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SACRED SEXUALITY from the Ancient Sumerians To Studies in Spirituality 20, 355-379. doi: 10.2143/SIS.20.0.2061155 © 2010 by Studies in Spirituality. All rights reserved. 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 tradi- tions mentioned. The British artist and mystic William Blake came in touch with these ideas and he was heavily influenced by them. The arti- cle 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 prob- ably 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? 993799_SIS3799_SIS 220_2010_14.indd0_2010_14.indd 335555 113/01/113/01/11 009:019:01 356 ANTOON GEELS 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 spir- ituality.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 advocat- ing 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 differ- ent 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 con- sists 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’. 993799_SIS3799_SIS 220_2010_14.indd0_2010_14.indd 335656 113/01/113/01/11 009:019:01 SACRED SEXUALITY 357 and understanding; the second triad includes ethical perfections – mercy, judg- ment 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 mar- riage, 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 pas- sage, 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. 993799_SIS3799_SIS 220_2010_14.indd0_2010_14.indd 335757 113/01/113/01/11 009:019:01 358 ANTOON GEELS 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 char- ismatic 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 fun- damental 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.
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