SACRED SEXUALITY from the Ancient Sumerians To

ANTOON GEELS

SACRED SEXUALITY

From the Ancient Sumerians to Contemporary Esalen

SUMMARY — The aim of this article is to show that ideas pertaining to sacred sexuality or sacred marriage are as old as Sumerian culture. While mainstrean Christianity developed an alternate view on sexuality, the Jewish Kabbalah transmitted similar ideas. In Asia, sacral sexuality has been an integrated dimension of Hinduism and Buddhism. All these spiritual traditions came together in 18th century London, where we also encounter new influences from the Moravian Church and the Swedish visionary Emanuel Swedenborg. London became a crucible for all traditions mentioned. The British artist and mystic William Blake came in touch with these ideas and he was heavily influenced by them. The article ends with a presentation of the contemporary Esalen Institute in California, USA, known for the human potential movement. At Esalen, sacred sexuality belongs to the main themes being discussed.

The notion that human sexuality is a mirror image of divine relations is probably as old as mankind. Ancient Sumerian clay tablets from Mesopotamia exhibit erotic cuneiform texts concerning conjugal intimacy between Innana, the Divine feminine, and the Shepherd or vegetation god Dumuzi. Several texts refer to their sacred marriage (hieros gamos). In one hymn Innana, called Ishtar in later Babylonian culture, expresses her love and longing for Dumuzi, the Babylonian Tammuz: My vulva, the horn The boat of Heaven, Is full of eagerness like the young moon. My untilled land lies fallow. As for me Innana, Who will plow my vulva? Who will plow my high field? Who will plow my wet ground?

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Dumuzi answered her: Great Lady, the king will plow your vulva. I, Dumuzi the King, will plow your vulva.1 Sacred sex as idea or practice seems to have disappeared with the elimination of the divine feminine. Human sexuality became banned from the sphere of spirituality.2 In the history of Christianity, the origin of this split goes back to the story of Adam and Eve, who ate ‘forbidden fruit’ from the tree of knowledge. ‘Where are you Adam?’ So the Lord said. ‘Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?’ Adam blamed Eve, and Eve blamed the serpent. And then the Lord banished them from the Garden of Eden. This is what is called the Fall. From another perspective, this is the origin of the depre- ciation of women, repeated in the letters of Paul and in many other sources. Didn’t Paul say to the women of Corinth that their ‘minds may somehow be led astray’, just like Eve was deceived by the serpent’s cunning (2 Cor 11:3)? After all, ‘Adam was not the one deceived; it was the woman who was deceived and became a sinner’ (1 Tim 2:13-14). Ever since the time of Paul, Christian preachers have done their utmost to remind the populace that illicit sex only can have one consequence – hell. The dogmatic foundation of this condemnation appears to be the distinction between a malevolent body and a – at least potentially – angelic soul. However, under the long history of Christianity there have always been undercurrents advocating a different message – that conjugal sex is sacred or even sacramental.

SACRED SEX IN JEWISH MYSTICISM

The divine feminine has always played a central role within for example different forms of Tantrism and Jewish mysticism. Starting with the latter it suffices to mention the importance of Shekhinah, divine feminine presence. The emphasis on this divine principle is particularly obvious in ‘The Book of Splen- dor’ (Sefer ha-Zohar). Shekhinah is the tenth and final emanation from the hidden divinity Ein Sof. The ten emanations or divine attributes, Sefirot, are organized in three triads, approaching the created world. The first triad consists of aspects of God’s creativity and goodness, viz. the divine crown, wisdom

1 Georg Feuerstein, Sacred sexuality: The erotic spirit in the world’s great religions, Rochester: Inner Traditions, 2003 (orig. publ. 1992). See also A.V. Nunes, ‘The historical tradition of sacral sex and contemporary media manifestations of carnal sex’, in: Studies in Media & Infor- mation Literacy Education 4 (2004) no. 3, 1-11. 2 Nunes, ‘The historical tradition of sacral sex’.

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and understanding; the second triad includes ethical perfections – mercy, judgment and splendour; while the third triad represents God’s governance and providential guidance of the world – triumph, majesty and foundation. The tenth and final Sefirah is called kingdom (Malkhut), or the Shekhinah, the ves- sel through which the other emanations act, and simultaneously the ‘gate’ to the divine world for man’s spiritual aspirations.3 The union between Tiferet, the sixth Sefirah, and Shekhinah is a sacred marriage, a state of harmony. Human marriage between man and woman is sup- posed to be included in the spiritual quest. Life in the human world has its correspondence in the divine world. This fundamental notion ‘…elevates human sexuality to a divine principle and thereby legitimates human sexuality’. In the words of the Zohar: When is ‘union’ said of man? When he is male together with female And is highly sanctified and Zealous for sanctification. Then, and only then, Is he designated ‘one’, Without any flaw of any kind.4 During intercourse, the united couple cleaves to the Shekhinah. ‘When Sabbath comes in’, so the Zohar informs us, ‘scholars should give their wives joy, for the sake of the honor due to the celestial union, and they should direct their minds to the will of their Master’.5 In 16th century Safedic Kabbalah, Moses Cordovero writes about the same topic, emphasizing the spiritual element of the act. ‘The issue of sexual union between the divine attributes is truly symbolized by our sexual union after the corporeal part of it has been completely deleted’. In another text by the same author the correspondence between the celestial and terrestrial world is again accentuated. Writing about divine attributes, Cordovero mentions ‘…the influx of the light of Ein Sof into the attributes, and they [the attributes] love each other and desire each other exactly like the desire of man for his bride or his beloved, after the corporeal aspect of it is sublated’. In his comment on this passage, Moshe Idel mentions that Ein Sof functions as male and that ‘light’ sym- bolizes the semen. Again, the most auspicious time is the eve of the Sabbath.6

3 See D.S. Ariel, The mystic quest: An introduction to Jewish mysticism, New York: Schocken, 1988, 73ff, 81f, 86. 4 Zohar III, 81A, quoted in Ariel, The mystic quest, 97. 5 Zohar I, 49b-50a, quoted in Isaiah Tishby, The wisdom of the Zohar: An anthology of texts. 3 vols., Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991 (orig. publ. 1989), 1398. 6 Moshe Idel, Kabbalah and eros, New Haven-London: Yale University Press, 2005, 206.

