11 years ago on October 5, 2013 I decided to visit the birth site of one of my greatest esoteric influences: author, Paschal Beverly Randolph whose birthday is today.
As I stood across the street from 70 Canal Street, in what is now China Town in Manhattan taking pictures, I found myself imagining what the neighborhood looked like back in the early 1800s before the nearby Manhattan bridge was constructed. I had been planning on visiting Paschal’s birth site for a few years, but I did not actually do it until that Saturday in 2013.
Sex Magic—which is arguably the most important element in the practical application of the spiritual sciences—has been exoterically suppressed by the three major Western religions which profess that bland sexual conservatism is the only true path to spiritual growth and eternal salvation. Fortunately, African American writer and occultist Paschal Beverly Randolph (October 8th 1825 – July 25th 1875) brought some semblance of sanity to the shores of North America when he taught the science of sex among many other disciplines which he is not as recognized for.
Although born in New York City at a time when most African Americans were still prisoners of war, Randolph had an opportunity to travel to Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and Asia to learn more about the arcane sciences. Randolph has been identified by biographers as a friend of Abraham Lincoln and is credited for bringing the Rosicrucian Order to the U.S. I was initially exposed to Randolph and his teachings when I read The Stargate Conspiracy: The Truth about Extraterrestrial Life and the Mysteries of Ancient Egypt, in the summer of 1998. Since then, I have found him to be a source of great inspiration.
While his successors Aleister Crowley and Helena P. Blavatsky are FAR more recognized for their so-called teachings on Sex Magic, a basic overview of Randolph’s work would reveal that they culled just about everything they knew on the subject from him. Crowley event went so far as to bite Paschal’s slang by consistently using words like “Aethyr” which was a lousy attempt to mask his use of the Paschal’s use of the word “Aether.”
Randolph said in his book After Death: The Disembodiment of Man (1868) that the English transaltion of the Judeo-Christian account concerning the origin of the first true man on earth was not a complete rendering. Instead he taught that the original man “is spiritual, and like God, had no conceivable beginning.” Mind you Randolph said this more than a half a century before another Libran, The Honorable Elijah Muhammad, uttered similar sentiments.
It’s painfully ironic how Randolph, a prolific author and gifted spiritual scientist, born in the month of the Scales of Ma’at could have offered so much to the advancement of human understanding, yet such injustice is done to his legacy. Like Bob Marley said in his song “Misty Mourning,” “you give your more to receive your less.”
That narrative is changing as WAY more people are aware of his contributions to esoteric literature than when I started reading about him. Pay homage to a master who is being rediscovered by so many. Long live Paschal Beverly Randolph!
𝐈 𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐡𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐡𝐨𝐰 𝐑𝐈𝐓𝐄 𝐔 𝐑 𝐢𝐧 𝐩𝐨𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐡𝐞 𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐲 𝐛𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐖𝐇𝐎𝐋𝐄 𝐆𝐚𝐦𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐒𝐄𝐗 𝐌𝐀𝐉𝐈𝐂𝐊 𝐧 𝐑𝐎𝐒𝐈𝐂𝐑𝐔𝐂𝐈𝐀𝐍𝐈𝐒𝐌 𝐭𝐨 𝐀𝐦𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐤𝐚. 𝐈 𝐡𝐮𝐧𝐠 𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐢𝐧 𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐠𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐬 𝐢𝐧 𝐍𝐄𝐖 𝐎𝐑𝐋𝐄𝐀𝐍𝐒 𝐚𝐤𝐚 𝐂𝐎𝐍𝐆𝐎 𝐒𝐐𝐔𝐀𝐑𝐄 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐅𝐄𝐋𝐓 𝐝𝐚𝐭 𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐭. 𝐀𝐧𝐮𝐭𝐡𝐚 𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐩𝐞𝐞𝐩𝐬 𝐬𝐥𝐞𝐞𝐩 𝐨𝐧 𝐢𝐬 𝐉𝐄𝐀𝐍 𝐌𝐎𝐍𝐓𝐀𝐍𝐄𝐓 𝐚𝐤𝐚 𝐃𝐎𝐂𝐓𝐎𝐑 𝐉𝐎𝐇𝐍 (𝐰𝐡𝐨 𝐬𝐤𝐨𝐨𝐥𝐞𝐝 𝐌𝐀𝐃𝐀𝐌 𝐌𝐀𝐑𝐈𝐄 𝐋𝐀𝐕𝐄𝐀𝐔)....𝐈𝐦 𝐟𝐫𝐮𝐦 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐌𝐈𝐒𝐒𝐈𝐒𝐒𝐈𝐏𝐏𝐈 𝐃𝐄𝐋𝐓𝐀/𝐍𝐄𝐖 𝐎𝐑𝐋𝐄𝐀𝐍𝐒 (𝟗𝐭𝐡 𝐖𝐚𝐫𝐝) 𝐚𝐫𝐞𝐚 𝐬𝐨 𝐓𝐇𝐈𝐒 𝐡𝐨𝐰 𝐈 𝐜𝐚𝐦𝐞 𝐮𝐩....𝐞𝐱𝐜𝐞𝐩𝐭 𝐢𝐭 𝐰𝐚𝐬 𝐇𝐎𝐎𝐃𝐎𝐎 𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐧 𝐕𝐎𝐎𝐃𝐎𝐎.
Adika- Admittedly I’m not too familiar with Paschal’s life and story so I’m glad to have encountered this piece. A place always tells a story in a way nothing else could, so I appreciate you writing this.