Description
• Explores the supernatural woman as the active agent of the male initiate’s spiritual transformation • Traces the supernatural woman’s presence in ancient Greek and Zoroastrian traditions, the Eddas, the Icelandic sagas, and the works of the great medieval English poet and author Geoffrey Chaucer • Details the similarities between sexual ecstasy and the mystical state by exploring the role of ecstasy in magical and spiritual practice The supernatural woman can enchant her male devotee and make him speak poetically and prophetically. She has appeared as a muse, sorceress, and Valkyrie, guiding the man’s development and testing his resolve. She converses with her chosen mortal through dreams and initiates his spiritual transformation through sexual encounters. Angel Millar explores this magical relationship, drawing upon ancient Greek and Zoroastrian traditions, the medieval Eddas, the Icelandic sagas, and the works of English author Geoffrey Chaucer. Millar traces the supernatural woman’s presence in fine art, ancient sexual symbolism, and psychology, most notably Jung’s theory of the anima and animus and Freud’s life and death instincts. The author also details this motif in the initiation rituals of modern Wicca and Freemasonry. Exploring the similarities between sexual ecstasy and the mystical state, Millar reveals the role of ecstasy in magical and spiritual practice. In drawing these connections, he looks at St. Teresa’s experience of mystical ecstasy, the erotic vision of the 13th century English Christian mystic Margery Kempe, and the Lust card from Aleister Crowley’s Thoth tarot deck. Supernatural Woman and the Male Initiate explores the ancient tradition of humans having sexual relationships with otherworldly mentors to realize personal development and spiritual transformation.
ISBN 9798888503621
