Kabbalah and Sex, part 1

by Jacobus Swart

I thought I would share with you the Kabbalistic notions on realising God through our most intimate natures. This is surely not an impossible idea. If God is omnipresent, He/She/It has to be conscious through everyone's sex organs as well, and therefore has to participate in their activities. The thought of "taking God to bed with you" in the person of a marriage partner may sound peculiar or unfamiliar to modern ears, but it is fairly common practice today, as it was to the "Western Inner Tradition" in earlier times. The main problem was that the entire idea was so misused by so many people, that most religions gave up the whole thing centuries back, though some of them taught it in secret to their select initiates. I certainly do not intend dragging God down to a "sex level," but rather to let sex raise us to a "God level." Instead of ending with sex, we should begin with it, and then aim as high as we can. We should go up with sex instead of down. It is not an end, but a means, and moreover a useful and practical means.

Now, before we take a closer look at the Kabbalistic concepts regarding sexuality, I think we need, by way of introduction, to gain some perspective on the meeting of sex and religion in the Western world. As it is, most Westerners have dodged around the sex-aspect in religious practice, and I believe the time has arrived when it has to be dragged out and sorted out in a modern light for everybody to look at in the light of day. Naturally the subject is controversial, but it is no use pretending there is no such thing, or that it does not affect the average human very deeply, and most of all that it cannot have anything to do with religion. That would be tantamount to denying there is a sun in the sky, which is an absurdity. What we need to do, whilst still respecting the principles of olden times, is to bring practices up to modern requirements, and by and large I suppose that is happening anyway. Since the two World Wars in Europe there has certainly been a total change in sex-attitudes among most humans, some of it to the good, but otherwise harmful, though none of it permanent, because attitudes alter all the time. Besides, modern methods of contraception and broadening of outlooks have certainly changed a great deal of our customs.

One thing we can avoid is an idiotic pretence that sex has nothing to do with religion, and we should just pretend it does not exist and God does not want to know anything about it. While we have biological bodies, which are animals in their own right, we have to tackle sex as a major issue amongst us, and find the most practical and sensible system of dealing with it. I believe the day will come when we will evolve out of our bodies altogether. Then we will be able to express sex, or polarised identity energies, along entirely different lines in far better ways, but that time has not yet arrived, and we have to live in this interim period to the best possible advantage.

Some have it that the cycle of events we are experiencing on this planet, is entirely due to the fact that we became human in the first place, i.e. that we "over-materialized" by "falling" into animal bodies through pure curiosity to find out what physical sex really was, and once having done that, sheer biological reproduction kept dragging more and more souls down to this level. The theory was that if we arrived here by those means, could we "climb back" again by establishing sex relations with God in some way? An allegorical ideology of this appears in "The Comte de Gabalis" by Abbe N. de Montfaucon de Villars. In this work "Initiates" are advised to abjure sex relations with human females and practice it with "Sylphs" or Air Beings, or, as Indians would say, "Devas" instead.

It is actually quite well-known nowadays, as it was in very ancient times, that the practices of sex and religion were intimately connected. It was only a truly "Initiated" person who understood this properly, and knew how to behave appropriately on both physical and spiritual levels. That is true today, and has to be interpreted in terms of our times. For instance, consider the "secrecy" angle. People do not normally talk about their most intimate sexual secrets, nor do they bring into public their intimate beliefs in Deity - but they would want to, and would give a lot if that were possible. Mainly they are afraid of encountering antipathy from other humans and both the subjects of sex and God are such delicate and sensitive ones, they are kept "covered up" for the sake of sheer protection. A man would not produce his naked penis in hostile company, because of the physical agony he would suffer if it were attacked with relatively slight force. It is only a spiritual extension of the same principle which prevents him from exposing his equivalent "inner anatomy" to unsympathetic hands.

Now, various sex-techniques have been experimented with by God knows how many people for religious reasons since time immemorial. From old time temple prostitution, where the girl was supposed to embody the "goddess" for the man who paid a contribution, to the very latest customs, much of which is traced by George Ryley Scott in his book "Phallic Worship," which traces connections between the sexuality of different races and their religions. Of course, I am not suggesting that sexual techniques are the only way to spirituality, but only that those susceptible to these, could turn them to spiritual ends if they so intended. Equally, if such techniques have any effect with you, there is no reason why you should not benefit from this discussion rather than otherwise. Sex can be used for relating oneself with God through the feminine or masculine symbology in the partner, if it is employed for such a purpose. Simply, the primal physical thrill translates to a mental one, and thence to a spiritual equivalent. It becomes a question of direction by the user as to how far the process extends. To reach God one must intend God in the first place, but there is no reason why this intention should not commence from a physical basis.

