Great Rites, Great Responsibilities

Eros is a divine power that includes all forms of yearning, joining, merging--all forms of additive desire. Eros tends towards unity, coherence in all its senses, and solidity. It is the counterpoint to Strife, the Power of Dissolution. These two are also the dualities of attraction and repulsion, associative and analytical thought, pushing and assimilating. All the unions of Eros are productive. Though it tends towards the good because it leads to the permanency that is Salvation, Eros can be ambiguous and can manifest pathologically--not all forms of desire are desirable. Sexual enslavement, colonialism, and religious authoritarianism are all examples of pathological Eros. The discernible characteristic of pathological Eros is voraciousness--it does not encounter the Other as a Divine Equal, but rather as something to be consumed. Rather than expand or merge as coextant equals, an Ego under the sway of pathological Eros contracts its force and uses that force to subsume the Other. Often, this Other is within. When this happens, the Ego has literally tied itself into a knot that prevents self-knowledge and spiritual evolution. It is through Eros that we know ourselves and become one with God/dess(e)s.

Consciousness cannot be enslaved to Eros. This is a most slippery rock near the further shore: the unitive power carries us far, but all along the way it is buffeted. Necessity's iron girdle cordons their scope, but until one becomes the Shaper of Essences, Necessity, Eros and Strife will continue to interact, patiently guiding us to where we already are. The Goodness of Eros is the high road to a station in consciousness from which one wields Eros and Strife as divine attributes. The Most Realized consciousness pervades all realities, permanently stationed beyond all dualities but consciously directing and depending on their existence within as the dynamic engine of the cosmos powering God/dess(e)s. Eros is the path of fearlessness and beauty; these Divine Attributes ultimately have greater Reality than the produce of Strife because they attain permanence in the Divinized I, whereas Strife tends towards dissolution and unconsciousness. Strife must be known, but Eros must stretch to embrace it. Eros trumps Strife, yet the soul must mount still higher to unite the two and thereby achieve full agency. Nevertheless, we are at present beneath the sway of these opposites and the challenge of the aspirant is to learn to possess and wield them, not to be possessed by either of them. You are the God/dess--good AND evil are YOUR attributes. How will you use them? How will your use of them engender our shared world?

Human beings exist to serve a priestly function that is organic to and vital for the Earth's existence. (Though perhaps if we fail as a species, Gaia/Gebu has time to evolve another priestly species). When properly balanced, the human being is a priest/ess of the Earth, the immanent divine powers. The priest/ess is a mediator in consciousness, and this mediating function is manifold. We are meant to build bridges to the other realms, and shamanic, theurgic and mystical traditions teach us how and empower us to learn more and more, to grow in grace and knowledge and power.

Our priestly function is primarily energetic. We are a form of consciousness meant to contemplate, adore, and create in balance. We need to learn skills of grounding, sensing and directing energy. These are simple skills, but they are like the alphabet--useful in first grade as well as in post-doctoral work. We're supposed to be planetary energy modulators whose work sustains and nurtures life, unfolding it outward from a unitive source that is pure, fearless and delightful. We are meant to acknowledge and venerate all the orders of life, including the biological lifeforms and the beings of the spirit realms, like Elementals, the Fey, and the Ancestors. Our species seems charged with this august responsibility. If we are truly "in waiting" for the God/dess(e)s, then what more appropriate role than priest/ess?

Our energetic priesthood includes appropriate use of human sexual energies. A popular lie is that sex is for procreation only or primarily. From the spiritual point of view, this is absolute nonsense. Procreation is among the least significant potentials for sexual expression, and at a time of overpopulation by at least 600%, ungoverned procreation isn't desirable. This overpopulation is symptomatic of erotic pathology and an inability to achieve harmony or sustainability. The lie of "procreation only"is especially deployed by the fundamentalist authoritarians in several religions and has led to hellish conditions for many people. It seems designed to introduce and cultivate neurosis for the sake of control; it's based on the fear and repression of Strife, not on the wholiness of Eros--it sets up opposition within the self and in undermining sexual sanctity, it hobbles the god-given means of transmuting opposition into harmony. Human sexuality exists for spiritual transformation and for the duty of energetic priestly service. From the ancient "fertility" religions to Tantra to Wilhelm Reich, there are many witnesses to the fact that human beings have an important power and responsibility to use their sexual energy consciously and sacredly. Consciously directed orgasmic energy will save the earth, and the Great Rite is the Path of Restoration. Only by creating spiritualities and cultures that value this will the earth be healed and true sanity restored to the religious domain. Mechanistic science alone will not save the earth--indeed, except on the fringes of theoretical physics, contemporary science is based on a perceptual misunderstanding about the nature of material reality and promises only to compound the current ecological crisis. This crisis is rooted in erotic alienation from the beauty that is Godhead.

