Thomas R. White, Editor Sacred Sex, Strength Books, a Division of East Ridge Press.

It remains to speak of a way of sacred sex which has had many names historically and which your editors know by the term, “coming together quietly.” This is the name given to it by, of all people, our family doctor. * [It hardly needs saying that our family doctor is an extraordinary man and that the practice of this sacrament has nothing to do with modern medicine, and vice versa] The commonplace term should not be permitted to give the impression that we are dealing with something ordinary or even easy to comprehend, much less easy to practice. The ancient and/or exotic terms for it are in some ways nearer the mark, but they have the defect of suggesting associations which are incorrect and misleading. Coming-together-quietly is one of two major forms of sacred sex, the first being Brahmacharya or total restraint of the generative force except for procreation, the main outlines of which we have reviewed earlier on. Coming-together-quietly is a ritual and sacramental redirection of the vital fire into regenerative channels, to the end of yoga properly so-called, i.e., union with God.
The crude, the vulgar, and the sexually infantile* cannot see in coming-together-quietly anything but a variation of “normal” sex or an aspect of trick sex or deviated sex. Nothing can be said in answer to this mistake except that it is indeed a mistake. and a gross one. In order to begin to understand coming-together-quietly, your view must be based upon a genuine sexual norm: a life largely free from compulsive or overt sexual pathology.

It is possible for a man and woman to come together without orgasm, without passion, without concupiscence, and without excitement — and thus to celebrate the bliss of the husband and wife in each other without the limitation of lust. In this rite the highest human energies are commingled in unselfish union and offered to God in the most exalted mutual delight, but without passionate alloy. It is a difficult act to accomplish without desecration —one which cannot be approached without entire dependence on the grace of God—but one which, we can witness from personal experience, is possible. This is a very high discipline, indications of which are to be found in early Christianity, the Hindu and Tibetan Tantras, and in the Secret Doctrine in Israel (the Zohar and the Kabalah). This sacrament evidently was practiced in the early Christian Church. Charles Williams gives an account of it; see the article in the Page The Powers of Sex.

In Eastern scriptures there are many references to sacred sexual union as an exalted form of yoga, a means of attainment of liberation and re-union with God. Commenting on the Mahayana doctrine of the Great Delight. Heinrich Zimmer says: In the sexual act it is possible to recognize a preeminent rendition and profound human experience of the metaphysical mystery of the nondual entity which is made manifest as two. The embrace of the male and female principles, and their delight there by. denote their intrinsic unity, their metaphysical identity. Regarded from the standpoint of logic in the world of space and time, the male and female are two. But in their intuition of their identity (which is the seed of love) the thought of twoness is transcended, while from the mystery of their physical union (their enactment and experience in time of their real and secret nonduality) a new being is produced— as though the corporeal imitation of the trans-corporeal. nondual truth had magically touched the inexhaustible spring from which the phenomena of the cosmos arise. Through the sexual act. that is to say, creatures of the visible world actually come into touch. in experience, with the metaphysical sphere of the nondual source. And further, observing the qualities required of a participant in this sacrament, Zimmer quotes the Gandharva Tantra and the Tantrasara:** The aspirant must only be intelligent, with his senses controlled, one who abstains from injuring any being, ever doing good to all, pure, a believer in the Veda, and a nondualist, whose faith and refuge are in Brahman: “Such a one is competent for this scripture; otherwise he is no adept. But it requires a hero (vira) to confront and assimilate, in perfect equanimity, the whole wonder of the World Creatrix —to make love, without hysterical reactions, to the Life-force, which is the sakti of his own entirety. The “five good things” (Pancatatttu), which are the “forbidden things” of the ordinary men and women of the herd, serve as sacramental fare for one who not only knows but feels that the World Force (sakti) is in essence himself. In Tantra, the worship of the World Creatrix in her own terms is rendered possible; for cohabitation (maithuna), her own supreme holy rite, is realized not in the spirit of the pasu (“cattle”; the human animal of the herd, desiring, fearing, and enjoying in the usual animal-human way), but of the vira (“hero”) who knows himself to be identical with Siva. “Om,” he prays (and knows); “into the Fire which is Spirit (atman) brightened by the pouring on of the ghee of merit and demerit, I, by the path of yoga (susumna), ever sacrifice the funttions of the senses, using the mind as the ladie of the offering. Hallelujah!” Ida and pingala are the Sanskrit names for the serpentine paths followed by zoe-l in its course up and down the spine. With the arising of zoe-ll, the vital fire takes an ordinarily-unused channel: the central avenue in the spine called sushumna. The movement of zda and pingala is represented in many sacred glyphs, notably in the caduceus and the dollar sign.

