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The Secret History of Western Sexual Mysticism

Sacred Practices and Spiritual Marriage

Published by Destiny Books
Distributed by Simon & Schuster

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About The Book

The first book to reveal the history of Western sexual mysticism

• Reveals the secret sexual practices that have been used since ancient Greece to achieve mystical union with God

• Details the sects and individuals who transmitted the radical sexual practices that orthodox Christianity never completely silenced

• Distinguishes between sexual magic and sexual mysticism

Beginning with the ancient Greek Mystery traditions, Gnosticism, and the practices in early Christianity, Arthur Versluis uncovers the secret line of Western sexual mysticism that, like the Tantra of the East, seeks transcendence or union with God through sexual practices. Throughout antiquity, and right into the present day, sexuality has played an important, if largely hidden, role in religious traditions and practices. This includes not only Christian but also kabbalistic and hermetic alchemical currents of sexual mysticism, many discussed together here for the first time.

In the Mystery tradition of hieros gamos (sacred marriage) and the Gnostic tradition of spiritual marriage, we see the possibility of divine union in which sexual union is the principal sign or symbol. Key to these practices is the inner or archetypal union of above and below, the intermingling of the revelatory divine world with the mundane earthly one. Versluis shows that these secret currents of sexual mysticism helped fuel the rise of the troubadours and their erotic doctrine, the esoteric teachings of Jacob Böhme in the late 16th century, the 19th-century utopian communities of John Humphrey Noyes and Thomas Lake Harris, the free love movement of the 20th century, and the modern writings of Denis de Rougemont and Alan Watts.

Excerpt

FROM THE INTRODUCTION

Very few people know that there are long-standing traditions Vof sexual mysticism in the West. During the last quarter of the twentieth century, many in the West became aware of Hindu and Buddhist forms of Tantra, but as Hugh Urban and other scholars in that field have shown, tantric traditions were often distorted in the process of transmission or transference to the modern West, where they often became commodified and trivialized. This never happened to esoteric Western traditions of sexual mysticism, primarily because they were entirely unknown.
The word mystic derives from the Greek word mustein, meaning “silent” or “closed lips,” and it has the same origin as the word mystery. The words mysticism and mystery are associated with the ancient Greek Mystery (revelatory and initiatory) traditions of antiquity, which, as we shall see, certainly had sexual dimensions. As far back as we can trace, the word mysticism refers to religious traditions that point us toward inexpressible transcendence of the apparent division between subject and object, or self and other, and toward realization of the divine.
When we look back into Greek and Roman antiquity, we see that the Mystery traditions almost always had sexual dimensions, and there is good reason for this. The Mystery traditions, be they Bacchic, Dionysiac, Eleusinian, or Orphic, were closely bound with the cosmic cycles, and in particular with the cycles of agricultural and human fertility. In fact, the earlier forms of the Mystery traditions, including those of the Hellenistic period, were in the domain of women.
Only later were men allowed to be priests in many of the traditions, and the orgia (orgiastic celebrations) took place under the auspices of women. What we are looking at in these ancient traditions bears little relation to the modern stereotype of femininity as demure, coquettish, or passive. The women described in some of the ancient Mystery traditions seem to our eyes (as to those of their contemporaries) frenzied, wild, and dangerous, but this authentic wildness expresses a dimension of nature itself that we moderns often fail to recognize.
The Dionysiac rites and the Bacchanalia took place outdoors, and often at night; and although the rites were associated with the fertility of nature, that was not their only dimension. The Mysteries entailed direct contact with the transcendent forces of the cosmos, which, although they are expressed in the natural world, have their origins in pagan divinity. There is a fierceness in the Mystery traditions, and a dissolution of civilization, that is very important in understanding both their power and their dangers.
When we turn to the advent of Christianity within the declining pagan world, we see something quite different and, in many respects, new. There really is a changing of the age represented by the shift from the ancient Mysteries to the mysteries of Christianity. Although it is almost never discussed except in the works of specialists, early Christianity also entailed a sexual dimension. As we shall see, one should not simply dichotomize between the orgiastic traditions of Greco-Roman antiquity and Christian asceticism. Christianity, after all, was not a single movement or sect, but a whole series of phenomena that emerged in the midst of late antiquity and that included a gamut of possibilities, all the way from asceticism to license. And even within what later became known as orthodox Christianity, there was a mysterious tradition of subintroductae, in which men and women lived and slept together, but without male ejaculation. Thus there was a Christian tradition from very early on--it is mentioned by Paul himself--of sexual mysticism: that is, of drawing on sexual tension and power, but harnessing it to achieve spiritual transcendence.
There is also much more to discuss in the Christian traditions of late antiquity. One cannot consider Christianity as a single entity, but rather as a congeries of very different currents of thought and practice, which we see exemplified both in the Apocrypha and in the various Gnostic traditions and compendia. In fact, a fairly reasonable case could be made that “pagan” orgiastic traditions did not disappear but were subsumed into various forms of Christianity, sometimes called gnostic. But even here, there was a real distinction from the earlier cosmological traditions of antiquity. Christianity added gnosis, a metaphysical or transcendent dimension, which changed everything. In a very profound sense, Christianity was “not of this world,” and we see this not only in the New Testament but also in what remains of the various Gnostic writings.
What we see in the Nag Hammadi library, and in the other fragments of actual Gnostic writings, is the sense that the material world is a realm of suffering and ignorance. This is a profound revision of the earlier pagan celebration of nature, and it reflects a Gnostic and, more broadly, a Christian sense that Christ represented something new and irrevocable: the appearance in this troubled human world of divine grace and transcendence beyond it. Whether Docetic or not, the Gnostic Christ represents a new and resplendent divine revelation. Whereas in the pagan world transcendence was to be found in nature, in the new Gnostic world transcendence was separate from and beyond nature.
The Christian revelation focused, much more than its pagan predecessors, on the human sphere. That Christ appeared in human form is central for Christianity. But also central for Christianity is the beyond, the transcendent, the millennial, and the heavenly. These two tendencies did offer the possibility for incorporating sexual dimensions into the Christian path, and that is what we see during the early Christian period, both in Gnosticism and in what came to be called orthodox Christianity. Many priests and bishops lived with women, and it seemed possible, early on at least, that Christianity might represent not only an ascetic rejection of pagan excesses but also entirely new roles for men and women, drawing on, incorporating, and transcending sexuality in order to restore humanity to paradisal wholeness.
However, this new model was not to last.

