sacred sex

[sophiaserpentia]

This idea has been floating around in my mind since a discussion some time ago in yahvah's journal.

For a time I actually wrote an online column about the subject of sacred sex. The idea that sex is sacred, and sacredness often has a sexual undercurrent, is natural to me.

The authors of Why God Won't Go Away believe that the mystical parts of the brain evolved hand-in-hand with the parts of the brain that make sex enjoyable.

[Poll #230322]

Comments

[archanglrobriel.livejournal.com]

I always think it's amusing that if you look at shamanic art from the pre-Christian influenced eras, a lot of the time there are depictions of shamanic characters walking around with these vast (and I mean EPIC) erections. Geez, I could list ten cultures off the top of my head that have overtly sexual spiritual images showing up in their Pre-Christian art and belief structures.
It's so weird to me that so many in the Christian camp are trying to -neuter- God.
Talk about your unexplored Shadow issues...whew! This is why I think so many Christian denominations have a history of weirdo repressive behaviors and scandals erupting all over the place.

[sophiaserpentia.livejournal.com]

Christianity represents in some ways a unique spiritual current, in that it tends to be highly mistrustful of sex and especially of feminine sensuality. The NT states in several places that women have the burden of seeking to "lighten men's load" by not being so alluring they distract them from their virtue. Islam has some of this too but not to nearly the same extent.

Elaine Pagels did an excellent treatment of this issue in Adam, Eve, and the Serpent, wherein she explained that Christianity, as a Stoic- and Platonic-influenced movement, was responding to the sexual morality of Pagan Rome and Greece, and to the marriage practices of the Jews. Her thesis is that the Christians sought to retain certain elements of both, especially the Pagan emphasis on monogamous marriage.