Sexual Revolution: The Nature of Eve
"...and also there is the legend of Eve and the Serpent, for Cain was the child of Eve and the Serpent, not of Eve and Adam; and therefore when he had slain his brother, who was the first murderer, having sacrificed living things to his demon, had Cain the mark upon his brow, which is the mark of the Beast spoken of in Apocolypse and the sign of initiation. The shedding of blood is necessary, for God did not hear the children of Eve until blood was shed." [emphasis mine]
-Liber 418, Cry of ARN
Agrippa wrote a piece on "Female Pre-eminence: Or the Dignity and Excellency of that Sex , above the Male." Most scholars who have addressed it consider the text to be, more or less, an appeal to the female ruler under whose authority he lived at the time. I think that this is reductionistic. If we look closely at what Agrippa's saying, we find that he's saying a great deal about magical essence, and its expression in existence, not to mention of the intrinsic nature of sexual relations themselves, which we will see again in Crowley's work, hundreds of years later. Read the following quotation, keeping the above portion of Liber 418 in mind. I only discovered this piece recently, and I think that, far from being dismissible as mere propaganda, it has a lot to teach us about the relationship between magical power and the female sex.
"But to proceed; as in order and place, so also in matter of her Creation, Woman far exceeds Man. Things receive their value from the matter they are made of, and the excellent skill of their maker: Pots of common Clay must not contend with China-Dishes, nor Pewter Utensils vie dignity with those of Silver. One Line drawn by Appelles his exquisite Pencil, is more to be esteemed, than whole Portraitures performed by the slubbering hands of vulgar Artists. Woman was not composed of any inanimate or vile dirt, but of a more refined and purified substance, enlivened and actuated by a Rational Soul, whose operations speak it a Beam, or bright Ray of Divinity. [emphasis mine] Man was taken out of the Earth, which of its own nature, with the co-operation of Celestial Influxes, is wont to bring forth living Creatures: but Woman, above all Influence of the Heavens, or aptitude of Nature, without any assisting virtue, or co-operating power, was formed miraculously by God himself, out of that Rib taken from dormant Adam's side whereby Man became maimed and imperfect; and thence ever since, as a Needle that has suffered the Magnetic Touch, stands always trembling 'til it looks full on its beloved North; so He can never rest, will by taking a Woman, and Incorporating her with himself, he retrieves that loss, and render himself again entire and perfect. ... And therefore for the most part Woman is more susceptible of, and replenished with divine splendor and irradiance, than Man, of which her incomparable Neatness, and charming Beauty, may be a pregnant evidence; for Beauty is nothing but the brightness or radiancy of Divine Light, shining in created Essences, and casting on us its glorious Reflections from fair bodies, as illustriously as our weak eyes are capable without dazzling to behold it. And this most frequently chooses to reside in Woman, rather than Man; whence she becomes beyond all expression amiable and delightful,.. That in the whole Series of Creatures there is nothing so much to be admired, or miracle so deserving to be seen, since in her alone all that have not their eyes bleared with prejudice or envy, may clearly see, the great Creator (who is the Fountain of all that is good and amiable) has epitomized the Beauty of all his other works; for those perfections which Sparkle here and there in them, are collected and constellated in her, whom we may call, a Draft of the whole Creation in Miniature, or a Copy of that vast Volume done in exquisite Short-hand. Hence all Creatures admire, love, and almost adore her; ... the Lion which spares no other Creature, trembles at a Woman, and hardly proffers her that violence which usually he does to Man; as if Nature had taught that savage Animal the Respect due to so fair a presence. ... even Spiritual Natures, incorporeal Essences, and Demons, have many times been enamored on Women with wonderful passion; for omitting those Stories Poets tell us, of the Amours of their fabulous Deities, as Apollo and Daphne, Neptune and Salmonea, or rampant Hercules with his three Wenches, Hebe, Fole, and Omphale, &c. The holy Scripture seems to intimate no less; as in Genesis we find, That the Sons of God seeing the Daughters of Men were fair, took of them for their Wives: to which we might add, (if it be not thought too Apocryphal) the ill spirit Asmodeus, who so jealously Courted the Lady, that he destroyed all his Rivals, in the History of Tebit. Indeed these sacred Roll are frequent in recommending this divine Ornament, Beauty, and furnish us with various Examples of its power and excellency.”