One should also consider that "sexual energy" is quite fundamental to a lot of "psychic phenomena." I personally find it odd that so few people seem to realise that their so-called "magic powers" are tied up with their sexual capabilities. It is purely a matter of sheer Life-Energy and its direction. Take for instance the case of "poltergeist phenomena," which is in many instances linked to puberty, when the awakening sex-energy of adolescents "goes wild" and, not being directed by intelligence, does nothing but mischief - yet actually does this physically and demonstratively. So-called "magic powers" are only controlled extensions of this. After that it becomes a question of learning how to turn ones sex-capabilities into spiritual channels, because after all, that is where they came from in the first place.

Now, it may be a coincidence, but probably not, that the "Great Occult Explosion" of the 1960's came along at the same period that people began to bring sex into the open and discuss it as a normal item of interest. In fact, a reversal took place, and whereas previously people used to talk about religion so openly and sex so secretly, it had turned more or less the other way around, and those who would describe in detail whatever they were doing to and with whom the previous night, were very hesitant to tell you how they feel and believe in their secret hearts about God. Yet once the topics were identical, and sex and religion were virtually the same on two different levels of life. They still are in fact, and some religions, like that of the Hindus, know this quite well and deal with it normally.

At first thought it might be supposed there is no spiritual element possible to sex, but after careful consideration there are quite a number of spiritual elements present as this study will show. For example, if the literal meaning of "God is AHVH" ("Love" in Hebrew) be taken, then thoughts connected with sexual stimulation should logically be classified with "God interests" also. Aroused sex-feelings should be synonymous with attraction to Divinity. In other words, sex and God should be simultaneous, and in one the other ought to be manifest. Only when we "want God" as passionately and urgently as we need sexual expression, will that manifestation of infinity contact us.

Religion should have all the beauty, mystery, and especially the finesse and subtleties of sex-idealism presented to worshippers in the most expert ways possible. Unhappily, the process has gone sadly wrong over the centuries, and many Westerners, indoctrinated by mainstream religious fundamentalism, have grown into the habit of regarding sex as something dirty and unmentionable which only animals do for pleasure (which they do not actually), and which humans should not enjoy at all. Of course, we are beginning to put this picture right, but that will take a long time and a very great deal of careful correction before it gets back into anything like true balance. Yet, until that is done, religion as such will suffer the lack-loss of it. Once sex is integrated with religion in ways acceptable to the majority of people, our true "Mysteries" will be reborn in the most beautiful ways humans have ever known. The main difficulty in dealing with the subject at the moment, is with the conditioned mentality of the West over so many generations of divorcing sex from Deity, whereas all the "Old Religions" did nothing of the kind, but identified the concept as "God is Love."

A pity we have so devalued the word "Love" in our times, plus the fact that it is so inadequate to describe or contain all the variation of meanings it should convey. It is a pity the English term is so limited and strictured, since there are so many meanings to "Love." I suppose it would be possible to qualify by adding numbers after the word, such as "Love 1," "Love 2," and so forth to express intensity or degree, but we do need some system of qualifying the word for the sake of conveying what we are experiencing in our souls when we use it. I mean, to say "making love" when all we mean is reproductory romp for the sake of releasing biological tension, is totally wrong. You might as well describe plain masturbation as "making self-love," which I suppose it could be to a trivial degree, though scarcely a great one however necessary. Love is such a VITAL thing - yet it can be deadly, in the sense of losing oneself utterly into it. Most people know that "love hurts." That is why the ancients showed the bow of Eros as being fitted with an unlikely bowstring of bees. Love sang a soothing song like the humming of bees, yet it could sting painfully afterwards. "Pain" and "Pleasure" are the "Pillars" of the Temple. "Peace" is the "Middle Way" between them.

Now, since man is a physical, mental and spiritual being, all his activities need studying on those distinct levels. The physical level of sexuality is comprehensible enough, and so is the mental, but the spiritual side of it is far more difficult to explain, yet it exists, and must be studied on its own level if it is to be understood properly and completely. The general rule is: physical leads to mental, mental to spiritual, and spiritual to "God" or a state of "Self-Perfection." Everything depends on intention or individual aim. If, for example, we are only aiming at physical gratification in sex, that is as far as we get, but if through physical gratification we are aiming far beyond it at "God" as an ultimate objective, then that physical sensation, or experience, becomes a vehicle for such an aim being directed. Therefore we are fully justified in using sexuality, if it is directed accordingly.

Again, anciently it was believed, as is nowadays revived, that sex with a loved person performed as a spiritual exercise led one to God. That was the meaning of the injunction that it should not be enjoyed as a purely physical pleasure. It was supposed to mean much more than just that. Everything depended on "intention." That was the esoteric meaning of "God is Love." Looked at from another angle you get "Love is God." The particular problem we are faced with here is this: can one relate sexuality and the sexual specialties of stimulus with anything of a Divine character, and if so - how?

[ Continue to part 2 ]

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