THE SYMBOLISM OF MARRIAGE AND OF SEX-UNION
Notwithstanding the patent fact that the institution of monogamous
marriage has not resulted in an ideal condition, it is also plain that
any other ideal of sex-union is impossible to a highly developed race.
Monogamy, despite its present unsatisfactory condition, is a promise
of the highest ideal to which mortals can aspire; it is the imperfect
image of that ideal state which human nature has always striven for.
That we have striven for the most part blindly; that we have fallen
far short of the ideal aimed at, should not deter us from realizing
that the ideal is right.
Monogamy, as a type of the perfect marriage, symbolizes the meeting
and the consequent union of a man and a woman who are perfect
complementaries.
In order to be a perfect and lasting union, they must be spiritual
counterparts. Without this counterpartal affinity as the base of
union, no power on earth can force them to unite, although all the
laws of men be employed to keep them tied to each other in the body.
If two persons belong to each other by the inviolable law of spiritual
counterpart, no multitudinous set of man-made laws can keep their
souls apart, although these codes may temporarily separate them in the
flesh. The bonds of true matrimony are "holy"--the word meaning whole;
entire; complete; but these bonds are of an interior nature; they may
be judged only from the interior nature of two persons; and any
attempt to decide this all-important question from the standpoint of
exterior judgment must fail.
The perfect union of the one man and the one woman is the highest
ideal of marriage of which we can conceive; but shall we for that
reason insist that marriage as a social institution is always complete
and holy? When two immature persons come together under the stimulus
of no more complementary impulse than the blind force of chemical
attraction and cohesion--an instinct, which we share in common with
every form of life, from the lowest insect to man--shall they be
compelled to abide by that act "as long as they both shall live" in
the physical body?
We would say, "Heaven forbid!" only that the appeal is unnecessary.
Heaven does forbid, and that is why we see so many attempts to disrupt
these immature relationships.
"The striving of sexual elements through affinities, or passional
attractions, after congenial marriage unions, is the cause of all the
motions, growths, and activities in the physical and moral world,"
says a writer, and he adds: "The failure to attain the desired end,
and the warfare between uncongenial and repulsive elements is the
cause of all the broken equilibriums, discords, and collisions in both
spheres. If the atomic marriage in nature were perfect, there would be
no storms or droughts, or poisons or monstrosities, or disease. If the
marriage between the individual will and understanding, between the
interior and exterior life, were perfect, we should have regenerated
men upon earth, worthy to be called sons of God. If the marriage
between the sexes were perfect, we should have a Social Paradise."
Marriage, then, in the sense of the conjugal union of two persons of
opposite sex, is the most important function of our lives; every other
activity is subsidiary to it. Commerce is carried on, only because of
this union; all the laws of man are the outgrowth of marriage; all
morality comes from the ideal marriage--the union of Wisdom and Love.
To imagine that a function, so vitally important to our exterior life,
should have no place in the phases of life which we know as "higher,"
is a manifest absurdity, and comes from those attenuated concepts of
what constitutes spirituality, which Theology has postulated; concepts
which, entrenched behind the walls of "thus saith the Lord," have
temporarily defied modern progress.
There is no wide gulf between the spiritual and the material worlds,
although the material is but an imperfect reflection of the basic
principle of life.
Marriage, then, is eternally going on, "Nature is a system of
nuptials," says a writer, and nature is only the language of spirit or
Divine Life.
How it came about that Theology made the mistake of degrading
sex-union and of limiting it to the ephemeral life of the body only,
we shall come to later. For the present, a brief resume of the types
of marriage ceremony, which have been universal, will convince us that
Nature has always sought to convey to the human mind this great secret
of eternal and never-ceasing union of complementaries.
Take, for example, the symbol of the wedding-ring. This custom,
varying only in unimportant details, consistent with the prevailing
social custom of the times, has come down to us from prehistoric days.
The golden circle, sometimes worn only by the bride, but frequently by
both bride and groom, is emblematical of the completion of the circle
of wisdom and the final attainment, in "the twain made one," of the
finding by each of "the other half." The circle is always used to
express the Absolute; Aum; the Supreme Power that is "without
beginning and without end."
According to the old Jewish law, the wedding ring must be made of pure
gold and must be earned and paid for by the bridegroom; he might not
acquire it by credit or gift. There is in this custom something more
than mere thrift; or the assurance of the bridegroom's ability to
sustain the needs and comforts of his wife and prospective family. It
symbolizes the truth that no one may hope to acquire this priceless
blessing of perfect conjugal union, other than by his own efforts.
Immortality must be earned, and perfect union, counterpartal
union--which means actually "twain made one," comes only by dint of
strife and demand and proof of our fitness for the Perfect Life.
Another custom, which has been in almost universal vogue, is that of
drinking wine, emblematical of the "wine of life," at the completion
of a marriage ceremony. Sometimes this has been the prerogative of the
bride and groom only; and sometimes of the officiating priest; but
more generally the entire company has shared in this custom. Wine
drinking thus symbolizes eternal youth and virility, which can be
enjoyed only by those who have attained to the complete life--the
divine or spiritual sex-union.
This symbolism is obvious when we take into our consciousness the
truth that only complementaries have the power to act and react,
without change, or loss. Equilibrium is maintained by a perfect
balance of two forces; if one force be ever so small a fraction less
than the other, perfect balance is lacking.
Another marriage custom in general use among the ancients was the
donning of a crown on the wedding day. This custom formerly included
the bridegroom as well as the bride, but later was confined to the
bride alone, as was also the custom of wearing a veil. At early Greek
marriages crowns made of gold or silver were placed upon the heads of
both bride and groom; tapers were lighted; and rings exchanged.
We have a similar custom today in all fashionable church weddings. We
have the lighted tapers, signifying the quenchless fires of love; and
the circlet which symbolizes eternity.
