Secular Traditions

Orlin Baev is a Bulgarian transpersonal psychologist who writes about sacred sexuality. Here are two essays from his E-book entitled TRANSPERSONAL PSYCHOLOGY. SACRED SEXUALITY.

HOLOTROPIC SEXUALITY AND GENDERS

The Clod and the Pebble

"Love seeketh not itself to please,
Nor for itself hath any care,
But for another gives its ease,
And builds a heaven in hell's despair."

So sung a little clod of clay,
Trodden with the cattle's feet;
But a pebble of the brook
Warbled out these meters meet:

Those people are happy who relish love's pleasure
Enjoying Aphrodite's sensual embrace
As a ship riding easy on a calm sea,
Avoiding the obsession that leads to disgrace.
For sex, like a horsefly, can madden with its sting,
And Eros has two arrows to his string,
Beneath that deceptive golden hair.
A mere scratch from the first brings lifelong joy,
But the second wounds to death, and breeds despair.

Goddess born in Cyprus [Aphrodite], keep my bedroom safe

Advice, Questions and Answers

Part I.

FIFTY POINTERS ON , SEX AND MARRIED LIFE

These apply to normal or average circumstances; they all have their exceptions.

During Childhood:

1. Every mother should try to nurse her child for at least three months.

2. During the first year of every child's life it should be held naked against its mother's body at least an hour a day.

3. Every child, before puberty, should be taken into the mother's bed for at least an hour, mornings or evenings, daily if possible, but at least three times a week.

CASE VIII.

Consultation : Miss Esther K., twenty-seven years old, a teacher in a private school, came to my office in a disturbed state. She said she did not know what was wrong with her and burst into tears. Most of her story came out badly muffled by her handkerchief

It chiefly concerned Ted, a man thirty-two years old, whom she had met, a year ago, at a summer resort. He was a chemist employed by a big oil company. They had fallen in love at first sight and were together all day long during their two weeks' vacation. They had become so attached to each other that she had followed his suggestion, changed her school and moved to his town. In the beginning they met every evening, had dinner together, went to movies or concerts or listened to the radio, either at his apartment or at hers.

Group B.

EXAMPLES SHOWING IMPROVEMENT.

CASE IV.

Mrs. Florence W., thirty-two years old, an attractive, feminine type of woman, had first to be assured that her visit would remain entirely confidential as her husband did not

know that she was consulting me. She had been married for six years. It was a love marriage. For four years all had gone well. They had many things in common. But during the last two years he had neglected her more and more, spending most evenings away from home and, as she found out, with a young woman who was employed as his secretary. She was considering a divorce. But her two children were very close to their father, and her mother was also dependent on him. She asked my advice: Should she go to the secretary and ask her to give her husband up, or should she present him with the alternative - either dismiss his secretary or get a divorce? Or was that running too big a risk? Must she accept an intolerable situation merely for economic reasons? She thought not. For even if it came to a divorce, he would have to support them. Any judge, she asserted, would be on her side. Furthermore, she had worked before her marriage and believed that she could easily get another job.