post-menopausal women and sex magick
This was a comment I made on the menstrual thread but I wanted to break it out of that discussion for further comment. In response to:
”What are your thoughts on post-menopausal women and sexual magick? Certainly, I don't think that women cease to be sex magicians when they cease to menstruate.”
Absolutely not! Unfortunately, our typical systems of magick (i.e. Thelema, Western Sex Magick, Tantra) don’t have a built in answer to this question as some others do (i.e. The Triple Goddess/Crone beliefs). This is the very reason that the Triple Goddess image exists though. There is the Virgin, the pre-menstrual girl - let’s correlate this to the priestess as she raises a man from the tomb and makes him a priest. Her purity is essential to the work and though usually viewedin Thelemic circles as the thin disguise of a whore it is not - she is a very different woman at this stage. Her ability to give her body in service without possibility of conception is a very powerful act in and of itself. Next there is the Mother, the fertile woman of full menstruation, whether impregnated or not - this is the form in which I find most Thelemites view the priestess in the Mass. She is there, open and ready for the priest, for conception of both child and mystery - this is the woman who dances in the prime of her sexuality. Certainly her magick is powerful and sometimes even overwhelming but it cannot be all that there is to feminine energy or mystery. To make her so is to deny both the Virgin and the Crone and thus the beginning and the end of magick, of life.
That brings us to the Crone, the post-menopausal woman. In Goddess traditions she is typically viewed as an elder, a wise woman who presides over the flock. In practice this is logical given that her years have most likely brought a certain amount of experience. As far as her role in sex magick - I am going to have to kind of pull that out of my ass here. I have been a Virgin (in practice and theory) and I have been a mother/whore (in practice and theory) - my knowledge and opinions of these two stages are backed with experience. The roles I have taken during these two stages were formed through experiment and trail. I have not been a post-menopausal woman and have not had the time to experiment with that role or that energy. I have, however, gone 4 fours without a period so I suppose that would count as a mini-workshop in menopause - based on that, here I go. . .
Again, like the Virgin, the Crone can offer herself without conception and thus lend her body to work not suitable for the Mother. Her age and experience lends her to work not suitable for the Virgin. While the Virgin’ s power is purity and the Mother’s is fertility, the Crone’s is wisdom and impunity - this might suit her best for divinatory work, scrying in flesh, oracles, ECL trance states, etc. She might be particularly close to Mercurial energies. She is also ideal in the role of temple whore - I think even more so than the young, pert Mother Whore. I think this because conception is no longer a factor in her sexuality - her sexuality has taken on more of a guiding role. She can act as confessor with no regret or commitment while the Mother Whore risks entanglement and her subjects/worshippers risk a lasting commitment. Mating with the Mother Whore is a game of chance that could cost more than one is willing to give. With the Crone one is prone to gain without trickery or consequence.
This ended up taking on a sense of metaphysical metaphor that I had not intend when I first began but those are my preliminary thoughts on post-menopausal women. In short, magick is life and there is a particular magick best suited for each stage of life. Of course, one can practice that of another but there are rhythms that when flowed with, rather than against, take the practitioner to new and elevated places that one could never go while holding on to another time or place.
”What are your thoughts on post-menopausal women and sexual magick? Certainly, I don't think that women cease to be sex magicians when they cease to menstruate.”
Absolutely not! Unfortunately, our typical systems of magick (i.e. Thelema, Western Sex Magick, Tantra) don’t have a built in answer to this question as some others do (i.e. The Triple Goddess/Crone beliefs). This is the very reason that the Triple Goddess image exists though. There is the Virgin, the pre-menstrual girl - let’s correlate this to the priestess as she raises a man from the tomb and makes him a priest. Her purity is essential to the work and though usually viewedin Thelemic circles as the thin disguise of a whore it is not - she is a very different woman at this stage. Her ability to give her body in service without possibility of conception is a very powerful act in and of itself. Next there is the Mother, the fertile woman of full menstruation, whether impregnated or not - this is the form in which I find most Thelemites view the priestess in the Mass. She is there, open and ready for the priest, for conception of both child and mystery - this is the woman who dances in the prime of her sexuality. Certainly her magick is powerful and sometimes even overwhelming but it cannot be all that there is to feminine energy or mystery. To make her so is to deny both the Virgin and the Crone and thus the beginning and the end of magick, of life.
That brings us to the Crone, the post-menopausal woman. In Goddess traditions she is typically viewed as an elder, a wise woman who presides over the flock. In practice this is logical given that her years have most likely brought a certain amount of experience. As far as her role in sex magick - I am going to have to kind of pull that out of my ass here. I have been a Virgin (in practice and theory) and I have been a mother/whore (in practice and theory) - my knowledge and opinions of these two stages are backed with experience. The roles I have taken during these two stages were formed through experiment and trail. I have not been a post-menopausal woman and have not had the time to experiment with that role or that energy. I have, however, gone 4 fours without a period so I suppose that would count as a mini-workshop in menopause - based on that, here I go. . .
Again, like the Virgin, the Crone can offer herself without conception and thus lend her body to work not suitable for the Mother. Her age and experience lends her to work not suitable for the Virgin. While the Virgin’ s power is purity and the Mother’s is fertility, the Crone’s is wisdom and impunity - this might suit her best for divinatory work, scrying in flesh, oracles, ECL trance states, etc. She might be particularly close to Mercurial energies. She is also ideal in the role of temple whore - I think even more so than the young, pert Mother Whore. I think this because conception is no longer a factor in her sexuality - her sexuality has taken on more of a guiding role. She can act as confessor with no regret or commitment while the Mother Whore risks entanglement and her subjects/worshippers risk a lasting commitment. Mating with the Mother Whore is a game of chance that could cost more than one is willing to give. With the Crone one is prone to gain without trickery or consequence.
This ended up taking on a sense of metaphysical metaphor that I had not intend when I first began but those are my preliminary thoughts on post-menopausal women. In short, magick is life and there is a particular magick best suited for each stage of life. Of course, one can practice that of another but there are rhythms that when flowed with, rather than against, take the practitioner to new and elevated places that one could never go while holding on to another time or place.