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ANXIETY |
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APHRODITE It is difficult for the Christian mentality to understand how the Goddess of beauty and sexual love represents a civilizing power, since the religions originating in Judaism (Christianity and Islam) imposed the idea that sexual pleasure is a concession to the animal instinct and is therefore less than human. God, soul, and mind are thought to be absent during sexual intimacy, sex being referred to as a “primate need.” So deeply entrenched is this attitude that, when we undertake the rehabilitation of sex, it seems natural to begin by praising nature and bodily love, rather than by proclaiming sexuality as an expression of spirituality and civilization. Aphrodite’s gift of beauty surpasses that which simply pleases the eye; it is more than formal perfection of the partner. It is rather the beauty which springs from the deep sexual encounter and which has the power of transmuting the physical experience into ecstasy. From sexual love to beauty, from beauty to ecstasy – such is the Aphrodisiacal sequence. Pleasure is of great importance because it is the key, but pleasure can be considered as a means rather than an end, as a path leading to the spirituality of Aphrodite. -- Ginette Paris, Pagan Meditations
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