The Gnostic Bridal Chamber and Sacred Sex...
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Intriguingly, the Gnostic gospels are not the only sources from the past that refer to a sacred physical union between male and female for a spiritual end loftier than physical procreation. The same concept of "going beyond our obsession with seeds and eggs" to reach a state of transcendent wholeness appears in Lao Tzu’s ancient Hua Hu Ching. He recommends controlled intercourse, or angelic dual cultivation in which conventional orgasm is avoided in favor of the opportunity for a man and woman to mutually transform and uplift each other into the realm of bliss and wholeness. The key is intercourse led by spirit rather than the sexual organs. This practice can give birth to something immortal, refining gross, heavy energy into divine light. By contrast, during ordinary intercourse accumulated energy is discharged, and the subtle energies are dissipated and disordered in a great backward leap.21
Alice Bunker Stockham, MD in her book Karezza: Ethics of Marriage, also suggests the possibility of non-physical "offspring" born of the sacred union of male and female. Stockham reports that there are deeper purposes and meanings to the reproductive faculties and functions than are generally understood. In the physical union of male and female there may be a soul communion of great power.22
Men and women practicing Karezza [gentle, conscious lovemaking without conventional orgasm] attest that their very souls in union take on a procreating power, and that it seems to have an impregnating force, far transcending in power and intelligence any ordinary thought force.23
She points out that the resulting progeny, in the form of great art, new inventions, and healing powers, can do much to improve the world even apart from the spiritual gains from enhanced soul growth. In comparison, she notes the following:
The ordinary hasty spasmodic method of cohabitation is deleterious both physically and spiritually, and is frequently a cause of estrangement and separation.24
There is recent neuroscience that supports the wisdom of learning to make love with controlled intercourse. Sex without conventional orgasm promotes inner equilibrium and more stable bonding because it mitigates the high/low cycle of dopamine (the driving, "temptation" neurochemical behind sexual desire and all addictions). This high/low cycle, which accompanies fertilization-driven sex, does indeed separate mates and poison unions. During the low part of the cycle lovers tend to pull away from each other, or experience emotional friction, as they project onto each other the unwelcome effects of natural, biologically-driven neurochemical changes. This often creates a baffling attraction/repulsion dynamic in intimate relationships. See Your Brain on Sex. Interestingly, the Gospel of Philip specifically mentions that those who are no longer enslaved by the world rise above attraction and repulsion. To do so, however, they must receive a power that is both masculine and feminine [achieve equilibrium?] in the bridal chamber.25
Could the sages mentioned above be pointing to the same mystery as the Sacrament of the Bridal Chamber? Is it possible that sacred sexual union, based upon controlled intercourse, is indeed a path to heightened spiritual awareness? Can fertilization-driven sex be preventing the sexes from rediscovering their innate non-dual perception? Did those early Catholics succeed in burying the central mystery of Christianity for most of the last two thousand years when they condemned the Gnostic point of view? Certainly the Nag Hammadi discoveries, with their intriguing descriptions of the Sacrament of the Bridal Chamber and parallels to other wisdom of the past, raise these possibilities. Perhaps the only way to discover the truth is to attempt to recreate the experience of the Sacrament of the Bridal Chamber for ourselves.
As The Gospel of Philip says:
Seek the experience of the pure embrace [also translated as "undefiled intercourse"]; it has great power. 26
Intriguingly, the Gnostic gospels are not the only sources from the past that refer to a sacred physical union between male and female for a spiritual end loftier than physical procreation. The same concept of "going beyond our obsession with seeds and eggs" to reach a state of transcendent wholeness appears in Lao Tzu’s ancient Hua Hu Ching. He recommends controlled intercourse, or angelic dual cultivation in which conventional orgasm is avoided in favor of the opportunity for a man and woman to mutually transform and uplift each other into the realm of bliss and wholeness. The key is intercourse led by spirit rather than the sexual organs. This practice can give birth to something immortal, refining gross, heavy energy into divine light. By contrast, during ordinary intercourse accumulated energy is discharged, and the subtle energies are dissipated and disordered in a great backward leap.21
Alice Bunker Stockham, MD in her book Karezza: Ethics of Marriage, also suggests the possibility of non-physical "offspring" born of the sacred union of male and female. Stockham reports that there are deeper purposes and meanings to the reproductive faculties and functions than are generally understood. In the physical union of male and female there may be a soul communion of great power.22
Men and women practicing Karezza [gentle, conscious lovemaking without conventional orgasm] attest that their very souls in union take on a procreating power, and that it seems to have an impregnating force, far transcending in power and intelligence any ordinary thought force.23
She points out that the resulting progeny, in the form of great art, new inventions, and healing powers, can do much to improve the world even apart from the spiritual gains from enhanced soul growth. In comparison, she notes the following:
The ordinary hasty spasmodic method of cohabitation is deleterious both physically and spiritually, and is frequently a cause of estrangement and separation.24
There is recent neuroscience that supports the wisdom of learning to make love with controlled intercourse. Sex without conventional orgasm promotes inner equilibrium and more stable bonding because it mitigates the high/low cycle of dopamine (the driving, "temptation" neurochemical behind sexual desire and all addictions). This high/low cycle, which accompanies fertilization-driven sex, does indeed separate mates and poison unions. During the low part of the cycle lovers tend to pull away from each other, or experience emotional friction, as they project onto each other the unwelcome effects of natural, biologically-driven neurochemical changes. This often creates a baffling attraction/repulsion dynamic in intimate relationships. See Your Brain on Sex. Interestingly, the Gospel of Philip specifically mentions that those who are no longer enslaved by the world rise above attraction and repulsion. To do so, however, they must receive a power that is both masculine and feminine [achieve equilibrium?] in the bridal chamber.25
Could the sages mentioned above be pointing to the same mystery as the Sacrament of the Bridal Chamber? Is it possible that sacred sexual union, based upon controlled intercourse, is indeed a path to heightened spiritual awareness? Can fertilization-driven sex be preventing the sexes from rediscovering their innate non-dual perception? Did those early Catholics succeed in burying the central mystery of Christianity for most of the last two thousand years when they condemned the Gnostic point of view? Certainly the Nag Hammadi discoveries, with their intriguing descriptions of the Sacrament of the Bridal Chamber and parallels to other wisdom of the past, raise these possibilities. Perhaps the only way to discover the truth is to attempt to recreate the experience of the Sacrament of the Bridal Chamber for ourselves.
As The Gospel of Philip says:
Seek the experience of the pure embrace [also translated as "undefiled intercourse"]; it has great power. 26
