Finny's News and Views.: Intergration of Saint and Slut.    
 Intergration of Saint and Slut.9 comments
11 Jan 2002 @ 18:36, by John Finn

The Integration of the Saint and the Slut.

The intention of this short reflection is to open up a discussion on sexuality from an archetypal perspective. In the hope that this will in turn shed more light on some of the confusing behaviours that so often accompanies sexual relationships. Despite the abundance of sex manuals and therapies, it is my personal experience and my observation that there is still a need for more understanding regarding this fundamental and powerful activity. By just understanding our sexual behaviours and/or 'dysfuctions' with the interpretations provided by mainstream psychology, I believe we run the risk of limiting ourselves to mere pathologies. If we only look with the eyes of the head and the heart, without expanding our vision to include the area of the soul we are left with insufficient depth to understand the wholeness of a full and soulful connection to human sexuality. I'm not intending to take away from the valuable insights and healing that various psychological approaches have provided. In fact if you haven't gleaned some insight or emotional competency as a result of exploring your childhood material, and its influence on your adult self, then an archetypal perspective probably won't mean a lot to you.



The Pathology: as children and teenagers we are often feed on a diet of sexual taboos, and/ or a wall of silence. We are given conflicting and illogical information about sex and sexuality. Some of the common messages are; "its dirty down there", "sex is sinful", "cover yourself up", "sex is sacred", "sex outside of marriage is bad", "if you enjoy sex you are a slut", "it's rude to talk about sex", "virginity is to be saved for the marriage bed", "virginity is whole, otherwise you are damaged goods". "Penises are ugly, yuk", its shameful to be interested in sex", "guys are interested in only one thing". "Women like it hard and fast". "Men are studs". What so often happens is that we acquire complexes regarding our own sexuality. These are filled with shame, confusion, guilt and dishonesty. Not to mention the effect of inappropriate behaviours such as sexual abuse, sexual shaming etc. This is confusing as along side the societal denial of sexuality are the bombardment of overt sexual messages from nearly every area of mass media. What I will be suggesting (if you read on) is that in order avoid the debilitating effect of complexes and to manage all the conflicting and confusing information, the numerous injunctions, that in order to retain our sexual energies we develop the two major sub-archetypes or personas. These are responses to the sexuality flowing through us. This energy is actually the natural expression of the human sex impulse, which on one hand is the biological imperative to procreate and on the other hand, much more contentious, contains the impulse towards pleasure and transcendence.

In order to understand the energetic link to our sexuality I am proposing an archetypal model that utilises the archetype of the 'Lover' and gives it two dominant aspects, each with is shadow side. I've called these aspects or sub-archetypes the Saint and the Slut. These distinctive aspects have come into being as a response to personal and societal repression, pushing against the powerful need to express sexuality. In order to be sexual beings in an environment that denies, closets and demonises sexuality, we have created persona's to express what is in fact irrepressible.





SAINT: Spiritual surrender, soulful connection, non-attached. Attuned to subtle energies. Loyal, faithful, visionary,
compassionate, empathic, unconditionally loving,
sacred sex.
Shadow: Overly spiritualising, righteously disgusted,
ashamed, controlling, deluded, overly moralising, judgmental..

SLUT: Sexually free, adventurous, assertive, experienced.
Erotic, provocative, in tune with body, openly sexy, amoral.
Shadow: Sexual addictions, secretive, promiscuous,
sexually using, betraying, dishonest, obsessive, immoral.

My contention is that we most often translate our sexual energy into one or other sub-archetype either we are predominantly Saint or perhaps more often Slut. What is required in this model is an integration of the Saint and the Slut. Equal sharing, a partnership of the energy. This I believe cannot happen without acknowledging the shadow sides. For it is the shadow sides that given free range, cause the impasse that so many experience, and seems to be what the sex industry depends on for its massive growth.

