The word continence should apply to the act of self-restraint in the matter of the emotions, desires, and pa.s.sions, whether of the s.e.x-pa.s.sion or the pa.s.sion of anger, avarice, or gluttony. The word has come to mean, in many cases, the total abstinence from the s.e.x-relation, because of the general idea which has prevailed, that any indulgence of s.e.x-love was a confession of weakness. In fact, our modern ideas regarding this subject are so chaotic and so manifestly paradoxical that they are absurd.
On the one hand we have a tradition that motherhood is a beautiful and holy thing; on the other, we regard the s.e.x-relation, per se, as an indecent thing, or at best as a weakness of the flesh.
We have the obvious demonstration that creation is possible only because of the conjunction of the two s.e.xes, and yet we are taught that s.e.x-love is something which is permitted to us in this lower state of our being, and denied in heaven, and at the same time we are told that G.o.d creates everything, and G.o.d dwells in Heaven, where there is no such "polluting sin" as s.e.x-love.
We certainly do need balance.
The word chast.i.ty conveys to the mind (and this is not confined to the undeveloped person, but is general) the idea of a woman who is devoid of the s.e.x-impulse. Chast.i.ty, like the word virtue, suggests to our minds no relationship to the character, or inner nature of a person; it has come to be applied to the physical anatomy, and we are not surprised when we realize that the word is seldom used in connection with the male. It is strictly a female attribute--nay, we may almost say, "organ."
If a woman, for any reason whatsoever, whether through lack of opportunity; through hereditary causes; or through repression, or--which occurs more frequently--as a commercial expediency, believing that her person will thus bring more in the matrimonial market--if, as we say, for any reason, however sordid, a woman escapes bodily s.e.x-contact, she is called "chaste" and her "virtue" is extolled.
This is, of course, not a far cry from the ancient days when a bridegroom had the right to turn the bride away from his door, should the evidence of her virginity be lacking; whereupon the poor creature was stoned to death, a sacrifice on the altar of Egoism, the arch-enemy of both s.e.xes.
And although it seems a long, long time from that day to this, we may look back over the Ages, and see the thread unbroken, connecting the Past with the Present; uniting the women of those days with their sisters of today; and we find the answer to this far-off outrage upon the spiritual function of s.e.x, in the horrors of our white slavery, among which horrors, the greatest is not alone the barter and sale of that which should be recognized as sacred, but the perversions, the deceptions and the subterfuges which it entails. One instance, related by a trained nurse who had been in attendance upon a girl sixteen years of age, will suffice to ill.u.s.trate this. The girl, encouraged by her mother, related with amus.e.m.e.nt and satisfaction, how the child had "sold her virtue" on seven different occasions, procuring for the same, proven by the requisite evidences, sums which were considered quite exorbitant in view of the fact that the market was always over-crowded with similar sales.
Thus, the law of supply and demand is ever preserved; and human beings keep right on selling their royal birthright for a mess of pottage; inviting disease, decay and death when they might have glorious, blissful life.
Mankind has failed to look for virtue in the interior nature; failed to look for beauty of soul, being ever ready to pay the highest price for the counterfeit, and the result is that a practice of mutual deception has been the rule.
Some years ago, Thomas Hardy wrote a story about a girl in the wretched environment of middle-cla.s.s England. He called it the story of a "pure woman," and his appraisal of the heroine as a pure woman brought out a storm of reproach and horrified criticism, particularly from the clergy, because it chanced that this poor girl had given birth to a child out of wedlock; and notwithstanding that the author made it quite clear that she had been the victim of circ.u.mstances and coercion, the act itself condemned her to unchast.i.ty in the eyes of the clerical critics.
When we contemplate the att.i.tude which religious systems have ever held toward women, we are amazed that the Church has been upheld almost wholly by the female s.e.x. The fact is accountable on one hypothesis only: that of the spiritual insight, which recognized in the story of the Holy Mother and the Child the _One primordial, and indestructible key to salvation_--the birth of the G.o.d-man through the recognition of the purity and joy of the perfect s.e.x-union.
But, notwithstanding the medieval trend of religious mysticism (there is a religious mysticism and a scientific mysticism) which seemed to regard all human love as a weakness, when not actually sinful as in s.e.x-love, it is evident that s.e.xual love, in its emotional, or psychic aspect, was at the root of the "ecstacies" which are so ardently described in ecclesiastical history as "evidences of saintliness."
If, instead of indignantly denying this fact, as though it were profane criticism of the saints, defenders of the Theological view of mysticism would calmly consider and accept the evidence, they would be able to infuse into the creeds, the vitality which they so lack.
