Magia Sexualis: Sex, Magic, and Liberation in Modern Western Esotericism

2. Sex Power Is God Power: Paschal Beverly Randolph and the Birth of Sex Magic in Victorian America

2 Sex Power Is God Power Paschal Beverly Randolph and the Birth of Sex Magic in Victorian America [T]rue sex power is God power. p. b. randolph, The Ansairetic Mystery: A New Revelation Concerning Sex! The essential point is that sex was not only a matter of sensation and pleasure, of law and taboo, but also of truth and falsehood, that the truth of sex became something fundamental, useful or dangerous, precious or formidable. . . . [T]he progressive formation (and also the transformations) of the “interplay of truth and sex” was bequeathed to us by the nineteenth century. michel foucault, The History of Sexuality, vol. 1 While the general association between sex, magic, and liberation has a long history in the Western religious imagination, the practice of sexual magic as a specific, detailed technique appears to be a relatively recent invention. Even if there are traces of erotic magic and ritual intercourse in medieval Kabbalah, Renaissance magic, or the works of Swedenborg, the more developed art of magia sexualis is to a large degree a product of the modern era. And it is closely related to shifting attitudes toward sex, love, and marriage in the last two hundred years. Arguably the most important figure in the rise of modern sexual magic is the fascinating, enigmatic but today generally unknown figure of Paschal Beverly Randolph. As Joscelyn Godwin observes, “The most signal contribution of Randolph to occultism concerns sex.”1 Not only was Randolph a specialist in the cure of sexual dysfunctions, but he also developed an elaborate technique of sexual magic that he claimed could achieve all manner of both this-worldly and otherworldly goals, with the power to bring material wealth and happiness as well as profound spiritual realization. Ultimately , Randolph even claimed for sexual magic the power to solve all social ills and so lead the way to an ideal,harmonious,perhaps even millennial new world. Randolph’s teachings were also to have a tremendous influence on a wide array of later occult movements in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, 55 inspiring a host of new magical groups from the Hermetic Brotherhood of Luxor and the Ordo Templi Orientis to the various forms of sex magic now being sold on Amazon.com. Yet remarkably, despite his historical importance and lasting impact, Randolph has been largely neglected by contemporary scholarship. Apart from the excellent recent biography by John Patrick Deveney and the useful discussion in Godwin’s work, there is virtually no critical scholarship on Randolph or his sexual magic.2 Most leading scholars of Western esotericism and the New Age, such as Wouter Haanegraff and Antoine Faivre give this “neglected pioneer of American occultism” only the briefest mention.3 And even Deveney’s fine work does little to situate Randolph within the longer history of sexual magic. In this chapter, I will explore Randolph’s intriguing life and his original system of sexual magic, or “affectional alchemy.” Randolph’s writings on sexual magic, I will argue, need to be understood within the context of the larger social and sexual culture of mid-nineteenth century America,and par56 / Sex Power Is God Power Figure 5. Paschal Beverly Randolph. From John Patrick Deveney, Paschal Beverly Randolph: A Nineteenth-Century Black American Spiritualist, Rosicrucian, and Sex Magician (Albany, NY: SUNY Press, 1997), cover. ticularly in light of the various forms of scientia sexualis during this period. Far from a period of repression and silence,the twentieth century in fact witnessed the rise of a new interest in—indeed, obsession with—sexuality in both scientific and popular discourse. The term sexuality is itself a product of this period,entering for the first time into the English vocabulary through an 1892 translation of Richard von Krafft-Ebing’s classic medical-scientific work Psychopathia Sexualis.4 And increasingly throughout this period,sexuality was seen to be the innermost essence of the self and the key to unlocking the mysteries of the human being.As JenniferTerry observes,“What is striking about the modern scientific study of sexuality is its palpable investment in unearthing . . . secrets of the self.”5 As we see throughout both scientific and popular books of the mid-nineteenth century,sex was regarded as at once the most powerful and potentially most dangerous force in human life, a sacred power that was crucial to happiness and well-being, but one that could easily be abused...