-H. C. Agrippa, on the Pre-eminence of Woman
-Liber 418, Cry of ARN
Agrippa wrote a piece on "Female Pre-eminence: Or the Dignity and Excellency of that Sex , above the Male." Most scholars who have addressed it consider the text to be, more or less, an appeal to the female ruler under whose authority he lived at the time. I think that this is reductionistic. If we look closely at what Agrippa's saying, we find that he's saying a great deal about magical essence, and its expression in existence, not to mention of the intrinsic nature of sexual relations themselves, which we will see again in Crowley's work, hundreds of years later. Read the following quotation, keeping the above portion of Liber 418 in mind. I only discovered this piece recently, and I think that, far from being dismissible as mere propaganda, it has a lot to teach us about the relationship between magical power and the female sex.
"But to proceed; as in order and place, so also in matter of her Creation, Woman far exceeds Man. Things receive their value from the matter they are made of, and the excellent skill of their maker: Pots of common Clay must not contend with China-Dishes, nor Pewter Utensils vie dignity with those of Silver. One Line drawn by Appelles his exquisite Pencil, is more to be esteemed, than whole Portraitures performed by the slubbering hands of vulgar Artists. Woman was not composed of any inanimate or vile dirt, but of a more refined and purified substance, enlivened and actuated by a Rational Soul, whose operations speak it a Beam, or bright Ray of Divinity. [emphasis mine] Man was taken out of the Earth, which of its own nature, with the co-operation of Celestial Influxes, is wont to bring forth living Creatures: but Woman, above all Influence of the Heavens, or aptitude of Nature, without any assisting virtue, or co-operating power, was formed miraculously by God himself, out of that Rib taken from dormant Adam's side whereby Man became maimed and imperfect; and thence ever since, as a Needle that has suffered the Magnetic Touch, stands always trembling 'til it looks full on its beloved North; so He can never rest, will by taking a Woman, and Incorporating her with himself, he retrieves that loss, and render himself again entire and perfect. ... And therefore for the most part Woman is more susceptible of, and replenished with divine splendor and irradiance, than Man, of which her incomparable Neatness, and charming Beauty, may be a pregnant evidence; for Beauty is nothing but the brightness or radiancy of Divine Light, shining in created Essences, and casting on us its glorious Reflections from fair bodies, as illustriously as our weak eyes are capable without dazzling to behold it. And this most frequently chooses to reside in Woman, rather than Man; whence she becomes beyond all expression amiable and delightful,.. That in the whole Series of Creatures there is nothing so much to be admired, or miracle so deserving to be seen, since in her alone all that have not their eyes bleared with prejudice or envy, may clearly see, the great Creator (who is the Fountain of all that is good and amiable) has epitomized the Beauty of all his other works; for those perfections which Sparkle here and there in them, are collected and constellated in her, whom we may call, a Draft of the whole Creation in Miniature, or a Copy of that vast Volume done in exquisite Short-hand. Hence all Creatures admire, love, and almost adore her; ... the Lion which spares no other Creature, trembles at a Woman, and hardly proffers her that violence which usually he does to Man; as if Nature had taught that savage Animal the Respect due to so fair a presence. ... even Spiritual Natures, incorporeal Essences, and Demons, have many times been enamored on Women with wonderful passion; for omitting those Stories Poets tell us, of the Amours of their fabulous Deities, as Apollo and Daphne, Neptune and Salmonea, or rampant Hercules with his three Wenches, Hebe, Fole, and Omphale, &c. The holy Scripture seems to intimate no less; as in Genesis we find, That the Sons of God seeing the Daughters of Men were fair, took of them for their Wives: to which we might add, (if it be not thought too Apocryphal) the ill spirit Asmodeus, who so jealously Courted the Lady, that he destroyed all his Rivals, in the History of Tebit. Indeed these sacred Roll are frequent in recommending this divine Ornament, Beauty, and furnish us with various Examples of its power and excellency.”
-H. C. Agrippa, on the Pre-eminence of Woman