Description
Book SynopsisIn this provocative book, Marla Segol explores the development of the kabbalistic cosmology underlying Western sex magic. Drawing extensively on Jewish myth and ritual, Segol tells the powerful story of the relationship between the divine and the human body in late antique Jewish esotericism, in medieval kabbalah, and in New Age ritual practice. Kabbalah and Sex Magic traces the evolution of a Hebrew microcosm that models the powerful interaction of human and divine bodies at the heart of both kabbalah and some forms of Western sex magic. Focusing on Jewish esoteric and medical sources from the fifth to the twelfth century from Byzantium, Persia, Iberia, and southern France, Segol argues that in its fully developed medieval form, kabbalah operated by ritualizing a mythos of divine creation by means of sexual reproduction. She situates in cultural and historical context the emergence of Jewish cosmological models for conceptualizing both human and divine bodies and the interactions be
Trade Review“Segol makes a groundbreaking contribution to the history of kabbalah, Jewish studies, and the history of religion, opening up innovative perspectives for our understanding of sex magic and its reception.”
—Nicole Maria Bauer Religious Studies Review
“This study is an interesting, knowledgeable examination of an intriguing aspect of the Jewish mystical tradition: sex magic.”
—S. T. Katz Choice
