Cosmic Sexuality
The Hindu sages that coded the Hindu thought in the 4th and 5th centuries C.E. (Current era) recognized that denial and emotional starvation were a poor foundation on which to build spirituality. They emphasized that sex was to be enjoyed as part of the infinite joining of male and female forces. Classic yoga as formulated by Hindu sages included in its techniques of meditation special sexual ecstasy meditation. They found that sex could also be used to further consciousness. Several special sects developed dedicated wholly to the philosophy of using sexuality for attainment of nirvana. Thus historical Tantra was born.
The focus of Tantra is ecstasy. Tantra pictures the world as a sex act… THE SEX ACT OF UNIVERSAL CREATION. This is not a momentary creation (pictured in the Christian bible) but a continuing, omnipresent, dynamic energy flow as long as our sun lasts. Tantrics think of this energy flow in terms of male and female energies in constant interaction creating, maintaining and destroying the universes.
Tantrics celebrate the union of male and female energies at every conceivable level of thought and action.
This union is celebrated as raw primal energy from which the universe is manifest, as elementary bionomic combinations building to encompass every life system on the planet from amoeba to humanoid. This same creative energy is responsible for and encompasses both universal and human consciousness.
Tantra views the universe…our world, as a combination of positive and negative energy. The positive energy can be thought of as male, electrical energy, Yang, creative essence, reality, symbolized by the god concept Shiva. The negative energy can be thought of as feminine, magnetic energy, matter, Yin, manifesting principle, illusion, symbolized by the goddess Shakti.
These two forces are in constant union, dancing into existence by their combinations, the planets, stars, the worlds and all that abide in them. Shiva is the inactive principle, surging energy unmanifest; while Shakti takes that energy and manifests all forms, creating and evolving matter in all is myriad of forms. She is the eternal Mother Goddess worshiped by humankind since time immemorial. From her loins spring the earth and the sea, and so life itself, evolving, changing, manifesting one form after another in continuous experiment.
But all forms, though manifested by the Eternal Mother, partake of both parents and are a combination of electric energy and magnetic energy fused. A combination of polarities, the positive -electrical quality, such as the perennial energy of the sun and the negative-magnetic-receptive -drawing quality exemplified by the moon and earth, make up all things. The entire universe, from the smallest atomic particle to a person or planet is built on the interlocking of these two energies. The magnetic side pulls and absorbs energy and retains it for Action. When it comes into contact with the positive side, a reaction occurs and force is generated. It is this process which rotates electrons around the atom’s nucleus and planets around their suns.
Our human bodies are divided into halves; the right side is electric and the left magnetic. The element that dominates the total system determines sex, but the other factors affecting polarity can influence sexual preference. Bi-sexuality is an old concept in the Tantras. What western psychologists have recently surmised, Tantrics have know for several thousands years. There is an ancient statue of Shiva as half man and half woman. One side is depicted, as male with male genitalia and the other side is female with feminine characteristics. The statue illustrates the concept of bi-sexuality/bi-polarity, but also strikes an additional cord. The statue represents completion. It is neither male nor female but completeness, a union of male and female principles. Shakti is not just Shiva’s consort but the other half of a whole. Joined they represent Cosmic Sexuality, balance and realization and the oneness of all.
Tantra believes that each person should strive to realize a union of the two primal forces within themselves. These forces flow constantly around us and within us, for they are the building blocks of everything that exists. To deny half of oneself is to be half a person. The male should freely exhibit “female traits” and the female should freely exhibit “male Traits”. Such “traits” are largely cultural but polarities underlying them are universal. The female should strive to integrate the positive energies within her self and be more whole. The male should strive to integrate the negative energies within himself and be more whole. Each should begin to experience the union of polarities ;the union of the two forces that creates our world.