MY NAME IS ODILE

Teacher of Mystery Rites & Ritual Drama

I impart personal male initiation rituals to artists for liberation, self-realisation and sensual fulfilment at an elegant retreat in central London and overseas. My rituals emulate the ecstatic rites of ancient tantra and the archaic mysteries – an erotic-mystic experience of sacred sensual adoration, expressed through ritual drama, the reenactment of myth.

Such rites were led by the yoginī or serpent priestess who would invoke kundalini, the primordial Great Goddess, to take possession of her, whilst a male initiate representing the virile hero, Her mortal younger lover, valiantly encountered the otherworldly seductress. For the one initiate who remained steadfast and proved himself worthy, she would grant him passage to the supreme ritual where, in their embrace, he would become King, the immortal sacred masculine.

Antiquarian, Sensualist & Nemophilist

I am drawn to the ancient mysteries of pre-history and the great civilisations of antiquity, their knowledge of astronomy, sacred sexuality and ritualistic use of entheogens and aphrodisiacs, such as during the time of the megalithic tribes, the fertility cults of Sumer, Minoan Crete and Anatolia, the secret devotees of left-hand-path tantra, and the hedonist Hellenic cults of Aphrodite, Adonis, Demeter and Dionysus.

I have an admiration for the aesthetic art, music and literature from La Belle Époque, the French Golden Age, and the Art Nouveau jewellery, ornaments, architecture and intricate interiors inspired by nature and the infamous muses of the era.

Equally at home in a retreat in the forest, gazing into a roaring fire or in a boutique vintage hotel, appreciating breakfast on a balcony overlooking the city rooftops, I enjoy the pursuit of beauty and pleasure in all its forms; some of my favourite experiences include:

Bathing in hot springs or relaxing in a hammam, visiting an exhibition or gallery, savouring cardamom coffee with dates and assorted baklava, perusing antiques markets or souks, visiting the Acropolis museum at night when the crowds have departed, walking the candlelit Hall of Mirrors at Versailles in the late autumn, watching a ballet performance at a grand opera house, intimate afternoons in bed with a lover escaping the heat or the cold of the day, a full-course dinner of exotic cuisine with many dishes of distinct flavours, swimming among the ocean bioluminescence after a night dive, and dancing wildly under the moonlight until sunrise.

My most valued novels, plays, ritual drama & ancient history studies, performance & visual art

Chéri et La Fin de Chéri by Colette.
L’Amant by Marguerite Duras.

Excursus on the Ritual Forms Preserved in Greek Tragedy by Gilbert Murray, 1866-1957.
Themis: A Study of the Social Origins of Greek Religion by Jane Ellen Harrison, 1850-1928
From Ritual to Romance (Pagan roots of the Holy Grail legend) by Jessie L. Weston.
The God of Ecstasy (Minoan origins of Dionysus) by Arthur Evans.
Impro: Improvisation and the Theatre by Keith Johnstone.
The Bacchae by Euripides

Kiss of the Yoginī by David Gordon White.
Tantra: Cult of the Feminine by André van Lysbet.
Tantra Reilluminated: An Emic View of Its History and Practice by Roar Ramesh Bjonnes

Flesh of the Gods: The Ritual Use of Hallucinogens by Peter T. Furst.
The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious by Carl Jung.
Seductress: Women Who Ravished the World & Their Lost Art of Love by Betsy Prioleau.

Suppressed Histories Archives by Max Dashu, author of Pythias, Melissae and Pharmakides: Women in Hellenic Culture
Minerva Ancient Art & Archaeology Magazine

Giselle – Reimagined ballet by contemporary choreographer and director Akram Khan.
Youth without Youth (2007) – dir. Francis Ford Coppella (film adaptation of the novel by Mircea Eliade).
Various sculptures by Camille Claudel (past) & Nicolas Lefebvre (present day).