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Another important phase in the history of Jewish mysticism is 18th century Hasidism, having a centre in Eastern Europe. Its founder is a person primarily known as Ba’al Shem Tov (1700-1760) or Besht, an abbreviation of his name. After a ‘revelation’ around 1730 Besht started his mission and attracted a great number of people.7 Towards the end of the 18th century the popularity of Hasidism increased. One of the reasons is that it offered an alternative social and religious organisation of Jews, differing from the dominion of traditional rabbis.8 Of central importance to Hasidism is the Âaddiq, a ‘righteous one’, the charismatic leader and mediator between the individual and God, a person who forwards the prayers of the community to the divine sphere, the sefirot.9 A fundamental idea in Hasidism is that God also can be worshiped through bodily acts (avodah be-gashmiyut), such as eating, drinking or sexual relations. The Beshtian formula for this is ‘In all your ways know Him’. It concerns the deli- cate task of conquering or transforming evil into good ‘through an actual con- frontation of evil in its own domain’. This appears to be an idea that hardly can be recognized by any institutionalized religion. Due to an obvious danger of vulgarization, this practice is restricted to the spiritual elite, immune to this kind of danger. If worldly acts are performed in the spirit of sanctification, then Shekhina can be furnished with energy to be united with the male Tiferet, the sixth Sefirah.10 What does it mean to confront evil impulses in its own domain? In the teachings of the Besht we can find the following classical example: ‘A man should desire a woman to so great an extent that he refines away his material existence, in virtue of the strength of his desire’.11 It is legitimate to actualize bodily desires, but without realizing them. Actualisation is a means of transfor- mation. In other words: physical and emotional desire can be transformed into spiritual energy. This is an idea that is similar to another spiritual tradition – Tantrism.

7 A. Rubinstein, ‘Hasidism’, in: C. Roth (Ed.), Encyclopedia Judaica. Vol. 7, Jerusalem: Keter Publishing House, 1972, 1399-1403: 1399f. 8 Dan, J., ‘Hasidism: An overview’, in: M. Eliade (Ed.), Encyclopedia of religion. Vol. 6, New York: MacMillan, 1987, 205. 9 See Arthur Green, ‘The Zaddiq as axis mundi in later Judaism’, in: L. Fine (Ed.), Essential papers on Kabbalah, New York-London: New York University Press, 1995, 291-314. 10 Louis Jacobs, Hasidic prayer, London-Washington: The Litman Library of Jewish Civiliza- tion, 1993 (orig. publ. 1972), 106. See also Rivka Schatz-Uffenheimer, Hasidism as mysticism: Quietistic elements in eighteenth century hasidic thought, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1993, 57ff. 11 Schatz-Uffenheimer, Hasidism as mysticism, 58f.

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HINDU AND BUDDHIST TANTRISM

Both within Hinduism and Buddhism there exists a devoted cult of female energy or power (sakti), both as an abstract manifestation and a specific name. This kind of spirituality is expressed in a group of texts called tantra, meaning ‘warp’ or ‘loom’. The oldest of these texts are about two thousand years old. Generally speaking, they convey a message of practical spirituality, with the purpose of attaining spiritual perfection of magical powers (siddhi). Hindu Tantrism has been defined in the following way: ‘…a practical way to attain supernatural powers and liberation in this life through the use of specific and complex techniques based on a particular ideology, that of a cosmic reintegra- tion by means of which the adept is established in a position of power, freed from worldly fetters, while remaining in this world and dominating it by union with (or proximity to) a godhead who is the supreme power itself’.12 The definition comprises both an ideological and a ritual dimension. From the ideological point of view it can hardly be said that there is one doctrine, common to all forms of Hindu Tantrism. However, if a general doctrine should be mentioned, then it concerns the idea that the highest Divinity comprises two aspects, a masculine and a feminine. Union between the two is described in terms of sexual union, the feminine aspect being the active part. This union gives rise to the universe. As an active, creative principle, the female aspect descends into the world of multiplicity, giving rise to cosmic illusion (maya). Creation is understood as a process of emanation, a gradual condensa- tion, from subtle to gross matter. The spiritual path implies to reverse this process, back to the original source. The tantric practitioner can feel like a strange bird in a materialized world. Since the divine world is immanent in creation, it is possible for the tantric to unite with it, leading to supernatural powers (siddhi).13 So much for doctrine. What kind of spiritual exercises are being used in Hindu Tantrism? Some of them include the use of sacred verbal formulas (mantra), mystical diagrams (yantra, ma∞∂ala, chakra), the visualization of images, and coded language or ‘twilight language’, which is comprehensible to the initiate, but unintelligible for the non-initiate. Other characteristics include the necessity of initiation by a guru, a ‘mystical physiology in which the body is a microcosm of the universe, the recognition of both mundane aims and spiritual emancipation as goals for the practitioner, and the importance of female manifestations called Saktis’. Other practices, peculiar to Tantrism, are

12 André Padoux, ‘Tantrism’, in: Eliade, Encyclopedia of religion. Vol. 14, 274f. 13 This summary of Hindu Tantrism is based on Padoux, ‘Tantrism’.

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the so-called ‘five m’s’, which are meat (maμsa), fish (matsya), wine (madya), parched grain (mudra), and sexual intercourse (maithuna).14 Hindu Tantrism has developed a particular type of yoga – ku∞∂alini-yoga, based on a physiological view of man, having a subtle body comprising of 72.000 links through which energy flows. The most important of them are the central channel and two channels on each side of it. These channels meet in seven power stations (chakra). Ku∞∂alini is regarded as female energy, slumber- ing in man’s so-called root chakra. Using yogic exercises, this goddess can be awakened and then be led all the way up to the highest chakra, where the goddess unites with Siva, her male partner.15 A final important remark pertaining to Hindu Tantrism is that there are two ways to relate to the five deviant behaviours as mentioned above. They are called the ‘left-hand path’, in which the initiate makes use of the five items, and the ‘right-hand path’, in which pure substitutes or mental visualizations are used.16

The Buddhist interpretation of Tantrism became known as vajrayana, at least from the 8th century and onward. The tradition gave rise to numerous texts, written in Sanskrit and many of them translated to both Chinese and Tibetan. Tantric Buddhism can be described as ‘an attempt to place kama, desire, in every meaning of the word, in the service of liberation (…) not to sacrifice this world for liberation’s sake, but to reinstate it, in varying ways, within the perspective of salvation’.17 Like its Hindu counterpart, Tantric Buddhism has a practical orientation. It knows a variety of meditation techniques as well as rituals, all aiming at liberation from the samsaric cycle and obtain enlightenment. Other spiritual techniques include the uses of mantras and the visualization of different deities. A characterisation of tantric Buddhism includes the following features.18 It is an esoteric tradition, using so-called ‘twilight language’ which covers deeper information under a veil of symbols, metaphors, and different kind of allusions. The second feature is the emphasis on the role of a spiritual teacher, who can be placed in the centre of a ma∞∂ala, the third feature. The word means ‘circle’

14 The list of spiritual techniques originates from Teun Goudriaan, quoted in Kathleen M. Erndl, ‘Sakta’, in: Sushil Mittal & Gene Thursby (Eds.), The Hindu world, New York-Lon- don: Routledge, 2004, 141f. 15 This passage is based on Padoux, ‘Tantrism’. See also Georg Feuerstein, Tantra: The path of ecstasy, Boston-London: Shambhala, 1998, for a more thorough presentation. 16 Erndl, ‘Sakta’, 142. 17 See Padoux, ‘Tantrism’, 273f. The quotation is from Madeleine Biardeau. 18 See Paul Williams & Anthony Tribe, Buddhist thought: A complete introduction to the Indian tradition, London-New York: Routledge, 2000, 197-202.

