• Explores the supernatural woman as the active agent of the male initiate’s spiritual transformation

• Traces the supernatural woman’s presence in ancient Greek and Zoroastrian traditions, the Eddas, the Icelandic sagas, and the works of the great medieval English poet and author Geoffrey Chaucer

• Details the similarities between sexual ecstasy and the mystical state by exploring the role of ecstasy in magical and spiritual practice

The phenomenon of the relationship between the feminine force and her male devotee is documented in myth, religion, and art, but the spiritual woman herself remains a mystery. As muse, sorceress, and Valkyrie, she guides the man’s development and tests his resolve. She converses through dreams, bestows poetry and prophecy, and initiates spiritual transformation through sexual encounters.

Angel Millar explores this magical relationship by drawing upon ancient Greek and Zoroastrian traditions, Scandinavian Eddas and sagas, and Chaucer’s tale of the Wife of Bath. Millar traces evidence of the supernatural woman’s presence in fine art, ancient sexual symbolism, Wicca, Freemasonry, and psychology—most notably Jung’s theory of the anima and animus and Freud’s life and death instincts.

Comparing sexual ecstasy and the mystical state, Millar reveals the unique role of ecstasy in magical and spiritual practice. Bringing in feminine perspectives on this radical transformation, he looks at the religious eroticism of St. Teresa and 13th-century English Christian mystic Margery Kempe as well as Aleister Crowley’s Lust tarot card, illustrated by Lady Frieda Harris. Millar then breaks down the fundamental aspects of initiation depicted in these wide-ranging examples, showing how to welcome this mystical muse to unlock the inspiration she offers and the heroic drive within.