In this installment of Practical Magic, Lisa Stardust explains sex magic, and how to use orgasms to manifest your best self. Always remember that magic is for believers, but this column can also simply serve as a guide to getting in touch with yourself — magically or not.

Let’s talk about sex, baby! Did you know that orgasms can help manifest desires and bring forth dreams? In magic, orgasms are considered to be the ultimate magical force. In fact, occultists believe that orgasms can help cleanse the body, produce magical power, and are a vital tool in manifesting desires.

“The alchemic process of creation is our birthright,” bruja, artist, and botanica owner, Taylor Cordova, says about sex magic.”Through sacred sex, we find a particularly ripe portal for making our wildest dreams come true and drawing our hearts desire into our energetic field.” This allows us to be at harmony with the world and ourselves, using our inner strength and power to shift the universe, allowing us to use mystical forces from within to attain our hopes.

View more

Here’s what you need to know about how to do that:

What kind of spells can you cast with orgasms?

You can attempt to cast any spell you want using sex magic, but, the first thing to remember is that magic works best when done on yourself. Using magic on others is a dangerous game — it can have unpredictable results and shouldn’t be done because it’s attempting to manipulate another’s will. Practicing magic on others can work against you in the end. That's why the kind of sex we're trying to make magical here is the kind you have with yourself! The best way to elevate your inner witchy spirit is to try manifesting your own personal goals—like catching a new love, healing your heart, getting a raise, or promotion at work.

When manifesting, it’s important to set a clear intention. This is a grounding exercise, in which we meditate on the desired outcome, enabling us to understand what we truly want. Intentions help us grow and amplify our dreams. The key to setting the right intention is to be specific. Letting the universe know the minutiae of our visions will help us cultivate our aspirations clearly and quickly. Pam Grossman, author of Waking the Witch: Reflections on Women, Magic, and Power, suggests “focusing on what it is you are hoping to manifest with so much attention that you can feel it in your whole body. It can be an image, a sentence, even just a word, but the key is to infuse it with as much intense, directed energy as you can.”

Techniques for Sex Magic:

The Art of Visualization

Now that you have set your intention, it’s time to meditate on it through the act of visualization. Since we’re focusing on magic for yourselves, let’s also focus on self-pleasure. When you start to masturbate, Kristen Sollee, author of Witches, Sluts, Feminists: Conjuring the Self Positive suggests tuning “into the goal you have in mind and channel all of the electric energy of your orgasm into that visualization.” This will allow your energy to mystically connect with your intention and give it power, potentially enabling it to come true.

Charge your Sex Toys Under the Moon

A radical approach of incorporating the lunar vibrations into your sex magic manifestation is to charge your sex toys under the moon. Chakrubs makes crystal vibrators and yoni eggs that can help heal your aura and revive your energy. Sollee says “pink quartz is a great stone for conjuring self-love, amethyst for spiritual guidance, or obsidian for working through trauma.”

Color Magic

Color Magic can help elevate manifestation. When crafting a spell, it’s important to keep check of the colors associated with each intention. For example, if you are trying to bring in more money, you may want to use the color green. Love will require a pink color, healing is the shade white, purple is used to enhance professional gains, and red is to increase passions. The reason is that color is an energetic frequency that can transcend dreams into reality. According to curator and color magic practitioner Sarah Potter, chakras (where the body stores energy) can become “amplified” by “invoking a color’s energy.” However, you can use the energy of color by “wearing lingerie or a dressing robe for your ritual. Using makeup or nail polish in specific shades as you get ready for the ritual will harness a color’s energy as well.” This can help boost the vibration and power of your energetic wavelengths through sensual play.

Sigil Carving

Chris O’Day suggests carving a sigil on a candle (reference the color magic section above to decide which color candle to use). Sigils are unique symbols, brought together by the practitioner to form a secret phrase. In order to carve a sigil, one must relax the mind and be in a quiet space to concentrate on inner desires. Then, with a piece of paper and pen, write “a clear and concise sentence explaining what you desire. Take out all the vowels and repeating consonants and with the remaining letters create a design as simple or as elaborate as you like.” After creating the sigil, place the paper on top of the candle and carve the sigil into the candle. Once you have transferred your mystical intention on the candle, you are ready to charge it with your orgasmic energy. Light the candle and concentrate on the carved sigil while climaxing. This can allow you to bring your intentions into reality through the magical energy of orgasms. Grossman suggests “looking at the sigil, envisioning it...at the moment of climax is one such means for giving it a magically charged activation.”

Connect with Your Body, Mind, and Spirit with Yourself

Professional witch and owner of Olde Ways, Michael Cardenas, suggests using sex magic to align the spirit with the body in order to manifest self-love in a simple bath ritual. Cardenas’s ritual is simple: “Start by writing out five things you love and appreciate about yourself and keep the list nearby. Take your regular shower and then draw yourself a bath. Take some honey, put some on your lips and say ‘I am the essence of love.’ Next put some honey on your heart and say, ‘I am love.’ Lastly put some honey on the center of your forehead and say ‘I love myself.’ Soak in the tub and read the list of things you love about yourself.”

Sex Magic for Celibate Witches and Participants

If you aren’t sexually active, you still can join in on the fun. Sex magic is mostly about taking back your power and using it for good. Sex and dating writer GriffinWynne.com says that it’s essential “to tend and nourish your body, physically, emotionally, spiritually, and sexually.” Although this “is a life long journey, and there is power and strength in each new discovery,” we shouldn’t rush into any acts until we are ready. Understanding your body and harvesting magic within from unreleased desires can “be super helpful when you're trying to boost your own confidence or stay calm and collected in a time of stress,” according to Wynne as your unreleased desires will build up and strengthen the will and mind.

Instead of releasing the built up energy through orgasms, creative director Paulette Terry suggests that one “conserve energy to channel it” into the self to become your “own muse.” The energy will create a free fall of creative inspiration. Be advised, this method “takes self control and discipline,” as it helps one “become aware of [the] sexual power [within] and where [we] choose to share it. "

Sex magic can be an amazing way to start to implement goals and manifest dreams—all by concentrating and releasing one’s personal energy into the world.