* Who Seeks Nirvana?” Philosophies of India, Heinrich Zimmer. New York, 1951: Pantheon. Philosophies of India, Zimmer

** The Great Delight,” Philosophies of India, Heinrich Zimmer. New York, 1951: Pantheon Philosophies of India, Zimmer

The practice here considered is timeless and universal, transcending the limitations of age, nation, culture, or religious tradition. Some of the most interesting allusions to it are found in the Jewish oral and esoteric traditions. The following references are from Arthur Edward Waite’s study* (with quotations from the Zohar): “The sole object with which the Holy One, blessed be He. sends man into this world is to know that Jehovah is Elohim.” Herein is also all true joy of heart. Now, it is in this manner that I open the high conference respecting the mystery of Shekinah, which is a mystery of man and God, of man in the likeness of the Elohim, of the relation between things above and things below, of intercourse for union upon earth performed in the spirit of celestial union. and the transmutation of one by the other for the work of God in the world. In this union abides the Mystery of Faith, which is the synthesis of the whole Law —Written and Oral Law — and of all that exists whatsoever …. Now it is said that there is desire on the part of man to be united with the Mother in transcendence as well as with the Mother below, to attain her by perfection and to be blessed on account of her. The Mother in transcendence is. however. like the Mother below, and spiritual communion with her is in so far as man has become a house or abode by attaching himself to the female: it is then that the Divine Mother pours down her blessings on both. There is—in the true sense of this term—a spiritual union below for the Sons of the Doctrine, so that they are encompassed by two females — the wife who is on earth and the Unseen Helpmate …. And now as regards the practice, the thesis is that whoever sanctifies himself at the moment of intercourse shall have children who will not fear the tempter-spirit. This is the consequence respecting the fruit of marriages, but there is also a consequence within the measures of the union itself so that it is raised from the physical into a spiritual degree, from the mode of Nature into the mode of grace. The fulfilment of a particular precept is the condition teaching hereto, and this is the raising of the heart and mind, on the part of the Lover and Beloved, to the Most Holy Shekinah, the glory which cohabits and indwells during the external act. The absconditus sponsus enters into the body of the woman and is joined with the abscondita sponsa. This is true also on the reverse side of the process, so that the two spirits are melted together and are interchanged constantly between body and body. Now according to the Zohar those words in the Song of Solomon: “Thy breasts are better than wine • refer to that wine which provokes joy and desire; and seeing that all things are formed above according to a pattern which is reproduced faithfully below, it is held to follow that when desire awakens beneath it awakens also on high. Herein lies the sanctity of espousals into the highest grade … The thesis is that God is One and as such it is agreeable to Him to be concerned with a single people. Out of this arises the question as to when man may be called one and the answer is that this comes about when the male is united to the female in a holy purpose: it is then that man is complete. is one and is without blemish. It is of this that the man and the woman must think at the moment of their union; it is in uniting bodies and souls that the two become one; man in particular is termed one and perfect; he draws down the Holy Spirit upon him and is called the Son of the Holy One. blessed be He. According to Rabbi Simeon. the relations of the patriarchs with their wives were actuated by a supreme mystery. So long as Jacob was unmarried. God did not manifest to him clearly, and this mystery is familiar to those who are acquainted with the ways of the Law. After marriage he arrived at the perfection which is above as distinguished from the perfection which is below, and God manifested to him clearly. The explanation seems to be that the Supreme Wisdom is a mystery of sex… I do believe that in the expounded mystery of sex so far as it is indeed expounded —it suggests a great experiment which — “once in time and somewhere in the world —was practiced in hidden sanctuaries that were homes of man and woman. The Shekinah is the high light which shines thereon. We have seen that this Lady of Mediation is the president over nuptial intercourse which I have described as begun on earth and completed in the World of the Supernals. The return journey of the soul is therefore under her light, in and by her grace. with the sustenance and aid of her mysterious power.

*** The Mystery of Shekinah ^t • and “The Mysterv of Sex” in The Secret Doctrine in Israel. A. E. Waite. New York: Occult Research Press.  Kabbalah, A.E. Waite