The dynamics of this in order to have an integrative sexual experience are; the Slut and the Saint need to be there at the same time. Most of us I suspect are either functioning from one or the other. Thus we are either the considerate, spiritually attuned lover, gently riding the waves of pleasure or the hot passionate rodeo rider. Not often both during the same time. This is not an acting out of roles or behaviours this is as an energetic connection to sexual energy. To have the Saint and Slut functioning together is difficult as they seem to be the antithesis of each other, but in fact they are not. However the shadow Saint is the antithesis of the Slut and the shadow Slut is that for the Saint. So what can happen is when the energetic link is made to the Slut, the shadow Saint will facilitate a connection to righteous disgust or shame. As for the Saint, the shadow Slut makes it difficult to even access it, with its compulsive addictive attributes, afraid of the threat of the sacred. The Saint on its own is too ethereal, lacking in groundedness, it needs the energy of the Slut to place it firmly in the human experience, otherwise it can be like two people meditating together. Which is probably very fine sex, however I think that instead of just two individual experiences, we can share an integrative experience. If there is only Saint energy then there is imbalance. This can be seen in some of the Eastern practices and sex manuals where sex becomes highly technical and ritualistic. As in some Tantric practices which requires much discipline and tends to take prescribed forms. These practices I am sure can improve sexual connection and are valuable expressions for the Saint aspect.

The Slut energy on its own is too overwhelming and amoral. It needs the spiritual quality of the Saint to refine the experience and place it within a context, to give it love and higher purpose. Surrendering to just the Slut can provide some fine sexual experiences but runs the risk of aimless repeats or pleasure just for the sake of it. The Slut needs the Saint to grow.

Where the real problems occur are within the shadows especially the shadow Slut. Particularly problematic when we are unconscious of the shadow, and thus become contracted with one or other aspect. In relationships we can trigger each others shadow easily. The Slut most commonly triggering the shadow Saint in the other person. In other words we can be overwhelmed by the powerful passionate energy of the Slut and retreat into judgement or moralising. Conversely, the shadow Slut intimidated by the depth and sacredness of the Saint may find it all a bit boring..............



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9 comments

11 Jan 2002 @ 19:20 by istvan : More ... nore
Glad to see your Website. Your obsevations are brilliant and seem so true.  

12 Jan 2002 @ 00:04 by mmmark : Intelligence
Finny, you have shown once again that the search for truth is rewarded in consciousness.  

12 Jan 2002 @ 00:40 by kay : I wrote a lengthy response and lost the
..........internet connection without knowing it. So when I went to post, everything dumped. I am in process of going through a nine month initiation process of the Magdelene Priestess. Part of our personal work is our sexual story. It is deep soul searching. Three months into my relationship with Wayne, we learn that he has prostrate cancer. This was very much a low blow to the both of us. Wayne was the most attentive lover that I have ever known in my life and it was devastating to lose that connection until I was able to move out of the sterotype and into the realm of soul. Our relationship has moved from sexual, sensual and head, heart into another dimension. The level of soul that can incorporate all the needs into a bigger picture.In order to get needs met we have had to experiment with the unconventional. Today we go on with the flow of our lives. He still works, we still have dinner parties and hold meditation group gatherings, but the love that flows through and around us is hard to miss because the soul connection is strong. But so is sensuality. There is a book that helped me see some of the Archetype.
It is Women of the Light: The new Sacred Prostitute. Editied by Kenneth Ray Stubbs, Ph.D.
It is the stories of nine women. Women of the night - women of the light: The sacred prostitute, the temple Priestess, the sexual healer. The embodiement of the Archetypal Goddess. Who is she today? Without a continuing lineage, without a temple, the contempory sacred prostitue has many faces. today she is:
The porn Star- Juliet Carr, The Sex Surrogate- Barbara Roberts, The meditation Teacher- Jwala, The group Sex Hostess, Shell Freye, The artist, Betty Dodson, The Masseuse- Carolyn Elderberry, The call Girl- Carol Queen, The Fire Woman- Stephanie Rainbow Lightening Elk, The nurse- Kathryn.
The book concludes with a well written piece: From Sexual Stereotype to Archetype. There is a good resourse Appendices.