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and it is used in meditation. The fourth feature consists of antinomian acts, the transgression of social norms, including the use of forbidden substances as offerings, and ritual intercourse. The next feature is the revaluation of the body, consisting of a large number energy channels (na∂i) and centres (chakra) through which this energy flows. Different meditation techniques can influence the course of this vital energy. In later phases of tantric Buddhism, female deities become increasingly important. This is another characteristic – the revaluation of the status and role of women. Female deities are regarded as the embod- iment of wisdom. The seventh feature concerns analogical thinking, especially of microcosmic and macrocosmic levels. One example is the group of five cosmic Buddhas, corresponding among other things to different directions, hand- gestures, aspects of awakening, and negative mental states. The eighth and final feature is the revaluation of negative mental states. In a tantric text (Hevajra Tantra) it is mentioned that ‘the world is bound by passion, also by passion it is released’. One of these passions is sexual craving and pleasure, homologized with the bliss of awakening. Techniques of visualization are most important. It is, however, regarded as a dangerous spiritual path, to be chosen only by persons with strong compassion and high intelligence.19 The exercises focus on the human body, preferably a healthy one, since the body is regarded as a microcosmic junction for a divine drama, expressed in a language of longing and erotic union. According to the highly developed mystical physiology of tantric Buddhism, the body has a potential to be transformed into a divine being.20 Tantric texts inform us about a considerable number of na∂is,21 ‘nerves’ or ‘arteries’, and a lesser number of chakras, functioning as a sort of power stations for cosmic energy. Cosmic energy circulates through the na∂is.22 This energy is described as our vital energy or ‘breaths’ or ‘winds’, which also can be understood as different states of consciousness, ‘mounted’ on these ‘winds’. One of the goals of tantric meditation is to force divine energy to descend into the world of multiplicity, e.g. in a ma∞∂ala, or in the human body. ‘All tantras claim the power to coerce divinities, for it is by coercing them into an image or symbol that one is enabled to act with their assumed assurance (…) and thus achieve the objective in view’.23

19 J. Powers, Introduction to Tibetan Buddhism, New York: Snow Lion Publications, 1995, 222f. Regarding the dangerous aspect, see also W.Y. Evans-Wentz, Tibetan yoga and secret doctrines, New York-Toronto: Oxford University Press, 1958, 257ff. 20 See Mircea Eliade, Yoga, immortality and freedom, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1970 (orig. publ. 1958), 204f. 21 Different texts indicate different figures of na∂is, ranging from 72.000 to 300.000 (Eliade, Yoga, immortality and freedom, 237). 22 Eliade, Yoga, immortality and freedom, 236f. 23 David L. Snellgrove, Indo-Tibetan Buddhism, London: Serindia Publications, 1987, 235.

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At the end of the visualization the divinity is absorbed into the meditators body through the aperture of the crown of the head. The divinity descends through the so-called central channel, down to the heart-chakra.24 Another example of this meditation technique is to visualize a bodhisattva, for example Avalokitesvara. The basic idea is that it is possible to assimilate the qualities of the divinity in question, in this case the capacity of compassion. The more one identifies with Avalokitesvara, the more one acquires the quality of the visualized object.25 Still another example of visualization, pertinent to our subject, is the divine coitus. In a well-known tantric text, the Hevajra Tan- tra, this act is depicted as the union between Hevajra and Nairatmya, in a position that is known as yab-yum (‘father-mother’). The two divinities personify the union of two complementary aspects: compassion and wisdom (prajña). Nairatmya, so the text tells us, is beyond causality. She is identified with wisdom and emptiness.26 Hevajra, on the other hand, is described as ‘vajra-born’ and with strong compassion.27 Other epithets for Nairatmya and Hevajra are the sun and the moon. The female principle, the sun, mirrors itself in the male principle, the moon.28 Sexual symbolism and sexual rituals are also being used within tantric yoga. The overall aim is to transform sexual lust into spiritual bliss, a moment when the self and the surrounding world are experienced to be transcended into an all-comprising unity.29 An often debated question is whether sexual intercourse (maithuna) actually is taking place or if the texts are referring to visualizations. In rare cases such exercises have occurred, including the experience of orgasm, which is said to ‘draw the winds into the central channel’. The texts do emphasize, however, that exercises of this kind are extremely rare and limited to advanced practitioners who are beyond all desire. In most cases the practitioner visualizes the partner.30 Some texts mention that maithuna should not lead to orgasm, because that would mean that the adept still is in the claws of time and death. Sensual pleasure can function as a ‘vehicle’ leading to deeper states of consciousness.31

24 Powers, Introduction to Tibetan Buddhism, 274. 25 Ibid., 236. 26 Hevajra Tantra, I.x.42, translated by Daniel L. Snellgrove, The Hevajra Tantra: A critical study. Part I: Introduction and translation, London: Oxford University Press, 1959, 84. Hevajra is another name for Vajrasattva (See S.B. Dasgupta, An introduction to tantric Buddhism, Berkeley-London: Shambhala, 1974 [orig. publ. 1958], 88). 27 Hevajra Tantra, I.iii.8, translated by Snellgrove, The Hevajra Tantra, 58. 28 See Snellgrove, The Hevajra Tantra, 27. 29 See Dasgupta, An introduction to tantric Buddhism, 145f. 30 Powers, Introduction to Tibetan Buddhism, 251ff. 31 Eliade, Yoga, immortality and freedom, 267f.

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In the esoteric language of Hevajra Tantra it is said that one should not release this ‘campher’.32 Ultimately, the spiritual exercises mentioned have one aim: the ‘return to a primordial state of nondifferentiation; unification of sun and moon represents “destruction of the cosmos”, and hence return to the original Unity’.33

SACRED SEX IN 18TH CENTURY LONDON

In the middle of the 18th century London was a multicultural city, a crucible for all sorts of cultural impressions. There one could encounter members of the Moravian church, kabbalists, alchemists, and Swedenborgians. Moreover, there was an increasing interest in Asian texts, translated by orientalists joining the merchant vessels of the East India Company. Among its passengers one could also find Moravian missionaries. Among their possible converts the missionaries encountered representatives of a heterodox Vishnuitic sect called Karthabaja. They practised a variant of tantric yoga, advocating prolonged sexual arousal without ejaculation. In such cases sexual energy can ascend to the brain, through the spine.34 Limits of space do not allow for a more differentiated presentation of different movements in multicultural London. Apart from a short discussion of the Moravian Church we will be concerned with the Swedenborgian movement. We have already touched upon the Jewish Kabbalah and different types of tantrism, also part of the London’s cultural palette. The question which then will be asked is how these different religious expressions converge in the poet, artist, and mystic William Blake.

