Sex And Spirit

This lavishly visual book traces sexuality throughout history. Drawing on a range of traditions and cultures, it explores the many ways human sexuality is entwined with the personal search for meaning. Features erotic carvings, bedchamber books, and photos of sexual practices. 160 color illustrations.

Human love relationships are one of the most fertile grounds for growth and transformation. Also fraught with difficulty, frustration and pain, they dramatize for us our projections, addictions and wounds. Yet conscious use of relationships can be a fast track to spiritual and psychological transformation. In The Marriage of Sex and Spirit, thirty five of the most provocative and fresh voices of our generation give us the keys to transforming relationships from a source of grief and bondage to a celebration of self and other. Drawing together the most powerful wisdom of spiritual teachers, psychiatrists, anthropologists, educators, therapists, coaches, writers, artists, this ground breaking anthology presents the visions and ideas that form the gateway to transforming both spirituality and sexuality. This powerful collection of practical techniques and breakthrough insights offers the potential to utterly transform your experience of relationships into a source of joy, inspiration and fuel for your spiritual and emotional journey.

20 transformative stories and sexual healing practices from international pioneers in the sexual shamanism movement • Reveals intimate details about how each sex shaman overcame personal struggles with heartache, jealousy, mental illness, or social shame to realize their calling as a sacred sexual healer • Includes 20 in-depth embodiment exercises such as soul gazing, contacting your spirit guides, sexual divination, energetic sex, self-pleasuring, moon blood rituals, and sacred sexual storytelling • Includes contributions from 20 diverse voices in the sexual shamanism community, all part of the mystery school ISTA: International School of Temple Arts Drawing on traditional and modern practices, a sex shaman uses the power of erotic energy as a healing medicine. They channel divine love and embrace sexuality freely, practicing polyamory, sexual healing, and even sex magic. They teach tantra, trance dance, kundalini yoga, and other techniques for healing shame, guilt, fear, and sexual trauma. Designed to guide the reader on a journey into their own sacred sexual awakening, this book shares true stories from 20 visionary pioneers in the sexual shamanism movement, all of them associated with the International School of Temple Arts (ISTA), a mystery school that works to illuminate the path of sexual shamanism and heal the split between sex and spirit, release the shame surrounding sexual awakening, and inspire more sexual liberation around the world. The teachers reveal intimate details of their life stories and sexual awakening journeys, showing how, by surrendering to the wisdom of the erotic current of the universe, transformation occurs. Each story is accompanied by an in-depth embodiment exercise with step-by-step instructions, including soul gazing, contacting your spirit guides, sexual divination, energetic sex, self-pleasuring, moon blood rituals, and sacred sexual storytelling. Underlying these exercises is the belief that the body is a temple that opens with pleasurable worship so spirit may dwell more fully within. The 20 contributors include Baba Dez Nichols, Bruce Lyon, Crystal Dawn Morris, Dawn Cherie, Deborah Taj Anapol, Ellie Wilde, Janine Ma-Ree, KamalaDevi McClure, Komala Lyra, Laurie Handlers, Lin Holmquist, Matooka Moonbear, Mia Mor, Ohad Pele Ezrahi, Patrik Olterman, Raffaello Manacorda, Ria Bloom, Sean O’Faolain, Stephanie Phillips, and Stephen SouLove.

IT'S NOT JUST SEX. IT'S NOT JUST LOVE. IT'S SOMETHING MORE.... But what could be better than sex? How about lovemaking that sweeps people into new realities, producing altered states of consciousness a thousand times more powerful than the most earth-shattering orgasm? Lovemaking so spectacular that it truly is a religious experience? Transcendent Sex is not about the "Tantric method." It is about the best-kept secret in human history: that ordinary people, with no special training, can find themselves in different spiritual realms when making love -- an experience so profound that nothing will ever be the same. It is about sex that triggers episodes identical to the highest spiritual states -- as described in the annals of shamanism, yoga, Buddhism, Christianity, Judaism, and Islam -- including visions, channeling, reliving past lives, transcending the laws of physics, and seeing the face of God. This revealing book tells of lovers who engaged in sex as usual and suddenly found the veil between the worlds torn open. Transcendent Sex, like any other spiritual awakening, changes lives. Atheists have become believers; long-standing psychological wounds have been healed; and the sexually abused have become whole. These are the inspiring, incredible true stories of people who experienced an ecstasy and fulfillment beyond the borders of this world.

"Explore new perspectives in gay men's spirituality! Coming out, Zen, sexuality, shamanism, ecology, HIV--whatever is part of gay life is explored in this dynamic collection of essays by some of our most respected spokesmen"--Page 4 of cover.