Sex, Death, and the Wonder of Creation

Happy Full Moon! April's Full Moon shines bright on April 29th, this Sunday. This Full Moon is often called the Pink Moon, referencing the colorfield of hues we are lucky enough to witness in the Northern Hemisphere at this time. We are in full force Springtime, walking around on an awakened Earth. She’s chartreuse and emerald and pine and sage and fuscia and blushing and cherry blossoms and daisies and daffodils and so forth. She’s humming with energy, and at this time, you just might be as well! There is nothing more creative than the endless combination and displays that nature generates. Where are you ready to bring more creativity into your life? What different combinations will you experiment with?

This Full Moon is in Scorpio, the Sun is in Taurus. A Scorpio Full Moon can be a time of transformation. A time of recharging our strongest resolves. Supported spell workings on a Scorpio Full Moon include protection, ambition, psychic and intuitive ability, overcoming adversities and adversaries, death, and renewal. You may wish to do spell work around transformation, recreation, creativity in general, lust, sensuality, sexuality, and sex.

A Scorpio Full Moon can also be a time of reveal, not always the most savory kind. We often don’t know what information we will receive around the Full Moon time, so a good rule of thumb is to be open to messages, suspend a highly reactive response for at least two days, and spend a few days processing and reflecting on them. Always respond with integrity and from your highest self—not from a defensive or petty place. If it isn’t worth it in the long run to respond at all, then don’t do it and move on. Your time and energy is precious, peach plum (This is a good practice to do in general, not just around a Full Moon)!

The Tarot Card that correlates with Scorpio is the Death card. Tarot readers will always tell you that the Death card doesn’t equal actual, literal death. But it almost always does. We tend to compartmentalize death to solely our physical demise. Death is not to be defined only as a person dying. Literal death means something ceasing to exist in the same form. Circumstances going away. Something being taken. People leaving you. You having to leave someone else, even though you love them. Outgrowing a style of artistic expression. Shedding old parts of your identity. Harmful patterns needing to be stopped, for once and for all. Moving to a new job or new geographic location. Saying goodbye to social scenes and friend groups. Death includes endings of all kinds, even when they are simultaneously new beginnings: graduations, weddings, and yes, birth. Death includes the intangible and tangible alike. Cells die, ideologies die, habits die, relationships die, and yes, that succulent you put on your desktop also dies sometimes, too. The paradox being as we are in life, we also exist in death. We can’t have birth or rebirth without facing and allowing a death of some state. It is through this process that change and transformation occurs.

We fear death when so often, letting something die opens us up to new experiences. The fear lies in the unknown and in the lack of control that resides in surrendering. In processes of self-evolution it is our ego that must die, allowing us easier access to love, new forms of consciousness, and soul expansion. This is represented in the Rider-Waite-Colman-Smith deck as the four figures interacting with the skeleton, or Death itself. The King, representing our prideful ego, is dead, unable to stand up to the process. The youthful woman turns away, in denial, not quite ready to face the change. The bishop acknowledges death with prayer and spiritual toolkits. The innocent child greets Death with flowers. Which character do you resonate with, in facing your own changes? If some circumstances in your life need to change, ask yourself how you deal with change. Do your blocks lie in your reactions to perceived loss, to losing perceived control?

The Death card is a chance to meditate on the concept of life. On our bodies, our legacies. On what we create and why. Death is a natural companion to life. While death and life coexist simultaneously, it can be hard to tangibly see such contrasts—it can be a bit much for our minds to comprehend! At this time, you may wish to meditate on your thoughts of death, and how any fears you have around your own death are linked to fears you have around living as authentically as possible. Are you afraid of dying because you are afraid of living? How can you live more vibrantly? How can you make death your teacher? How can death be your catalyst to accept and change your life? How do you make beauty out of ash, pull redemption out of heartbreak?

