The Secret History of Western Sexual Mysticism: Sacred Practices and Spiritual Marriage | 
 enlarge | Author: Arthur Versluis
Publisher: Destiny Books
Category: Book
List Price: $14.95
Buy New: $6.25
You Save: $8.70 (58%)
New (33) from $6.25
Avg. Customer Rating:  1 reviews
Sales Rank: 273799
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 176
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.6
Dimensions (in): 8.9 x 5.9 x 0.7
ISBN: 1594772126
Dewey Decimal Number: 204.2
EAN: 9781594772122
ASIN: 1594772126
Publication Date: March 25, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: great condition
|
| Similar Items:
|
| Editorial Reviews:
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 Boehme 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:
An exciting survey packed with history and religious examination. July 14, 2008
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.
Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch
|
|
|
