"The Berlin-based interdisciplinary artist, who goes by the single name Zeena, is a practicing Tibetan Buddhist yogini in the Drikung, Karma Kagyu and Nyingma lineages. She practiced and taught magic and meditation for over 30 years. Zeena is the Hemet-neter Tepi Seth of the Sethian Liberation Movement. Biographical info about Zeena can be found at Daily Offbeat."

Khajuraho Temple, India

Vedic left-hand path Tantrikas place great emphasis on the vaginal

secretions of the female, ingesting them as the pure distillation of feminine

energy in rites venerating the shakti's vulva. This fluid, called amrita, or "elixir

of immortality" is sometimes believed to be vitalized with magical properties

transformative of human consciousness, an agent quickening the process of

Kundalini, the awakening of the Feminine Daemonic in the male. The female

amrita consumed in left-hand path sexual rites is considered most powerful in

shakti at the time of menstruation, a fact which has sometimes been compared

to the elusive "ruby elixir" referred to in Western alchemical texts as a

medicine for the soul. Erotic statuary in India's celebrated Khajuraho Temple

depicts scenes of ritual cunnilingus that indicate a strong left-hand path

influence. In the Chinese sex-magical tradition, the orgasmic flow of the

female partner's Bartholin's gland fluid was also thought to be a substance rich

with yin, the feminine life-force potable in a physical libation granting

immortality.

In both the Taoist and Tantric traditions, great emphasis is placed on

the necessity of absorbing the sexual secretion only from consorts

demonstrating obvious physical health and vitality. Illness is said to nullify or

even poison the effects of the amrita upon the adept.

Even within the sometimes austere constrictions of the Islamic world,

home to an ancient magical heritage, decidedly left-hand path sex-magical

traditions continue to be practiced by Muslim magicians. Often these involve

the use of sexual secretions and menstrual blood as sorcerous agents, as in the

societally disreputable but fairly common utilization of sihr sufli, which has

sometimes been described as a form of Arabic black magic. Such rites require

that the sorcerer performs a prolonged act of copulation with a female – as is

often the case in the Tantric Vama Marga, the sorcerer's consort must not be

married to him. It is also considered preferable if the woman is menstruating, a

condition every bit as much of a taboo within Islam as it is in Hindu culture.

At the completion of the act, the mingled semen, feminine secretions, and

blood are carefully permeated into an absorbent piece of fabric. The erotically

charged fabric is then ritually burnt, whilst the sorcerer calls upon one of the

djinn – the demons of Arabic sorcery – to act in his stead in the daemonic

realm. This rite, which draws on the veiled, repressed power of the Feminine

Daemonic surging beneath the outwardly male-oriented surface of Arab life,

is of course considered a defilement by orthodox Islam. As with all left-hand

path procedures, it is the taboo-breaking nature of the activity that endows

this kind of sexual sorcery with its force.


The Aghori's preferred initiatrix in sexual congress is a menstruating

woman of the "untouchable" lower caste, whose menstrual blood mingled

with his own semen is sometimes consumed at the conclusion of the rite.

This Aghori practice has a secular analogue in a modern Western "sect"

dedicated to taboo-transgression; a well-known rite of initiation for the Hell's

Angels motorcycle club decrees that the Angel must "earn his wings" by

performing cunnilingus on a menstruating woman.

BLOOD MOON LUNAR ECLIPSE FOR PASSOVER/EASTER WEEKEND 2015

When I look at a Loise Nevelson sculpture I think about the way she described eating raisins. She would not eat raisins by the bunch but singly and selectively. 'When I put a raisin in my mouth I know what I'm doing'. This single statement expresses a mindfulness about living in the world that I see reflected in her work.

These thoughts about Nevelson were brought about by reading an interview with her. 

“Eliza Swann interviewed me for Arthur magazine in 2011. I loved the conversation that resulted from the meeting of our minds. Inspired by these results, I wanted to document many of the ideas that have been shaped through conversations with close friends of mine.”

Anders Hermund, Frank Haines and Hisham Akira Bharoocha at sound & light check for Performa-13 biennial. Photo by Zeena

A Special Rite of Spring: Astronomical triple punch of magical power on 20. March 2015. 

Self portrait 1990, Vienna.

“The modern magician does well to remember the ancient concept of magic as an art, noticing as well that tekhne is the root word for 'technology.' Approaching magical praxis as a delicate balance of intuitive and aesthetic art form and logical and rational technology – at once an esoteric science and [what was once referred to as] the Black Arts – can allow for a more exacting approach to the development of the skill.”

“ Magic has very subjective interpretations among all the different types of practitioners. But there is a basic standard, an established commonality, which each magician accepts as the core definition. How the practitioner develops from that basis is determined by many different variables according to the different persuasions and practices of magical teachings available to each culture. The core practice of magic is: The execution of a willed intent to create change in the material world, which either defies, hastens or purifies the consequences of natural cause and effect.”