Be-Fore: Why “Sacred Sexuality”?

Moving Beyond confronts you with images and analyses which are uncomfortable – and, for some, blasphemous; others, pornographic. For most of us, Moving Beyond happened because we were thrust forward, cast-out, ejected: outlawed. It is not simply the sum of a series of rational analyses or easily communicated peak-experiences. Throughout this website, you are invited. Invited as a guest is welcomed.}

In preparation to evaluate why you should spend some time reading this work – there is the question, “Why all this to-do about Sacred Sexuality?”

The most uncomfortable adjustment most readers will have to make is the interpretation of Genesis as a Sacred Sexuality story. In fact, even more might wonder why there is all this focus on Genesis at all. Indeed, for many who consider themselves secularists or non-religious, the concern with any alleged sacred scripture is a waste of time. Yet, that stance, itself, reflects the victory of Genesis’ Sacred Sexuality story! This is not a trivial statement, nor is it a put-down in any way. Rather, Genesis’ Sacred Sexuality story is that there is no sacred sexuality. Understood in this light, the “there is no sacred sexuality” advocates are – intentionally or not – true witnesses to the importance of Genesis’ victory.

We know that this might sound self-serving, namely, that it is an intellectual dodge to say that “what is not there is actually what is really there!” But throughout this work, there is an experiential claim to the correctness of the ancient phrases, “what is, is not” and “what is not, is.” The experience is grounded in that of being a prisoner.

“Why” is the question raised by the prisoner. Simply, as we sat in the federal pen, the question arose, Why are they doing this? Meaning, why are we locked up in cages? Told to suffer through “doing time”? Controlled as the prison discipline so controls? We were driven to seek further when out of prison we worked in a prison reform project. Then, we went back to graduate school to study the historical and cultural roots of what we discovered was a peculiar American experiment called “the penitentiary” – or as one of its founding lights termed it, a “House of Terror.”

It took a long, long, long time – hitting bottom in drink and depression – to confront the truth of what every prisoner feels. Feels, not knows. We feel the presence of The Dark Mother. We know the presence of the Dark Father – He who slays his own sons. She who eats her own children. Prisoners feel mythically.

Again, if the term “myth” means something silly, or a video from Disney, you will have to struggle with the experiences described herein. Only non-prisoners delude themselves into saying that they do not feel mythically. Much akin to just about every prisoner ever met stating, “I’m innocent, really!”

Your participation in the prisoner mythic emotional sphere is keyed by your working on the insights drawn from applying the “what is not, is” and “what is, is not” principles of interpretation. You have to be open to your participation as imprisoner of the imprisoned to even just begin.

As you will read, you are not required to become a prisoner to grasp why Genesis is so alive and victorious, today. No, you will discover that this whole mythic experience is yours - ! – as you explore, reflect upon, and labor to create a Sacred Sexuality embrace with your Beloved.

Indeed, Genesis is a prison story. Wherein woman: female, feminine, goddess – is captured and, mythically, sentenced to exist within or “inside” the male – which we come to term the Lone Male God.

In Biblical culture, eros has been whittled down to simple expression as masturbation. More, as male masturbation, alone – to wit, of the Lone Male. In Genesis there is no female. No female being – Adam exists before Eve is derived from him. No goddess. No Earth Mother. No Divine Consort. No birthing presence. All that is, is the same-sex creation story of the male rib being the creational source of the female. Certainly, this rib is not a birthing organ? But, then, you will see that this rib is a substitute for the cock. Indeed, the act of creating woman is an act of masturbation.

The cock is “not” in Genesis, but, as we see it, it is all that the story is about: it is the main visual of Genesis.

At this point, for those not interested in myth or sacred stories, Genesis begins to fascinate. What seemed like a really boring story with some stupid rib hocus-pocus turns out to be a pot-boiler stirred by hard cocks! Indeed, Genesis is a story told to answer the question, Why? – about women. Why are they here? Why do we have to worship them (the goddess)? Why do we value them (as birthing mothers)? Why do we have to care for them (marriage)? And so on.

Genesis is a story told and written to answer questions, not to raise new ones.

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This is why working “towards” a Sacred Sexuality is so critical at this historic moment. We need answers to a lot of questions. About why we are on the earth. What, if anything, is the significance of races. Why are there males and females and not some hermaphroditic or androgynous humans. In short, the “leaks” from the current “counter-cultural” movements – which span ecological, political, religious, scientific, sexual, etc. “alternative movements” – require a mythos.

In the ‘60s there were lots of “leaks.” Social Justice was one. “Turn On, Tune In, Drop Out” was another. The upheaval in the Roman Catholic Church in the events of Vatican Council Two was one for many folk. In sum, there was a lot of things to do, but there was also a general feeling that we could not ground what we were doing in anything other than the Warrior Mythos. As stated here and in other documents on www.earthfolk.net, we, ourselves, became non-violent warriors. We had no other mythic grounding. In time, we warred against each other.

Maybe that’s what sounds the siren call for “towards” more than anything else. Namely, that those working for social justice and transformation towards a more fully human society and culture are warring against each other. I remember the first time a radical anti-war woman activist charged me of sexism. More, the day I entered a room of radical feminists and they fell silent until I left the room! This was pre-prison, and, at the time, I was baffled more than angered or understanding.

The “political is personal” and the “personal is political” are phrases which have been bantered about, sometimes quite hatefully. We take from this what we feel is the grounding truth: the mythic is personal and the personal is mythic.

Many dedicated and fiercely committed activists turn cynical as they age. More bitterness is found at the end of a needle or the bottom of a whiskey bottle than is enlightenment. “Burn out” is considered a radical’s professional hazard. And, to this point in time, the various “movements” have not found a coordinated center, a natural rhythm, or a ground of emotional/erotic bonding from which to ritualize and weave mythic Stories.

Now, we are aware of the Reimagining movement. Of a lot of the ritual work which has gone on especially in feminist circles. We have been nurtured by these Waters. And, as with many in these movements, we are laboring to move beyond any and all reimaginings of the Warrior Mythos - towards an embrace which flowers in Earthfolk. Yet, this is where many of you will leave us. For we are not content to stay in the Garden of Eden – which is how we see the Biblical World, especially in its secularist, Americanist guise.

For us, working “towards” is a task of unimaginable scope and challenge. That is why we are not trying to do it. Not trying to be Hercules. Or Atlas. Or Hera. No, we work “towards” by inviting you to discover, imagine, explore and ritualize your mythic intimacy. The imagining of Sacred Sexuality stories is a collective and communal task – which will, hopefully, become clearer as you read. And, as we state, again and then again, your “I” is simultaneously individual as it is collective as it is communal. … Anyway, “Fore!”

Selected Readings