Ernst Tristan Kurtzahn
Die Gnostiker
(1925)
Pages 77-84:
Mysteries of Sexual Magic
“A shared secret will not serve; in the Magic of the original Secret Science nobody has yet made anything
out of them, glean them where he will: one must sink one’s own artesian wells into the secret…”
Sar Pelandan. [sic]
If a contemporary female Gnostic (Valerie Gyigyi) can write:
“And God formed men after His own image. The original state of self-awareness was however spirit and not material; or spiritual self-awareness. God gave this form of man a mate, or
rather the form sprang forth and divided itself in two—the stronger half being the male who also keeps the seed as law, while the weaker half to this day bleeds in any place where the nodes of life are located.”
— then this already indicates a high degree of knowledge.
What is of tremendous importance in this quotation? It is the mentioning of the seed which remains the divine possession of man.
Of what does the seed consist? Of Spirit and Water (Water is here used exclusively in the material sense, as it is the vehicle of the Spirit).
It says in the Gospel of John [3:5]:
“Verily, verily,
I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.”
Further, it is asserted in Luke 8, verse 11:
“Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God.”
And finally, in the Gospel of John, chapter 1, verses 1 to 5:
“1. In the beginning was
the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
“2. The same was in the
beginning with God.
“3. All things were made by
him: and without him was not any thing made that was made.
“4. In him was life: and the
life was the light of men.
“5. And the light shineth in
darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.”
From these quotations — which many people take to be synonomous with all old religious scriptures — it can be seen that the seed alone is being referred to. It is the vehicle of the spirit and as such exclusive to the man.
It cannot be made any clearer that there are just three things that can be done with the seed:
- One can keep it to oneself;
- One can use it for begetting;
- One can wilfully waste it on all manner of pleasures.
For Gnostics points two and three are wholly excluded, so that point one alone remains: the man retains his seed and uses
it, the “Son”, the light-seed, under Christ as the way to the FATHER, for himself as well as for his wife.
Can nothing then proceed except through retention of the seed? We must respond; only with extremely rare exceptions, and only with true Gnostics i.e. Pneumatikoi, of whom Jesus was one.
For everyone else another path comes into question, whose requirement is the true Gnostic marriage.
Firstly anyone and everyone can and should strive to transform themselves into a spiritual Androgyne (man-woman)
or else a spiritual Gynander (woman-man). The method for this has already been given in the chapter entitled “Way to Gnosis”, where what was said about breathing should be kept primarily in mind.
Apart from this, each spouse in whom the Gnostic spirit rules, can balance their corresponding androgyne or g y n a n d e r, as will be seen in the remaining part of this exposition.
The creation of a spiritual androgyne or a gynander
alone will not succeed by itself, for none shall come to the father save through Me, the Son! (John 14:6).
As on the earthly plane with bodily begetting, which shall be no more, as man is called home through Christ, the man is the
giver and the woman is the receiver. So woman cannot be redeemed except through man, and in fact through anointing with the light-seed, which the man (as we have seen) reserves to himself, since in his physical seed or water, Spirit is
bound to matter.
We must now seemingly digress to make ourselves better understood.
Has anyone yet made it clear exactly why mankind stands and walks erect?
Those who know the works of Peryt Shou (published
in Berlin and Leipzig, among others M-Wellen und der sechste Sinn d. Menschen [‘M-Waves and Mankind’s Sixth Sense’]),
will of course know already that it is a matter of energy, which he describes as M-rays. These are an immense cosmic force, found in all mankind as the ruling power of the Sun-spirit (Iswara). Man is part of this energy-current which links the Sun to the Earth. Thus by day he goes about erect, and by night, when the M-waves are absent due to the altered position of the sun, he lies horizontal.
It is thus necessary for the man to consciously
alter his seed, so that it becomes part M-wave.
With this in view breathing exercises must surely be employed, a new nerve-centre being formed in the chest, whereby the light-seed is raised from the genitals into this
newly-created centre and from there over the nerve-centre in the larynx to the pineal gland, whereby the link with the M-waves, according to the will and through every conscious bodily action, permits self-realisation.
This is the place for a serious warning: these
exercises, even performed as experiments, are meant for men alone, embarking on the way and path of Gnosis and not deviating from it by a fraction. Note well that any interference will cause spiritual and physical destruction. It should not be forgotten that with these exercises for the formation of a new nerve-centre one is dealing with the highest priestly knowledge; with matters that Christ passed on to his disciples by word of mouth, and that by this uncanny power there can indeed be no enthusiastic interest in a worthy Mr. Smith or a good-hearted Mrs. Jones.
It will hence be apparent that if one has only just learnt the exercises and concepts in the uncommonly important works of Peryt Shou, which are not (thank goodness) understandable to everyone due to his highly scientific language, one can refer to the statement of Oskar Schmidt as found in his Gnostic-astrological work Der Geist der Astrologie [‘The
Spirit of Astrology’] (Munich 1922, Georg Müller) on page 233:
“Gods are the kinds of beings whose material develops under the divine impulse in such a way that it rarely if ever appears
to mankind. It is no longer a case of saving mankind; or rather, before his salvation, it would be as well to emulate certain modern authorities by referring plainly and clearly to the ultimate secrets revealed by the ancient sages, and to the very real danger that incompetence will wreck this perilous
knowledge. Yes, we must be mindful of such rapid destruction. Incompetence’s particular baseness and blindness is enforced upon it by its own law. These are such as have besmirched beauty, and now they seek to overthrow knowledge as well…”
These words are just, and we adopt them as our own.
