All the theistic traditions teach that the Divine, the Sacred Source, dwells within us, besides being pervasive throughout the universe. Yet, while God lives in me" may be a basic tenet of faith, it is rarely our moment-to-moment reality. More likely we experience ourselves as separate entities, separate from "God." We place the Divine outside ourselves, and wonder why we feel unintegrated. We are not bad or wrong for doing this; we can't help but perceive ourselves as discrete elements in creation, even though contemporary physics indicates we are all one energy. Without knowing this in our guts, however, we are simply missing a fuller experience of wholeness. Spiritual practice, from all traditions, is about remembering or reexperiencing this wholeness, our lack of separation.

Because everything shares the one energy, everything shares the force of the Divine. Hence, everything is inherently sacred, including the body. Unquestionably, sex can provoke and reinforce this wondrous recognition. Because sex can be simultaneously so physical and even raw, as well as so blissful and heart expanding, it can integrate heaven and earth, body and soul, self and universe. Sexuality has always been inherently sacred, despite what certain institutions have taught or legislated throughout the ages. There have always been groups of practitioners, faith traditions, or wise individuals and teachers who have proclaimed the beauty and truth of the human form; the goodness of human love; the wonder of pleasure; the profound gift of our participation with the Source of Life in the very act of creation. Anyone with the genuine inclination to use the body and lovemaking as an expression of worship, of prayer, of mutual adoration, is already approaching the realm of sacred sexuality. The mysteries of this realm reveal themselves slowly, over time, to those who set their hearts in the right direction.

Sacred sexuality is not about generating better sex, freer sex, more ritualized sex as a way of magnifying our orgasms. Rather, it is meant to fully integrate life and to draw the partners beyond their egos. Through mutual surrender and alignment with the Divine, the partners offer themselves to one another and to God. Their offering is a prayer, an act of universal love, a movement into a more profound communion with the Whole. How does the idea of worshipping your lover strike you? A little strange, perhaps? Yet, this is precisely the meaning of sacred sexuality. The lover or partner is viewed essentially as an embodiment of divine potential, the Beloved itself, or as the cocreator with the Divine in the act of perpetuating life.

When we approach our sexual intimacy as an act of sacred merger, we also heal our sexual wounds. As author Mariana Caplan states so well in her book To Touch Is to Live: "Sacred sexuality has the potential to heal the wounds created by false conditioning, body shame, self-denial, and self-hatred, revealing within our bodies the sacred temple where God has always lived, albeit disregarded."

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