, was first shown (with cuts) in the UK in February 1966. It was deemed unsuitable for broadcast in the US. As well as starring Patrick Macnee as Steed and Diana Rigg as Mrs. Peel, it also co-starred Peter Wyngarde as The Honourable John Cleverly Cartney, the camp libertine and aristocratic anarchist who is the villain of the piece.

Those who are interested may care to go to the following link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zmxe3ueE9jU