If one is seriously minded to tread the Gnostic path of salvation according to the primitive Christian secret knowledge, and one has passed all the tests which it is absolutely vital to endure, then—and only then—may one gradually be introduced to the dedicated and experienced
aspects. There are certain Gnostic schools to be found (e.g. the ‘Gnostic School’ of Pastor E.C.H. Peithmann, Ph.D., at Südhemmern in the Minden district of Westphalia, and after that a stay in the ‘Sanatorium for Diet-Reform’ at Lehmrade near Mölln, Schleswig-Holstein), but it is for those concerned to determine whether or not they have come to the Truth of the Word: nobody becomes an initiate except through themself.
If the man and the woman succeed in becoming either a spiritual androgyne or gynander, or are on the path towards that state, it is the man as the vessel of the light-seed who must advance and raise this light-seed at least as far as the newly-formed nerve-centre in the chest through certain breathing-exercises (and the woman creates her chest-centre through certain breathing-exercises); only then one can arrive at complete
Gnostic marriage through purity of heart.
With this there can be under no circumstances any ejaculatio
seminis [seminal ejaculation], rather it is a case of a safe immissio membri virilis in vaginam [penetration of the male member into the vagina], but only in a calm manner and under the complete control of both partners.
Here three works of further use may be mentioned:
- I.W. Lloyd: Die
Methode Karezza oder Magnetation (Die Kunst der ehelichen Liebe Der Liebende is ein Künstler des Gefühls) [‘The Karezza Method or Magnetation (The Art of Married Love. The Lover is an enotional artist)’] Amers Fort (Holland) Publ. by
Veen-Verlag (80 pages).
- Mrs. Stockham, M.D.: Die Reform-Ehe (Eine Ehe auf vollständig neuer Grundlage zur Erhöhung der
Daseins-freude und zur Veredlung des Menschensgeschlechts) [‘Marriage Reform (Marriage as a completely new foundation for improving well-being and ennobling human sexuality)’] Stuttgart, Wilhelm Digel.
- Alice Stockham M.D., and H.B. Fischer: Die Brautehe [‘Bridal Marriage’] Leipzig, successors to E. Fischer.
During intercourse of this sort, which may be performed for about an hour, one will be granted a feeling of union with the
source of all being in one’s thoughts, and derive all manner of unnameable delights from it; indeed it is said to be possible not to arrive at ejaculation, thus leaving one even more enriched through the aforementioned mental process.
Further, as the two bodies rest chest to chest, so will the nerve-centres in the chest newly-created through breathing-exercises come close together, and thus provide uncommon encouragement to a mutual spiritual androgynity.
As the human soul resides in the blood, so the adjacent body-parts of the marriage-partner will succeed in the aim of
balancing polarities from the androgynous point of view.
It is in this way only that, through the shining light-seed of the Gnostically developed man alone, the woman may be freed from the rule of the Demiurge, and may indeed come under the influence of the Pleroma (see section II of table) but only by freely-undertaken good works and deeds among her neighbours; no other way of liberation is granted to the female.
As only the man can restore her to the Home of Light, insofar as he serves her through personal ennoblement, so it is up to her to serve him whenever needed, towards her spiritual fulfillment, which is also indeed a matter of advancing
her own salvation as she alone knows and is able.
Do not forget: woman was divided off from the androgyne, whence she derived Beauty as a substitute for the man’s retained
seed. As Eve she yearned for the material, for the earth, and the man followed her, seduced by her beauty. Then the woman too, was enchanted by the virile spirit of the man who was homesick for the paradise of the Pleroma.
One may still hear the same voice today: we are called homewards…
The woman also serves the man’s energies, namely by
her relieving him of small everyday concerns, while he likewise reciprocates by taking on the bigger issues; her rewards from the Gnostic marriage are greater than her reward for her duties. (The woman being harmonious and not of an
opposite pole, in the sense of the next chapter!)
We may remark here that the conduct of a Gnostic marriage as we intend it, is a test of whether one may rely on other dedicated
people; Hans Blüher’s Primären [‘Primaries’] mentions something of this (especially the aristocracy of Jesus of Nazareth). One cannot think that he revealed too much there, nor yet enough! Those who cannot retain their seed for
themselves, either through begetting or wasting it on whatever pleasure, are the Secondaries, the petit-bourgeois etc., those who trust heaven to the angels and leave the rest to the sparrows—such persons must labour long here in the iron slavery of the lower Demiurges until they have reckoned up all thieir
guilt.
But any Primary will never taste death, whether terrestrial or astral; as Pneumatikoi, as spiritualised beings, they will continue to speed towards their eternal home of light, the Pleroma. —
Although we have now made the reader aware of the method of perfection, here only hints have been given. But these are numerous enough to enable any earnest seeker to make a start at turning those hints into deeds.
In addition to this may we mention here two more short works, which may serve as support on this path; although we are (and will remain) convinced that anyone must seek the light by themself and in themselves, they will still strive for it, even if it is expressed in other words than the opening aphorism of
this small piece.
- Ali Bakûr: Die Sphinx im Menschen, [‘The Sphinx in Men’ Schmiedeberg & Leipzig, F.E. Baumann. Price: stitched 2.50, bound 4 marks. To be had of any bookseller.
- W. Omar: Geistige & leibliche Wiedergeburt [‘Spiritual and Physical Reincarnation’] in the Book of Healing & Fulfilment ECCE HOMO part II. Geber-VERLAG Freiburg.
Translation by Mark Parry-Maddocks.
German original:
Ernst Tristan Kurtzahn: Die Gnostiker.
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