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Sexuality and Spirituality – the most twisted duo of our mind?

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When you look at the profile picture, what comes to your mind? Look again, with sense of humor and some fantasy…some more fantasy. I know what you think. Shame on you! This is Shiva and Shakti – we are talking about Gods. Kidding, you were right, it is both.

This picture is among the primeval depictions of God Shiva and Goddess Shakti – the sacred union. In this version the God Shiva is called Lingam. Just like the God Shiva, it is personification of the primordial cosmic energy. Visually, it is a phallus plunged into disc-like structure called Yoni – the Goddess Shakti. He symbolizes the spirit, reasoning and the penetrating nature of the consciousness. Yoni (Shakti) on the other hand, is pretty much female genitals. She represents the personification of feminine aspects of the God Shiva.

Read about Yayoi Kusama’s overly sexual art and how her uncontrollable energies took her on this journey.

A key in a lock may be a sexual symbol—but not invariably.... The door ... intended to symbolize hope, the lock to symbolize charity, and the key to symbolize the desire for God. Source: Man and his symbols, C.G.Jung Photo: Internet
A key in a lock may be a sexual symbol—but not invariably…. The door intended to symbolize hope, the lock to symbolize charity, and the key to symbolize the desire for God. Source: Man and his symbols, C.G.Jung Photo: Internet

Isn’t it weird? Maybe yes, maybe no. It turns out that sexual intercourse and sacred union are two sides of the same coin in the depth of our mind. Anything sexual has some theological meaning to it. For example, sexuality in dreams and moral doctrines doesn’t mean psychical sexuality, rather signifies reaching high spirituality.

The main challenge yet the ultimate bliss for us in the first half of life is sexuality and lustful love. In this period, sex translates as the holistic experience of our creative power. In other words, making babies – no matter how much we try to avoid it. The source of the most blissful pleasure is just the trap of the nature to keep our specie going. That’s why phallus symbolizes energy of universe, change and creation through destruction.

Sex as symbol of sacred union

On the contrary, when we’ve hit the zenith of our lives and proceed towards the death, the lure ahead is not phallus any more. It is the death. With all its daunting nature, the death is the promise of the eternal bliss. That’s why in the second half of life the meaning of these symbols reverse. They don’t mean penetration and creation any more. This is the period many people become religious. It expresses desire for union with divinity. In other words, need for spiritual growth and elevation of the spirit towards the sacred union of the polar opposites. More precisely, integration of our internal feminine and masculine aspects.  Alchemy calls this process the Sacred Marriage. So, The God Shiva and the Goddess Shakti are representations of celestial experience of sacred union of opposites.

Read about the Great Hermaphrodite a la Gucci, the feminine and masculine aspects are really confusing but quite eye-opening.

Learning to channel the life energy through this cycle is challenge for each of us. If one fails, this energy takes a regressive and destructive form. That is when many people suffer mid-life crisis, find life meaningless and entertain the idea of suicide.

Read about Yayoi Kusama’s overly sexual art and how she was affected by regressive nature of the life energy.

Other related articles:
Symbols of sexuality – 1. The cup and the spoon
Symbols of sexuality – 2. The Deer Hunt
Symbols of sexuality – 3. The ax and the door

Symbols of sexuality – 3. The ax and the door

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I got carried away for a couple of days. In the midst of travels, the intolerable summer heat and some new project ideas, I even do not know what I am doing these days. But now I am back at it, our symbols of sexuality. I’ve promised to post four articles, each featuring a variation of the symbols of sexuality.

Here comes the third symbol – The ax and the door – more specifically, the act of breaking a door with an ax. By now, I guess there is no need to say which one is which, right? The ax obviously is phallic.

The reason I’ve picked this symbols among zillion other symbols is its nature. It is violent, is not like the “traditional” cup-spoon or that romantic deer hunt. It talks about a sexual act or sexual urges that are quite violent. All I am saying is if this symbol happens in your dreams, better to stop and reflect – why so much aggressiveness? From where it comes and why? What I’ve locked in the dark maze of memory? Most importantly, what should come to light from the depth of dark wells so that they do not roar so loudly. I guess, I’ll stop here before it gets complicated.

Heads up – the fourth article will be little different. Until now, we’ve looked at only one side of the coin – the sexuality aspect of these symbols. In the last post we’ll see the other side of the coin – the theological twist (you probably wonder from where to where, huh?) – stay tuned!

Other symbols of sexuality – click to decipher them:
The cup and the spoon
The deer hunt

Symbols of sexuality – 2. Deer hunt

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Here comes the second most classic symbol of sexuality – the Deer Hunt.

Heads up to everybody! From now on when you see a hunting scene, especially in the artworks from middle ages (especially, miniature paintings), do not be fooled. Many times it is not really about a hunting scene. Well, not in a sense that we generally understand it. It actually talks about the intercourse! Well, you can call it a different kind of hunting.

The subtle difference of this symbol is in its reference to qualities rather than an action – a hunter obviously stands for the male principle, which conquers the female principle in the form of a deer. The deer here symbolizes the feminine grace and shyness.

Click to decipher another symbols of sexuality
The cup and the spoon
The ax and the door

To put it in another way, this variation has more romantic air than the first one. While the cup-spoon makes direct reference to the act, this one talks more about feelings and emotions.

In fact, I ca’t get rid of my prejudice about this expression. In my native language there is a “teenagerish” expression that is a perfect sample (Jeyran ovuna cixmag). I shivered out of disgust every time I heard it. I literally hated that expression and found it very low. During my studies I was astonished to find out that this “lowness” was in fact a universal and classic symbol. I can’t say I like it now. Yet this was one of the very first things that made me wonder more about the dark alleys of our psyche and look for more similarities in the unconscious images and expressions.

Click to decipher another symbols of sexuality
The cup and the spoon
The ax and the door

Symbols of sexuality – 1. Cup and spoon

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The topic of this week is the Symbols of sexuality. During the week I’ll publish four very short, kind of fun posts, each dedicated to one symbol. The first symbol will be the Cup and spoon. I am most definitely not the one to pick this example as it comes from Russian and I don’t speak it well. But I assure you I understand this example quite well.

The Cup and Spoon is one of the classic symbols of sexual act. This is a common expression in spoken Russian and refers to a “romance with probable sexuality involved”. When one thinks hard about its meaning, it may not even come to mind. But this “folk” metaphor definitely pops up in casual talks (definitely in Russian). If it occurs in dreams, it has the same meaning. Because metaphoric expressions in our spoken language and dreams originate in the same “land”.

Click to decipher another symbols of sexuality
The deer hunt
The ax and the door

Now, back to the Chashka-Lojka (cup-spoon) – now wondering why this kind of cheesy expression has a sexual connotation? Funny enough, here is a very short answer – any object that is sharp and can penetrate obtains phallic nature in our psyche.  Any object that is affected by penetration or is recipient symbolizes female genital organs.

Here we’ve solved the mystery of Chashka-Lojka (cup and spoon) – the symbol of sexual act with the Chashka taking up a feminine and the lojka a masculine nature.

Click to decipher another symbols of sexuality
The deer hunt
The ax and the door