Lunar and
Sex Worship

Aleister Crowley wrote that Ida Craddock “certainly obtained initiated knowledge of extraordinary depth. She seems to have had access to certain most concealed sanctuaries…. She has put down statements in plain English which are positively staggering.” (The Equinox, Vol. III, No. 1.)

Ida Craddock was an early advocate for women’s rights and sex reform who helped hundreds with her sex education counseling and marriage manuals. She was also an avid occultist and mystic who reported having regular sexual encounters with angelic beings. This was an incendiary combination in late nineteenth century America, inevitably attracting the attention of moral crusader Anthony Comstock, who devoted himself to her destruction. Although suffering exile, commitment to an insane asylum, and hard labor in prison, Ida’s courage and refusal to compromise her beliefs would lead to her ultimate triumph, even in death.

During the last two years of her life, Ida conducted research on sexual customs and folklore at the behest of her patron, British journalist W. T. Stead. This resulted in two manuscripts, entitled Lunar and Sex Worship and Sex Worship—Continued, which Ida sent to Stead in London just before her suicide in October 1902. Ten years later, Stead was one of the passengers lost aboard the HMS Titanic. Ida’s manuscripts, however, were eventually found and recovered. Both have now been published for the first time, together in one volume, along with an introduction to the life and works of Ida Craddock written by Vere Chappell.

Lunar and Sex Worship

Contains the full text of both Lunar and Sex Worship and Sex Worship—Continued by Ida Craddock
Edited and Introduced by Vere Chappell
Published by The Teitan Press, 2010
Hardcover, Limited Edition, 318 Pages, Illustrated, with References and Index
Out of Print