Meanwhile in the West, pagan sexual rituals, sexual magic, Graeco-Roman orgies and alchemic sex were also important impulses, counteracting sexual suppression from the establishment. Alchemic sex can be traced to medieval spiritual alchemy, a mystical teaching, important in the development of the Western esoteric tradition. Alchemy itself was of interest to science because of the influence it had in the development of chemistry. Spiritual alchemy followed the principles of laboratory alchemy by fusion, transmuting substances from their original properties to that of a new condition. The secrets of alchemy were kept hidden, occult, and their language deliberately indecipherable. Alchemy was not to be popularised, and in that intention the alchemists succeeded. Spiritual and sexual alchemy is still incomprehensible to all but the few specialists.
Other attempts to reconcile sexuality and spirituality in the West were hindered by powerful and fierce opposition from the established religious authorities. To avoid extinction through persecution, spiritual sexuality in the West became categorised as ‘sacred sex’, allied with biblical books such as the Song of Solomon, which is actually an esoteric message of initiation written with erotic allegory. Although sacred sex avoided persecution due to its religious style of language, it was largely ignored because of that perceived religiosity. These mystical sexual models blending consciousness, energy and sex have served humanity well but have not translated well into modern cultural life, either in the East or the West.
Ironically, the philosophies of the West and the East have all but completely interchanged in the twenty-first century. Sex in the East has lost its connections with the kamasutras and tantric philosophy, while in the West they have been popularised. In recent times in the West, there has been popular interest in tantric sex through the proliferation of books, workshops and even ‘tantric holidays’. Today one can see ‘tantric massage’ and ‘tantric goddesses’ advertised in popular magazines and other publications but where are the social and cultured benefits being seen from this practice? Generally speaking, sex is currently suppressed in the East and licenced in the West.
Without fanfare, sexual consciousness has now silently moved into its Fourth Age. The three preceding ages were: ‘Prehistoric Sex’, ‘Subconscious Sex’ and ‘The Age of Repression and Secrecy’. These eras, or ages, provided the backdrop for sexual consciousness to evolve through the stages of Instinctual, Mystical and Pornographic Sex; two of which are Outside-In Sex-Types. We now stand at the doorway of a fourth era, ‘The Age of Quantum Sex’.
Over the next few thousand years, this new era will see the transformation of sex and relationships globally to a model of sex that is a powerful force for positive transformation at all levels of consciousness and society. Beyond that new vistas open up; of creativity through states of human consciousness that are currently beyond our comprehension.