{"collection":"sex","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/sex/tsf/tsf01.htm","path":"sex/tsf/tsf01.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/sex/tsf/tsf01.htm","text":"The Sacred Fire, by B.Z. Goldberg, [1930]\n| | BOOK ONE | | \n| | FAR AWAY AND LONG AGO | | \n| | THE EROTIC MOTIVE IN PRIMITIVE RELIGION | | \n| CHAPTER | | PAGE | \n| I. | FAR AWAY AND LONG AGO | 3 | \n| | The beginnings of love and religion in the life of early man\u2014Their intricate relationship\u2014The subject of this study. | | \n| II. | PRIMITIVE MAN IN LOVE AND FAITH | 11 | \n| | The preoccupation with sex in primitive society\u2014Primitive art and sex\u2014The age of sexual promiscuity\u2014Social limitations on the creative function\u2014The protest against these limitations and religion as an outlet for the pent-up emotions\u2014Religion as the liberator of primitive man\u2014Fear the father of the religious urge in man\u2014The notions of \"doubles,\" ghosts, and demons\u2014Magic and the birth of the gods\u2014The legend of Nathuram\u2014The multiplicity of gods and the gods of generation\u2014The factors that made for the supremacy of the generative divinities\u2014The story of the Sleeping Beauty. | | \n| III. | IN THE FOUNDRY OF THE GODS | 33 | \n| | THE STORY OF THE GENERATIVE DIVINITIES | | \n| | Eternal light the universal symbol of life eternal\u2014The primitive conception of the generative divinity as the sex organs in union\u2014Sacred images of the lingam and yoni throughout the world\u2014The development of separate gods of generation, male and female\u2014The marriage of the generative divinities\u2014 | | \n| | p. viii | | \n| CHAPTER | | PAGE | \n| | [paragraph continues] Man's share in the divine marriages\u2014The religious tendency to elevate and spiritualize love. | | \n| IV. | THE SPIRIT OF LOVE IN GOD AND MAN | 54 | \n| | THE EROTIC WORSHIP OF THE GENERATIVE DIVINITIES | | \n| | The generative gods in the divine family on Mt. Olympus\u2014The worship of each god according to his service to mankind\u2014The worship of the generative divinities not only pleasing to the gods but pleasurable as well to man\u2014Sex worship a release from taboos and social restrictions\u2014Sexual promiscuity in the worship of the generative divinities\u2014The sacrifice of the firstborn\u2014Circumcision and defloration as sacrifices to the generative divinities\u2014The sacrifice of coition\u2014The temple priestess in sexual sacrifice\u2014The life and career of the temple priestess\u2014Homosexual sacrifices to the generative divinity\u2014The revolt against sex in the legend of Amathonte and the story of Siva. | | \n| V. | LOVE'S HIDDEN WAYS | 96 | \n| | The concrete symbol for the abstract idea\u2014The efficacy of the symbol\u2014The primitive concept of life and its symbolism\u2014The sun and fire as gods of generation\u2014The bull and the goat as generative divinities\u2014The serpent as an erotic symbol\u2014The lingam and yoni symbols in their various forms\u2014The symbolism of the female principle\u2014The divine male symbols\u2014The tree in ancient and modern religious symbolism. | | \n| | BOOK TWO | | \n| | IN THE TEMPLE OF THE GODS | | \n| | THE WORSHIP OF THE GENERATIVE DIVINITIES | | \n| I. | A DAY WITH BAAL | 143 | \n| II. | A NIGHT WITH APHRODITE | 159 | \n| | p. ix | | \n| CHAPTER | | PAGE | \n| III. | AT A DIONYSIAN MYSTERY | 179 | \n| IV. | TWILIGHT WITH MOLOCH | 18 5 | \n| V. | THE DANCE OF THE SAKTAS | 189 | \n| | BOOK THREE | | \n| | IN THE HOUSE OF THE LORD | | \n| | THE EROTIC MOTIVE IN THE MONOTHEISTIC RELIGIONS OF TODAY | | \n| | PROLOGUE. IN THE HOUSE OF THE LORD | 197 | \n| | The contrasting views of life in the pagan and monotheistic religions\u2014The attitudes toward sex in the two religions\u2014The position of woman in the pagan and Christian worlds\u2014The suppression of love and its deliverance through symbolism. | | \n| I. | LOVE IN THE SYNAGOGUE | 202 | \n| | The attitude toward sex in the Old Testament\u2014Procreation as the high purpose in life\u2014The attitude toward woman\u2014Relics of primitive erotic rites in the Jewish religion\u2014The rite of circumcision and of redeeming the firstborn\u2014Purification laws for women\u2014Erotic elements in Jewish mysticism\u2014Erotic symbols in the synagogue. | | \n| II. | ROMANCE IN THE CHURCH | 229 | \n| | Romance in the careers of the founders of the Christian faith and in their attitude toward sex\u2014The attitude of Jesus toward the sex life and woman as compared with that of Paul\u2014The Pauline suppression of the sexual impulse\u2014The escape of sex through spiritual love\u2014The spiritual love of Paul and Thecla\u2014Spiritual love as an institution in the Church\u2014The relationship between the sexes in the early Christian communities\u2014The | | \n| | p. x | | \n| CHAPTER | | PAGE | \n| | [paragraph continues] Agap\u00e6\u2014Spiritual marriages between monks and nuns\u2014The erotic aspect of Christian mysticism\u2014Romance in the lives of the leading mystics\u2014Erotic elements in sacred Christian art\u2014The Virgin Mary as an elevating influence. | | \n| III. | MARRIAGE IN THE MOSQUE | 275 | \n| | The place of woman in the Mohammedan faith\u2014The prophet and his attitude toward sex and woman\u2014The Moslem heaven as a place of supreme sexual pleasures\u2014The Sufis and their attitude toward love\u2014The Mohammedan saints and the erotic phase of Mohammedan mysticism. | | \n| IV. | LONGING IN THE DARK | 289 | \n| | The erotic motive in the Christian religion among the Negroes\u2014The religion of the black man as compared with the faith of his white brother\u2014The primitive religion that the Negro brought with him from Africa\u2014The black man's first steps in the white man's church\u2014Psychological differences between the white and the black Christian faith\u2014The elements of longing and love in the Negro religion\u2014The revival as a release from sexual suppression\u2014The erotic symbolism of the primitive religion carried over to Christianity\u2014The strange mixture in Voodoo. | | \n| | BOOK FOUR | | \n| | THE SPIRIT OP REVOLT IN RELIGION | | \n| | THE SEXUAL MOTIVE IN SECTARIANISM | | \n| I. | REBELS IN THE FAITH | 319 | \n| | The liberator of a people later its oppressor\u2014Korah's revolt against Moses\u2014The spirit of revolt in every generation\u2014Religion's inception in spontaneity\u2014Social aspect of religion\u2014The non-conformist as rebel and as ruler. | | \n| | p. xi | | \n| CHAPTER | | PAGE | \n| II. | LOVE THE FORCE OF REBELLION | 326 | \n| | Various causes underlying religious revolts\u2014All religious insurrections indirectly related to sex\u2014Reasons for the erotic element in religious revolts\u2014Leaders in revolts highly sexed individuals\u2014Reversion to religion in its original form. | | \n| III. | THE REVOLT AGAINST RELIGION | 330 | \n| | Sexual indulgence among the Nikolaites\u2014The Mormon church and its relation to the sex life. | | \n| IV. | THE REVOLT AGAINST GOD | 336 | \n| | The devil worshippers\u2014The devil elevated to a divine position by Manes\u2014Sexual gratification in the religion of the Manich\u00e6ans\u2014The Messalians and sex\u2014The erotic element in witchcraft. | | \n| V. | THE REVOLT AGAINST MAN | 342 | \n| | Sects denying human nature\u2014Asceticism\u2014Physical torture\u2014Flagellants\u2014Self-destructive sects in Russia\u2014The Skopzi\u2014Suicide a form of self-destruction\u2014Murder and self-destruction basic doctrine of Thugs\u2014Causes of such perversions in religion. | | \n| | EPILOGUE. GOD'S WAY IN LOVE | 359 | \n| | The result of the close relationship between sex and religion\u2014The story of Wandawind\u2014What religion did for love\u2014What love contributed to religion. | | \n| | BIBLIOGRAPHY | 369 | \n| | INDEX | 377 |","title":"The Sacred Fire: Contents","type":"page"}