Sacred Sexuality: The Erotic Spirit in the World's Great Religions [Paperback]

A historical, cross-cultural survey of sexuality as a sacred spiritual practice

• Examines sacred sexuality in the world’s religious and mystery traditions

• Explores contemporary “sexual stress syndrome” resulting from the absence of the sacred in sexual practice

• Reveals how to find the sacred in the ordinary

This book examines the history of sexuality as a sacramental act. In spite of our culture’s recent sexual liberalizations, sexual intimacy often remains unfulfilling. Georg Feuerstein instructs that the fulfillment we long for in our sex lives can only be attained once we have explored the spiritual depths of our erotic natures.

Feuerstein delves into a wide variety of spiritual traditions--including Christianity, Judaism, goddess worship, Taoism, and Hinduism--in search of sacred truths regarding sexuality. He reveals that all of these great teachings share the hidden message that spirituality is, in essence, erotic and that sexuality is inherently spiritual. From the erotic cult of the Great Mother and the archaic ritual ofhieros gamos(sacred marriage) to the institution of sacred prostitution and the erotic spirituality practiced in the mystery traditions, Feuerstein offers a wealth of historical practices and perspectives that serve as the bases for a positive sexual spirituality suited to our contemporary needs.Georg Feuerstein, Ph.D., was the author of over thirty books, includingThe Yoga Tradition, The Philosophy of Classical Yoga, Holy Madness, Tantra: The Path of Ecstasy, andLucid Waking. He was the founder-president of the Yoga Research and Education Center (www.yrec.org).
from Chapter 3:

The following self-report shows that the feeling of love, as it thrives between young lovers, is a powerful means of slipping through the eye of the needle into the bright world of joyous communion with another person. Monica is a pretty, petite woman inlc