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Things We Do Not Talk About

Kripal & Hanegraaf

ix to xxii

1

Sexuality ... Hermetic & Gnostic

R. van der Broek

1 to 21

2

Mystery of Valentinian Sex

A. D. de Conick

23 to 48

3

Sexual Intercourse with Daimones

P. Lory

49 to 64

4

Eroticism ... in Mediaeval Qabbalah

E. R. Wolfson

65 to 109

5

Ta<nug : Erotic Delights

M. Idel

111 to 151

6

Liber Florum Caelestis

C. Fanger

153 to 174

7

Marsilio Ficino & Giordano Bruno

W. J. Hanegraaf

175 to 207

8

Sexuality & Gendre in ... Alchemy

L. M. Principe

209 to 229

9

Penetrating Witchcraft

A. D. Coudert

231 to 280

10

Sensuous Relation with Sophia

A. Faivre

281 to 307

11

Sex in Spiritualist Heavens

C. Gutierrez

309 to 332

12

Sexual Mysticisms in ... America

A. Versluis

333 to 354

13

Paschal B. Randolph

J. P. Deveney

355 to 367

14

Le Cle'ment de Saint-Marcq

M. Pasi

369 to 400

15

Sex Magic in the O.T.O.

H. Urban

401 to 443

16

4 Magical Groups of 20th Century

H. Th. Hakl

445 to 478

17

Erot- of Esalen

J. J. Kripal

479 to 519

Things We Do Not Talk About

J J. Kripal & W. J. Hanegraaf

ix to xxii

"truths may be considered too dangerous to be made public. ... . ... they may be concerned with secrets about "what is really going on" in history or society : here the assumption is that if the general public would discover the truth, revolts and other threats to ... the status quo could be the result."

fn. 3 : "When the secret is considered somehow dangerous, discourses on secrecy tend to take the shape of conspiracy theories. .. see Barkun, A Culture of Conspiracy."

"in the depths of human sexuality lies hidden the secret of religion, occultism, magical power, spirituality, transcendence, ... Being itself. ... We are dealing with a metaphysics of sex, itself intimately intertwined with the destiny of the soul."

"The very language of "veiling and unveiling" ... has obvious masculine ... connotations."

{Wrong! Veiling is a feminine praedilection, assisting women to feel (and appear to be) "mysterious" whenever they may be in the mood to do so -- this is a characteristically feminine mood, and that is why 'mystery' is regarded as a female trait in Taoist literature.}

Sexuality and Sexual Symbolism in Hermetic and Gnostic Thought

Roelof van der Broek

1 to 21

p. 5

[quoted from the Poimandres (CH I:16) :] "Nature [Phusis] gave birth to seven ...

p. 6 Clementine Recognitions I:29 "the first seven generations of the human race ... knew no sexual desire".

p. 6

who were androgynous and walked upright."

p. 5, n. 16

"The idea of divine androgyny derives from Egyptian mythological theology, as has been convincing argued by Daumas ... and Zandee ... 120-125."

p. 6

[quoted from Poimandres 1:17 :] "life and light ... became soul and mind;

from life, soul, from light mind, ... all ... androgynous".

[quoted from Asklepios 12 :] "For in this bodily life the pleasure one takes from possessions ... grips the soul by the throat ... : ... the malice that begrudges immortality does not allow him to get knowledge of his divine part."

{Having a material body may induce greed for material possessions (riches) : such a sin as ownership will begrudge others from sharing such possessions and thereby deprive the owner of his own immortality (salvation of the soul) by his thus acting in a way turning him against his own divine nature (and incompatible with the divine will). [This is a communistic assertion.]}

[quoted from Asklepios 21 :] "Therefore the act of this mystery, so sweet and vital, is done in secret. If it were done openly, the divinity that manifests itself in both natures from the mingling of the sexes

would be forced to feel ashamed by the laughter of the ignorant; the more so, if it were open to the sight of irreverent people."

{This would imply that persons who would not allow sexual intercourse to be performed openly in public must be considered as ignorant, irreverent blasphemers and atheists, and as impious. [That would, of course, most especially include police, magistrates, and other stooges of the government.]}

[quoted from NHC VI, 66:1-2 :] "Therefore, people of this kind [the ignorant and irreverent] are blasphemers, atheists and impious".

"the sexual union of two lovers is a divine mystery ... because it ... leads man and woman to the experience of their original androgyny."

p. 11

"The Borborites, or Borborians, were a gnostic sect that flourished in the fourth century and reportedly survived at least up to the sixth century. ... According to Epiphanius, they were influenced by the teachings of another sect, that of the Nicolaitans, who are discussed in Panarion, 25, and whose founder Nicolaus is said to have taught : "Unless one copulates every day, one cannot have eternal life." [Panarion 25:1:6] ...

