Sexual Mysteries
Sexual Mysteries 2
Sex and Science
Sexy Spiritual Christians
From the Zadok priests of ancient Israel to the Knights Templar, and from the Freemasons to the Rosicrucians, all employed symbols representing the union of opposites, and the balanced equilibrium of male and female force. A brief overview of the symbols used by these groups should reveal a striking consistency of fundamental outlook
The �X� Symbol of the Zadok Priests: The X worn on the forehead of the Zadok priests of the Temple of Solomon was symbolic of the union of the chalice and the blade. The chalice, as receptacle, was a female symbol. The blade, as phallus, was a male symbol. Even the Temple of Solomon itself was a cabalistic symbol, its pillars of Jachin and Boaz representing the equilibrium of creative force and destructive force.
The Seal of Solomon: The Seal of Solomon represented much the same thing as the Temple of Solomon: an equilibrium and intertwining of opposites, in this case light and darkness, or spirit and matter. Spirit is associated with the masculine principle, matter with the feminine.
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Why would Christ tell his disciples to make the male like the female and the female like the male, so that the male wouldn�t be male, nor the female female? And how were his disciples to accomplish this feat, this blending and union of male and female? The answer: sacred sex. In what more direct manner could man or woman experience the essence of their counterpart and achieve (if only briefly) union with it? Modern readers are undoubtedly familiar with this concept as it applies to Tantra and Western sex magic, but believe it or not, it constituted part of many traditions that pre-dated Christ. Many examples could be cited, but the tradition closest to Christ and with which he would have been most familiar was orthodox Judaism itself. The Zohar says, �The Holy One... does not choose to dwell where the male and female are not united.� And elsewhere, even more specifically, it states:
�The King (God) seeks only that which corresponds to Him. Therefore, the Holy One, blessed he be, dwells in him who (like Him) is one. When man, in perfect holiness, realizes the One, He is in that one. And when is that man called one? When man and woman are joined together sexually
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The Jewish mystics of Sabbatism practiced a �messianic mystery of awakening� which for them was akin to the Great Work of alchemy. For them, woman was �a door of God, through which one enters into God.� The coming of the Messiah, they believed, happened on a purely personal rather than collective level, and could be occasioned via sexual union. Salvation was not some external condition granted by a savior, but occurred only through a direct experience of God based on personal Gnosis. Sabbatists believed that direct knowledge of God exempted them from strict adherence to Mosaic law. It was precisely such an attitude on the part of Christ which led to his eventual downfall. Personal Gnosis could be gained only through sex, the union with man�s �other half�, woman. Sabbatist Jakob Frank said that �all the Hebrews are in great ill luck because they are waiting for the coming of the Savior and not the Woman.�
The words of Christ from The Gospel of Thomas are completely resonant with those of Jakob Frank, Hermes, Plato, and that which is found in The Zohar. In fact, all these seem to constitute a single doctrine, existing on a continuum. In the West we find their echoes in alchemy; in the East, Tantra. And wherever such ideas are to be found, we find also the figure of the Hermaphrodite, often as God. The androgyne of alchemy is well-known, as is the cabalistic figure of Adam Kadmon. In India, we find the Tantric God Hari-Hara: half Vishnu and half Siva. Hari is a Hindu name for the Sun; Hara is a feminine version of Hari. This figure, in one guise or another, recurs in many cultures. But where did the archetype originate? Seemingly, it came from what is generally believed to be the dawn of monotheism.
In 1353 B.C., Amenhotep IV became Pharaoh of Egypt. Soon after ascending to the throne, he ended a 1,700 year tradition of worshipping many gods, and instituted a new era in which one universal God would replace them: the sun god Aten. He changed his name to Akhenaten, meaning �Servant of Aten�, and proclaimed himself as a living manifestation of God on Earth, the son of the Sun. He closed the temples at Egypt�s religious center of Thebes, and shifted the nation�s spiritual focus to the Temple of the Sun at Karnak. He and his Queen Nefertiti presided over outdoor sun worship at sunrise, noon, and sunset. By doing away with hundreds of gods (and the priests who presided over them), he cleared the way for a more direct experience of the one universal God whom he proclaimed. And in so doing, he also set the stage for the acceptance of his own role as the representative of that God, a living divinity on Earth.
The principle of Aten went beyond mere sun worship, such as the later manifestations of Sol Invictus and Mithras. For the Egyptians, and Akhenaten, Aten was the all-encompassing principle of creation itself, and was both masculine and feminine. As a result, this concept is reflected in statues of Akhenaten, where he is depicted as a Hermaphrodite, sporting a beard, but with breasts and wide hips. This is interesting on two counts. First, and most obviously, this would appear to be the earliest known example in which a Hermaphrodite is used to symbolize God as a union of masculine and feminine symbols. Secondly, and perhaps more significantly, it begs the question: How is it that such an esoteric concept and symbol could survive Akhenaten�s short reign to re-emerge repeatedly in diverse cultures across the globe? After all, Akhenaten only ruled for a mere seventeen years, some 3,350 years ago. After his reign, the Egyptians were anxious to return to the worship of their old gods, and were eager to forget about both he and Aten.
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Glimpses of this understanding can be seen in the primary principles behind alchemy, the cabala, Eastern Tantra, and Western sex magic. It represents an ongoing thread that weaves its way through esoteric traditions in both the East and the West. We see it encoded in the dominant religious symbolism of cultures across the globe, virtually hidden in plain sight. Throughout the centuries, it has been a Royal Secret known only to the elite of any given epoch. From the rulers of ancient Egypt to the rulers of ancient Europe, and from the architects of the Renaissance to the founding fathers of the United States, this Gnosis has constituted the central axis around which their world view was ordered. It has remained a jealously guarded secret, its custodians recognizing that its wisdom was intended only for an elect few capable of inwardly grasping its full purport. For all lesser men, incapable of either fully understanding or judiciously applying the doctrine, it was destined to be at best confusing, at worst ruinous. As far as is known, this Royal Secret was only ever proclaimed publicly for a short period of time during the reign of Akhenaten (some seventeen years beginning in 1353 B.C.) It proved disastrous, and perhaps taught subsequent bearers of the secret that esoteric doctrine as exoteric public policy (or state religion) was simply untenable. Consequently, the doctrine was veiled in the esoteric language of symbol, folklore, and the mythical archetype of the primordial Hermaphrodite. In these various guises, the Royal Secret has weathered the centuries, surviving all manner of suppression, persecution, and inquisition. As library after library of ancient wisdom was consigned to the flames by various orthodoxies, the sacred Gnosis was never vanquished. And for those with the ability to peer beyond the veil of myth and symbol, it remains their unique inheritance.
Continue to PART Three God is Bisexual - Hermaphroditic