Fortune published ‘The Winged Bull: A Study in Esoteric Psychology’ in The Inner Light Magazine in 1938. In it, she states that The Winged Bull has a threefold thesis: ‘Firstly, the radical unsoundness of the Christian attitude towards sex; secondly, the remedial possibilities of a combination of psychology and occultism; thirdly, the dangers of the dark side of sexual magic.’ The ‘key-concept’ of the book however, ‘in which the three basic motifs are subsumed,’ is ‘the relationship between a man and a woman in the light of the forgotten knowledge of the ancients,’ and concerns ‘the knowledge of certain aspects of the sex relationship which are the carefully guarded secrets of the initiates.’ The initiation offered in the novel is into this secret knowledge of love and sex. In this chapter I will explore the vision of magical sexuality Fortune presents in The Winged Bull in more detail. I will consider the way Fortune presented her form of sexual magic, self-consciously contrasting it with the forms practised by her contemporaries, particularly Aleister Crowley. Discussing the relationship between sexuality and initiation, I will consider polarity and gender in Fortune’s work as well as the importance of sacrifice within her cosmological schema.

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‘Man-headed, eagle-winged, bull-footed’: Magical Sexuality in The Winged Bull

  • Georgia van Raalte

摘要

Fortune published ‘The Winged Bull: A Study in Esoteric Psychology’ in The Inner Light Magazine in 1938. In it, she states that The Winged Bull has a threefold thesis: ‘Firstly, the radical unsoundness of the Christian attitude towards sex; secondly, the remedial possibilities of a combination of psychology and occultism; thirdly, the dangers of the dark side of sexual magic.’ The ‘key-concept’ of the book however, ‘in which the three basic motifs are subsumed,’ is ‘the relationship between a man and a woman in the light of the forgotten knowledge of the ancients,’ and concerns ‘the knowledge of certain aspects of the sex relationship which are the carefully guarded secrets of the initiates.’ The initiation offered in the novel is into this secret knowledge of love and sex. In this chapter I will explore the vision of magical sexuality Fortune presents in The Winged Bull in more detail. I will consider the way Fortune presented her form of sexual magic, self-consciously contrasting it with the forms practised by her contemporaries, particularly Aleister Crowley. Discussing the relationship between sexuality and initiation, I will consider polarity and gender in Fortune’s work as well as the importance of sacrifice within her cosmological schema.