I may be wrong but I sense that the way we perceive sexual energy, sexual power is undertaking a major cultural shift.
One that hopefully will see it rekindled and crowned to its original pre-Christian Síle na Gig glory, when it was rightly embraced as the source and manifestation of our inner fire, health and creativity.
I believe that biodynamic craniosacral therapists can play a crucial role in this ongoing healing and re-sacralisation of our relationship with this mighty force.
For this is our life force, our body's innate creative Intelligence I’m really talking about.
By vilifying and corrupting its meaning and erotic sensuality, we have actually downgraded and forced into concealment the original spark that ignited us into being at conception.
Consider this and its consequences on our relationship with life itself, our origins, with one another and our home planet, the fundamental primal matrix sustaining all life, our alma mater (bountiful mother in latin).
This drive is everywhere in nature. It is what animates our primal urge to procreate and what connects us to the animal and plant world, one of the reasons why Christianity and later the so-called modern age extricated it from the integrated fabric of the natural world and turned it into a taboo shrouded in shame, sin and secrecy.
In so doing it left the door open for all sorts of abuses to be carried out unchecked and unreported, causing so much trauma.
I have noticed during biodynamic craniosacral sessions how the fluid nature of this wild and potent energy is 'dammed' in many of my clients. As a result their overall life force feels quite stagnant, heavy and their pelvic area and lower abdomen often store tension, tightness and/or show signs of compression or dissociation.
I'm not necessarily just talking of victims of sexually-related traumas here. Complaints of lethargy, exhaustion, general sluggishness, anxiety, depression, poor or difficult digestion ... abound.
These in my opinion are part of a range of symptoms resulting from a weakened sexual energy, or qi as traditional Chinese medicine calls it.
Our life force and sexual energy are one and the same and as is often the case emotions such as shame, fear, frustration or disgust are woven into our experiences of sexuality, causing physiological imprints that have overall knock on effects on one's general energy levels as well as our capacity to receive and integrate nourishment from life.
I have come across countless examples where the pelvis is the absent party in a story of deep disconnect between the upper and lower parts of the body. This separation that dares not speak its name is directly related to our difficulty to embrace and restore a healthy relationship with our sexual fire, with our will to be truly, fully alive.
For it is indeed what stimulates and underlies our zest for life, what spearheads our creativity, what interconnects us blissfully with the natural world and one another, what animates our spirit...
In fact what many monotheistic religions have done is remove the spiritual from this wild expression of ourselves, and perverted the mystical sacredness of sexuality, one that can nevertheless be enjoyed in the poetry of mystics and philosophers like St Theresa of Avila, Thomas Aquina, Rumi, Blaise Pascal and countless others who described the "fire" of their mystical union with God and the divine in so many eloquently rapturous ways.
Lest not forget that William Garner Sutherland's Breath of Life is sexual since it is potency made manifest, it is what creates life.
We are alive because we are sexual beings.
As biodynamic craniosacral therapists we support and facilitate the Breath of Life, but we rarely talk about sexual energy. Maybe because we are concerned with negative consequences or reactions on the part of our clients but also held back, naturally, by our very own cultural and personal projections.
Continuing to fuel a story of separation and fragmentation around on the one hand our sexuality exclusively related to matters of the bedroom and on the other our life force, our potency that animates our whole being is confusing.
They are one and the same thing.
It is indeed something that needs to be delicately and respectfully engaged with in clinical work as it is so charged with negative connotations and could be counterproductive if it tampers with our client's sense of safety.
I, for one, have only recently decided to name it in my practice.
This has meant challenging my own fears around tackling the subject, but once I reached an openness and a grounding around it in my inner being, I could meet my clients with simple questions such as:
What are the qualities of your inner fire?
How do you perceive your sexual power?
What kind of fruit, flower, what kind of animal would it be?
What colours would reflect it?
This triggered fun conversations that lightened the whole energy field, relieved their systems and uplifted their emotional selves.
In one case, a client realised how her sexual resistance affected the very expression of her creative self and her fulfilment of life. She very openly spoke about how it had negatively impacted her whole energetic expression.
She left super potentised and emotionally determined to enjoy this new lease of life!
It is notable that in many cases being recognised physiologically as well as verbally met go hand in hand to reach a powerful resolution in a craniosacral setting.
There is a deep need for responsible and respectful conversations around the sacred and beautiful nature of our sexual power precisely because it has been placed under wraps for so long.
It is no accident that there is an increasing number of workshops on offer about our sacred sexuality, the 'sacred pelvis'...as well as women's only and men's only circles that support and encourage explorations and revelations in safe environments.
I believe it is crucial as therapists to participate in this ongoing healing and re-sacralisation of our relationship with this mighty force.
While we can do this by supporting its healthier expression physiologically it is in my mind also crucial to meet it verbally whenever possible with all the respect and groundedness it commands.
This means healing our own relationship with sexual energy and letting go of our projections and cultural prejudices on the subject.
Ultimately it is by embracing who we are as essentially sexual beings that we can truly live in harmony with the expression of life everywhere on Earth and feel gratitude for its ever glowing fire.
Here is a beautiful poem by medieval mystic and philosopher: Meister Eckhart.