The Moravian Brethren – Eroticized Religion In a Swedish textbook on the history of theology, the Moravian Church is described as a missionizing movement, the spirituality of which is focused on the redeeming cross. Moravians are characterized by intense, emotional, and empathic ways of relating to the Passion. The movement was founded by the German count Nikolaus Ludwig von Zinzendorf (1700-1760), who did not care much about Christian dogmatics. The textbook mentioned informs us

32 Hevajra Tantra, II.iv.27, translated by Snellgrove, The Hevajra Tantra, 104. 33 Eliade, Yoga, immortality and freedom, 267f. 34 See Hugh Urban, The economics of ecstasy: Tantra, secrecy and power in colonial Bengal, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001, often quoted in Marsha Keith Schuchard, Why Mrs Blake cried: William Blake and the sexual basis of spiritual wisdom, London: Century, 2006.

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that ‘the relation to God and Christ is depicted in the language of human intimacy, often in a way that to contemporary judgment [appears] distasteful and offensive’.35 The author does not reveal, however, the hidden meaning behind ‘the language of human intimacy’. It is soon to be discovered that this expression not only refers to words, but also to deeds – the conjugal coitus is regarded as a sacrament, a liturgical act which at a symbolic level recreates the union between Christ and his bride, i.e. the church.36 And not only that! The peak of conjugal intimacy can lead to a sensual union with Christ. This means that the view of the Moravians goes much further than the common bride-mysticism of medieval Christianity, the erotic language of which is primarily a verbal dress. In sharp contrast to medieval verbal eroticism we now encounter an undressed spirituality, which still today can be understood as ‘distasteful and offensive’. Moravian spirituality can be described as a variant of eroticized religion with homoerotic elements.37 Inspired by the Song of Songs, Moravians can compare the Holy Communion with the sexual act: Communion became the embrace [Umarmung] of the divine Husband, wherein Christ penetrated [durchgehen, durchleiben] the individual to become one with him or her [vereinen]. So when the brothers in Marienborn used the biblical term for having intercourse and wrote in their diary that they ‘were jointly known’ [gemeinschaftlich erkannt wurden], they meant that they took Communion.38 It is, however, difficult to establish whether Moravians were using metaphors or if we are dealing with real acts.39 Count Von Zinzendorf obviously liked to shock his contemporaries, using bold expressions and paradoxes. It is, therefore, ‘difficult to know how much he practised of what he preached’.40 In any case, could the aforementioned empathic experience of the Passion lead to a kind of preaching that must have been sensational, to say the least. Zinzendorf was inspired by kabbalists of his time. One example is the Jewish notion of the divine coitus, which received a Christian frame. The spear that pierced Jesus on the cross is identified with the male sex organ; and the wound that arose is like a vagina. Moravians depicted the wound as the ‘little sidehole’ (Seitenhölchen), which also symbolized the birthplace of the Moravian community and the place to which all Christians eventually will return. The following

35 Bengt Hägglund, Teologins historia: En dogmhistorisk översikt, Lund: Gleerup, 1969, 310. 36 See Paul Peucker, ‘“Inspired by flames of love”: Homosexuality, mysticism, and Moravian Brothers around 1750’, in: Journal of the History of Sexuality 15 (2006) no. 1, 30-64. 37 Ibid., 49ff. 38 Marienborn Diary, May 8, 1749, quoted in ibid., 50. 39 Ibid., 59. 40 Schuchard, Why Mrs Blake cried, 46.

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hymn is an example of the extravagant eroticism in Moravian spirituality. It was written on the occasion of the birthday of Christian Renatus, also called Christel, the son of count Von Zinzendorf: Whoever is a Schätzel, sings: O dear Lord Jesus Christ! Kiss, kiss, O kiss me please, pass through me nuptially. Make me hot through and through O hole! O Kyrie Eleis[on].41 In 1748 a group of German youngsters, among them Christian Renatus, met in Herrnhaag for their yearly meeting. The theme for this meeting was the wound made in the side of Christ by a soldier’s spear: ‘But one of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side, and forthwith came there out blood and water’ (Jn 19:34). Dressed in ankle-length white robes the young men entered the church, wishing to become ‘copies’ of the beloved wound. The New Testament scene was dramatized during the evening, when one man played the role of the bloodstained Jesus and another Roman soldier. The scene is also described in a large number of Moravian hymns.42 The year after, Christian Renatus and his closest collaborators were sent to London. The Moravian church had already been established there, on Fetter Lane. William Blake and his wife Catherine were frequent visitors. But before them, the church was visited by a Swede – Emanuel Swedenborg (1688-1772).43

Swedenborg in London A few months before his vision of Christ in July 1744 – to which we will return in a moment – Swedenborg stayed in the home of a well-known Moravian friend near Fetter Lane. His fascination with Zinzendorf’s thoughts probably did not last long. Why was he attracted to the Moravians? A probable answer is that the emphasis on total spiritual commitment appealed to him, as well as the personal relationship to God, and the loving way to approach the divine world. His scientific mind, however, could hardly have been tempted by the emotion- ality of Moravian blood-mysticism.44 He abandoned the Moravian Brethren in

41 Quoted in Peucker, ‘Inspired by flames of love’, 57. (‘Wer nun ein Schätzel ist, der singt: Herr Jesu Christ! Küß, küß, ach küße mich, durchgeh mich ehelich. Mache mich durch und durch heiß, Höhlgen! ach Kyrie eleis’.) 42 See Peucker, ‘Inspired by flames of love’, 46ff. 43 Schuchard, Why Mrs Blake cried, 54, 58. 44 This is the opinion of Lars Bergquist, a Swedish specialist on Swedenborg (L. Bergquist, Swedenborgs hemlighet, Stockholm: Natur och kultur, 1999, 205f.; see also 243), who wrote an extensive biography of Swedenborg.

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1749. It is highly probable, however, that he, through the mediation of some of its members, came in touch with kabbalistic techniques of visualization and tantric yoga-exercises.45 Swedenborg’s interest in spiritual techniques probably increased after his spiritual crisis, which has to be understood in a biographic context. The most important data for this important spiritual event are to be found in his Journal of Dreams, written when he was 55 years old, far beyond a long scientific career. What kind of intense spiritual experiences did put an end to this career? One of the circumstances which in the long run could have played a role is that Swedenborg already in 1736 spoke about ecstatic experiences of light, interpreted as divine confirmations of scientific theories that he was about to present.46 Until 1744, however, religion played a peripheral role in the life of Swedenborg; science was at the centre. After his vision of Christ we can observe a spiritual-scientific castling. One of Swedenborg’s biographers mentions that Swedenborg’s need of divine confirmation increased with age. It is also obvious, so this biographer mentions, that divine sanction fails to come when one desires it. The necessary require- ment, according to Swedenborg, is the ability to shift from activity to passivity or receptivity.47 From another perspective it is a struggle between a worldly life in prosperity and a spiritual life in the service of God. The human will, so Swe- denborg writes in his Journal of Dreams, has to be totally annihilated in order to obtain God’s grace. By means of divine grace one can attain the right belief, which is a ‘belief without reasoning’. The scientific authorship came to be replaced by a spiritual writing, in the service of preaching.48 Swedenborg’s vision of Christ came to him during Easter 1744. He awoke in the middle of the night and felt a very powerful tremor from the head to the feet. (…) It was indescribable, and it shook me and prostrated me on my face. In the moment that I was prostrated I became wide awake, and I saw that I had been thrown down. I wondered what it meant, and I spoke as if I were awake, but still I found that the words were put into my mouth, and I said, ‘Oh, Thou Almighty Jesus Christ, who of Thy great mercy deignest to come to so great a sinner, make me worthy of this grace!’.

