Product Description The first book to reveal the history of Western sexual mysticism
• Reveals the secret sexual practices that have been used since ancient Greece to achieve mystical union with God
• Details the sects and individuals who transmitted the radical sexual practices that orthodox Christianity never completely silenced
• Distinguishes between sexual magic and sexual mysticism
Beginning with the ancient Greek Mystery traditions, Gnosticism, and the practices in early Christianity, Arthur Versluis uncovers the secret line of Western sexual mysticism that, like the Tantra of the East, seeks transcendence or union with God through sexual practices. Throughout antiquity, and right into the present day, sexuality has played an important, if largely hidden, role in religious traditions and practices. This includes not only Christian but also kabbalistic and hermetic alchemical currents of sexual mysticism, many discussed together here for the first time.
In the Mystery tradition of hieros gamos (sacred marriage) and the Gnostic tradition of spiritual marriage, we see the possibility of divine union in which sexual union is the principal sign or symbol. Key to these practices is the inner or archetypal union of above and below, the intermingling of the revelatory divine world with the mundane earthly one. Versluis shows that these secret currents of sexual mysticism helped fuel the rise of the troubadours and their erotic doctrine, the esoteric teachings of Jacob Böhme in the late 16th century, the 19th-century utopian communities of John Humphrey Noyes and Thomas Lake Harris, the free love movement of the 20th century, and the modern writings of Denis de Rougemont and Alan Watts.
Customer Reviews:
Journeys to New Horizons of ThoughtOctober 7, 2008 The Secret History of Western Sexual Mysticism - Sacred Practices and Spiritual Marriage by Arthur Versluis
Destiny Books, Rochester, VT
Professor Versluis presents in this small tome a remarkable treatment of a subject seldom mentioned in the mainstream media. Within its 167 pages you are taken on a journey beginning with the ancient Greek Mystery traditions, slips into the Gnostic practices, strangely and thankfully not introducing the Essenes into the picture, but dwelling more on the aspect of gnosis itself, the direct spiritual knowledge. A side venture into early Christianity and we find ourselves fully immersed into the secret roots of Western sexual mysticism in such a way that provokes thought and conversation without resorting to the tawdry when one discusses the divine unions that are inherent in the ancient sexual practices discussed within this wonderful little book.
What I enjoyed immensely with this book is that Professor Versluis shows us in precise and deliberate pathways the patterns that criss-cross the essential spirituality of the ancients with a distinct religious history. I especially liked the fact that he brings the reader far into the near-present age of American Sexual Mysticism with introspective thoughts on Thomas Harris, Alice Stockholm, the poet H.D. and into the recent past with Denis de Rougemont, and his seminal work of 1938, Love in the Western World. And into one of my favorites - Alan Watts
What do we find after reading this book? We come to realize that sexual mysticism has incredibly deep roots that go back for thousands of years. And because of and in spite of...it is made clear to us that Christianity introduced a particular dynamic of antimysticism and antisexuality...or at least has tried to.
One of the more valuable insights I have gathered from this reading is that our perceptions of Western Sexual Mysticism are consistently oriented towards the transcendence of the self. I can no longer accept the standard path of others that sexual mysticism is not the rejection of this world as it is seen from the religious and societal fundamentalists but rather a true and pure affirmation of other worlds to us as seen through the beauty of sexual mysticism. I can now see the intertwining of the mysteries of human creativity with the mystery of self-transcendence.
I count this as one of the books to be kept in a prominent spot on my shelf of books read and valued and eventually passed on to the next seeker.
J.E. `Track' McCreary
An exciting survey packed with history and religious examination.July 14, 2008 1 out of 2 found this review helpful
From the ancient Greeks to Gnosticism and early Christianity, author Arthur Versluis uncovers Western sexual mysticism's secret roots in a survey that examines divine unions inherent in sexual practices. In combining many different elements from Kabbalism to alchemical currents, SECRET HISTORY OF WESTERN SEXUAL MYSTICISM offers up a unique set of cross-connections essential to connecting spirituality with religious history. New age collections, in particular, will find it an exciting survey packed with history and religious examination.
