Some form of the Lifestyle has been practiced as long as humans have inhabited the earth. The most ancient ritual that we have evidence of is the Chakra Puja. Chakra Puja, a pre-Aryan tantric ritual, has been passed down through the centuries and despite more than two thousand years of repression, is still practiced sporadically. It may have begun as a part of ancient fertility rites, when collective intercourse was performed in the fields and was thought to promote fertility, not only of human beings, but also of animals and crops. The practice of Chakra Puja unfortunately was forced underground around 1500BC, when the Aryans invaded what is today India. This secret rite was brought to China around 1333-13367 AD by a Buddhist monk.
The Chakra Puja is performed in a secret meeting place. It always consists of eight men and eight women, as 16 is the most sacred number. (Sixteen is sacred because it divides the moon's cycle into four quarters; each in turn is divided in four more parts, equaling 16.) Upon entering the meeting place, the women remove their scarves and place them in a pile. After certain rites are performed, the men each take a scarf from the pile and the woman to whom the scarf belongs is his partner for the night. The couples then join in a circle and begin a night long ritual which includes the drinking of wine, the eating of meat, fish, and cereal, and ritualistic sex, or Maithuna. A priest or guru oversees all this. (To learn more about the Chakra Puja ritual, read Tantra - The Cult of the Feminine by Andre Van Lysebeth, ISBN 0-87728-845-3)
Another ancient ritual still observed today is the Summer Solstice in the Baltic nation of Latvia. Here women wear crowns of flowers on their heads and men wear crowns of oak leaves. The annual festival includes bonfires, beer, dancing and freedom from marriage vows for the duration of the celebration, which up until recently, lasted for about a week. Although not as ritualistic as the Chakra Puja, the Festival of Joni (now called the Festival of St John) in Latvia has its roots in the same ancient fertility/mother/goddess rituals. (Joni, is from the tantric word yoni, which refers to a woman's vagina.)
The practice of exchanging partners is well documented among the Eskimos. The exchange of spouses amongst the Eskimos was not casual and lasted a lifetime. Women were very autonomous regarding these sexual exchanges. It was essential that everyone involved agree because the union served the purpose to assure protection and cooperation among different families. In the event of a man's death, he was assured that his partner and children would be taken care of.
Modern day versions of this tribal ritual began during World War II among fighter pilots, for very similar reasons as the Eskimos according to Terry Gould's The Lifestyle: A Look At The Erotic Rites Of Swingers. Fighter pilots were an elite group with a high casualty rate. One out of every three fighter pilots in combat did not return, and the remaining pilots were to look after the wives left behind. World War II fighter pilots and their wives are credited with starting the use of the terminology “key club”, although there is no evidence that keys were randomly drawn out of a bowl like the movie “Ice Storm”. Swinging continued at the military bases and spread to the suburbs after the war. After the war, one veteran became a traveling salesman and began a list of swingers, which he added to and distributed as he traveled from town to town.
In 1957, MR. Magazine ran swinger ad an article on “wife swapping”. The magazine sold out and was such a success that it began to run the first ads for couples seeking other couples. By the 1960's there were magazines dedicated to swinger ads and numerous books examined “extra-marital sex”. In 1969, Robert McGinley opened the first swing club called Club WideWorld–which is still in existence. The first Lifestyles Convention was held in 1973. Robert McGinley is now the head of the largest company dedicated to swingers in the world, called the Lifestyle Organization or LSO.
Swing clubs continued to spring up all across the United States and Europe. At first they were very secretive, but are more open today. With clear knowledge of the law and several law suits setting precedence, swingers are becoming more open and less likely to be the target of political and religious zealots. House parties are a little more elusive, but are numerous. It may take a little more networking to find these groups. And most people who host these parties, require the signing of legal documents for attendence.
The introduction of the computer provided another way for swingers to communicate via “bulletin boards”. Now there are numerous websites such as Swingular, where people in the lifestyle can post pictures and search for other couples that meet their criteria. Virtually every major city in America has an organized group or club where couples can meet weekly or monthly for socials.