Thread by @PulpLibrarian

Today in pulp I look back at the Witchploitation explosion of the late 1960s: black magic, bare bottoms and terrible, terrible curtains!

Come this way... #SundayMorning

Mainstream occult magazines and books had been around since late Victorian times. These were mostly about spiritualism, with perhaps a bit of magic thrown in.

But it was the writings of Aleister Crowley in English and Maria de Naglowska in French and Russian that first popularised the idea of 'sex magick' in the 20th century - the use of sexual energy and ritual to achieve mystical outcomes.

Black magic and satanic rites continued to be popular pulp fare throughout the 1950s and 60s, but it was in 1966/67 that the exploitation of sex magick for public titilation really grew wings...

In the US obscenity laws had been relaxed following numerous court rulings, but outright pornography still couldn't be sold openly. However 'educational' information could skirt around this - and sex magick soon led to a new pulp phenomena: witchploitation!

In essence witchploitation is soft porn and/or BDSM smuggled past the censors in the guise of a discussion about witchcraft. There are few actual spells in witchploitation, but a lot of photographs.

California was initially the main source for witchploitation pulp, where it was presented as a more way-out development of free love and countercultural thinking. Kinky covens and nude girls sitting in pentangles was the aesthetic.

Horror movies also began to move into witchploitation in the 1970s, as a way to tap into a new young audience tired of more traditional Victorian horror tales. It was also an excuse for on-screen nudity, though noticeably not from the male actors.

By the early 1970s witchploitation was available at your local newsstand in the form of partworks. Satanic book clubs were also springing up as sex magick became commercialised. It was all getting rather silly...

Janet and Stewart Farrar began the fightback against witchploitation in 1971: "What Witches Do" was an attempt to explain Alexandrian Wicca to a mass audience, although it was initially given a spicy cover to improve sales.

And then by the mid-70s - as if by magic - witchploitation was gone!

What had happened?

Well the counterculture itself had started to darken by the early 1970s, and more cult-like and conspiratorial beliefs had become dominant. The black magic scene was no longer 'innocent fun.'

Adult content - both magazines and films - had become more explicit as the 1970s went on: witchploitation pulp seemed tame and dated in comparison.

But the main reason (I think) is that the key audience for witchcraft and Wicca changed from being men to being women. The spiritual rather than the sexual began to dominate.

Witchcraft today is a thoughtful exploration of Pagan ideas - a far cry from the world of the sexed-up 1970s witchploitation pulps. I doubt it will ever go back to naked ladies kneeling before goat-headed men, but who knows?

More forgotten pulp genres another time...