The crown symbolizes the truth that a truly spiritual union bestows
the crown of immortality; the power of Godhood in the Kingdom of Love;
which supersedes all earthly kingdoms in splendor. This is a literal
truth, although it cannot be understood in its full significance until
we are _fit for the kingdom_.
The veil which the bride lifts at the completion of the ceremony
symbolizes the truth that when we shall have attained to the spiritual
marriage, the veil that separates the interior from the exterior life,
shall be lifted; it is so thin that the illusion, of which the wedding
veil is made, rightly symbolizes this apparent separation of the
physical life from the spiritual. When the veil is lifted, we shall
know our completement in the bliss of perfect union; and when we have
found that other half of our being, which is the underlying urge of
our every thought and act, we shall find the veil lifted. The entire
panorama of the universe becomes an open book. There is no "visible"
and "invisible;" it is all One, with our own bi-une sex nature for the
pivotal center.
So simple and so obvious are all these symbols of the natural man that
we are astounded, when we have found the key, that we did not sooner
penetrate their meaning. "She will have a crown in Heaven," we say of
some self-sacrificing and loving soul, and the phrase suggests to
most of us the power of earthly kings and queens with all their
splendor of jewels and retainers; but there is an inner meaning which
the splendor and the crowns of earth's kings and queens symbolizes.
Spiritual union with the perfect complement of our interior nature is
in itself the crown of regal power, of which earthly rulers are
symbolical. The spiritual body through this union becomes radiant;
luminous; and shines with such splendor that it dazzles the eyes of
the beholder. What constitutes the beauty and the value of
gems--diamonds; rubies; sapphires; emeralds; topaz; pearls?
It is the radiations of light which they throw off; it is their
luminosity--their transparency. It is, indeed, true, that the power
which we see exemplified in the rulers of the earth has a
corresponding meaning in a spiritual sense; as, in fact, have all
things which we cognize with our physical eyes. The Hindus tell us
that all things are either the "nita" or the "ita" message. Either
they tell us "this is the way to the heights;" or "this is not the
way."
The crown of orange blossoms which has supplanted the ancient crown of
gold and silver and tinsel, worn with such unconsciousness of its
esoteric message, symbolizes one of the most beautiful truths relating
to the spiritual marriage--counterpartal union.
Even as this union confers a beautiful radiance upon the spiritual
body, the body also becomes sweet-scented like a flower. Weeds, we
remember, have no scent or they may be obnoxious in their odor. Weeds
are unregenerate flowers.
Certain chemical combinations produce nauseous gases. The human body
is a laboratory in which chemical changes are constantly going on. The
changes produced by sex-functioning are greater than anything which
the experimental chemist has ever discovered in nature.
It is a fact well known to the pathologist that an unwilling wife,
however faithful she may be, if forced into the sexual act, may
present her husband with a well-defined case of genital disease; nor
is this at all strange when we consider the now well-recognized fact
that anger, fear, revenge, avarice, and all the destructive
thought-forces produce poisons in the secretions of the body.
In Rosicrucian literature, we have the story of "the Chymical Marriage
of Christian Rosy Cross," which is, when read with the key to its
esoteric meaning, a story of the chemistry of marriage between the
sexes. Indeed, the whole story of the secret doctrines of the
Rosicrucians, is the story of the sexes, and the "secret of secrets,"
which was so zealously guarded by the Hermetics and the Rosicrucians
and other secret societies, is the secret of the spiritual union of
the male and the female principles throughout nature and culminating
in man and woman, conferring upon them immortal life through the
perfect balance of sex.
It has been said that women were not admitted to the Brotherhood of
the Rosicrucians, but this is not true, as there is plenty of evidence
to prove.
Owing to the enmity of the established Church toward any exaltation of
the sex-relation, and particularly toward the veneration of woman, it
became necessary for those who sought to keep alive the fires of
Esoteric Wisdom to surround themselves with the most rigid secrecy; in
consequence of this, the story of the sexes, constituting the very
heart and center of Hermetic philosophy, has been told in allegory,
unintelligible unless one has the inner sight or has been initiated
into the secret code.
In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the Church had so far
succeeded in undermining the work of the Hermetics, that women were
excluded from the Brotherhood, and the apparent sole purpose of the
secret order was the search for metallic transmutation. Side by side
with this convincing evidence that the esoteric meaning of the symbols
has been perverted, we find their allegorical phraseology intermixed
with frequent allusions to passages from the Scripture and to the
Virgin Mary, proving conclusively that the Church, then in the zenith
of its power, had confiscated the archives of the secret order, and,
either through fear of the influence of their work, or possibly
through lack of any adequate comprehension of their wisdom, had
employed their symbolism to the further glory of the temporal power of
the Church.
This subject will again be dealt with in a chapter devoted to "The
Hidden Wisdom," and so we will leave it for the present.
One other great spiritual truth relating to marriage is found in the
intimate and constantly recurring association of the turtle-dove with
the ceremony of marriage.
The dove is, par excellence, an example of conjugal love. The
turtle-dove, more than any other of the dove family, is noted for the
fervor of its sexual desires; fidelity to its mate; and for the
devotion and diffusion of its love nature. It is well known that if
either of a pair of turtle-doves dies, the mate will grieve itself to
death. "Like a pair of turtle-doves" is said of a couple who are
happily married, and the domestic life of the dove has made the dove a
symbol of peace.
Doves have been held sacred in many parts of the world, and figure
prominently in religious symbolic architecture and utensils, from
ancient times down to the present day. The symbol of the doves flying
over the ark of the covenant typifies the spiritual origin of birth,
the ark being the primordial egg, from which issued all the forms of
life. Let us also remember that they issued _in pairs_.