I suspect you've already come across this idea before while reading Dion Fortune. Take a look in her The Mystical Qabalah, chapter 16, section 28 to 30 (and possibly further on). But keep your B.S. detector handy. Sometimes Fortune stretches the analogy too far and starts talking drivel.
Ah, thanks for the pointer. I did reread Fortune's thoughts on Chokmah and polarity.
I have such a great admiration for women like Seckler and Fortune, who defied all social convention in their time to follow their Will. I wonder if in the same circumstance I would have had the balls to do this. But thanks to them and the even the misogynist, sex fiend, Crowley, I don't have to find out.
That said, I find myself a bit disillusioned.
Fortune said:
These two magnetic currants, running in the aura parallel to the spine, are called the Sun and Moon currents. In a male incarnation we work predominantly with the Sun current, the fertilizer; in a female incarnation we work predominantly with the moon-forces. If we desire to work with the opposite type of force to that with which we are naturally endowed, we have to do so by using our natural mode as the basis of operations and, as it were, “cannoning off the cushion.” The male who wants to use the moon-forces employees devices that enable him to get his natural sun-force reflected, and the female who wants to use the sun-forces employs a device whereby she is enabled to focus them upon herself and reflect them. On the physical plane the sexes mate, and the man begets a child upon the woman, thus availing himself of her moon-powers. The woman, on the other hand, desiring creation and unable to compass it single-handed, entice the male through his desire till he bestows upon her his sun-force and she is impregnated.
Really?
How very black and white, and I am not referring to her thoughts on race in her next paragraphs. What if I were gay? Or asexual? What if I didn't want children and I killed his “Sun fertilizer” with spermicide? I'm pretty sure HGA would find a way to get my attention somehow.
This all seems very matter of course in a vacuum but were are not in a vacuum. Or I should say, I am not in a vacuum. I am ten years into a study of a solar phallic magical system, and that very fact seems to silence almost every woman magician I've met, unless we are talking about being the Whores of Babylon, but even that get's old after a while.
Page 234 in the new book.
Seckler said:
I think some women still feel that the male has the upper hand, and they don't come forth and express themselves because it's still a man's world. Just look at the people who are working at work, you know. Women don't get paid as highly as men and they the same job. That's still going on right now.
I agree. This is still a real issue.
Seckler said:
So we're going through a period when we have to know how to balance the sexes because it's all been male previously.
For a while, but before that was the age of Isis, where woman were upheld. So wouldn't it hold true that in this New Aeon, where every man and every woman is a star, that there would finally be some kind of equalization of the sexes?
Crowley said:
Balance against each thought its exact opposite. For the Marriage of these is the Annihilation of Illusion.
The illusion of division, correct?
Seckler said:
Not only that, but women are positive on the spiritual plane, as you'll read [In the Continuum] Volume 2, Number 6, and since they're already there where a man wants to go some of them feel, “Why should I take any more trouble?”
This has not been my experience. I have many questions, but none of the are why bother?
I question why not many women participate in this forum for very long? Have they found solace in Wicca or are they lurking? I question why there is so much talk of theory in Magick without much discussion of practical application? I wonder if male magicians experience emotion, because if they do, very few talk about it. Yet Crowley seems highly emotional. He wears me out?
I wonder why it is I can kill a thread talking about my real life? Is it that bad? I wonder why certain people on various forums flat out ignore me? Is it because I'm a woman? Are you afraid I'm some over sexed housewife from California?
Is it a cultural thing? I'm I not supposed to talk about a sexuality in mixed company? Would I be more successful with ritual if I had a penis? Would you have honestly corrected my spelling if I were man?
Would I have woman peers if I joined an official order? Is it worth it?
How in the hell does a woman Thelemite in this New Aeon reconcile herself to the large slate of misogynist U.S. politicians that want to interfere with not only a woman's will, but her very body? Am I really an over sensitive aging feminist? What of it? How do I rectify my will to live peacefully with my will to stick up for myself? Where do I draw the line? Which battles do I choose?
Do I really have to sit still and meditate?
This is the sort of thing I was hoping to read from another woman Thelemite. Because it's not out there on the web. Not that I can find. And it certainly isn't in my little redneck town.
I actually kind of like Phyllis Seckler after reading this book and look forward, I think, to Volume 2. I realize she is human, and had a bum like Grady to distract her, while she charmed everyone, even Crowley, with amusing cartoons and single handedly saved the west coast division of the O.T.O . That's what women do while raising kids and bringing home the bacon; if they have to. I admire this about so many women.
But I am really disappointed also.
Seckler said:
Look what happens in a Mass. It's the woman who's being put on top of the world and he worships. She is the voice of Nuit; she always has been.
Huh? I've been at this for about 10 years. I first heard the voice of Nuit from Crowley. I've read Paul Forster Case, DuQuette, Regardie and Eshelman. I've heard It though Aeon418, Scion, Grigory, Ravenest, and others that I assume are men, but maybe not.
Seckler said:
And that's because women naturally have a positive attitude about spirituality.
Maybe this is the case somewhere, but I haven't seen it.
I might drive the 200 miles to Sacramento to see a mass where a man plays Nuit and a woman plays the Priest. Or they could mix it all up with an all transgender cast, or an all female cast, or an all male. That would be worth seeing.
And it would all mean the same to me. Because all the screwing in the world might be fun, but it misses the whole point of what I understand to be sex magick.
Just saying.
AW