s.e.x=The Unknown Quant.i.ty.
by Ali Nomad.
FOREWORD
TO OUR READERS:
We feel justified in claiming this work marks an epoch in the advanced thought of human evolution. Nothing has ever been written dealing with the problem of s.e.x which is at once so illuminating, convincing and satisfying. To our knowledge this particular view of the s.e.x-subject has never before been presented, and, perhaps it could not have been, owing to the fact that it is only _now_ in these days of higher thought, that such a view could be understood.
The author, Ali Nomad, is already well known to progressive readers as the writer of "Cosmic Consciousness," or, "The Man-G.o.d Whom We Await;"
a work that has made its author famous by the reprint of its many editions.
There are signs of a new order in the relation of the s.e.xes already indicated upon the horizon of the World"s consciousness as the result of the present world-conflict. _Today people are as ignorant of the subject of s.e.x as they are of G.o.d._ Both of these must be understood if the race is to progress beyond its present stage. Otherwise we shall pa.s.s into the long sleep of oblivion like all civilizations in the past leaving future generations to grapple with the same world problems.
True or _perfect_ marriage is the most important attainment in the life of the individual.
The author demonstrates that perfect marriage is a scientific possibility and that legal marriage and divorce simply conform to civil laws. He very clearly outlines the reason why civilization makes little or no progress in dealing with the social evil and other s.e.x problems.
The publishers place this book before an intelligent public, believing, that more _real_ knowledge can be gained by its study, than by any other known method, because
_First._ The reader is brought face to face with himself, and nature.
_Second._ The reader can demonstrate the truth of the propositions set forth.
_Third._ The methods, rules, and laws have been verified by intelligent men and women who have lived the life.
_Fourth._ "s.e.x," The Divine Principle which all human beings should understand, has been presented in plain simple terms, and elucidated, so that the reader _cannot_ fail to understand the true path of moral progress.
This volume is not a romance, a fairy tale nor a dream intended to entertain or amuse, but a scientific instruction which will elevate the individual and the race, develop self respect, self control, morality and love. If the propositions presented by the author are correct--let the standards be changed; _if_ the propositions are _incorrect_, they will not disturb the standards of today.
THE PUBLISHERS.
INTRODUCTION
No phase of civilization can rise to the highest possibilities as long as the average mental att.i.tude toward the most vital, the most important and the most sacred function of our being, is one of shame, sinfulness, l.u.s.t and uncleanness.
Even among those who are conscientiously trying to establish better social conditions, there is a deplorable lack of anything like the proper att.i.tude toward the problems of s.e.x, albeit there are evidences that our social consciousness is alive to the seriousness of the s.e.x problem.
Many of our advanced thinkers and scientists are giving their attention to the subject, but it is a theme which has been so long neglected, so hedged about by false standards of morality; so fettered by the system of tabu, that a rational discussion of s.e.x apart from materia medica, or religion, is difficult.
Moreover, the physiological side of the s.e.x question robs it of all the delicacy, and the intimacy and the beauty and romance which should by right, surround the function of s.e.x-mating and which does surround a union that is pure and perfect. In this innate desire to share with the one and only possible mate, the intimate secrets of love, there is nothing of shame or apology--sentiments which alas, actuate the so-called "modest" man or woman of today.
s.e.x matters should, indeed, be held too sacred, too intimate for public discussion, whereas the present-day att.i.tude holds that s.e.x is too indecent to be spoken of. When the subject is forced upon public attention as it so frequently is through tragic occurrences, the opinions expressed are both petty and puerile. They evade the truth and so avoid the issue. They deal with effects only, are satisfied with offering suggestions as to ways and means of suppressing these effects, instead of going to the root of the matter and realizing that all the tragedies that spring out of s.e.x are due to wrong teaching and thinking in regard to the s.e.x-function. That which we reverence, and hold sacred, we do not profane. Until s.e.x is established in its rightful place, as the holy and divine creative power of this universe, we will be shocked and horrified with s.e.x-tragedies.
It is a pity that the physiological and hygienic aspect of s.e.x has to be discussed at all, but it is necessary that all sides of the subject must be presented to meet the great variety of minds, but it is our contention that if the spiritual quality of s.e.x were recognized and understood, there would be no need for any other view, because if s.e.x were recognized as the sacred, and holy and spiritual function _that it is_, disease and sinfulness would disappear as the mist before the sun.
In the meantime the subject must be discussed from all points of view.
It must be permitted to thrive in the light and thus it will flower into the perfection of the spiritual seed that generated it.
In the meantime, the debas.e.m.e.nt of all things connected with s.e.x must be aired, discussed, and weeded out, until a sane and normal and reverential recognition of the universality and the eternality of s.e.x, is engendered in the minds of men and women and growing youths and transmitted to the children yet unborn.
