SEX + DEATH = TWO BIG TABOOS
Sex + Death
I am fascinated with both of these topics. You probably guessed this with my being a palliative care nurse + art ninja (specifically an art ninja of the burlesque stripper variety).
For much of my life so far, these fields of passionate interest have been kept quite separate from another but there similarities and overlaps in both. It is challenging for me to articulate the complex, beautiful connections I see. The simplest one is this: sex + death are both profoundly connected with life + are transformative when infused with love. Sex + Death are also the most natural and organic experiences of life, essential to creation.
I am delighted to share with you a passage and two articles that discuss two frequently and unfortunately taboo subjects together.
These writings move and inspire me to reflect on both topics.
More thrillingly, the writings shine some light on topics that are so often kept in the dark.
Hoorah for illumination, delight for the path of inquiry leading to greater clarity, less fear and joyful abandonment.
Hoorah to creative life force + vitality!
Enjoy!
by Osho
"I have said that man is afraid of both sex and death. That's why they are taboos. No one talks about sex and no one talks about death. We remain silent about those two things. We have remained silent for centuries and centuries. They are taboo subjects, they should not even be mentioned. The moment they are mentioned, something starts trembling within us.
"It seems that there is a deep repression. That's why we have created substitute words. In the western world they do not say 'We are having sex.' They say 'We are making love.' It's a substitute word – and false, because love is a totally different dimension. Having sex is having sex, it is not making love. Love may include sex, but love has an altogether different quality.
"We never talk directly about death. If someone dies, we use substitute words. We say he has gone to the Father, or he has gone to heaven. Death is never faced directly.
"We have created many false phenomena around death and sex. If two people are going to be married, sex is not even mentioned – and they are going to be married for sex! We have created a great illusion around marriage, but the bare, naked fact is sex. We have created a ritual, a great ritual of marriage, just to hide the fact. Why?
"Why is there a taboo about only these two things?
They are deeply related.
The reason for their relationship is this: first, you are born out of sex, birth is sex. And birth and death are two poles of one thing. In birth, death is hidden. That's why man became aware of the deep relationship between sex and death. Death cannot happen without sex, just as birth cannot happen without sex."
Article 1: What a Funeral Taught Me About Polyamory | Article 2: Sex Toys in the Attic |