The Art of Seduction (75 page)

gloom: "Many's the time I've passed a cemetery in the moonlight and asked
himself completely naked.

The girl followed his

myself if I wouldn't be better off lying there with the rest. . . . " He men
example, and he sank to
tions his bad reputation; he deserves it, he says, but is it his fault? "Do you
his knees as though he
really not know that there exist souls that are ceaselessly in torment?" Sev-
Use Spiritual Lures
•
365

eral times he takes Emma's hand, but she politely withdraws it. He talks of
were about to pray, getting
love, the magnetic force that draws two people together. Perhaps it has
her to kneel directly
opposite.
•
In this posture,

roots in some earlier existence, some previous incarnation of their souls.
the girl's beauty was

"Take us, for example. Why should we have met? How did it happen? It
displayed to Rustico in all
can only be that something in our particular inclinations made us come
its glory, and his longings
blazed more fiercely than

closer and closer across the distance that separated us, the way two rivers
ever, bringing about the
flow together." He takes her hand again and this time she lets him hold it.
res u rrectio n of the flesh.
After the fair, he avoids her for a few weeks, then suddenly shows up,
Alibech stared at this in
amazement and said:
•

claiming that he tried to stay away but that fate, destiny, has pulled him

"Rustico, what is that I see

back. He takes Emma riding. When he finally makes his move, in the
sticking out in front of
woods, she seems frightened and rejects his advances. "You must have some
you, which I do not
mistaken idea," he protests. "I have you in my heart like a Madonna on a
possess?"
•
"Oh, my
daughter," said Rustico,

pedestal. . . . I beseech you: be my friend, my sister, my angel!" Under the

"this is the devil I was

spell of his words, she lets him hold her and lead her deeper into the
telling you about. Do you
woods, where she succumbs.

see what he's doing? He's

hurting me so much that I

Rodolphe's strategy is threefold. First he talks of sadness, melancholy,
can hardly endure it. "
•

discontent, talk that makes him seem nobler than other people, as if life's

"Oh, praise be to God,"

common material pursuits could not satisfy him. Next he talks of destiny,
said the girl, "I can see
that I am better off than

the magnetic attraction of two souls. This makes his interest in Emma seem
you are, for I have no such
not so much a momentary impulse as something timeless, linked to the
devil to contend with."
•

movement of the stars. Finally he talks of angels, the elevated and the sub
"You're right there;" said
lime. By placing everything on the spiritual plane, he distracts Emma from
Rustico. "But you have
something else instead, that

the physical, makes her feel giddy, and packs a seduction that could have
I haven't."
•
"Oh?" said
taken months into a matter of a few encounters.

Alibech. "And what's

The references Rodolphe uses might seem cliched by today's standards,
that?"
•
"You have Hell,"
said Rustico. "And I

but the strategy itself will never grow old. Simply adapt it to the occult fads
honestly believe that God
of the day. Affect a spiritual air by displaying a discontent with the banali-
has sent you here for the
ties of life. It is not money or sex or success that moves you; your drives are
salvation of my soul,
because if this devil

never so base. No, something much deeper motivates you. Whatever this is,
continues to plague the life
keep it vague, letting the target imagine your hidden depths. The stars, as-
out of me, and if you are
trology, fate, are always appealing; create the sense that destiny has brought
prepared to take sufficient
pity upon me to let me put

you and your target together. That will make your seduction feel more
him back into Hell, you
natural. In a world where too much is controlled and manufactured, the
will be giving me
sense that fate, necessity, or some higher power is guiding your relationship
marvelous relief, as well as
is doubly seductive. If you want to weave religious motifs into your seduc-
rendering incalculable
service and pleasure to

tion, it is always best to choose some distant, exotic religion with a slightly
God, which is what you

pagan air. It is easy to move from pagan spirituality to pagan earthiness.
say you came here for in
Timing counts: once you have stirred your targets' souls, move quickly to
the first place."
•
"Oh,
Father," replied the girl in

the physical, making sexuality seem merely an extension of the spiritual vi-
all innocence, "if I really
brations you are experiencing. In other words, employ the spiritual strategy
do have Hell, let's do as
as close to the time for your bold move as possible.

you suggest just as soon as

you are ready."
•
"God

The spiritual is not exclusively the religious or the occult. It is anything
bless you, my daughter,"
that will add a sublime, timeless quality to your seduction. In the modern
said Rustico. "Let's go and
world, culture and art have in some ways taken the place of religion. There
put him back, and then
perhaps he'll leave me

are two ways to use art in your seduction: first, create it yourself, in the tar-
alone. "
•
At which point
get's honor. Natalie Barney wrote poems, and barraged her targets with
366
•
The Art of Seduction

he conveyed the girl to one
them. Half of Picasso's appeal to many women was the hope that he would
of their beds, where he
immortalize them in his paintings—for
Ars longa, vita brevis
(Art is long, life
instructed her in the art of
is short), as they used to say in Rome. Even if your love is a passing fancy,
incarcerating that accursed

fiend.
•
Never having put
by capturing it in a work of art you give it a seductive illusion of eternity.
a single devil into Hell
The second way to use art is to make it ennoble the affair, giving your se
before, the girl found the
duction an elevated edge. Natalie Barney took her targets to the theater, to
first experience a little
the opera, to museums, to places full of history and atmosphere. In such
painful, and she said to