Sex with oneself, with a partner or partners, with spiritual entities (including God/dess(e)s!) or with the Living Earth -- all are powerful vehicles of prayer and transformation. Done properly and in sacred awareness, offered up by consciousness throughout but especially at the peak of orgasm, sexual expression can be a sacrament that nourishes the God/dess(e)s Themselves and binds us to them in the way that conception binds sperm and ovum.

The orgasm is a ladder to Heaven and is the single greatest source of human power to bless. Through sacred sexuality, one can reach an abiding relationship with the Divine that is deeper and more satisfying than ordinary religion or ordinary sex alone can ever be.

All this praise of the orgasm certainly includes physical sensations, but the point is that orgasm is much more significant than our culture tells us. The physical and psychological components of sexuality are only its dorsal fin. The challenge is to become aware of the orgasmic energies on multiple levels at once without losing awareness of the self. This is the gateway to more comprehensive bliss and to Divine generative power.

There are many techniques that can help direct sexual offerrings. The most important basic thing is to realize that your sexual releases are energetically among the most influential things you do or will ever do. On the energetic level, nothing you can do is more potentially charged than the intention you hold and release at the moment of sexual climax. Tomorrow's world is being energized and shaped by the sexual energies released tonight. The simplest technique is to direct the energy of your orgasm to principles like "balance" or "beauty" -- or even more safely, to offer them up to the wiser discretion of a God/dess you trust and work with regularly. Build the magical images and "anchors" you'll call on at that moment; make them strong and release them like a cone of power. Sexual prayer practice can culminate in utterance of the divine name at the moment of sexual release--and that alone can be one of the most powerful sexual prayer practices. This can also be used to call new powers into reality--like new forms of renewable energy or even the return of lost species.

But sex work without Shadow work and catharsis is very often tainted because subconscious motivations can hijack the energy and override conscious intentions. More often these will hamper, rather than reverse, good intentions. Through this gate, the individual and collective Shadows, and the agents of Strife, will seek to enter. Ward yourself in all sexual work; pray and work for fuller awareness. As in all spiritual and especially magical work, the Shadow is something you must become aware of. (The work itself compels increasing awareness, and many retreat from it in fear of themselves because they are not ready). The fully Realized Mage has no unconscious, no motivations hidden to herself. S/he knows her good and evil fully and consciously chooses what serves the abiding good because in it is her own eternal Salvation.

Pure Eros is always beautiful, balanced and delightful for those with eyes to see. All expressions of Eros participate, to a greater or lesser degree, in that pure essence. When the Shadow is authentically faced and known, there is no bar to this orgasmic flow. Orgasmic energy is the aura of union in diversity, the Light or Noor of the Godhead. Orgasm to the infinite power is the perpetual consciousness of the most fully realized mystic. It is the very nature of the Tao, the Way, the Beauty Road.

Eros will also call forth the manifestation of its opposite to the extent that it is possible for that opposite to be invoked and manifested. Those who do not believe that they are themselves Divine will often be apalled by sexual prayer. In another way, so will those who regard sex as nothing more than biological mechanism or hormonal compulsion.

Sex isn't the only manifestation of Eros or of vital energy--just the primary one. Next to sexual prayer, the practices of gardening and authentic movement have helped me to grow in my conscious relationship with the Divine Lifeforce. Artistic absorption and meditative suspension are both forms of priestly service to Eros. English has made "eros" much more sexually specific than did Greek metaphysics. All expenditures of energy can be blessed and directed in ways very similar to what I've described above: dancing, exercise, the steps of a walk. All contemplation is in the stream of Eros, all realization is born of Eros. One does not throw off all restraint--one is merely conscious and chooses from internal divine authority, not social pressure or shadow motivation. Apart from the flexible bonds of Nature and Necessity, the only legitimate restraint is self-restraint. To the extent that Consciousness empowers you, you're the Decider.

You are compelled to sexual expression because Heaven and Earth desire it and require it. It is intrinsically sacramental. Uncover it again. All acts of beauty, all acts of honest consensual pleasure, serve the advent of the Golden Age. As with all Divine Advents, this new epoch is born of sacred sex.

Consider the Life Force, Qi, Odic Force, and orgone.

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