ABSTRACT
This chapter opens to a fieldwork exploration of gender and sexuality in high magic, wicca and feminist witchcraft, which leads into an examination of gender and die magical will. Free sexual expression is seen to be a sacred aspect of 'Goddess spirituality', and this runs counter to both high magic and wicca, despite conciliatory gestures from both. The chapter shows how different conceptions of gender influence a form of high magic and feminist witchcraft. In Tantric practices women are worshipped as manifestations of goddesses; but, according to Elizabeth Puttick, the main debate is whether the woman in a Tantric relationship is primarily a sex object for the man's enlightenment or whether she is an equal partner. The notion of the magical will is central to working magic. Nineteenth-century occultism was largely influenced by the Hermetic tradition of the Renaissance. The chapter concludes a debate over sexual politics within the magical subculture.
