I. VAMA MARGA Foundations Of The Left-Hand Path - staticfly.net

Randolph went to sea at 15, subsequently sailing around the world for five
years. These travels enhanced his taste for adventurous voyage, and he
eventually journeyed to such far-flung locales as Turkey, Egypt and Syria,
sometimes serving as a ship's doctor. Randolph claimed to have acquired
some of his magical knowledge in India, where he was supposedly initiated
by Bengali yogis into the mysteries of Tantra. However, as mentioned
earlier, this self-perpetuated biographical claim of "secret wisdom from the
East" is one that we will encounter frequently in the history of Western sex
magic, and must be taken with more than a grain of salt. Randolph's
idiosyncratic system of erotic initiation is only superficially reflective of the
authentic Vama Marga.
An acquaintance of Abraham Lincoln, Randolph became a wellknown
lecturer for the controversial cause of abolition before the American
Civil War. (More than one occult conspiracy theorist has actually proffered
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the implausible speculation that Honest Abe was a secret initiate of
Randolph's sex-magical fraternity.) In his relatively brief life, PBR – as he
was respectfully known – also became a major player in almost all of the
major occult movements and fashions of his time. In 1850, he was initiated
into the Hermetic Brotherhood of Luxor (also known as the Hermetic
Brotherhood of Light), the first of many Rosicrucian-themed. Orders with
which he was involved. Swept up in the American craze for spiritualism and
table-tapping initiated by the Fox sisters, a swindle he later rejected, he soon
progressed to hermetic ceremonial magic. Among Randolph's friends could
be counted the French mage Eliphas Levi, the most prominent author of the
early magical revival, and Bulwer-Lytton, the British ceremonial magician
and occult novelist who originated the concept of vril. (Bulwer-Lytton was
one of the first British magicians to use the phrase left-hand path, but like
Blavatsky he condemned it as a form of debased black magic, due to his
aversion to any use of the erotic in initiation.) Randolph established the first
American Rosicrucian association, the Third Temple of the Rosie Cross,
founded in San Francisco. During the American Civil War, his Order
activities were suspended, and Randolph fought for the Union, in the ranks
of the all-black Fremont Legion. In 1870, he named himself the Supreme
Hierarch, Grand Templar, Knight, Prior, and Hierarch of the Triple Order,
also known as the Brotherhood of Eulls, a vehicle for his sex-magical
teaching.
In accordance with the traditional left-hand path teaching,
Randolph acclaimed sex as the most powerful energy accessible to humans
for the operation of magic. For him, sex was imbued with what he termed
"the pellucid aroma of divinity." Although he never specified what divinity
he had in mind, there can be no doubt that sex was a religious sacrament for
this Rosicrucian adventurer. Randolph's open emphasis on sexual sorcery in
the last years of his life not only caused him to be branded a "libertine" by
his puritanical Rosicrucian colleagues, but led to his arrest for inciting "free
love" and disturbing the public morality. If his sex magical theories now
seem somewhat naive and rudimentary to the contemporary reader, it must
also be remembered under what repressive psychosexual conditions any
erotic experimentation had to be conducted in nineteenth century America.
Compounding the challenge of writing openly about sexual magic in that era
was Randolph's African ancestry, which already drew criticism in the
atmosphere of institutionalized racism prevalent in the United States. He
encountered far less prejudice in his dealings with European magicians.
Randolph's allegation to have based his teaching on lessons learned
from his supposed Tantric initiation in India is unlikely, but the other source
he cited as the origin of his "soul-sexive" mysteries rests on even shakier
ground.. Randolph claimed that he was but the interpreter to the West of a
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