we may know that the
earth is on its involutionary path; the end of a cycle is at hand, and
social unrest and marital upheaval are inevitable, because Love is in
the ascendant and love demands _union_--not merely matrimony.

The Ancients sought to express the never-beginning and never-ending
law of Sex by the symbol of the serpent with its tail in its mouth,
forming a circle. The resemblance of the male sperm to the spiral
convolutions of the serpent in motion, doubtless gave rise to the
adoption of the serpent as a symbol of sex-worship. The retention and
transmutation of the sex-force is typified by the serpent forming a
circle. The circle represents the attainment of godhood--victory over
death through _regeneration_.

It has been said that the most primal instinct is that of hunger, but
without Sex there would not be even the urge toward physical
sustenance. Sex is therefore both the urge and the answer to all
instincts.

There is a very general idea that Sex is a physical function only. It
is almost universally taught that when the life of the body ceases,
sex-life ceases with it. Even among metaphysicians, who believe in the
continuity of life after death, the absurd doctrine is taught that Sex
has no place or part in spiritual life, that "there is no marriage nor
giving in marriage" after death.

This idea has been a powerful deterrent in keeping the race from
seeking the higher areas of spiritual consciousness. Lack of mere
physical vitality has erroneously been estimated as evidence of
spirituality. Chastity has unfortunately been counterfeited by mere
physical restraint, resulting in a type of human being whom the
healthy, normal person instinctively refuses to emulate, deferring as
long as possible the attainment of that which has been presented to
the mind as "spirituality."

Let it be understood at the outset of this presentation of the problem
of Sex that we state emphatically, that Sex is an eternal verity. Its
spiritual function is not _less_ but infinitely _more_ than that which
we glimpse on the physical plane of life-expression.

Far from outgrowing what we know as human love, we add thereunto a
million fold, refining, purifying and _intensifying_ the sex instinct
until it bears a relationship to the average instance of
sex-expression, analogous to that which the single-celled organism
bears to intellectual man. If we will keep in mind the fact that Life
in all its degrees of manifestation is