Plethon on sex magick?
from a pal:
"...May seem a bit silly to you, but I got a bit of a whoah moment when I recently read Plethon's Book of Laws chapter iii (Woodhouse's trans./paraphrase pp. 336 ff.)
"'Clearly in the first place sexual intercourse was instituted to perpetuate the human race and give it a kind of immortality. Secondly, it enables man to create something similar to himself. These two purposes apply equally to the gods, who are immortal. The most powerful of the gods produce creatures like thmelseves, both mortal and immortal. By sexual intercourse human beings approximate the gods; and since they are thus imitating the gods, the act must be done in the best possible way.
"'Because it is a sacred act (and not because it is a shameful one, which it is not), it is best done in private like other religious observances. The same is true, for example, of the celebration of the mysteries...'
"Plethon seems to be one of the first major figures in Christendom to be postulating something approximating later understandings of sex magick; somehow Plato is reread to say that sex fulfills the Theatetian imperative...."
"...May seem a bit silly to you, but I got a bit of a whoah moment when I recently read Plethon's Book of Laws chapter iii (Woodhouse's trans./paraphrase pp. 336 ff.)
"'Clearly in the first place sexual intercourse was instituted to perpetuate the human race and give it a kind of immortality. Secondly, it enables man to create something similar to himself. These two purposes apply equally to the gods, who are immortal. The most powerful of the gods produce creatures like thmelseves, both mortal and immortal. By sexual intercourse human beings approximate the gods; and since they are thus imitating the gods, the act must be done in the best possible way.
"'Because it is a sacred act (and not because it is a shameful one, which it is not), it is best done in private like other religious observances. The same is true, for example, of the celebration of the mysteries...'
"Plethon seems to be one of the first major figures in Christendom to be postulating something approximating later understandings of sex magick; somehow Plato is reread to say that sex fulfills the Theatetian imperative...."