16th century
A formal arrangement was signed by John Dee, his wife Jane, his scryer, Edward Kelley and Kelley's wife Joanna on 22 April 1587, whereby conjugal relations would be shared between the men and their spouses. This arose following seances which apparently resulted in spirits guiding Dee and Kelley towards this course of action.
17th century
Temporary spouse-trading was commonly advocated and practised among occultists, particularly alchemists, in Europe (such as at Prague) in the 17th century.
18th century
Some such occultists were the Frankists who in the mid-18th century established in Salonika (Thessalonia), Macedonia, Greece (part of the Ottoman empire at that time) the Dönmeh cult : "The Donmeh now converted the Shabbatain Purim into an annual orgy, when members exchanged spouses for a ceremony called 'extinguishing the lights.'"[4] "Once a year [during the Doenmes' annual 'Sheep holiday'] the candles are put out in the course of a dinner which is attended by orgies and the ceremony of the exchange of wives."[5] "The Dönmeh and the Frankists each had sexual-religious rituals, ranging from wife-swapping ..."[6] From collaboration of the Frankists with Zizendorf of Moravia[7] derived the "initiated sea captains sailing for the Swedish East India Company"[8], who set up a liaison with oriental Tantrists;
19th century
The sobriquet "communist" has sometimes been applied, especially in Germany during the mid-19th century, to people who advocate spouse-trading. In fact, communist philosophy may be anti-sexual, especially in the case of religious communists like the Shakers.
In The Communist Manifesto (1848), Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels suggest that the allegation of communists practising "community of women" is an example of hypocrisy and psychological projection by "bourgeois" critics of communism, who: "not content with having wives and daughters of their proletarians at their disposal, not to speak of common prostitutes, take the greatest pleasure in seducing each other’s wives."
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