What do sex and spirituality have to do with each other? How could the physical sexual act be an expression of our divine and spiritual nature? After all isn’t sex just sex?
We certainly see and hear a lot about sex everyday and little is ever mentioned about the deeper aspects of this powerful tool to connect on a sacred and intimate basis. There are long historical roots for the connection and integration of sex and spirituality. Our culture, however, creates much confusion and distorted messages around sexuality and our sexual behavior. We say sex is good, and that sex is natural, and we celebrate sexual explicitness in our society through advertising, clothing, and entertainment. This is what I call the overt aspect of sexuality in our culture.
However, there are powerful covert aspects of sexuality wherein we hold old feelings of shame, guilt and fear that we have been taught or that we simply picked up as we grew up. These covert aspects of our sexuality are where our feelings of sexual shame exist and where all the conflicted emotions we have around sex reside. It is this split between the overt celebrations of sexuality and our inner, covert feelings of shame, guilt, fear, and inadequacy that create many sexual problems and I believe are the root cause of many sexual compulsions, dysfunctions, sexual addictions, and even illegal sexual behaviors.