I lied. One more post tonight.

[sabrinamari]

There's a post on the sexuality filter coming soon. I can feel it bubbling up under the surface, wanting to emerge as soon as I can articulate what I'm learning. This stuff is deceptive: at some times, awesome and breath-taking in its beauty, and at others, challenging to one's very sense of self. I understand better now why so many mainstream religions fear and hate sexuality: it has the power to reach into one's very identity, into one's values, and shift what's there like a tsunami or a hurricane, leaving total tumult in its path. And it is built on a drive that is almost impossible to resist when it is activated. How can religions based on proscription contend with that power?

Not very well, I think.

Comments

Different strokes and such

[elphaba-of-oz.livejournal.com]

L was to be my sophomore year room mate at Oberlin, but I transferred to NYU. We maintained a long distance friendship for many years after college. She was danger chick, always standing at the precipice, looking over the edge. In the time I knew her she went from harpist from Texas to student for a democratic society, to lesbian feminist, to wacko vegitarian to heroin addict, to big city grad student, to convert wife of a lapsed orthodox Jew, to mother of 4.

Some time in the late 1980s she visited me in NJ. I was living with The Mistake on the upper floor of a converted barn on a christmas tree farm. She was in her Lubbavicher period, with her rapidly growning family waiting for her at home. She may still be. We've lost touch.

Followers of the Lubbavicher Rebbe (the messiah, may he rest in peace) were very strict about sexuality. These are the Jews whose women always cover their hair in an effort to keep thier sexuality safe for their husbands only. L told me about winning tickets to the ballet, but not being able to go with her husband. They were not allowed to see women and men in tights - too sexy. Laura wore a wig and covered her body from neck to wrists to ankles in loose fitting garments, not unlike orthodox muslim women.

I told her I didn't recognize the liberal feminist I used to hang around with in Freshman year. She said she felt fulfilled in her marriage and her family. Then she said something that I will always remember. She told me that being covered up all the time and only seeing her husband's body made sex very e-r-o-t-i-c. (She had a child with her, so she had to spell the word to keep it secret.)

She also suggested that I drop the Mistake and find myself a nice Jewish boy, but that's a tale for another time, and part of the reason I lost touch with her.

The magic was still there for her, despite her frumpy appearance. I prefer a more sex-positive culture, but I am willing to concede that L's way of life gave her what she needed.

[faedaughter.livejournal.com]

Part of what those religions are banking on is being able to harness the re-directed sexual energy into power for Church. Abstention can be a tool and a very powerful (and as we have sometimes seen) dangerous one. They don't contend, they control or try to.
I have heard it said, and have experienced this for myself as well, that one come closest to divinity at the point of orgasm. What can't you do when you *are* the Goddess, the God, are one with all of the universe? One of the things that came up in the Pathwork at Camp, was the question from one of the teachers.... what if you channeled that power, the power of orgasmic release, into a spell, a prayer, an intionally magical act? It is an awesome thought.

[flamespirit.livejournal.com]

Not that I know much about it, but I believe it's called "Sex Magic". I might try a google search...

[sabrinamari.livejournal.com]

In a completely spontaneous event---or, I guess, 2 separate events---I was given a ritual for exactly this moment. It's powerful, beautiful and potent, and harnesses the explosive power of orgasm perfectly.

The same openness to spirit that brought Cat and I "thinging" works in other powerful contexts, with other magical partners, as well. You never know when you will be given a new form of magic...

[sabrinamari.livejournal.com]

You know, I should say that I'm not ready to share this ritual, but simply wanted to say that yes, this really does work, in my untutored and very, very brief experience.

[faedaughter.livejournal.com]

Hmmm... yeah it usually is called that, and sometimes it is more sacred in character than others. Its just cool to think about changing my perception of sacred sexuality, or maybe making that idea more active. I am not explaining this well... (grin)

[padmaclynne.livejournal.com]

am i on your sexuality filter? because i am interested, if you are comfortable.

[sabrinamari.livejournal.com]

I'll add you.

[padmaclynne.livejournal.com]

thanks

[travelingtim.livejournal.com]

In a lecture, Steve Barnes said "The size of the orgasm is directly proportional to the amount of Ego discharged."

It is unfortunate that in our "puritan" founded society that we see mostly the darker side of sex. Hollywood shows sex instead of love and sex as power over people. Too often the words "I love you" mean "You had better love me" and this whole societal thing that men can't say no to sex and women are suppose to say no to sex turns what could be a beautiful cooperative live changing experience into a game with a winner and a looser. Men become predators looking for women they can take "love" from rather then seeking an equal partner who will give and take pleasure willingly. And this wonderful gift, one of the three positive proofs of a loving divine force in the universe, becomes tainted by guilt. The joy of intimacy becomes replaced with a lesser "joy" of conquest or the tragedy of defeat.

What a shame since this is the power that brings new life into this world, the power to combine people in a way that is as close to the divine union as we can achieve in the flesh, and one of the most powerful ways to raise energy I know of.

If you are comfortable with it, I'd love to be added to the sex-filter.

[sabrinamari.livejournal.com]

I will add you, Tim.

[sligoe.livejournal.com]

Sex became dark and shameful so long ago that we hve forgotten that it was given to us for our delight. The Bible says that we are not supposed to have sex outside of marriage, but it never said that it was an ugly or dark entity. The proscriptions like that came when church fathers decided that they needed to control their people by telling them what God did or did not say about sex----meaning what the church fathers did or did not say about sex. It permeates every society on the earth today, in one way or another. Men have control over women in certain countries because they have control over their sexuality, and I honestly believe that is exactly what happens to many women in our own society today----kept "barefoot and pregnant" they can't run away and the "man" who has them kept in such a condition is never alone.

Sounds like sour grapes? Maybe a little. I've seen to much of this---heard too much from others---to believe that we have the true egalitarian society that we think we do. I've been held back from educational opportunities, blamed for making more money than my husband, taunted because I wasn't as "educated"{ as other men were, and down and out told that because I was female, I was naturally inferior. Sex has been used as a weapon, a tool, a manipulator and many other things for millennia. We need to really spread the word that it is a wonderful, delightful, joyous way to connect to those we love----and it should always be considered such.

Rant over---off the soapbox!

Hugs!

[flamespirit.livejournal.com]

Hope I'm on your sexuality filter...:-)

[sabrinamari.livejournal.com]

I'll add you, my dear.

[faedaughter.livejournal.com]

If you are comfortable with it I would love to be added as well. :)

[sabrinamari.livejournal.com]

yes, no problem. : )

[castalusoria.livejournal.com]

Me, too, please?

[sabrinamari.livejournal.com]

Happily! It's already done.