The Gaia Tradition
and Spiritual Sexuality

To most people in American culture today, the words "spiritual" and "sex" or "sexuality" don't go together. "Spiritual" is for church; "sex" is for bed (or the back seat, or the kitchen table, or ...). How can the highest expression of ourselves be associated with the lowest? Or, at least, so the Church would have us believe. Despite the best efforts of the "great man" religions to convince us that sex is not a good thing, though, anyone who opens her eyes -- and mind -- sees at once that there is an unbreakable link between sexuality and spirituality. All of us have, at some time or other, felt during the moment of orgasm a transcendent peace that can be called by no other name than spiritual.

The trouble is, many of the modern incarnations of the monotheist religions -- Christianity, Judaism, and Islam -- don't recognize the sacredness of sexuality. (It's interesting to note, though, that in earlier days all three of those religions were much more open to the sacredness of sex, and branches of them in which sex is held sacred survive to this day.)

Many of the older, earthier religions, however, explicitly celebrate the sacredness of sexuality. Most people have heard of Tantra, the spiritual sexuality path within Hinduism and Bhuddism; but there are others -- for example, the Chuluaqui-Quodoushka teachings derived from Native American religions. It is from these two traditions, the ecstatic teachings of Hindu Tantra and the Native American Chuluaqui-Quodoushka teachings, that the Gaia Tradition takes the bulk of its approach to spiritual sexuality.

Spirit is that sacred part of us that is most deeply us, and sexuality goes to core of that. Our bodies are not separate from our spirits; rather, they are instantiations of our spirits, "the spirit made flesh" as one current religion puts it. Our spirit lives in our lower three chakras, those defining our survival, our needs, and our wants. That spirit expresses itself through the next three chakras, with love, communication, and vision. Finally, the spirit relates to the Divine through the seventh, the crown, chakra. Our sexuality, too, finds its home in our lower three chakras, expresses itself through our next three chakras, and grants us those moments of transcendence through our crown chakra.

Sex is one of the main ways we who inhabit bodies have of connection and communication. There is, of course, the physical connection that happens when two or more people enter a sexual experience; but there is also a spiritual connection that, despite everything that organized religions have done to suppress it, makes itself abundantly clear to those who still have the ability to feel.

Sex offers us communion with those we love, at both the physical and the spiritual levels. Physically, it offers shared joy and playful times together, both of which are necessary for the growth and even the survival of love. The gift of ecstasy is one of the most precious gifts we can give -- or receive; it binds us together in ways thalt less deeply-felt experiences cannot. Spiritually, sex offers the opportunity to join with our partner(s) at a depth that cannot be achieved any other way. It strengthens intimacy, deepens the ties among us, and renews our core being, our spirit, in unique ways.

In a real sense, though, the interconnectedness between sexuality and spirituality cannot be understood by just reading and studying; we must experience it in order to truly comprehend it. Each time we experience true spiritual sexuality, our comprehension grows deeper, and our understanding more certain, that this is the way we are "wired" -- that our sexuality is unbreakably linked to our spirituality.

But why are we discussing spiritual sexuality in relation to Paganism? The beginnings of the answer lie in the fact that even though most neo-Pagan paths today do not accept sexual expression as a part of their rituals (other than in symbolic form), still it is a part of our cultural heritage as Pagans.