The lives of the saints, in so far as they relate to trance and ecstatic visions, must, sooner or later meet one of two fates. Either they will be a.n.a.lyzed and presented, with the reverence that is due the subject, as proofs of the spiritual function of s.e.x-love; or they must be relegated to the position to which the Church a.s.signs all s.e.xual desire--that of eroticism and innate and ineradicable depravity.
Viewed in the light in which Theology has held the s.e.x relation, the paroxysms which are ascribed to St. Catherine of Sienna, and to the Holy Mechthild and other saints, have in them something decidedly obnoxious; while, if we take the premise that these saints, by virtue of prayer, aspiration, and intended sacrifice of the mortal self to an ideal, trans.m.u.ted their s.e.x-nature from the physical to the spiritual, then indeed, we have an approach to a mighty truth, which is at once both explanatory and satisfying. St. Catherine is referred to as "the mystic bride;" and Jesus Christ, to whom she was "espoused" (using the terminology which the Church prefers, as suggesting a less physical union than the word "married") was the "bride-groom;" more than that; she declared that she was married with a ring, set with precious stones; just like any other betrothal or wedding ring.
Always in these recitals we find the phraseology which lovers employ when exalting the loved one above the world. The term "My Beloved" is singularly universal, and seems to spring involuntarily to the lips of the lover when his love is of the quality that reverences; adores; and exalts its object. And it is equally foreign to the lips of the dilettante lover.
To their credit be it said, the love which the saints developed within themselves, by dint of their attempts to exalt celibacy in an age of s.e.xual profligacy, is none the less human love; it is human love spiritualized, exalted, and trans.m.u.ted from the plane of the animal to that of the soul. This trans.m.u.tation is in fact responsible for the intensity, the absorbing power of the love which thrilled them into such an ecstacy that in most instances they became lost in the bliss of the emotions excited by the inward flow of their s.e.x nature, and were totally unfitted to take part in the outer, or so-called practical life.
Such, for example, was Saint Teresa, of whom William James, in his "Varieties of Religious Experience," says: "Her idea of religion seems to have been that of an endless amatory flirtation--if one may say so without irreverence--between the devotee and the Deity." Although this estimate of St. Theresa"s saintliness will doubtless be shocking to the people who think they are pious, we take an optimistic view of it, and suggest that the saint"s idea of religion is far more satisfying than that usually presented as saintliness. St. Theresa, like most of the female saints, became "the bride of Christ"--the _man_ Jesus, the Christ, let it be remembered.
St. Gertrude, a Benedictine nun of the Thirteenth Century, gave herself up so wholly to this inward contemplation; to fasting, prayer, and withdrawal from the outer to the inner life, that she lived as the "bride of G.o.d," in such daily contact with Him as would fitly describe any love-mated honeymoon of today. According to her testimony "G.o.d"
indulged in such language and caresses, and intimacies, kisses and compliments as would satisfy any woman married to her ideal lover.
In the case of St. Louis of Gonzaga, it is significant that he selected the Virgin Mary as the object of his adoration and "consecrated to her, his own virginity;" and we read how "burning with love, he made his vow of perpetual chast.i.ty." In consequence of this vow, he was never tempted as was St. Anthony, by visions of beautiful women.
Here again we have the love of the male for the female. If it were not so, St. Louis may well have chosen Jesus, or Joseph, or John, as the object of his devotional contemplation; and St. Catherine, and Theresa, and Mechthild might have paid their homage to the Virgin Mary.
"Jeanne of the Cross" held constant converse with her guardian angel, who by the way was a beautiful youth, "more brilliant than the sun and with a crown of glory on his head."
St. Frances was inseparable from her angel, whom she loved with extravagant and blissful devotion, and whom she also described as "a young man of such radiant beauty and purity that he melted her soul."
The truth is that, in seeking to escape from the "sin" of human love, as seen in the world, in the union of the s.e.xes, they touched the very main-spring of their s.e.x-nature, intensifying to a degree unknown to the merely sense-conscious person, the ecstatic bliss of spiritual s.e.x-union.
Naturally the question will arise as to whether these saints really came into contact with their spiritual mates in these paroxysms of holy fervor, and if so, why did the vision of the Christ so frequently appear to them and not alone the vision of some other being?
The answer is found in the fact that spiritual experiences must be interpreted through the channel of the outer mind, which in these instances was obsessed by the thought implanted by Medieval Theology, that human love is sinful. It may be questioned whether, even though the visions did relate to some person other than the members of the Holy Family, the fact would have been admitted since it would have been attributed to unworthiness on the part of the saint.
