Sacred Sexuality: Living the Vision of the Erotic Spirit - Softcover

Feuerstein, George

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0874777445 ISBN 13: 9780874777444

Publisher: Tarcher, 1993

Synopsis

A historical, cross-cultural survey of sexuality as a sacred spiritual practice

Examines sacred sexuality in the world’s religious and mystery traditions

Explores contemporary “sexual stress syndrome” resulting from the absence of the sacred in sexual practice

Reveals how to find the sacred in the ordinary

This book examines the history of sexuality as a sacramental act. In spite of our culture’s recent sexual liberalizations, sexual intimacy often remains unfulfilling. Georg Feuerstein instructs that the fulfillment we long for in our sex lives can only be attained once we have explored the spiritual depths of our erotic natures.

Feuerstein delves into a wide variety of spiritual traditions--including Christianity, Judaism, goddess worship, Taoism, and Hinduism--in search of sacred truths regarding sexuality. He reveals that all of these great teachings share the hidden message that spirituality is, in essence, erotic and that sexuality is inherently spiritual. From the erotic cult of the Great Mother and the archaic ritual of hieros gamos (sacred marriage) to the institution of sacred prostitution and the erotic spirituality practiced in the mystery traditions, Feuerstein offers a wealth of historical practices and perspectives that serve as the bases for a positive sexual spirituality suited to our contemporary needs.

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Reviews

Here, Feuerstein (Holy Madness, 1991) tackles the spiritual potential of sex--comparing and contrasting motifs and practices from neolithic to neo-pagan times to conclude that we need to reconnect with the ancient experience of the energy of sex. ``Our civilization encourages us to neglect the lived body, even to ignore and deprecate it,'' writes Feuerstein. ``This dovetails with the Christian ideology that the body is corrupt and that we must therefore place our attention on the Eternal, the paradise beyond the finite human body and its concerns.'' Feuerstein contrasts our disembodied, guilt-filled state with neolithic Goddess cults that purportedly encouraged--and worshipped--a magically potent, boundlessly creative female sexuality. Later in human history, he says, the spiritual power of sexuality was ritually enacted as the coupling of a god and a goddess--which evolved into the secret rites of Tantra. With the rise of the ``phallocracy'' of Greece, however, the lusty feminine part of the equation was, according to the author, lost--and with the triumph of Christianity, the essential experience of sex as sacred energy was utterly crushed in the West. Feuerstein takes heart in the magical-feminist neo-pagan movement and other ``body- positive'' efforts, but argues that an expansive vision of the divine in the ordinary is necessary to restore us fully to our senses. Only then, he says, can we experience sex as a vehicle of ``sacramental transcendence.'' An innovative treatment, muddied slightly by Feuerstein's slack writing style and tendency to overstatement. (Illustrations.) -- Copyright ©1992, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Feuerstein, a Sanskrit/Hindu scholar and spiritual seeker ( Sacred Paths: Essays on Wisdom, Love and Mystical Realization , LJ 12/91), analyzes contemporary sexuality and its dilemma of guilt, shame, denial of the body, as well as its potential breakthrough to the spiritual. Defining sacred sexuality as "about love--not merely the positive feeling between intimates but an overwhelming reverence for all embodied life on whatever level of existence" and therefore "about the reenchantment of our lives," Feuerstein discusses sacred sex manifested in a variety of religious traditions, including Goddess-worship, Greek and Egyptian religion, Judaism, Christianity, Hindu Tantrism, and Taoism. The book is well documented and accessible, but fails to deal with relevant gender and moral issues. Large public libraries may consider.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Tarcher
• Publication date: 1993
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0874777445
• ISBN 13: 9780874777444
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 256