Patterns of Spirituality

Sexuality and Spirituality

Sexuality is a sphere of human activity that has often been taboo for spiritual seekers. Before the advent of dynamic psychology, sexual desire could not be managed well in a mature way, and so it was often avoided and repudiated. Another strategy was to leave the spiritual journey to old age when sexual desire was no longer important to the seeker.  However, since sexuality is a sphere of human activity, it needs to be understood. In modern times it is becoming necessary to examine the aspects of ourselves that we have previously denied, and so the examination of our sexuality is becoming part of new age spirituality. We need to explore what sexuality means to ourself. Because sexuality is such a confusing aspect of ourself, we can use the ideas of dynamic psychology to help us in this examination.

When the spiritual seeker decides to examine the unpleasant aspects of his sexuality, this may produce a powerful dis-orientating effect.  Since, in the past, we tried to hide from sexual unpleasantness, so when we begin to explore ourselves these unpleasant aspects come to the surface. We may feel both excited about this (we become attracted to the "forbidden ") and shocked that we are excited (it does not fit in with our image of ourselves).  The excitement is a feature of catharsis, and catharsis reverses our sense of values for a time ( "forbidden" ideas cease to be forbidden whilst the catharsis lasts).  We end up very confused about whether we are really spiritual or not (we may believe that a serious seeker should not have these sexual feelings and thoughts).

Overall, therefore, a person following a modern approach to spirituality has to face issues which were usually absent from traditional spiritual paths.  For modern times, the golden rule for exploring ourselves, and for letting our internal contradictions come to the surface for examination, is to take things slowly.  When we begin exploring ourselves then we begin to change.  But harmonious change only happens slowly (fast change may precipitate some form of confusion or trauma). Take things one step at a time. The future becomes uncertain because you cannot know where change will take you.

Copyright © 2002 Ian Heath
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