45 This is a view presented by Schuchard, Why Mrs Blake cried, 85, 98ff. 46 See Martin Lamm, Swedenborg: En studie över hans utveckling till mystiker och andeskådare, Johanneshov: Hammarström & Åberg, 1987 (orig. publ. 1915), chapter IV. Lamm is another biographer of Swedenborg, complementary to the biography of Bergquist (Swedenborgs hemlighet). 47 Lamm, Swedenborg, 128. 48 Ibid., 136.

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Then it happened: I kept my hands folded and I prayed, and then there came forth a hand which strongly pressed my hands. I then continued my prayer, saying, ‘Thou hast promised to receive in grace all sinners; Thou canst not otherwise than keep Thy words!’ In the same moment I was sitting at His bosom and beheld Him face to face. It was a countenance of a holy mien, and all was such that it cannot be expressed, and also smiling, so that I believe that His countenance was such also while He lived [in the world]. He spoke to me and asked if I had a bill of health. I answered, ‘Lord, Thou knowest better than I’. He said, ‘Well, then do’. This I found in my mind to signify, ‘Love me truly’, or ‘Do what thou hast promised’. O God, impart to me grace for this! I found it was not in my own power. I awoke, with tremors.49 The expression ‘Well, then do’ should be understood to take action, i.e. to live an active life as a Christian, words often spoken by Swedenborg’s father, the bishop Jesper Svedberg. The following weeks Swedenborg had a number of experiences – dreams, visions in a hypnagogic state, and divine dictation. In his texts Swedenborg then expressed his reflections on these experiences, including his deepest thoughts about the relation between divine and human love, including sexuality. These thoughts reveal an influence not only from Moravian spirituality, but also from Kabbalah and the aforementioned sect Karthabaja, con- veyed by Moravian missionaries. A common denominator among these spiritual movements is their view of the human coitus as a way to receive divine visions, but only when the holy semen was not spilled. It was regarded necessary to control one’s ejaculation. This can be done by controlling the discharging of urine, which can be prolonged a little each time. The sexual energy that has been aroused can then ascend to the brain.50 Swedenborg also wrote about visualizations of penetrations into the most sacred, the ‘Holy of Holies’ – the holy vagina, just like his kabbalistic and Moravian acquaintances. For Moravians, the holy vagina was the sidehole of Christ. Kabbalists wrote about the inner sanctuary of the Temple, the vision of which was reserved only for the highest adepts. Swedenborg appears to have agreed that this sexual-visionary technique should be kept secret.51

49 The Swedish text can be found in Bergquist, Swedenborgs hemlighet, 202. English translation by C. Th. Odhner (1918), available at http://www.archive.org/stream/emanuelswedenbor00 swed/emanuelswedenbor00swed_djvu.txt 50 See above, pp. 362-363. Also see Schuchard, Why Mrs Blake cried, 80ff, 105ff, 116ff. 51 Schuchard, Why Mrs Blake cried, 80ff. See also L. Bergquist, Swedenborgs drömbok, Stock- holm: Norstedts, 1988, 186.

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The inner sanctuary of the Temple corresponds to Swedenborg’s concept sanctuarium, a concept used in the Old Testament for the inner and closed room of the tabernacle, where the sacrarium is placed, i.e. the holy shrine con- taining God’s promise to the Israelites. In this context Swedenborg also mentions the sacred ejaculation or projectione seminis, a sacramental act for him, just like for kabbalists and Moravians. For Swedenborg, as a bachelor, this primarily meant a visualization of an act, which for kabbalists also implies a mending (tikkun) of the world, i.e. to restore that which broke down in the process of creation. In his Journal of Dreams Swedenborg wrote: [S]omething holy was dictated to me, which ended with ‘sacrarium et sanctuarium’. I found myself lying in bed with a woman, and said, ‘Had you not used the word sanctuarium, we would have done it’. It turned away from her. She with her hand touched my member, and it grew large, larger than it have ever been. I turned round and applied myself; it bent, yet it went in. She said it was long. I thought during the act a child must come of it; and it succeeded en merveille.52 According to Swedenborg, the conjugal life, like everything else, is a mirror of the divine world. The love and wisdom of God converge in the conjugal and spiritual love between man and woman. Love without reason is unreason. And reason without love is computation without substance. The relation between the two worlds are rather complementary than hierarchical. However, Sweden- borg is anxious to emphasize that conjugal coitus should not be an expression of ‘the voluptuousness of folly’, for promiscuity. The true conjugal coitus is rather an expression of ‘the amusements of wisdom’, an intimate union, which also is characteristic for the life of angels.53

Why did Mrs. Blake Cry? Swedenborg did not found a new church, but he thought that his books could be used as a foundation for such an enterprise. About one and a half decade after his death a ‘New Church’ or the New Jerusalem was established in Lon- don. That was in 1787, when William Blake (1757-1827) was in his thirties. It is likely that Blake met Swedenborg in the streets of London. After all, the Swede lived there towards the end of his life. In any case Blake and other artists were attracted to the unorthodox teachings of the Swedish philosopher.54

52 Swedenborg, Journal of Dreams, nr. 171, quoted in Schuchard, Why Mrs Blake cried, 81. For the Swedish text see Bergquist, Swedenborgs drömbok, 186. 53 See Bergquist, Swedenborgs hemlighet, 434ff. The Swedish expressions for the quotations are ‘dårskapens välluster’ and ‘vishetens förnöjelser’. 54 Peter Ackroyd, Blake, London: Vintage, 1999, 100f.

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Which parts of Swedenborg’s teachings attracted Blake? There are, of course, several answers to this overall question. First of all, both Swedenborg and Blake were visionaries. Swedenborg spoke openly about his dealings with angels and other celestial beings. In Blake we meet a kindred soul. His first visions came to him in early childhood, when he, among other experiences, saw a great number of angels in a tree – for his eyes only. From then and onward, this special gift became part of his life. Another link to Swedenborg is the fact that Blake was a diligent reader of the Swedes books. He was especially fond of short, maxim-like statements, remoulded in a form that suited Blake’s ideas. In Swedenborg’s extensive work Heavenly Secrets (Arcana Coelestia) Blake encountered a synthesis of occult and alchemical thoughts which he had met previ- ously, thoughts that he reshaped in terms of the Christian atonement. We should not forget, however, that Blake made critical remarks about Sweden- borg. In The Marriage of Heaven and Hell he mentioned that ‘Swedenborg has not written one new truth (…) he has written all the old falshoods’.55 Which were the heavenly secrets? A fundamental one is that nature is a gate to spiritual mysteries; everything in the natural world corresponds to the spiritual world. This doctrine of correspondences touched a chord in Blake. That is probably why Blake could compose the following often quoted lines: To see a World in a Grain of Sand And a Heaven in a Wild Flower Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand And Eternity in an hour.56 If one were to point out some turning-points in the life of Blake, then the above mentioned visions in early childhood should be mentioned in the first place. The young William could be beaten by his mother when telling her that he had seen the prophet Ezekiel under a tree. Later in life he could compose the line ‘A fool sees not the same tree that a wise man sees’.57 Blake did have access to another world than his fellow citizens. His London was a city with inhabit- ants that showed themselves for his eyes only and perhaps to some other persons. He was probably endowed with an ability to see eidetic images, i.e. unu- sual clear images, similar to photographic memory. These images naturally have played an important role in his artistic creation. As a child he was often seen carrying a sketchbook.58

