Transmutation of the sexual energy
by Athos A. Altomonte
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Q : In carrying out the Great Work, if an individual, during various cycles of manifestations, is able to accomplish the first and most difficult part, and by following the ‘humid path' he gets in contact ‘by attraction' with a soul that has achieved the second part of the work by following the ‘dry path', can they re-join the two flames of the Athanor by meeting sexually? And ‘fix' everything?

This is a question that I was asked and that I could only answer through intuition, since I don't have any experience on the subject. What do you think? Can a ‘Sacred' sexual act between two Divine sparks actually re-join the Great Flame?

A : I think, and don't be upset for what I am going to say, that this is an example of psycho-dramatic representation that a man/woman does of a reality that is distant and therefore incomprehensible.

The sentient being dramatizes what he doesn't understand and creates a (mental) image of it in his likeness.

This is a representation that, precisely because it is similar to himself, takes him farther away from the sphere of influence of the great natural realities. And the ‘spiritual' sphere as well is a natural reality; different from ours, sure, but this doesn't mean thinking that it doesn't ‘obey' certain Rules. On the subject of spiritual myths , I will always remember what a scholar wrote: ‘man dreams, and when his dreams are shared by many people, myths and spiritual legends are born'.

In actual fact, spirituality is an aspect of a great (for us ordinary people) ‘natural' reality, but of a different dimension that penetrates us. This substance-dimension is much subtler than our ‘slower' material reality, which we call divine. We don't see that the same reality that we consider ‘distant', because we don't have ‘conscience' of it, permeates us and it somehow animates us.

A ‘sacred' sexual act? I don't think so. But the ‘substance' of the mechanical action can be ‘elevated' by permeating it with a feeling of deep love. In my opinion this is the act of transmutation produced by spiritual Alchemy, which is different from ‘physical chimìa' (passions) moved by hormones (see Alchemy of a deep Love ).

Through deep love, the other person is not a mere object of desire and satisfaction, but he/she is sublimated and goes back to the subtleness of the idea that moves the feeling of altruistic generosity and transpersonal dedication. In other words, the person who ‘lives' for the happiness of the other. If the feeling is reciprocated, the idea doubles in masculine and feminine, manifesting the Unity from which they can both be illuminated on the physical plane as well.

In other words: the energy of the physical-animal nature (manifested action) through deep love (transpersonal feeling) is transmuted into the subtle energy of the Idea that generates this feeling (equation: idea = feeling = manifested action = expression of the idea ). In this case, the ‘sacred' can be the Idea of deep love that joins two souls in a unique will and destiny. The parable of this renewed unity, if it is not subjected to personal egoisms and incomprehension, hugely overwhelms the mere mechanical act that passes and disappears without leaving any trace. Whilst the Idea that moves the sense of deep love (which must be defined) is, for us ordinary people, immortal. The Idea or aspect existed in itself before we discovered it as such and it remains as such even when we detach from it to chase the sense (Maya) of our ‘reasons'.

Q: I think I grasped the sense of the answer; I have only one doubt left: when you say ‘…manifesting on the physical plane as well the Unity from which they can both be illuminated…', do you mean that a man and a woman, through the sublimation of a deep Love, can reach on this plane as well a Unity that is a source of illumination for both, or that for a man and a woman the achievement of this Unity is the objective through which ‘one returns'?

A: I think that the exoteric aspect of the subject can be recognized in the mutual attempt through Tantra Yoga. Unfortunately it is a Yoga (Unity) which is not well understood but in its profane ‘sexual gestures', so that it is used to sublimate the meeting of two beings through the pleasure of senses and not their spiritual unity through the ‘energies that moves the senses'.

The tantric Man and Woman are not two people who copulate in an extravagant manner. They are the allegory of the two energies, so called feminine and masculine (Yin and Yang), which, starting from the Divine (manifested) up to the human, make the ‘different planes of manifestation'. The latter can be summed up in aspects, of which one is the higher spiral of the other.

For example: physical-energetic, emotional-passional, reasonable-intelligent, intuitive-empathic, empathic-spiritual. It is important to remember that genres can't be combined in any other way. Likewise it is not possible to reach spirituality starting exclusively from reason.

I don't think that I can deal with such a weighty subject in a short answer.

However, I will gladly summarize the two operative aspects of this topic.

In order to evolve, man must recognize the feminine inside himself and develop it. As for the woman, she must discover and develop her own masculine. Masculine and feminine, though, don't have anything to do with genitals (like some people think) but they are ‘states of conscience'; we could say that the former has an analytical and expressive tendency, whilst the latter is more receptive and sensitive. Certainly, this concept expressed in a few words can be ‘maliciously' misunderstood.

The consequence is that in the initiatory couple a man allows his partner to recognize the masculine through himself. Whilst the woman reveals to man the mysteries of femininity through herself. Therefore this is a different marriage, made of knowledge rather than senses. Sex in itself has another goal, which we will not deal with at this time. Tantric love, like alchemic love (marriage), is a sum of different energies which are not appeased or driven out, because this work is not moral but initiatory. To join feminine with masculine means to originate a ‘spiral' that marks the start of a ‘transmuting' process called metamorphosis, or metallic transmutation (depending on which language we use).

The spiral ‘elevates the tone' (inner sound) of the many fragments of diversity that separate physical from hyper-physical conscience, ‘attracting them' in a unique complement called conscience.

Here we are focusing on another relevant concept. Indeed, ‘to be conscious' means to understand; to understand means to know and to know means to cognize. Therefore the initiate cognizes that cognition is a state of conscience and not a sum of notions learnt by heart.

This method is the bearing axis of the inner work.

Q: ... furthermore, I would like to add that the experience of the couple in the recognition of their masculine and feminine divinity is also the experience of an overpowering spiritual love.

A: Sure, but we must consider how difficult it generally is to distinguish the ‘vibration' (ecstasy) of ‘profane' (sensual) love from the emotional, intellectual and beyond.

No kind of vibration, though, must be mortified (moral intervention) because each of them plays an irreplaceable ‘role'. If the ‘role' is expressed correctly, it would be against nature to humiliate it, repress it or demonize it.

As Jungian psychoanalysis (and not only that) states, moral repression (censorship) of ‘natural functions' ends up producing obsessive personalities driven by substantial mental disorder. On this subject, history shows profusely the fatal effects of certain repressions, especially among ordinary religious people.

The reason is that one thing is to ‘sublimate the idea' (the energy that moves the idea); another is to repress (castration) its natural unwinding.

An advanced mind is ‘educated' to address its energies at its best, including sexual ones. So much that the energy (physical generator) of Libido elevates up to becoming creative energy (propeller) for the higher psyche (in Sanskrit called Manas).

Therefore I will leave it to common sense to draw the conclusions of this distinction.