Udja Aset Course Aspirants,
Re: After learning of the union, Set captured Asar and cut his body up into pieces and scattered them across the land and sea. Aset, with the assistance of Anpu and Nebthhet searched the world for Asar’s body parts and found all but the phallus (symbolizes serpent power, Asar as Seker)) which had been eaten by a fish.
I’m expanding on this for clarification for some who may not be as familiar with the myth. Aset finding all but the phallus is an important reference to the several points:
1) The importance of sublimation of the sexual energy. Instead of seeking to unite with time and space through physical relationships, the goal of Nehast is to be united with the Divine Self. This is the true meaning of Tantrism. The formal devotional practice of seeing the Divine in others is a tantric practice, to cultivate constant awareness of the Divine, even as one interacts with others in time and space (one sees their deeper divine essence) and thus, one’s mind is being trained to not be distracted by the personality of the individual that the physical eyes and senses are interacting with, but rather to see with the inner eye to the Divine essence, and being one with that Divine Essence. In this way, all relationships in time and space become tantric. And then one even extends this awareness to the Divine essence being the reality behind all objects in time and space…thus, the divine reality is what makes anything desirable to you desirable, so one no longer goes after “things”/objects, but the essence, the Divine, and therefore, when one interacts and sees “things/objects” with the physical senses, the inner eye only sees the Divine Self, and thus, again, there is unity with the Divine, tantrism.
Thus, celibacy (not having sexual relationships in the world of time and space), though it can be practiced as formal discipline of self control, is a natural development in the spiritual evolution of an advancing personality approaching Nehast, spiritual enlightenment. So, just the disciplinary practice of celibacy (not having sex) alone, without striving to see the divine in everyone, and as the essence of all things, will not lead to Nehast.
Also, if one is seeing the divine in all things, including the other person, sex will be controlled (for a householder/married person in a relationship where the oneself or the other partner has not spiritually “outgrown” the need for sense-pleasure of that nature) and will not be an obstruction to one’s spiritual evolution, as even in that act, as with any other act/interactions of time and space, one will be focusing on seeing the divine essence in the other person, and merging with that divine essence, rather than the bodily physical merging that is taking place.
There is a yoga parable of a drunk man who was seeking the help of a sage to stop drinking. This is a story and not to be taken literally. In these days, one must make such caveats. So, the sage advise the man to pour two drinks, one for him and one for God, and visualize God sitting across from him drinking with him. The man did this, and eventually, the wonderful feelings from the experience of being with God overpowered him, and the dull pleasure he got from drinking paled in comparison and so he stopped drinking, and just continued to enjoy being in the presence of God. The teaching of this parable is very important. What is enjoyed in all pleasures of the senses, dull, agitated, and agitated lucid, is not real pleasure. What people really want is to know God, to be in God’s presence. When that occurs, all else pales in comparison and desire for all else falls away, seemingly effortlessly.
If I place a bag or silver in front of you, and ask you if you want it, you may say, yes…I do. But if I place a bag of gold in front of you, and say, do you still want the silver, or the gold, the silver will loose its value, being replaced by your desire for the gold, for that which is of a higher value. Similar, as you have higher spiritual experiences (being in the presence of the Divine, being one with the Divine) through the Shedy practice, you will be able to let go of lower desires…seemingly effortlessly.
2) Also after Asr is resurrected by Aset, his physical body goes to the earth and becomes the life force in all the greenery/plants. This is the eucharist, when one eats “green” one is eating (mythological & mystically) the body of Asar, and becoming one with Asar. One is becoming physically healthy because green foods are generally healthier, and also one is becoming spiritually healthier, because one is acquiring the life force energy (Asr’s life force) for the astral nourishment. And one is also becoming One With Asar (the Divine Self)…moving towards Nehast.
3) And Asar’s soul essence goes to the Netherworld where he becomes Seker (Sokar), the King of the Netherworld. The netherworld is the Duat, and the Pert M Heru teaching from CHAPTER 8/23, states: “In this plane you have no physical body, therefore, you may live here through peace of heart. Moreover, there is no sexuality here, in place of water, air, bread, beer and lovemaking, I have given you the opportunity to attain the state of Akhu
together with peace of heart.” Thus, in the Duat, which encompasses the astral and causal planes of consciousness, the physical body is left out of this experience. And this reference is specifically a reference to the Anrutef (Nrutef), a higher plane of consciousness that is within the causal plane of the Duat. Thus, that Aset found all the pieces of body but the phallus also gives importance to the physical sexual experience being of lower value, and something that is not needed for the advanced spiritual aspirant, AND that the experience that one will have in the hither states of consciousnesses/spiritual realms, will be of greater value than anything of the physical realm (food, water, sex, etc. Everything in the physical realm will pale in comparison, and desires for these physical pleasures…to be happy…will fall away. Thus, one will also note increased “detachment” in one’s personality, detachment that is natural and not forced, true detachment that comes from attaching instead to the Divine.
This does not mean that aspirants should practice celibacy with force/strict discipline. Suppression of desire does not work and can make the desire grow later on…builds and then becomes overly exaggerated. Suppression of anything for spiritual purposes is only an initial quick fix/first step. It is through understand of the teachings related to the loss of Asar’s phallus and what that means that an aspirant can then sublimate (through deep reflective understanding and spiritual experiences that arise from Shedy) the sexual desire and practice celibacy…without force and feeling deprived and stressed. It is better to strive to have controlled sexual relationships (limited quantity and increased quality) than to be promiscuous, allowing the teaching to unfold and the natural expression of celibacy to develop in the personality, without stress and pressure.
Dua Shems Aset for bring up these points of the phallus and Seker.
HTP,
S. Dja