Today I often refer to Wayne as my Cosmic Gift. He is. We have used our sexual energy to help each of us heal and when we become sexually active again in the traditional sense we will have had one huge attitude adjustment. We will be much more aware of our own needs and each others because we are aware now and we are meeting needs in creative flowing ways that include the emotions, the physical, the spiritual and the psyche. The energy that we use and work with is healing us of a dis-ease that not everyone is able to overcome. Getting real is a starting point.  

12 Jan 2002 @ 16:51 by sharie : The Dual Shadows of Archetype & Culture
Thank you Finny for initiating this discussion. Thank you Kay for your honest and insightful sharing. I'd been looking at our whole culture - capitalism, inequality among human beings, poverty (economically and morally), mass murder by the corporations - and I'd been looking at the pedophiles, the rapists, the womanizers, the bar-hoppers, the people *using* other human beings, the complete disregard for the well-being of one another, and I'd been thinking about the divorce rate - I think it's up to 60% now. I appreciate the connections you make about how our love relationships trigger the shadow side of our sexual archetype. I just want to add that to really understand what's going on, we need to look at the capitalist culture that we're enmeshed in. The Capitalist value system puts personal profit and self-aggrandizement first and foremost. If we lived in a cooperative community, rather than a competitive rat race, where everyone's out to get everyone else's money and assets, I think our need for marriage and commitment would dwindle, and people would choose mates for entirely different reasons - perhaps more soulful and sensual, more fulfilling and more caring. Then perhaps people would stay in committed relationships longer. I'd love us to talk more about the shadow side of our sexuality and why we stick out our buttons just to have them get pushed, I just felt I needed to add this other dimension of our capitalist culture in order for us to more fully understand the dynamics. Thank you all so much for your comments.

with love,
sharie  

12 Jan 2002 @ 17:32 by finny : The saint and Slut
Points well made sharie. It doesn't all happen in a vacuum. The consumerist, materialist, image ridden environment supports and encourages us to stay unconscious and or on the surface.  

13 Jan 2002 @ 10:47 by istvan : "From sex to suprconsciousness"
"When conditioned selves meet, they bring all the politics os status,social warfare, and wretched work-lives With them. All this is to be dissolved in one breef moment of unconsciois orgasmic relief. This itself is a joke. Simple genitel release was never meant to compensate for souch a false existence yet this is the attempted solution of compensation for millions of Homo sapiens. After che act (of love or sexuality) there may be a momentary relaxation, but it is the the self that is reinforced. The mini-death of the self in the "act" was uncinscious. It goes Unrealised that it is this death that is the core of the transforming function. The self does not want to remain aware if it's death, so the moment is brief and unconscious and filled with momentary pleasure. While this sel-pleasure dualism also beings pain,the absence of self brings Joy, with no opposing term. The immediate apperception of this is what is sought behind all the substitute programs or compensations of live or sex. Being this Joy is the natural Alchemical outcome of of transformed sexual energy in this context. If it were possible to bring attention into the unconsciousness of this game, a new being other than the unconscious self might emerge."From the book:TRANSCENDENCE By:M.F.Taylor
***What he is saying shortly That the brief period of orgasm is but an opportunity, a glimpse into a state of delight of what it is to be without the ego. Where the ego is, there is no orgasm/delight.  

13 Jan 2002 @ 14:37 by bushman : Hmm
Well ok, this story I found, may be of intrest to this discusion. Seems that syncronicity abounds these days, hey, finny, lol, when you start something like this, know that it will go global. :}
http://www.rense.com/general19/down.htm  

15 Jan 2002 @ 13:53 by sharie : Orgasmic Opportunities
Sexuality is an aspect of our Self, an intense energy that propels us and motivates us to be the divinity of our self - our rapture - awakening us to our power, bliss, and love. Our sexuality communicates who we are.  

16 Jan 2002 @ 20:59 by peazritr : ::the problem is the pathologies pov::
welcome finny to the newciv net! i like how you say: "By just understanding our sexual behaviours and/or 'dysfuctions' with the interpretations provided by mainstream psychology, I believe we run the risk of limiting ourselves to mere pathologies." i too believe we are at risk & overburdened by the mainstream pathological point of view & not just in terms of our sexuality.  

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