About The Author

Arthur Versluis is the editor-in-chief of Esoterica and the founding president of the Association for the Study of Esotericism. He is the author of numerous books, including Sacred Earth, Restoring Paradise, The New Inquisitions and The Secret History of Western Sexual Mysticism. He lives in Michigan where he is a professor of American Studies at Michigan State University.

Product Details

  • Publisher: Destiny Books (March 25, 2008)
  • Length: 176 pages
  • ISBN13: 9781594772122

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Raves and Reviews

" . . . an insightful history of the role of human sexuality in the shaping of ideas and cultures."

– Chard Currie, New Dawn, Sep/Oct 2008

"In this scholarly paperback, [Versluis] traces the twisting and turning path of Western sexual mysticism."

– Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat, Spirituality and Practice, Oct 2008

"This book addresses a topic that is often overlooked (or else looked at as an embarrassing part of the mystical tradition) here in the Western world. This book looks at both the Pagan and Christian mystic traditions in many of their manifestations, with an emphasis of the Christian side. . . . There is no titillation in this book, merely accurate historical reporting."

– Michael Gleason, Witchgrove.com, Apr 2008

"Secret History of Western Sexual Mysticsim offers up a unique set of cross-connections essential to connecting spirituality with religious history. New Age collections, in particular, will find it an exciting survey packed with history and religious examination."

– Midwest Book Review, July 2008

"Like his other works, this book is essential reading for those who desire to understand some of the more hidden and truly esoteric streams of thought and practice that have been instrumental in the various traditions of Western esotericism."

– Institute of Hermetic Studies, Aug 2008

"At rare occasions sober and traditional presentations of commercialized magical activity appears as a counterweight to the occult sentimentalism that often finds its way to publication. Vesluis's masterful presentation of sexual mysticism is one of those rare books that cannot be recommended enough. . . . the landscape he opens is going straight to the nerve of this rich field of enlightenment. Highly recommended."

– O Caldeirao, Issue 16, May 2008

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