55 William Blake, The complete poetry and prose of William Blake, ed. D.V. Erdman, New York: Anchor Books, 1982 (rev. ed.), 43. 56 The complete poetry & prose of William Blake, 490. See also Ackroyd, Blake, 10ff. 57 The complete poetry & prose of William Blake, 35. 58 The biographic data are collected from Ackroyd, Blake, 23f, 47f.

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The artistic vein was obvious to Blake’s parents, who sent him to a school for young, promising artists. Blake was then about ten years old. He did not become a painter, however. Five years later he became a disciple at one of the engravers of the city. Seven years later he was regarded to be an educated engraver. In August 1782 he married Catherine Boucher. Two years later his father died. Blake now opened a shop for graphic art and his younger brother became his assistant. Five years later his beloved brother fell seriously ill. Blake watched by him for the next fourteen days, an experience which probably has influenced him in his art. He often depicts persons being at death’s door. After his brother passed away Blake slept for three days.59 There seems to be a relation between this private loss and Blake’s commitment to the spirituality and esotericism of his time. Towards the end of the eighteenth century one could encounter Celtic spirituality (druids), Kabbalah, freemasonry, and adherents to the teachings of Swedenborg. Blake, who was a self-taught person, surfed on the spiritual waves of his time. These ideas belong to the raw data of his occasionally obscure texts. In the course of time he developed a view of life that has been described in the following way: ‘…abhorrence of conventions, of a narrow religiosity, and of everything that prevents people’s total freedom of pertinent expressions, just as the demand to keep one’s soul and sense open to the beauty and mystery of existence’.60 This attitude to life did not allow for a dualistic view of man, so common during the time of Blake. ‘Man has no Body distinct from his Soul for that called Body is a portion of Soul discerned by the five Senses, the chief inlets of Soul in this age’.61 Blake’s interest in contemporary spirituality and esotericism contained several features that distressed his wife Catherine. Both of them had joined the ‘Swedenborg Society’. That was towards the end of the 1780s. But Catherine could not reconcile with the thought that her husband appeared to have a positive attitude towards Swedenborg’s thoughts about having a concubine. In special circumstances it is allowed to have a concubine, for example when the wife has reached a high age, or was struck by a serious disease, or felt a loathing for the conjugal intimacy. Blake probably reacted to these thought with a feel- ing of relief. However, Swedenborgians were anxious to underline that the husband no longer should keep up sexual relations with his wife after having started a relation with a concubine.62

59 For Blake’s relation to his brother see Schuchard, Why Mrs Blake cried, 204f; Ackroyd, Blake, 98f. 60 The description is to be found in the Swedish National Encyclopedia (Nationalencyklopedin), article on Blake, written by Bo Ossian Lindberg, an art historian specialized in Blake’s illustra- tions to the book on Job. 61 The complete poetry & prose of William Blake, 34. 62 See Bergquist, Swedenborgs hemlighet, 442. See also Schuchard, Why Mrs Blake cried, 187, 234f.

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Catherine Blake probably shed bitter tears over her husbands and other men’s experimentation with sexual, spiritual, and psychological liberation. They were inspired, among others, by a Polish kabbalist, count Grabianka, who had many esoteric interests. Besides Kabbalah, he devoted himself to animal magnetism, Sabbatianism, and freemasonry. Grabianka suggested a connection between the kabbalistic notion of Shekhinah and the Catholic view of Mary. The view of a male Trinity was replaced by a unity of four, an idea that should not have chocked a freethinker such as William Blake. Grabianka also preached about visualizations of the ten sefirot, the divine emanations, some- times prepared with the support of hallucinogenic drugs, sleep deprivation, or solitary meditation. Catherine Blake was probably not the only person who felt uncomfortable in the flamboyant presence of Grabianka. And the Polish count surely was not the only spiritual teacher searching for proselytes among Swedenborgians.63 But Grabianka’s thoughts about sacred sexuality went further than Swedenborg ever wrote. The question is how Blake related to these thoughts. Can the gates of spirituality be opened by the doings of sacred sexuality? The answer is surely in the affirmative. In The Marriage of Heaven and Hell Blake writes about ‘an improvement of sensual enjoyment’. A few lines down we find the often quoted line on the necessity of cleansing our perception: ‘If the doors of perception were cleansed every thing would appear to man as it is: infinite’. The next line says why this is necessary: ‘For man has closed himself up, till he sees all things thro’ narrow chinks of his cavern’.64 Is it true that ‘The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom’?65 Which are these excesses? Guided by his conviction that ‘Prudence is a rich ugly old maid courted by Incapacity’, another ‘Proverb of Hell’, Blake could let himself go to envision an orgasmic visionary state of mind, at least in his imagination.66 How does one attain such a state? The answer is: by prolonging one’s erection. How? Together with Catherine, who in total and mutual surrender was expected to keep the fire of desire burning. For the hard working Catherine, who spent most of her time in the ink-stained parlour of her home, these ideas of her husband William must have been troublesome. Their once happy marriage ‘moved precariously from heaven to hell’.67

63 Schuchard, Why Mrs Blake cried, 217ff. 64 The complete poetry & prose of William Blake, 39. 65 Ibid., 35. This line has inspired the American scholar Jeffrey J. Kripal (Roads of excess, palaces of wisdom: Eroticism & reflexivity in the study of mysticism, Chicago-London: University of Chicago Press, 2001). 66 The complete poetry & prose of William Blake, 35. 67 This is the expression used by Schuchard, Why Mrs Blake cried, 246; see also 241ff. These thoughts were also fostered by Swedenborg and Grabianka, who was influenced by the

