Research Catalog

Title

[Collection of 7 broadsides produced by the Psychedelic Venus Church].

Author

Psychedelic Venus Church.

Publication

Berkeley, Calif. : Psychedelic Venus Church, 1970-1971.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Additional Authors

Poland, Jefferson F.

Description

7 leaves : ill.; 28-36 cm.

Subjects

• Bisexuals
• Lifestyles > California
• Peyotism
• Counterculture > United States
• Lesbians
• Broadsides
• Women > Sexual behavior
• Marijuana > Therapeutic use
• Alternative lifestyles > California
• New Age movement > California
• Venus (Roman deity)
• Cross-dressers
• Men > Sexual behavior
• Gays
• Sadomasochism
• Sex > Religious aspects > Tantrism

Genre/Form

Broadsides.

Note

• Title supplied by cataloger.
• Typescript and hand-written mimeograph broadsides printed variously on beige, orange, pale blue, pale green, and pale yellow paper, with drawn or photographic illustrations celebrating sexuality and the body.
• Broadsides are dated or announce dated events: July 31 and September 26, 1970; January, 1, 9, 16, 23, 30, and February 20, 1971. Single broadside dated April 19 [no year].
• The Psychedelic Venus Church, founded in Berkeley in 1969 by Jefferson Poland, was a religious offshoot of the Sexual Freedom League, which Poland founded with Leo Koch in 1963 in New York. Poland, after moving in 1936 to the San Francisco Bay area, established in 1966 a League chapter on the UC-Berkeley campus. Under new local leadership, the group organized orgies on campus, remaining a university-recognized student organization, though under the name Campus Sexual Rights Forum, a change required by the Dean of Students. A faction of the group objected to the orgies and formed an off-campus group confined to the discussion of sexuality, under the name East Bay Sexual Freedom League.
• The Psychedelic Venus Church operated in the San Francisco area, holding frequent orgies that combined a marijuana eucharist with an orgy; bisexuality was encouraged. New recruits were mailed two marijuana cigarettes upon receipt of the $5 registration fee. Poland's church had 700 members by 1971 but dissolved in 1973.
• The broadsides in this collection include a statement of the Church's manifesto ("Religion of Venus"); membership forms; requests for donations; the last issue of the Church's magazine, Intercourse; and invitations to Church events in the Bay Area. These include a "Men's Celebration," a "Psychedelic Communion," a "People's Coming Out Party," and a "Flickfuck" where "Women are welcome without escorts and are encouraged to come with other women. Heterosexual males will not be allowed in without a female companion as are bi-sexual males. Gays are groovie. Transexuals admitted without a donation." Another "Celebration" warns, "Couples only, unless you're exclusively homosexual; or female."
• The Church's deity was Venus-Aphrodite, whose worship through sexual expression could, their doctrine holds, with the aid of marijuana and other perception-altering drugs, lead to spiritual revelation. "The religion of Venus is based on love at all levels; fraternal (spiritual) love, and physical (erotic) love. It is in the communion of bodies, hearts and spirits that may be found the source of evolutionary living, creative manifestation, and liberated life-force. [...] Venusians seek all that is Good, True, and Beautiful. They form a world-wide fraternity, a network which transcends all forms of nationality, race, colour, age or social class."--From the "Religion of Venus."

Access (note)

• Restricted access;

Call Number

Berg Coll+ Counterculture P79 1970

OCLC

782962588

Author

Psychedelic Venus Church.

Title

[Collection of 7 broadsides produced by the Psychedelic Venus Church].

Imprint

Berkeley, Calif. : Psychedelic Venus Church, 1970-1971.

Access

Restricted access; request permission from holding division.

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Added Author

Poland, Jefferson F.

Research Call Number

Berg Coll+ Counterculture P79 1970