Sex and death are linked. Orgasms are also referred to as “little deaths”: La petite mort. It isn’t hard to see why practitioners of magick have utilized sex magic for eons. Magicians are mistresses of changing their energy. Magicians are their own gatekeepers. Witches can feel their energy ground, circulate, change, raise, and expand through their meditation, spell work, visualizations, and trance work. We can conduct our energy through our breath, movement, intention, and will. Sex magic is the conscious use of our creative life force. Sex is one of the most tangible ways to connect our intention with our energy. Our genitals sit right next to the first energy center: our root. Our root chakra is located next to our psoas muscle, which also connects with the interior of our spine and our core, which in turn, connects to our nervous system, which conducts energy and life throughout our body. As we contract and release, waves of softness and electricity ebb and flow from our head to our toes. Sex magic is the art of transforming our desires and intentions into visible and tangible results.

Sex magic can be transformative to our bodies. Orgasms release oxytocin, a stress reducing chemical found in the brain and heart. Oxytocin also paves the way for us to express kindness, empathy, and generosity. Orgasms slow our brain waves down, allowing for deeper relaxation. Sex can lower blood pressure, our levels of cortisol (the stress hormone), and pain, while boosting our immune systems. Once we combine our intentional power and desires with all the physiological benefits, our spirals undulate. Our body is both message and messenger. We are the wands. We are our altar. We become all the tools we could ever want or need.

It would only make sense to pair up the building up of energy and awakening when we are sexual with intention and magical workings. Our energy is amplified and with it, our spell. Sex magic can also serve as a way to step more fully into our sexual power. For those of us who have been mistreated sexually, who have suffered from abuse or sexual or physical trauma, reclaiming our bodies and the power we have to pleasure ourselves is healing. Pairing intentional work with somatic work affirms that we belong to ourselves. We can express our sexuality however we’d like. Our bodies are first and foremost our own to experience and enjoy, to experiment with and play with—to relax, just for fun, or to channel our energy into amplifying our desires. If you would like to read more books about tantric sex or sexual healing, Annie Sprinkle and Barbara Carrellas are good places to start for a feminist, queer-positive viewpoint.

Our Full Moon falls just before Beltane, the Witch’s Sabbath that revolves around recreation, fertility, fun, pleasure, and joy. Beltane, also called May Day, takes place on May 1st, directly at the midpoint of spring and summer. Because it took place to celebrate the promise of a bountiful harvest, celebrations include feasting, dancing (in and around a May Pole; a fertility ritual), bonfires, and having sex. At this time, witches celebrate unions, the Sun, harvest, fertility, abandon, perfect love, and perfect trust. After a cold winter and transitional early Spring, we can warm ourselves up and prioritize sensuality and self-pleasuring.

Historically, Full Moons have always been linked up with sex and sexuality. The Full Moon acted as a night light so that lovers could look into one another's eyes and watch one another as they fucked. The Full Moon is synonymous with being ripe—overflowing with possibilities. The Moon and tides interact with the electromagnetic fields of our bodies, affecting us as well—our energy is piqued, raised. Certain animals’ mating patterns coincide with the Full Moon as well—crustaceans release their eggs on beaches under a Full Moon, and corals off the coast of Australia release their eggs and sperm by Full Moonlight, among many other examples. The Full Moon’s tidal wave can be compared to an orgasm. Our energy gains height and focus. It spirals off into the cosmos. When we are aroused, our breathing changes, our genitalia opens up, and our pupils dilate. Our energy changes and our physicality literally shapeshifts.

This Full Moon can also be a prompt to give your body more of what it needs, sexually or not. Do you need to get spanked? Massaged? Slathered in oil? Do you need to partake in a surprise quickie in your car? Do you need more time out in nature? Does your body need to drink more water? Do you need to eat more pasta or more spinach? Is it time for you to start drinking herbal tonics every day? Do you need to dial down your alcohol use and dial up your vegan, sugar-free rice pudding consumption? If sex magic is not your cup of tea, take time today to ask your body what it needs. Then spend time giving it to your body.

At this Full Moon time, remember your energy is powerful. Your body is important and perfect just as it is. Your pleasure is sacred. Your transformation is in your nature. Choose your energy wisely.

Suggested affirmation: “I am anima and animus. My body is my altar. My intention and energy my offering.”

Journaling questions:
What is it time for me to let die?
Why am I resistant to this?
What process do I need to begin with this?
Where do I need to focus my own energy more?
What is it time for me to create?How can I do so?
What do I need to give to myself sexually?
What is my physical body asking for at this time?

Happy Full Moon!

— Excerpt is from Many Moons. Pre-order Vol 2 here.

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