Liber Null & Psychonaut: An Introduction to Chaos Magic - Peter J. Carroll 1987

Ecstasy
Liber NOX

Being a resume of the Quadriga Sexualis, a series of somatic trances involving the Death Posture and Rites of Thanateros. The science and art of the sacred alignments between the magical will and certain forms of gnostic exaltation are shown in figure 8.

The pinnacle of excitation and the cave of absolute quiescence are the same place magically and physiologically. In that hidden dimension of one's being hangs the hawk vulture of the Self (or Kia), free of desire, yet ready to hurl itself into any experience or act.

The endless variations of the gnosis of quiescence are all the death posture, but the following may be of particular use in part or whole:

Kneeling in the dragon position, hands flat on thighs, spine erect, the initiate stares fixedly at the image of his own eyes in a large mirror before him, about two feet away. The temple is best completely featureless, black or white. He may have prepared himself previously by concentration on one of the magical trances, or by some intense effort of convergent thinking.

Gazing at his own eyes the initiate stops thinking. No amount of “effort” in the usual sense will avail. Infinite patience will barely suffice. The attention must be continually turned to the eye image until the thinking eventually gives up. Any sort of distortion of the image is symptomatic of thinking and to be avoided.

Success is characterized by certain phenomena for which it is useless to strive. There may be a loss of physical perspective or body image. The body may begin to feel vast or microscopic. These phenomena are characteristic of sensory deprivation. They are not the desired result but indicative of a loosening of belief.

The eyes are then closed and the void is entered as completely as possible. Some image may be used as a receptacle of thought if it be not completely annulled. A visualized shape will do. Hopefully this too can be allowed to fade, leaving Kia hovering in an immensity. From this condition of transcended desire it can hurl itself into any form of magic. Inspiration or atavisms can be dredged up from recondite corners of the awareness by sigils; will and perception can be extended into new dimensions.

If the foregoing proves insufficient to achieve gnosis, the magician stands on tip toe, eyes closed with arms locked behind, the neck stretched and the back arched, the whole body straining to the limit. The breathing becomes deep and spasmodic as the crucifixion continues. Oblivious to everything except the strain and tension which rack his entire being, he may attain the Void, as this too is suddenly removed and he falls exhausted supine to the floor.

Figure 8. The Quadriga Sexualis and their magical uses.

At this point he evokes the sensation of laughter. Reflecting on the meaninglessness of anything as he becomes conscious of it, he laughs aimlessly at everything. He may be granted the grace of being swept up onto the divine madness of ecstatic laughter.

The death posture is chief among the rites of Thanateros for it can be applied to inspire, reify, and exhaust, as well as transcend, desire.

Normal congress, the genital embrace of persons of opposed sexes, should in any manifestation, magical or not, inspire the participants with something, if only mutual attachment. Employed magically it can provide amplified inspiration for almost anything.

The lunar current of the priestess is observed for a day in which the libido is strong. In the priest, the libido is strengthened by conservation. Retiring to the place of working, each attains the silence of the mind by any favored method. For example, they may kneel before each other in the dragon position and perform the preliminaries of the death posture. Then they become conjoined in a stimulatory embrace. As congress occurs the subject for inspiration or its sigil is meditated on as the mountain of excitation is gradually climbed. As the final step is taken the desire is abandoned to the subconscious. After the cataclysm the celebrants aim to remain vacuous but alert, to allow the inspiration to manifest.

The reification, or making real, of a desire is possible through the autoerotic mode of the quadriga sexualis. In this the mind is kept blank while the sexuality is ignited and brought to a pitch by touch alone. The body is in a supine position, eyes closed with all other senses annulled as far as possible. As the initiate climbs the mountain of excitation the mind must reject all images and fantasies. As the body goes into the orgasm phase, and in the seconds following, the whole force of the will and perception is focused on the desire, or more conveniently, its sigil. In that brief instant when he is no more, the alignment is made, the obsession formed, the demon born, or the sigil charged, his will sent forth.

Eroto-comatose lucidity is a variant of this form of congress in which the desire is to reach the borderland state between consciousness and unconsciousness through which the subconscious images and divinatory impressions flow. The sexuality is stimulated again and again and if need be, again and again and again until the consciousness slips into the shadow world. In practice the body should be neither too tired nor too comfortable, so preventing the unconsciousness of deep sleep. The body may be unable to sustain many orgasms, particularly if male. Karezza, excitation stopping short of orgasm but repeatedly approaching it, may be employed. Exhaustion of desire is a magical process which works on the principle that wished-for events so often seem to occur after we have forgotten about them consciously. It is because the life force then acts through the aetheric tensions we first created, but of which we are no longer aware. The chosen desire is concentrated on through all phases of the arousal, discharge and aftermath of these forms of congress for as long as it takes until the mind begins to react against or get sick of it.

The conscious desire, rather than any sigilized form of it, should be used. As soon as the reaction against the desire begins to manifest, the whole thing is banished from the mind by a forcible turning of the attention to other matters. Conscious desire and reaction annulled, the desire will manifest at some time in the future.