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Blake’s thoughts about sacred sexuality were also nourished by the incipient interest for the traditions of Asia. We have already mentioned the tantric Karthabaja, a sect which also regarded the human coitus as a road of access to visionary experiences, presupposed that semen was not spilled. The common denominator between tantrists, kabbalists, and Swedenborgians was precisely this view – that the human coitus is a mirror of the divine world. In the 1790s, when Blake wrote The Marriage of Heaven and Hell and also revaluated his view of Christianity, there were ample opportunities to get in touch with Asian thought, especially through the mediation of friends and benefactors.68 When Blake once again was confronted with these ideas, he and Catherine returned from a period of relative isolation. During the first three years of the new century, they lived in a small house in Felpham at the South Coast. Blake was undernourished as far as intellectual stimulation was concerned. The books of Swedenborg were removed from dust and Tantrism was regarded as a fresh breeze during a period of calm. The emphasis on the female partner most likely meant that Blake came to a higher appraisal of his wife Catherine.69 British Orientalists as well as count Grabianka, who again visited London around the turn of the century, saw similarities between tantric and kabbalistic traditions. In Blake’s poem Milton there is an illustration which reminds of a ma∞∂ala (‘circle’, a psychocosmic figure, used as an object of meditation). We can observe four circles and an egg-shaped form together with an indication of a yoni, ‘womb’ or the female sexual organ, at the centre of the illustration. It is likely that the couple Blake, who had reached their fifties, now had found a kind of balance in their marriage, which at earlier times had been rather turbu- lent.70 With this remark we leave Catherine and William Blake and the experimentation around spirituality and sexuality of their time. We make a historical leap all the way to the 1960s and the so called sexual revolution.

THE SEXUAL REVOLUTION OF THE 1960S

The experimentation with sexuality and spirituality is a link between the Zeit- geist of William Blake and the sexual revolution of our time, i.e. starting in the 1960s. This is hardly surprising, since the two different examples of counter- culture have the same roots. We need not go further back than medieval

Hasidic tradition. On the relation between these thoughts and Hasidism and Swedenborg, see Schuchard, Why Mrs Blake cried, 48f, 149ff. 68 David Weir, Brahma in the West: Wiliam Blake and the oriental renaissance, New York: State University of New York Press, 2003, 126. 69 This is a view defended by Schuchard, Why Mrs Blake cried, 294f; see also 105ff, 302.

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Catholicism and the general suspicion towards sexual pleasure, even when related to married couples who have sexual intercourse with the purpose of having children.71 Representatives of the Reformation did not alter much to this basic view. Indeed they talked about the mutual well-being of the couple, but ‘unnatural’ sexual acts were banned, i.e. all acts that did not have the aim of having children. These views rely, fundamentally, on a dualistic view of the evil body, which creates problems for mankind and the angelic human soul. The Victorian era only made slight adjustments to this attitude. There was nothing wrong with enjoying intercourse, but one should not forget that pleasure is not the main thing. When science freed itself from the influence of religion, other voices were heard. Secularization eventually led to sexualisation, so typical for our time. Sigmund Freud and the British scholar of sexuality Havelock Ellis made contributions to a new kind of freedom – a sensuality which not necessarily needs to be related to marriage and procreation. We now reach the 1960s, and other factors have to be added to the condi- tions of the sexual revolution. Some factors worth mentioning are the fact that more and more women started to work, the use of contraceptives, and increasing equality between the sexes. This all led to a new identity, including a view of oneself as a sexual being. Sexual experiences can be liberating and boundary transgressing. This new identity functioned as a basis for the emancipation of homosexuals, and other variants of human sexuality. It is perhaps needless to say that this revolution was not altogether beneficial. In the wake of the sexual revolution we can observe new ways of objectifying and exploit- ing women.72 We could, of course, add many other aspects to the sexual revolution and the question whether it resulted in greater happiness to a greater number of people. A question that can be posed is if we really did liberate ourselves from the ancient dualism between body and soul? This view of man has roots all the way back to Plato, Gnosticism, and early Christianity. The answer to this question, then, is no, in most cases. An American historian is anxious to show that contemporary Christian sexual ethics to a large extent has been formulated by medieval theologians.73 The conclusion we can draw is that the sexual revolution did not result in liberation on a wide front. Many people feel that we live in a narcissistic

70 This is again a view presented by Schuchard, Why Mrs Blake cried, 312; see also 297ff. 71 The following is based on Charles Taylor, A secular age, Cambridge, MA-London: Harvard University Press, 2007, 499ff. 72 Here ends my summary of Taylor. 73 See the introduction to James A. Brundage, Law, sex, and Christian society in medieval Europe, Chicago-London: The University of Chicago Press, 1987.

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culture,74 we no longer have a unified view of life, and we suffer from fragmentation. This loss is compensated with other gains – career, sport, even warfare, and as far as sexuality is concerned a fixation around performing and orgasm, leading, in turn, to feelings of guilt and shame. Perhaps there is a crack in the cosmic egg, characterized by feelings of emptiness and meaninglessness. One way of relating to this loss is to search for guidance and security. Some people find that in a fundamentalist attitude. But this is a dangerous security, since it can lead to narrow-mindedness and increasing violence.75 The increasing interest in spirituality in our time can be understood as an alternative way of handling questions of meaning and man’s search for coher- ence, a way of repairing the crack in the cosmic egg. In some circles this search is extended to the sexual life. Sexual intercourse, in these circles, can be understood as a way of reconnecting to the Cosmos at large, to ‘Paradise Lost’. Sexual intercourse can be a sacramental act.76 A contemporary example of this alternative, although ancient view, with roots all the way back to Sumerian culture, is the Esalen Institute, focusing on the exploration of the human potential, a movement roughly corresponding to the experimentation in 18th century London.

AMERICA AND THE RELIGION OF NO-RELIGION

One of the links between 18th century London and Esalen is Tantrism, which also played – and still plays – an important role in Esalen and in our time. However, Tantrism has not always been perceived in the way as it was intended according to especially Hindu texts and masters (see above). In the West, Tan- trism has often been understood as a way to higher states of consciousness and greater orgasms, an interpretation which surely was not intended by the original Hindu and Buddhist thinkers. How did this misunderstanding arise? Part of the answer can be found in 18th and 19th century missionary work, and in the newly arisen interest in the mysteries of the Orient. Some of the 18th century missionaries obviously took an active interest in the sexual element of Tantrism,

74 See Christopher Lasch, The culture of narcissism: American life in an age of diminishing expectations, London: Abacus, 1980; and Idem, The minimal self: Psychic survival in troubled times, London: Pan Books, 1985. 75 This is a view presented by the American psychiatrist Robert J. Lifton (The Protean self: Human resilience in an age of fragmentation, Chicago-London: The University of Chicago Press, 1993). 76 See Feuerstein, Sacred sexuality, 25f. The expression ‘Paradise Lost’ is related to the English poet John Milton (1608-1674).

