Radical Ecstasy

review

by Sylvana Silverwitch

"All the things you can talk about in anyone's work are the things that are least important. It's like the ballet. You can describe all the externals of a performance -- everything, in fact, but what really constitutes its core. Explaining something makes it go away, so to speak: what's important is what's left over after you've explained everything else."

-- Edward Gorey

This is significantly and clearly the very finest sex magick book that I have ever read, and I have done my best to read all of them that I could lay my hot little hands on! But, it's not really just a book about sex magick, after all.

Dossie Easton and Janet Hardy, well known in the kink world but less so in the pagan culture brave the challenging waters of penning yet another volume together. They don't leisurely wade in either; they dive into the dark, murky sometimes-ambiguous depths of sex, BDSM, trust, safety, connection, energy, magick and more with a refreshing honesty, candidness and open hearted quality.

They deal here with revolutionary concepts; drastic actions, comprehensive communication and frequently more than radical BDSM sex acts. It is ostensibly, by my definition, not a lazy Sunday's read for any and everyone. Radical Ecstasy could be better described as a sumptuous meal for the hungry seeker and if you've already consumed the available sex magick books out there, you know it's slim pickins and you're starving for this information!

If you are engaged in any of these topics, go out and get this book now! Don't wait! It hides valuable and rare gems of wisdom within an erotic setting as Easton and Hardy tell the ongoing story of their long-term relationship, with intimate glimpses into their personal play and sex.

They define themselves as friends, play partners, collaborators, lovers, co-conspirators and confidantes of more than a decade and the
subject matter substantiates it.

Unlike their previous "how to" books, such as The Topping Book and The Bottoming Book, among others, the narrative goes back and forth between the two women as a ménage of stories with some explication thrown in. Chapter headings such as: Radical What?; How We Believe; Morality Play; What Does It Feel Like?; How We Get There; Touching Worlds; Inside and Outside the Shell; Mind Journeys; and Open heart, Open Skin, Open Everything. The stories are nicely written, engaging, enlightening in places and exceptionally hot! It gets better as it goes; I think the authors have done a remarkable job with a challenging and complex subject. Making the material at once sexy and useful is no small feat!

Despite the fact that this book is not exclusively pagan, one of its writers is pagan and the book surely addresses many topics of interest to many modern pagans and witches, such as: ethics, bliss, expectations, catharsis, clarity, breath, sounds, chakras, ritual, magick, orgasm, intuition, shape shifting, SM ritual, and more...that might give you a small idea, but the reality is even yummier!

Besides, everyone wants to have more and better sex, right?