MAGIC + SEX = RELIGION – or does it ?
Some time ago, during a short period when I was part of a
national discussion group on censorship in the arts, I received a letter from a
man called Paul Gregor. In his letter M.
Gregor - a Yugoslav national with a French mother - briefly introduced himself before inviting me to meet
him to discuss what he called “ important information on the subject of our
investigations “. A couple of weeks
later we did meet up – at a rather surprising location as it happens – to enjoy
a lavish lunch as the guests of a well known Peer of the Realm in the House of
Lords dining room. After the meal the
three of us retired to another part of The House and went on to discuss all
manner of unusual subjects including some of Paul’s rather odd theories , after
which he presented me with a personally inscribed copy of his latest book entitled MAGIC + SEX =
RELIGION.
The Book - my gift
I still have the book, a somewhat complex story which I did eventually manage to get through
albeit with some difficulty, but try as I may was unable to make head nor tail
of most of it. I did get another
letter from M. Gregor, but we never did
meet again, nor did I hear any more from the Right Hon Lord (now deceased).
Author Review
Up until that time I had never had more than a passing
interest in religion and I still feel that way about it now. My only sexual
connection with religion was falling in love with my Sunday School teacher, but
as she was sixteen at the time and I was only four nothing ever came of it.
However, my encounter with Paul Gregor did stimulate my curiosity into this
wide ranging and deeply controversial subject and led me into a period of
intense study and research which rather overcame me for a short time.
My collection of books - on all kinds of religion - grew to
more than 100 volumes which filled several shelves of my already overloaded
bookshelves, with files of newspaper and magazine cuttings adding to the
general clutter. I got fed up with it
all in the end and finished off by condensing the whole lot into a short 3500
word essay which ended up in one of my journals, before beginning the gradual disposal of this section of my
library.
from my Library - Maria Monk.
At the beginning of my research it quickly became obvious
that there a was a great deal of sexual activity involved in most primitive forms of religion, with nudity and sacrifice often
playing a major part in some kind of God worship. The ancient cultures,
although a bit more civilised carried on in much the same way and this clear sexual
connection didn’t stop with modern religions either, where Judao/ Christian beliefs
for example veered at various times from total abstinence to full on orgiastic
ritual ceremonies. There was plenty of nudity and sex associated with
the Adamites, an obscure Christian sect dating back to the 2nd
century b.c. who it is said stripped naked during prayer and worship. They were followed by Neo-Adamites in the
middle ages along with plenty of other niche believers in between and following,
including Beghards , Taborites, Picards and in more modern times another sub
group called Moravians. All a bit boring really and with no apparent
connection to the theories of M. Gregor. 
More about Maria
However , this present short piece of work is not really
concerned with the history of religion in general. Neither is it an attempt to define whether
it is or isn’t a mixture of sex and
magic as Paul Gregor suggests in his book, but relates directly to my work over many
years as a photo-journalist, especially in the area of Art & Erotica.
I have often covered exhibitions containing examples of Christian
iconography, which has been full of
nudity and partial nudity of all kinds – men, women and children –appearing in various
representations of holiness, much of
which is quite explicit in detail.
Produced by some of the greatest artists of the time as sketches ,
drawings and in other media primarily for wealthy sponsors ostensibly for religious
purposes, it is also just as likely to have been acquired by some as another
form of sexual/fetish stimulant.
But although pictures for specifically religious purposes
are no longer produced in any kind of quantity, the abiding lure of religious
sex still remains an enduring attraction to a small number of people - of both
sexes.
The great majority of this attraction is mainly confined to stories
of what purported to go on in the Monasteries , Abbeys and other consecrated
buildings in medieval times and probably
had its origins in the time of King Henry VIII,
who used rather exaggerated accusations of widespread illicit sex by
monks and nuns to support his eventual plans of dissolution and legalized
theft.
No doubt some of this was true and some
just febrile imagination , but the writing and imagery that emerged from that
time ultimately found its way from the middle ages through into the Victorian
age and continues right up until modern times.
Young virgin nuns of that time ( or even older ones ) could easily
mistake an outburst of carnal desire as a divinely inspired explosion of
spiritual ecstasy and so they naturally play a prominent and important role in
the public's imagination. This odd genre of art and erotica known colloquially as “nunsploitation “, has
over the years produced many hundreds of examples of pictures , paintings and
drawings, artworks , books, films (and now DVD’s) which often includes an
element of whipping, spanking or sado-machochistic
punishment of some kind .
A Perfect Example
A French engraving which
perfectly encapsulates an example from the late 19th century , features
a priapic monk frantically whipping a naked nun and bears the caption “ I will now expel the last traces of your
impurity with this sacred relic. It is a part of the venerable rope that once
girded the waist of the holy St Francis himself” – said the Abbot as he thrusts
his prick into the nun after vigorously whipping her naked arse. Quite
stimulating I can imagine - to a certain kind of taste !!!
A top 100 list of the most popular of these “nunsploitation
“, films/books etc; exists somewhere amongst the archives of erotica, perhaps the most notorious of which is entitled “Sacred Flesh”. A film made quite recently -in 1999 -and
now available as a DVD , these confessions and fantasies of the nuns and other
religious inhabitants of an imaginary convent deals with just about every kind
of sexual deviation imaginable.
The cult even extends to foreign parts where Christianity
has only a very minority following. In Japan
for instance where a film entitled ‘The School
of the Holy Beast’ has been produced which
includes explicit scenes featuring naked nuns forced to whip each other, a
lesbian mother superior and lecherous sadistic archbishops.
This somewhat odd form of sexual stimulant which began six
hundred years ago seems to be almost as popular now as it was in the late 19th
and early 20th centuries, not just in art and literature but as a leisure and pleasure activity in select
private clubs that specialise in fantasy sex where (acting) sexy nuns , bishops
and even the odd archbishop frequently put in an appearance.
You may even hear more about this in some future blog – if
you keep your eyes open for it.
p.s. ‘ The Awful
Disclosures of MARIA MONK ‘ also appears in the 100 list. I still have a copy
of this book left over from my original collection which we are now disposing of. Look for the details
available soon on our latest PAGE. m.g.
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