Temple of Love

62. At all my meetings with you shall the priestess say -- and her eyes shall burn with desire as she stands bare and rejoicing in my secret temple -- To me! To me! calling forth the flame of the hearts of all in her love-chant. -- Aleister Crowley, The Book of the Law

Sexuality is a Divine Gift. It is a Sacrament when shared with appropriate intent. We have been taught to divorce sexuality from sacredness. We have been told that in order to rise to spiritual perfection we must mortify the flesh tossing away the sandbags of carnality.

Dysfunction is love, sex and relationship rests in our culture's divorcement of sexuality from spirituality. The ancients knew better. In Sumeria (and later in Babylon), they celebrated the sacred marriage rite of their Queen as living embodiment of the Goddess Inanna and the King as living representative of the God Dumuzi. This rite of ritualized sexual intercourse is lovingly preserved in "The Joy of Sumer" which reads "He lies down beside her on the bed. Tenderly he caresses her, murmuring words of love: 'O my holy jewel! O my wondrous Inanna!' After he enters her holy vulva, causing the queen to rejoice, after he enters her holy vulva causing Inanna to rejoice, Inanna holds him to her and murmurs, 'O Dumuzi, you are truly my love.'"

The "Song of Songs" was not a metaphor but a cultural remnant celebrating the Divine nature of the love of two human beings. It is through the simple and human act of lovemaking that we come closest to the Divine while also becoming most fully human. The second verse of the first chapter reads, "I want your lips to give me many kisses. Your love is better than wine."

The lovemaking of Queen as Goddess and King as God cause the entire community to celebrate both in Inanna's hymn and Solomon's Song. The latter reads reads "Who is this that cometh out of the wilderness like pillars of smoke, perfumed with myrhh and frankincense, with all powders of the merchant?" In the former, it says that "The people bring food offerings and bowls. They burn juniper resin, perform laving rites, and pile up sweet-smelling incense."

To paraphrase Bishop Sheen, life isn't merely worth living, it's worth celebrating! And no aspect of life calls us to celebration more than love.