Sexual Ritual
Sexual rituals fall into two categories: culture-created, and natural behaviour, the human animal having developed sex rituals from evolutionary instincts for reproduction, which are then integrated into society, and elaborated to include aspects such as marriage rites, dances, etc. Arguably indeed, 'sex in its more ritualized and symbolic varieties...has moulded the shape of civilization'.
Sometimes sexual rituals are highly formalized and/or part of religious activity, as in the cases of Hieros gamos, the hierodule and the OTO. Contemporary sacred sexual rituals have been tagged as 'structured, symbolic, manifestation, ceremonies, tradition, everyday, habit, grounding, magic, solemn'.
Read more about Sexual Ritual: Rites of Passage, Interaction Ritual, Compulsions, Tibetan Art, Private Worship, Literature
Famous quotes containing the word ritual:
“We must get back into relation, vivid and nourishing relation to the cosmos and the universe. The way is through daily ritual, and is an affair of the individual and the household, a ritual of dawn and noon and sunset, the ritual of the kindling fire and pouring water, the ritual of the first breath, and the last.”
—D.H. (David Herbert)