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described as ‘a most chocking mode of worship’ and rites ‘too abominable to enter the ears of man and impossible to be revealed to a Christian public’.77 This was partly the message received by the early orientalists, who, contrary to what could be expected, added to the misconceptions. Tantrism was understood as perverted religiosity, an example of the ‘Indian decadence’, a clust mummery and black magic. Horace Hayman Wilson went as far as describing Tantric exercises ‘nonsensical extravagance and absurd gesticulation’.78 This misconception did not change to the better when Richard Francis Burton, another orientalist, published an English translation of the Kama Sutra. This erotic text with its numerous coital positions was associated with Tantrism, which simply is wrong.79 Considering this background, it was not surprising that the revolutionaries of the 60s had a distorted picture of Tantrism. It is not difficult to give examples from contemporary cyberspace. If we visit tantrism.com, it is obvious that we have distanced ourselves from the Indian Tantric ideals. When visiting a bookshop, we probably meet a huge selection of books with titles such as The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Tantric Sex (2001), The Heart of Tantric Sex (2003), and Tantra for Erotic Empowerment: The Key to Enriching Your Sexual Life (2008). Tantrism did seem to play an important role in the sexual revolution of the nineteen sixties and seventies. The road to ‘orgasmic enlightenment’ fitted the western individualized life-style, characterized by quick moves and a high degree of consumerism. However, an identification of Tantra with sex is a coarse dis- tortion of the Indian sources, mentioning anything but quick moves. Their message is rather one of entering into a harmonious relation with universal powers linking man to his cosmic origin.80 Tantrism appears again at Californian Esalen, an institute associated with ‘the human potential movement’, founded by Michael Murphy and Dick Price, both psychologists. Murphy was inspired by a lecture of the charismatic historian of religion Frederic Spiegelberg (1897-1994), who shared an experience of cosmic consciousness with his audience. How could such an experience be understood in the context of a grey provincial church? Is it at all possible to interpret cosmic consciousness in terms of any religious tradition? Spiegelberg’s religion became a no-religion; he was the person who coined the expression ‘the

77 Hugh B. Urban, Magia sexualis: Sex, magic, and liberation in modern Western esotericism, Ber- keley: University of California Press, 2006, 93f. 78 Quoted in ibid., 94f. 79 Ibid., 94f. 80 This is the conclusion drawn by Urban, Magia sexualis, 107f; see also 91. Hugh B. Urban is specialized in Tantrism.

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religion of no-religion’, a guiding-star at Esalen.81 The expression refers to a variant of mystical theology, a new view on the great religious traditions of the world, which, according to Spiegelberg, has committed two fundamental mis- takes. The first one is to confuse symbolic statements with literal truth; the second mistake is to devalue one dimension of a dualistic view of reality – the world – in favour of an emphasis on the transcendent divine dimension of existence. Among the religious traditions of the world, Spiegelberg favoured Zenbuddhism, the prototype for the religion of no-religion, western alchemy, and Indian yoga. He also felt attracted to art and psychoanalysis, two practices which acknowledge symbols as symbols. ‘Art is our only salvation’ became one of the mantras of Esalen.82 Adherents of Esalen regard themselves as ‘spiritual but not religious’. Their spirituality can be described as a kind of mystical secularism. All cultures and their religions are understood as social constructions and therefore relative. Sep- arate religions have become ‘in-credible’; they cannot be regarded as absolute truths. This means that adherents of Esalen usually take religious dogma lightly; they prefer symbols.83 Considering this attitude towards religious traditions, it seems to be contra- dictory to emphasize Tantrism as the spiritual path that is closest to Esalen. However, Tantrism is understood in a most general way, as a practical spiritual technique in order to canalize divine energy within the microcosmic human being, an energy which can be creative and liberating, and simultaneously sup- ports the whole cosmos. The body is a tool for reaching this goal. Esalen therefore recognizes human sexuality as a spiritual force for liberation. Esalen inte- grates Asian psychophysical, contemplative techniques with an emphasis on reason – a lesson learned from the Enlightenment – personal integrity, and freedom.84 A teaching of this kind is not based on views such as nature-spirit, body- soul, etc., a dualism so obnoxious to Esalen. Teachers at Esalen take a holistic stand, regarding man as an integrated being, a union of body and soul. Enlight- enment of the body is therefore also enlightenment of the soul or spirit. ‘Body and spirit do not stand for identifiable objects; they are names which people use to indicate different aspects on the continuum of human experience’. In the same spirit, people at Esalen think that the human potential has the ability to

81 See http://calitreview.com/245, California Literary Review, visited May 4, 2009. We here find an interview with Jeffrey J. Kripal, giving comments on his new book. 82 Jeffrey J. Kripal, Esalen: America and the religion of no religion, Chicago-London: University of Chicago Press, 2007. 83 Ibid., 9f. 84 Ibid., 18ff.

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transgress beyond traditional dichotomies as religion and science, or spirituality and medicine. Esalen recognizes the life-energy that bridges over opposites, energy that Swedenborg called influx, that Mesmer named animal magnetism, and Tantrism designates as shakti (sakti).85 Another famous person connected to Esalen for some time is Gregory Bateson (1904-1980), a British-American anthropologist who did not appreciate dualistic views either. Like many other persons at Esalen, Bateson approved of Blake. Among Esalen’s teachers we find renowned names, in several areas, including for example Joseph Campbell, Fritjof Capra, Carlos Castaneda, Deepak Chopra, Moshe Feldenkrais, Stanislaf Grof, Aldous Huxley, Abraham Maslow, Rollo May, Fritz Perls, and Carl Rogers. The kind of experimentation they devoted themselves to comprise for example creativity, the expansion of consciousness, parapsychology, drug-induced mystical experiences, art and religion, and psy- chotherapy East and West. Now, what is the role of sexuality in this kind of experimentation? The general attitude appears to be that human sexuality is a kind of cosmic energy that can be used as one of several roads leading to integration. A specific example is George Leonard, one of the prominent figures of Esalen, an author and editor of the journal Look, a person who saw a connection not only between sexuality and spirituality but also between sport and spirituality. He has a black belt in the Japanese martial art aikido. In his book The End of Sex: Erotic Love After the Sexual Revolution (1983), Leonard distances himself from the dual view on the body and spirit. Instead, he talks about the body as ‘a holographic microcosm of the entire cosmos’. This body embraces free and creative energies, revealing themselves within ‘the mystery of sexuality and the altered states of sexual arousal and orgasm’. The enlightenment of the body. Leonard, who also recounts a mystical experience, just like Murphy, regards sex as a way of transforming into a more original state of consciousness. Leonard, who also has a high estimate of Blake, presents his book as a fulfilment of the sexual revolution a decade or two ago since the publication of his book. He moves beyond ‘cathartic releases and Kinsey-like obsessions with mechanics and number of orgasms’ to something completely different. The End of Sex, so Kripal comments, ‘is not really the end of sex – it is the end of the gross materialism and common selfishness of the sexual revolution and the annunciation of a full- bodied and more relational erotic mysticism’. Leonard’s view comprises ‘both a

85 Ibid., 228ff. The quote is from a book written by Don Hanlon Johnson, one of the inspirers at Esalen. Johnson has a web page: http://www.donhanlonjohnson.com/ where he intro- duces himself as professor at ‘The California Institute of Integral Studies’. The expression ‘enlightenment of the body’ derives from Kripal. See the mentioned interview at the Internet (note 81).

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refusal to reduce the erotic to the simply sexual and a call to raise the sexual to the mystical through a personal encounter with another human being as other and lover’.86

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