Someone asked me recently: "could you break down the book, The Art of Seduction?"
My childhood pictures are flirtatious, even before I was sexual. For me, flirting is as natural as breathing. I have to work much harder to shut that off than I do to turn it on. But just being a smiley person who makes flirtatious faces isn't enough to seduce someone deeply, at the depths of their soul - which is what the book is about.
The book specifies that its topic is SEDUCTION, not "good relationships" or "empathy." One does not come at the expense of the other - but to explore carnal seduction at its essence, you have to isolate it from "goodness" and "empathy," and "marriage" and "money."
After all - many people do not seduce with hopes of a relationship. Some don't even want sex; they just want attention. You can't assume that because someone seduces, they necessarily want wealth, a white picket fence, and a promise of forever. You can't even necessarily assume they want sex, although seduction is suggestive of sex.
So, in French, an orgasm is called "la petite mort." The little death. This is because if you really lose yourself in Eros, something in you dies and is reborn. Eros is a destructive, fiery energy. It unmakes you and remakes you.
And that's what "seduction" is aiming at. Unmaking someone, to remake them again. And they want more and more of this. It's about harnessing eros energy.
The book gives many examples of this. It usually focused on embodying the "archetypal." Primal archetypes get to people in their unconscious, where their conscious barriers and resistance cannot go.
Of course, everyone puts up barriers and resistance to being seduced, or "losing themselves." It's a total loss of power and control. When you're obsessed and consumed with someone romantically, you're NOT in control. You're consumed by a force outside you, someone you cannot fully control. You can't force them to be loyal, to want you, etc. Being seduced is dangerous.
So, seduction focuses on lowering someone else's resistance to this. Some people might do this by chasing and chasing. (The archetype of the Rake.) Others might do it by embodying a primal carnal energy that seeps into your awareness on a level you are not quite conscious of.
So you might ask: Ok, so you embody an archetype! That's fake!
The funny thing is, it isn't. The truth is that I do tap into certain archetypal energies. Everyone does. But to "harness" my seductiveness, I would simply be more willing to display them.
That's right... it's more honest. At least for me. Instead of keeping those more primal associations to myself and wearing a normie suit, I wear them on my sleeve. And then I pull someone into a world where they, too, feel like they embody an archetype. Is this manipulative? Well perhaps, but it's equally manipulative to expect someone to wear a normie suit and do normal things, as dictated by society. The way I see it, I'm tapping into my own - and the other person's - most primal and honest energy. That is what the book invites people to consider.
Being seductive will make people hate you (out of envy) and fear you (because losing themself is dangerous). Are you willing to make that sacrifice in order to embody more of your own power? Only you can decide.