The so-called Anacephaleiosis, a very short epitome of the Panarion ... suggests ... : "Yet others call them Borborites. These people take pride in Barbelo,

p. 12

who is also called Barbero." [Anakephaleiosis 26]

Therefore, another form of the name Barbelites ... may have been Barberites, and that could have led to the nickname Borborites." ["filthy people" (p. 11)]

p. 12

[quoted from Panarion 26:4:5-7] "after making love in a state of fornication {temporary marriage, as celebrated now-a-days in Iran?}, the woman and the man

receive the male emission in their own hands.

{"the Siddhas or Viras ... were able to offer the Yoginis ... their semen (virya)" (KY, p. 10).}

And they stand with their eyes raised heavenwards ... and of course they pray -- the ones called Stratiotics and Gnostics -- and offer that stuff in their hands ... and say,

{With his eyen, Atri impraegnated the goddesses of "the eight directions" (according to the Padma Puran.a -- "BhM").} {Goddess Svaha "swallowed" (ID-H, p. 200) that which emanated from the eyen of Atri.}

"We offer unto you this gift ... ."

{It is a mutual exchanging of gifts, for in return for this gift to heaven, mortals in turn receive a gift from heaven : "The free gift of God [/dosi-theos/] is aeternal life".}

And then they eat it ..., and they say : "This is the body ... and this is the Passover, because of which our bodies suffer (paskhei) ... ."

p. 12 "Following a common Christian interpretation, they connected the Hebrew word Pascha (Passover) with the Greek verb paskhein, "to suffer"".

p. 13

[quoted from Panarion 26:4:8-26:5:1] "They likewise take the ... menstrual blood they gather from her, and eat it in common. ...

{"It was therefore necessary that male practitioners be ... "insanguinated," with the ... menstrual discharge of the Yogini -- ... "drinking female discharge" (rajapana)" (KY, p. 11).}

And thus when they read in apocryphal writings : "I saw a tree bearing fruit twelve times a year, and he said to me, 'This is the tree of life,'"

{This is from (22:2) a book not usually regarded as "apocryphal", namely the Apokalupsis of Ioannes Theologos, which book Epiphanios evidently regarded as unorthodox.}

they interpret this allegorically of the woman's monthly emissions."

{The menstrual flow would match monthly fruit-juice (where fruit = womb), whereas the Bartholin-glands' secretion would better match the "pure river of water of life" (AITh 22:1) on the banks whereof (22:2) that tree-of-life groweth.}

[Borborians :] "they have a sign that men give women and women give men : when the hand is held out, in greeting of course, a tickling stroke is made in the palm of the hand, so as to indicate secretly" a sexual intent.

{This is as of yet still widely done in the modern United States of America as a secret sign of inviting to adultery.}

[quoted from Pistis Sophia 147 :] "there are some upon the earth who take the male semen and female menstrual blood and make a dish of lentils and eat it, saying : "We believe in Esau and Jacob."" {Likewise, according to Diogenes Lae:rtios, 7:3, the Kunic philosopher Krates of Thebai required his disciple to carry lentil soup; and in Athenaios, 4:157, Kunics in general praefer lentil soup.}

{/<adas/ is both 'lentil' and 'braying by mule' (LA-L 3:119a) : perhaps the braying is an allusion to the Musian Thraikian myth (Ovidius : Fasti 1:391 sq -- "LNN") of the occasion of the waking of goddess Lotis when she was about to be sexually violated during her sleep by god Priapos. Besides the "drops of blood" (Ovidius : Metamorphoses 9:334 sq -- "LNN") of Lotis herself (perhaps suggesting that she was menstruating when she was sought to be sexually violated by Priapos -- cf. advocacy by some Tantra-s of sexual intercourse of menstruating women with men), the blood might also be explicated by an etymology deriving the country-name />DoM/ from /DaM/ 'blood'}.

Conceiving Spirits : the Mystery of Valentinian Sex

April D. de Conick

23 to 48

p. 28

"spiritual seeds are said to be

the marrow" of the soul." [Exc. Theod. 52-3]

{"even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow" (Epistole to the Hebraioi 4:12 http://bible.cc/hebrews/4-12.htm )}

"the spiritual seed was also described as the "divine" dimension of the soul in contrast to the "material" or hylic dimension. The hylic dimension of the soul was considered a "tare" that ... eventually needed to be pulled out."

p. 31

"the Valentinians teach that the pneumatics are "saved" by their nature. ... . ... the Valentinians ... say that the psychics are saved though piety and good works. ...

p. 32

In the case of the hylics ..., ... their spiritual seeds withered and died among the "tares.""