They were practically compelled to include G.o.d and Christ in their ecstacies to prove their respectability.
One phrase, commonly employed to describe the kind of love which "flooded the soul" in these saintly ecstacies, is particularly applicable to the effects of spiritual s.e.x-union, as described by those who have experienced counterpartal union, and which Swedenborg so constantly emphasizes in his recital of "conjugal delights." This phrase is "melting love." It is a feeling of melting or merging into the other"s being, until there seems to be but one person, formed by the two souls. In fact, it is _union_; whereas the lesser, or we may say the lower, phase, of the s.e.x-relation is at best but _contact_.
If this view of the trances and ecstacies described in the lives of the saints, be repulsive to our readers, we can only say that we are sorry for our readers. They have imbibed the spirit of the Dark Ages, which regarded human love as sinful, overlooking the fact that all we may know of the "love of G.o.d," is by a.n.a.logous comparison to what we know of human love.
If human love be sinful, by logical deduction we would inevitably arrive at the conclusion that the universe is all sinful. In which event, the very word itself would have lost its significance.
The objectionable part of the orthodox view of the effects of saintliness lies in the realization that neither the saints themselves, nor the Church which perpetuates their recitals, had any conception of the real situation, so evident to the enlightened and unprejudiced reader. And if this view of saintly ecstacies, postulating the trans.m.u.tation of s.e.x-force into spiritual channels, be objectionable, what can be said of the only other view which is possible in the light of the evidence submitted?
Our ideas of what const.i.tutes chast.i.ty need revising, else we must needs decide that chast.i.ty is more a vice than a virtue.
For example, consider the character of a mother of the self-sacrificing, n.o.ble type, devoting her life to the welfare of the human family; interesting herself in all the problems that affect the generations to come; patient; sweet and wise. Compare her with an unmarried girl whose body is immune from contact with one of the opposite s.e.x, but whose mind is bent upon self, and self-adornment; upon the necessity of capturing a wealthy husband, as a means of this self-gratification, without regard to any sentiment or even common affection. Who is the more chaste?
Coventry Patmore says:
"Virgins are they before the Lord, Whose souls are pure. The vestal fire Is not, as some mis-read the Word, By Marriage quenched, but burns the higher."
If purity of soul were synonymous with celibacy, the entire constantly-copulating cosmos would have long since been demolished; but despite the mistaken att.i.tude of religious systems toward the divine function of s.e.x, Humanity is reaching a higher and purer conception of love. As we approach a higher type of civilization, the broader, deeper, and more intense becomes our capacity to love. The more spiritual we become, the more vital is our love-nature, and our love-nature is grounded in s.e.x. Let us not imagine that spiritual love is less s.e.xual than is physical love. Spiritual love is physical love, _plus_ all the other phases of love.
The real objection to s.e.x love on the physical plane is not based upon its strength, but upon its weakness. If it be nothing deeper than an attraction of chemical affinities generated by physical activities, it has no reservoir from which to draw its supply. It is like the electrical wire that is "short circuited," it expends itself in one spasmodic combustion.
True spirituality is attained by a process of addition. The common and erroneous idea of spiritual attainment involves a process of subtraction.
We need go no further than to review the processes in the external world of today to understand this fact of the inclusiveness of the spiritual life, in contradistinction to the generally accepted idea of exclusiveness which is attached to a contemplation of the so-called "spiritual."
All our activities are now carried on upon a gigantic scale. Where formerly a little stream supplied the water to the mill, we now harness the invisible and apparently inexhaustible forces of electricity; where formerly commerce was a system of bartering between two single individuals, it is now a huge network involving millions of persons. Everything teaches us the lesson of inclusiveness, as we approach a more spiritualized ideal of life. We are uniting; merging; drawing within.
The Centripetal force of the planet itself, corresponding to the female pole of the magnet, is today the active principle in external life. The machinist knows this when he is compelled to avoid the suction currents of electrical power. Cosmic reaction has set in, and union between complementaries is the result. Applying this truth to individual human life, and we have what?
_Counterpartal s.e.x-union._
CHAPTER VII
SOUL-UNION: WHERE WILL IT LEAD?
We have heard much in recent years of "affinities," and "soul-mates,"
and we are likely to hear much more in the future. So much that is unsavory and sensational is a.s.sociated with these two words, that we almost hesitate to employ them; but that is always the way with Fear.
It builds a high wall between us and Truth, and dares us to scale it.