Maria de Naglowska (15 August 1883 — 17 April 1936) was a Russian occultist, mystic, author, journalist, and poet who wrote and taught about sexual magical ritual practices while also being linked with the Parisian surrealist movement.
Her practices aimed to bring about a reconciliation of the light and dark forces in nature through the union of the masculine and feminine, revealing the spiritually transformative power of sex.
Following a rift with her aristocratic family caused by her falling in love with a Jewish commoner, Moise Hopenko, she moved with him first to Berlin and then to Geneva where they were married and subsequently had three children.
Attendance at these sessions included notable avant-garde writers and artists such as Evola, William Seabrook, Man Ray, and André Breton.
[5] During her time in Paris, Naglowska published La Flèche (The Arrow), a newspaper that ran for twenty issues, with pieces contributed by numerous occultists.
[10] In his book Eros and the Mysteries of Love: The Metaphysics of Sex, Julius Evola claimed that Naglowska often wrote for shock effect noting her "deliberate intention to scandalize the reader through unnecessarily dwelling on Satanism.
"[12] One ritual for which there exists a first-hand account recalls that the ceremony included a naked Naglowska lying supine upon the altar while a male initiate places a chalice upon her genitalia and proclaims, "I will strive by any means to illuminate myself, with the aid of a woman who knows how to love me with virgin love...I will research with companions the initiatory erotic act, which, by transforming the heat into light arouses Lucifer from the satanic shades of masculinity.