p. 33

"the Valentinians ... believed that the human soul consists of three substances : a pneumatic seed ... and a demonic seed that infused the psychic substance." [Exc. Theod. 55:1]

"according to the Valentinians, the three natures were produced by Adam :"

the __ one

by his son __

of __ persons

irrational

Qayin

hulikoi

rational

Hebel

psukhikoi

spiritual

S^et

pneumatikoi

p. 35

"when Paul described the nature of "the conjugal union in this life," the Valentinians, according to Irenaeus, believed that he understood these conjugal unions to be ... the conjunctions within the Pleroma." [Iren. Adv. haer. 1:8:4]

This idea is repeated by Irenaeus later [Iren. Adv. haer. 1:21:3], when he ... writes that some

Valentinians ... participate in "spiritual" marriages after "the likeness of the conjunctions above. Clement ... applauds the Valentinians because they "take delight in marriage" for the reason that marriage is the syzygy brought down from the "divine emanations above.""

{This "as above, so below" (Emerald Tablet) attitude of ritually assimilating mortal's earthly activities to the immortals' heavenly activities is paralleled in Vajra-yana, where the divine marriages in the divine worlds are ritually imitated in human marriages.}

p. 36

"The Carpocratians ... participated in licentious sexual acts because they believed that by doing so they were imitating the primordial powers who had [sexual] intercourse with each other in order to create the universe." (Strom. 3:29)

[Howbeit, in accordance with "Clement's dependence on Stoic teachings for his view of marriage" (p. 36, fn. 67),]

p. 36

"A man who marries for the sake of begetting children must practice self-control so that it is not lust that he feels for his wife" (Strom. 3:58).

{Sexual intercourse would be performed "for procreation" by the man's ejaculating his semen into the woman's vagina; whereas to perform other than for procreation could involve the man's ejaculating his semen into the woman's mouth instead. The latter may have been what the Karpokratians advocated.}

"Valentinians ... describe aeonic procreation in terms of ... the object of their thoughts during the procreative moment determines the nature of the beings that they generate. For instance, Sophia's focus on ... the Father resulted in an amorphous nasty miscarriage. Sophia's focus on the beauty of ... attendant angels resulted in the production of spirit beings that were reflections of the angels."

"There were a few authorities who thought that the mother actually provided seed from her own "testicles" and that it contributed to the formation of the child." [Nature of the Child 4:1; On Generation 4]

{These female "testicles" are now called "ovaries"; the female "seed" is now called "ovum".}

p. 40

"the Valentinians believe themselves "to be perfect," ... because they possess "grace" which has "descended from above by means of unspeakable and indescribable [sexual] intercourse." Thus the Valentinians maintain that "in every way it is always necessary for them to practice the mystery of [sexual] intercourse.""

p. 41

"the Gospel of Philip identifies the "mystery" of marriage with procreation".

"The Gospel of Philip states that ... during sexual intercourse the thoughts of the couple must not be adulterous, focusing on another lover. For if this is ... to happen, the child conceived will resemble the lover rather than the spouse : "The children a woman bears resemble the man who loves her."" [78:14]

{This could happen through the thought's attracting the guardian-angel of the lover, which guardian-angel would thereupon bring, to implant in the embryo, a soul of the character-type and/or physical-type of the lover.}

"In the Valentinian texts we do not encounter anything reminiscent of Augustine's ... idea that sex[ual relations] should ideally be no more than a handshake."

{This Augustinian stricture is likewise advocated in the Hinayana Abhidharma.}

p. 44

"all souls ... existed prior to their assignment to individual bodies." [fn. 104 : Origenes, De Princ. 1:8:3-4, 2:9:2, 3:4:1; Dindumos the Blind, Comm. In Iob. 3:3-5; Leo, ep. 15:10; Victorinus, In Eph. 1:4]

This Valentinians held to this ... view : the psychic and the pneumatic ... were pre-existent and, in fact, pre-cosmic."

[quoted from Clement of Alexandria : Ecl. 50:1-3] "For the soul enters the womb ... and is introduced [into the womb] by one of those angels provided to oversee birth, who know in advance the time of conception".

p. 45

"After the semen has been ejaculated into the womb, the angels then deposit the soul at the moment of conception."

p. 45

"At the Eschaton, when the Pleroma would open up as the fantastic Bridal Chamber, a great communal wedding ... at which all the saved souls would be transformed into

p. 46

perfected bodies. ... Their souls would be worn as glorious "wedding garments."

{That souls are worn as garments is a doctrine of the Manda< of Iran/<iraq.}

These garments would then be stripped off and left at the door of the Pleromic bedroom, so that the brides and grooms could enter the nuptial chamber naked ..., an idea which Tertullian attributes to Valentinus himself." (Adv. Val. 32)