"s.e.x contains all," says Walt Whitman. "Bodies, souls, meanings, proofs, purities, delicacies, results, promulgations, songs, commands, health, pride, the maternal mystery, the seminal milk; all hopes, benefactions, bestowals; all the pa.s.sions, loves, beauties, delights of earth; all the governments, judges, G.o.ds, followed persons of the earth; these are contained in s.e.x as parts of itself and justification of itself.
"Without shame the man I like knows and avows the deliciousness of his s.e.x; without shame the woman I like knows and avows hers."
Many well-meaning persons see in the words of the "good grey poet,"
only an immodest and brazen shamelessness. But these are mental perverts and are to be pitied; they see "through a gla.s.s darkly" and everything looks black with decay; they are trying to build an eternal future upon a foundation of tissue paper; they are seeking to encompa.s.s immortal life by denying the very beginning and source of all life--s.e.x; they are attempting the impossible feat of foisting upon the world an ideal of Heaven from which they have extracted the very essence of Heaven itself, although nothing on earth or from divine sources justifies such an idea.
Possibly our civilization has proceeded on the plan of leaving until the last the most important thing in an ideal community and it may be that we shall do the necessary reform work in this department all the more thoroughly for having so long neglected it.
In the following chapters the physiological and hygienic side of the subject has been avoided as there is much sound advice already issued pertaining to this phase of the s.e.x question, and it is our contention that the world must be brought to recognize the spiritual, and sacred function of s.e.x, as the basis of reformation or regeneration, before the Kingdom of Love shall be established upon the earth as it is in celestial s.p.a.ces.
THE AUTHOR.
CHAPTER I
s.e.x UNIVERSAL AND ETERNAL
The fundamental basis of the universe is s.e.x.
s.e.x is the fulcrum upon which our life-activities turn. It is the life of Man and of planets, and ignorance of the laws of s.e.x is the cause of death of both. It is the conjunction of the forces of attraction and repulsion; the positive and negative; the centripetal and centrifugal forces which hold stars and planets in their orbits--or rather, it is the two expressions of the one power, which is both male and female, the eternal bi-une s.e.x principle which is _Life_.
The law of attraction everywhere, from that of the sun and the earth, to that of the iron and the magnet, the "affinity" of the various gases and liquids, is founded upon s.e.x. Cohesion is but another name for copulation, and repulsion is absence of the power of contact. The law of attraction and cohesion everywhere is the law of s.e.x-activity.
"The law of conjugality is the basis of every force in nature," says a scientist. s.e.x const.i.tutes the eternal energy from which issue all the forms and differentiations which we see manifested in the visible universe, and it is equally the foundation of the realms invisible.
s.e.x is the algebracial X--the unknown quant.i.ty which defies a.n.a.lysis.
Plato is said to have observed that "the son of man is written all over the visible world in the form of an X;" and also that "the second coming of Christ is rightly symbolized by a cross." The cross is but another form of the X--the eternal bi-une s.e.x-principle in action.
The Female Principle attracts to a central union; draws toward and within itself. The home is established and maintained by the female element; the nest is the special property of the female bird. Thus the Female Principle best expresses the highest love because the object of love is _union_. Hate scatters, disintegrates, destroys. Wherever the struggle between love and hate is seen, there we will find a lack of union. There may be marriage, but there will not be mating. True union must come from the Center of Life--from the spiritual Reality, which the physical only imperfectly shadows forth.
Involution is best described as feminine, and wherever we note the upward trend of the feminine element in Society, we may know that the earth is on its involutionary path; the end of a cycle is at hand, and social unrest and marital upheaval are inevitable, because Love is in the ascendant and love demands _union_--not merely matrimony.
The Ancients sought to express the never-beginning and never-ending law of s.e.x by the symbol of the serpent with its tail in its mouth, forming a circle. The resemblance of the male sperm to the spiral convolutions of the serpent in motion, doubtless gave rise to the adoption of the serpent as a symbol of s.e.x-worship. The retention and trans.m.u.tation of the s.e.x-force is typified by the serpent forming a circle. The circle represents the attainment of G.o.dhood--victory over death through _regeneration_.
It has been said that the most primal instinct is that of hunger, but without s.e.x there would not be even the urge toward physical sustenance. s.e.x is therefore both the urge and the answer to all instincts.
There is a very general idea that s.e.x is a physical function only. It is almost universally taught that when the life of the body ceases, s.e.x-life ceases with it. Even among metaphysicians, who believe in the continuity of life after death, the absurd doctrine is taught that s.e.x has no place or part in spiritual life, that "there is no marriage nor giving in marriage" after death.