Yes, I'm being serious.
I was reading up some articles on the subject of the Mormon responses to gay marriage etc. when suddenly it dawned me: Mormons are practicing a kind of ('heretical', by most other denominations' standards) Christian Sex-magic. Its the reason why, while at the same time that they might not be as directly judgmental or angry as certain other Christian sects at the thought of widespread social acceptance of gay marriage or the reality of transgenderism, they will have a much harder time ever being able to accept those things. They can't, it doesn't fit in their system.
You see.. shit, where do I even begin to explain what I'm talking about? Ok, first of all, let's start very simple: Almost all modern christian denominations consider "family" a really important value (this in spite of Jesus having famously told his followers to abandon and even 'hate' theirs). But Catholics, or Baptists, or whatever generally consider 'family' important for a number of exoteric reasons: social cohesion, they think that its the best way of bringing up children, the transmission of values, etc.
On the other hand, for Mormons, family is one of the absolutely CENTRAL elements of their spiritual practice. You know that part in most christian weddings where the couple take their vows and say "till death do us part"? Death is the parting-moment because for most Christians marriage is a worldly phenomenon; some denominations (Catholics, for example) even famously consider that its a better spiritual state to be utterly chaste and unmarried.
But Mormons? They don't have that "death do us part" bit. No, you see, they get "sealed" in marriage, for all eternity.
Ok, that's sweet and kind of creepy, you say; fine, Mormons get married for all eternity, but where does the sex magic come in?
I was reading up some articles on the subject of the Mormon responses to gay marriage etc. when suddenly it dawned me: Mormons are practicing a kind of ('heretical', by most other denominations' standards) Christian Sex-magic. Its the reason why, while at the same time that they might not be as directly judgmental or angry as certain other Christian sects at the thought of widespread social acceptance of gay marriage or the reality of transgenderism, they will have a much harder time ever being able to accept those things. They can't, it doesn't fit in their system.
You see.. shit, where do I even begin to explain what I'm talking about? Ok, first of all, let's start very simple: Almost all modern christian denominations consider "family" a really important value (this in spite of Jesus having famously told his followers to abandon and even 'hate' theirs). But Catholics, or Baptists, or whatever generally consider 'family' important for a number of exoteric reasons: social cohesion, they think that its the best way of bringing up children, the transmission of values, etc.
On the other hand, for Mormons, family is one of the absolutely CENTRAL elements of their spiritual practice. You know that part in most christian weddings where the couple take their vows and say "till death do us part"? Death is the parting-moment because for most Christians marriage is a worldly phenomenon; some denominations (Catholics, for example) even famously consider that its a better spiritual state to be utterly chaste and unmarried.
But Mormons? They don't have that "death do us part" bit. No, you see, they get "sealed" in marriage, for all eternity.
Ok, that's sweet and kind of creepy, you say; fine, Mormons get married for all eternity, but where does the sex magic come in?
(as the magic underwear shows, I'm not saying Sex Magic is always Sexy)
The answer is in the esoteric elements of Mormon religion: the reason why Mormons consider marriage, and specifically man-woman marriage so important, is because of those wackier beliefs they have where they don't look much like regular Christians at all. You see, for Mormons, you don't just go to heaven when you die, you go off to become rulers of another planet, much like the Mormon version of God rules from the planet Kolob. You (a man, of course) go to your new world with your wife (originally wives) and children to rule as a patriarch and new father-god.
Sex is so important in Mormon mystical theology that Mormon doctrine claims that Jesus had married and had children; some say this was so that Joseph Smith could claim to be a physical descendant of Christ, but this is really just a by-product; the real reason is that it is through "sealing", through creating an earthly family that mirrors that of "heavenly father", and doing so successfully, one will be judged worthy to be elevated to the status of a god.
This is classic Sex-magic practices right there. Its only a few steps divorced from the sort of stuff you'd find Crowley writing about, or what you'd see in some Eastern Tantric or Taoist Alchemical stuff.
Now don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that Mormons are sex-maniacs or something like that (I'm sure that like all the rest of us, some are, and some aren't). The "sex magic" they're doing is clearly of a very prudish orthodox sort (particularly after they got rid of "plural marriage"), filled with family values and cheesy music and goofy-looking dresses that don't show any skin; its not a Bacchanalia.
But the essential formula is a magical formula: to get to become a god you must:
a) be baptized in the faith
b) obtain priesthood status (which, by the way, gives you all kinds of magic powers, like the authority to lead prayers or to lay on hands in blessing)
c) discover the inner mysteries of the temple (with its aprons, veils, and secret-handshakes all borrowed from Masonic ritual)
d) be "sealed" in a divine wedding that binds you to a female soul for all eternity (originally it could be more than one female soul).
e) produce offspring and raise them successfully
all while keeping to the other general doctrines of the Mormon faith.
If you do these things, then you undergo an apotheosis, becoming a God, and going with your wives and unmarried children to form a divine family, where you in turn will create worlds and populate them with spirits that may also one day have a chance to become gods of their own.
So anyways, this is the reason why even if Mormons could choose to act nice about it, they just can't ever accept gays and lesbians, much less the transgendered, as part of the "plan". Its why people like Orson Scott Card (Mormon) or Glenn Beck (Mormon) lose their shit at how GLBT will "destroy civilization": note, not just 'is sinful' or 'depraved' or something like that, but "destroy civilization"; because it RUINS THE MAGICK FORMULA, and thus brings down the collapse of sacred culture as surely as the White Jewish-Christian Pre-Columbian North American "Nephites" were brought down into wickedness (and eventually destroyed by the evil Black-skinned Pre-Columbian North American "Lamanites") as it is written in the Book of Mormon.
The sex magick formula Mormons use is very strict: Man (Priesthood Holder prereq) + Woman (Sealed to him in the Temple) + offspring (the product of their sexual alchemy & producing a full and proper mirror of the celestial family of Heavenly Father) = Kolob/Godhood!
It can't be man + man, or woman + woman, or Man + Woman-who-was-born-male, or any other combination because then the babies don't happen; no babies means no planet (because you only need to be God of your own planet if you're going to produce celestial-children who will in turn continue the process).
So there we go. I should add before I close, though, that you shouldn't get all self-righteous about those wacky Mormons. Most religions have a ritual magick undertone to them, when you scratch the surface deeply enough; certainly all Christianity does. Its because religion is really just one big cargo-cult for magick, when it comes down to it. Of course the difference is that, like a cargo cult, their abandoned relics of once-useful technology doesn't actually work anymore.
RPGPundit
Currently Smoking: Lorenzetti Solitario Rhodesian + C&D's Pirate Kake
(originally posted November 19, 2013)
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