Sexual Outlaw, Erotic Mystic

A biography of the 19th-century American sexual activist, sex educator, and spiritualist.

“Sexual Outlaw, Erotic Mystic is a great addition to any respectable sex library.” —Annie Sprinkle, PhD, sex worker turned author and Ecosexual Sexecologist

Sex, Magick, Aleister Crowley, Orgasms, Erotic Dances, Angelic Beings, Revolutionary Activism, Liberation, Persecution, Defiance, and Suicide.

Persecuted by Anthony Comstock and his Society for the Suppression of Vice, Ida Craddock was a turn-of-the-century sex educator and spiritualist. Born in Philadelphia in 1857, she became an occult scholar around the age of thirty, taking classes at the Theosophical Society and studying various occult subjects. She also taught correspondence courses to women and newlyweds on the importance of viewing sex as a sacred act, and much of her knowledge of the marriage bed came to her from her nightly visits with her angelic husband, Soph. She wrote the essay “Heavenly Bridegrooms” on this topic, later reviewed by Aleister Crowley in The Equinox. He wrote, “No Magick library is complete without it!”

In 1902, Craddock was arrested under New York's anti-obscenity laws. She committed suicide rather than face life in an asylum. Now for the first time, scholar Vere Chappell has compiled the most extensive collection of Craddock’s work, including original essays, diary excerpts, and suicide letters.

“Chappell brings Craddock to lie in this incisive yet sympathetic biography.” —Hymenaeus Beta, Frater Superior OTO

“A monumental, not-to-be-missed contribution to the histories of occultism, sexuality (and tantric practices), and women’s rights.” —Anna Jedrzewski, New Age Retailer