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> It combined with other mystic traditions ultimately informed the theosophical movement of the 19th and 20th century through to the magick of Aleister Crowley.
by floren 9y ago
> It combined with other mystic traditions ultimately informed the theosophical movement of the 19th and 20th century through to the magick of Aleister Crowley. His sex magick informs a lot of the modern incel, red-pill, and proud boy ideas that you must refrain from "spilling your seed"—that your reproductive emissions contain some of your essential energy. The result being that you have to abstain or otherwise be reduced to a plodding pile of unenlightened goo (to give the idea some imagery).
Those seem to have been relatively widely-held beliefs based on the humour system of medicine, see https://aeon.co/essays/getting-down-and-medieval-the-sex-lives-of-the-middle-ages https://aeon.co/essays/getting-down-and-medieval-the-sex-liv... posted here on HN a few days ago.
Taoists had similar ideas: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taoist_sexual_practices https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taoist_sexual_practices
Edit: also I'll never spell it "magick" because Crowley was a toolbag
Edit 2: There's also the current meme that (humorously) claims a man who remains a virgin to the age of 30 will become a wizard, which is presumably drawing on all these historical beliefs.
- 52-6F-62 9y ago> Edit: also I'll never spell it "magick" because Crowley was a toolbag You're right about that one. I did it only for the continuity being that I was specifically commenting on his circle. The humour medicine was a little different. That article was speaking more to the fact that it was believed people had to release sexual energy for fear of death. The Taoists were the opposite of that. They thought you should preserve fluids to preserve and prolong life. Crowley's version was closer to your comment on the meme, which sidles with the red-pill version I mentioned above: that conserving your sexual energy essential bestows you with powers, or at least advantage over the "wasteful" ignorant masses.
- guskel 9y agoIncels don't practice noFap. If you actually check incel forums, they heavily ridicule the idea and the Redpill types who do.
- CodeCube 9y agoThat this is even a sentence one can utter is :face-palm:
- PhasmaFelis 9y agoGood point. It's important to keep your ridiculous lunatics separate.
- logfromblammo 9y agoTo relate to another current event, Le Guin's Wizard of Earthsea, Ged, was a virgin, and lost his power after he wasn't. Or at least that's how I remember it. I read the series a long time ago.
- sampo 9y ago> and lost his power after he wasn't This is not true. In The Farthest Shore, Ged lost his powers by using them all to ...well to do some huge deed. Not going to specifics in order to avoid too much spoilers. The "present day" Earthsea wizards practiced celibasy, but it was more a belief or tradition, like Catholic priests.