Rustico:
•
"This devil
places your souls can vibrate to the same spiritual wavelength. Of course
must certainly be a bad lot,
you should avoid works of art that are earthy or vulgar, calling attention to
Father, and a true enemy
your intentions. The play, movie, or book can be contemporary, even a lit
of God, for as well as
plaguing mankind, he even
tle raw, as long as it contains a noble message and is tied to some just cause.
hurts Hell when he's
Even a political movement can be spiritually uplifting. Remember to tailor
driven back inside it. "
• your spiritual lures to the target. If the target is earthy and cynical, pagan
"Daughter," said Rustico,

"it will not always be like
ism or art will be more productive than the occult or religious piety.
that." And in order to

The Russian mystic Rasputin was revered for his saintliness and his
ensure that it wouldn't,

healing powers. Women in particular were fascinated with Rasputin and
before moving from the bed

would visit him in his St. Petersburg apartment for spiritual guidance. He
they put him back half a

dozen times, curbing his

would talk to them of the simple goodness of the Russian peasantry, God's
arrogance to such good

forgiveness, and other lofty matters. But after a few minutes of this, he
effect that he was positively
would inject a comment or two that were of a much different nature—

glad to keep still for the rest

of the day.
•
During the
something about the woman's beauty, her lips that were so inviting, the de
next few days, however, the
sires she could inspire in a man. He would talk of different kinds of
devil's pride frequently
love—love of God, love between friends, love between a man and a
reared its head again, and

the girl, ever ready to obey
woman—but mix them all up as if they were one. Then as he returned to
the call to duty and bring

discussing spiritual matters, he would suddenly take the woman's hand, or
him under control,
whisper into her ear. All this would have an intoxicating effect—women
happened to develop a taste
would find themselves dragged into a kind of maelstrom, both spiritually
for the sport, and began

saying to Rustico:
•
"I can

uplifted and sexually excited. Hundreds of women succumbed during

certainly see what those
these spiritual visits, for he would also tell them that they could not repent
worthy men in Gafsa

until they had sinned, and who better to sin with than Rasputin.

meant when they said that

serving God was so

Rasputin understood the intimate connection between the sexual and

agreeable. I don't honestly

the spiritual. Spirituality, the love of God, is a sublimated version of sexual
recall ever having done
love. The language of the religious mystics of the Middle Ages is full of
anything that gave me so

much pleasure and

erotic images; the contemplation of God and of the sublime can offer a
satisfaction as I get from

kind of mental orgasm. There is no more seductive brew than the combi
putting the devil back in
nation of the spiritual and the sexual, the high and the low. When you talk
Hell. To my way of

thinking, anyone who

of spiritual matters, then, let your looks and physical presence hint of sexu
devotes his energies to
ality at the same time. Make the harmony of the universe and union with
anything but the service of
God seem to confuse with physical harmony and the union between two
God is a complete
people. If you can make the endgame of your seduction appear as a spiri
blockhead."
• . . .
And so,
young ladies, if you stand

tual experience, you will heighten the physical pleasure and create a seduc
in need of God's grace, see
tion with a deep and lasting effect.

Use Spiritual Lures • 367

Symbol:
The Stars in the sky. Objects of worship for cen-
that you learn to put the

devil back in Hell, for it is

turies, and symbols of the sublime and divine. In contemplat-

greatly to His liking and

pleasurable to the parties

ing them, we are momentarily distracted from everything

concerned, and a great deal

of good can arise and flow

mundane and mortal. We feel lightness. Lift your tar-

in the process.

gets' minds up to the stars and they will not

— G I O V A N N I BOCCACCIO,

THE DECAMERON,
TRANSLATED

notice what is happening here

B Y G . H . M C W I L L I A M

on earth.

Reversal

Letting your targets feel that your affection is neither temporary nor superficial will often make them fall deeper under your spell. In some, though, it can arouse an anxiety: the fear of commitment, of a claustrophobic relationship with no exits. Never let your spiritual lures seem to be leading in that direction, then. To focus attention on the distant future may implicitly constrict their freedom; you should be seducing them, not offering to marry them. What you want is to make them lose themselves in the moment, experiencing the timeless depth of your feelings in the present tense. Religious ecstasy is about intensity, not temporal extensity. Giovanni Casanova used many spiritual lures in his seductions—the occult, anything that would inspire lofty sentiments. For the time that he was involved with a woman, she would feel that he would do anything for her, that he was not just using her only to abandon her. But she also knew that when it became convenient to end the affair, he would cry, give her a magnificent gift, then quietly leave. This was just what many young women wanted—a temporary diversion from marriage or an oppressive family. Sometimes pleasure is best when we know it is fleeting.