From Hellfire to Hieros Gamos

By ROBIN CROOKSHANK HILTON     February 23, 2005
Source: Phenomena

It must have been sometime back in September 2003, while I was still absorbed in relating my adventures with aliens, champagne receptions, and space-time, that I began to surreptitiously muse about the concept of esoteric erotica.

This sublime train of thought was inspired during a review of the maiden issue of Phenomena by the editorial staff, when some bright spark quipped that the only thing that was missing from the world's finest alternative genre magazine was... um, Sex. Perhaps this was only meant to be a flippant remark, but one had to concede that, technically speaking, it was indeed an accurate assessment of our hallowed publication.

The "alternative genre" is resplendent with colorful accounts of astral encounters and out-of-the-body experiences, but what about those of us who want to have an alternative experience while we're actually still in our bodies?! How do we accommodate the most basic of human imperatives in a metaphysically meaningful manner?

So, this being The Fringe, where we can get away with just about anything back here in the seventysomething pages, I figured that it was my journalistic duty to slip in a little something for our more inquisitive readers. In the interest of thorough investigative esoteric reporting, of course.

And then I realized, to my chagrin, that I had absolutely no idea where to begin. My personal experience of esoteric erotica amounted to nothing more substantial than flicking through the Kama Sutra once or twice, and wondering what the fuss was about over the controversial sex magic ritual in Stanley Kubrick's cinematic swansong, Eyes Wide Shut.


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