Ernst Tristan Kurtzahn Daiytanus · The Gnostics

Ernst Tristan Kurtzahn
Die Gnostiker
(1925)
Pages 77-84:

Mysteries of Sexual Magic

“A communicated secret never serves; in magic, the true science of secrets, no one has ever made anything of what he merely read: one must drill one’s own artesian well into the secret …”
Sar Pelandan. [sic]

If a contemporary female Gnostic (Valerie Gyigyi) can write:

“And God formed men after His own image. The original state of self-awareness was however spirit and not material; or spiritual self-awareness. God gave this form of man a mate, or rather the form sprang forth and divided itself in two—the stronger half being the male who also keeps the seed as law, while the weaker half to this day bleeds in any place where the nodes of life are located.”

— then this already indicates a high degree of knowledge.
What is of tremendous importance in this quotation? It is the mentioning of the seed which remains the divine possession of man.
Of what does the seed consist? Of Spirit and Water (Water is here used exclusively in the material sense, as it is the vehicle of the Spirit).
It says in the Gospel of John [3:5]:

            “Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of  God.”

Further, it is asserted in Luke 8, verse 11:

            “Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God.”

And finally, in the Gospel of John, chapter 1, verses 1 to 5:

            “1. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
            “2. The same was in the beginning with God.
            “3. All things were made by him: and without him was not any thing made that was made.
            “4. In him was life: and the life was the light of men.
            “5. And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.”

From these quotations — which many people take to be synonymous with all old religious scriptures — it can be seen that the seed alone is being referred to. It is the vehicle of the spirit and as such exclusive to the man.
It cannot be made any clearer that there are just three things that can be done with the seed:

• One can keep it to oneself;
• One can use it for begetting;
• One can wilfully waste it on all manner of pleasures.

For Gnostics points two and three are wholly excluded, so that point one alone remains: the man retains his seed and uses it, the “Son”, the light-seed, the lower Christ, as the way to the FATHER, for himself as well as for his wife.
Can nothing then proceed except through retention of the seed? We must respond; only with extremely rare exceptions, and only with true Gnostics i.e. Pneumatikoi, of whom Jesus was one.
For everyone else another path comes into question, whose requirement is the true Gnostic marriage.
Firstly anyone and everyone can and should strive to transform themselves into a spiritual Androgyne (man-woman) or else a spiritual Gynander (woman-man). The method for this has already been given in the chapter  entitled “Way to Gnosis”, where what was said about breathing should be kept primarily in mind.
Apart from this, each spouse in whom the Gnostic spirit rules, can balance their  corresponding androgyne or g y n a n d e r, as will be seen in the remaining part of this exposition.
The creation of a spiritual androgyne or a gynander alone is not sufficient, for none shall come to the father save through Me, the Son! (John 14:6).
As on the earthly plane with bodily begetting, which shall be no more, as man is called home through Christ, the man is the giver and the woman is the receiver. So woman cannot be redeemed except through man, and in fact through anointing with the light-seed, which the man (as we have seen) reserves to himself, since in his physical seed or water, Spirit is bound to matter.
We must now seemingly digress to make ourselves better understood.
Has anyone yet made it clear exactly why mankind stands and walks erect?
Those who know the works of Peryt Shou (published in Berlin and Leipzig, among others M-Wellen und der sechste Sinn d. Menschen [‘M-Waves and Mankind’s Sixth Sense’]), will of course know already that it is a matter of energy, which he describes as M-rays. These are an immense cosmic force, found in all mankind as the ruling power of the Sun-spirit (Iswara). Man is part of this energy-current which links the Sun to the Earth. Thus by day he goes about erect, and by night, when the M-waves are absent due to the altered position of the sun, he lies horizontal.
It is thus necessary for the man to consciously alter  his seed, so that it becomes part M-wave.
With this in view breathing exercises must surely be employed, a new nerve-centre being formed in the chest, whereby the light-seed is raised from the genitals into this newly-created centre and from there over the nerve-centre in the larynx to the pineal gland, whereby the link with the M-waves, according to the will and through every conscious bodily action, permits self-realisation.
This is the place for a serious warning: these exercises, even merely tentative versions of them, are intended solely for those people who have already taken the way and the paths to Gnosis described above and have not deviated from them by a finger’s breadth. Let it be well noted: every uncalled person breaks upon this, spiritually and physically. One must not forget that these exercises, such as those for forming a new nerve-centre, concern the highest priestly knowledge, matters communicated by Christ to his disciples from mouth to ear; and because of their immense power they are certainly no hobby for a respectable Mr Smith or a good-hearted Mrs Jones.
It will hence be apparent that if one has only just learnt the exercises and concepts in the uncommonly important works of Peryt Shou, which are not (thank goodness) understandable to everyone due to his highly scientific language, one can refer to the statement of Oskar Schmitz as found in his Gnostic-astrological work Der Geist der Astrologie [‘The Spirit of Astrology’] (Munich 1922, Georg Müller) on page 233:

“Gods are those beings whose matter has been so developed under the pressure of the divine that the latter shines through not merely exceptionally, as in the human being, but always. It is no longer a matter of saving humanity, but of saving from humanity; and this is perhaps what today drives a few who know to speak aloud, and for the first time in clear language, what earlier knowers at most hinted at as most secret, at the risk that the uncalled will break upon knowledge dangerous to them. Yes, their rapid destruction seems to be intended. Their own baseness and blindness executes the judgement. They have destroyed beauty; now they hurl themselves upon knowledge as well …”

These words are just, and we adopt them as our own.
If one is seriously minded to tread the Gnostic path of salvation in the sense of primitive Christian secret knowledge, and has convinced oneself through tests that one possesses the absolutely necessary perseverance, then one should gradually be introduced by a qualified and experienced source. There are such Gnostic schools — for example, the “Gnostic School” of Pastor E. C. H. Peithmann, Ph.D., at Südhemmern, district of Minden in Westphalia, preceded by a stay at the “Sanatorium for Diet-Reform” at Lehmrade near Mölln in Lauenburg — which attempt this, but always leave it to the persons concerned whether they advance or not, since they know the truth of the saying: nobody becomes an initiate except through themself.
If the man and the woman succeed in becoming either a spiritual androgyne or gynander, or are on the path towards that state, it is the man as the vessel of the light-seed who must advance and raise this light-seed at least as far as the newly-formed nerve-centre in the chest through certain breathing-exercises (and the woman creates her chest-centre through certain breathing-exercises); only then can the consummation of Gnostic marriage occur through purity of heart.
With this there can be under no circumstances any ejaculatio seminis [seminal ejaculation], rather it is a case of a gentle immissio membri virilis in vaginam [penetration of the male member into the vagina], but only in a calm manner and under the complete control of both partners.

Here three works of further use may be mentioned:

• I.W. Lloyd: Die Methode Karezza oder Magnetation (Die Kunst der ehelichen Liebe. Der Liebende ist ein Künstler des Gefühls) [‘The Karezza Method or Magnetation (The Art of Married Love. The Lover is an artist of feeling)’] Amers Fort (Holland) Publ. by Veen-Verlag (80 pages).
• Mrs. Stockham, M.D.: Die Reform-Ehe (Eine Ehe auf vollständig neuer Grundlage zur Erhöhung der Daseins-freude und zur Veredlung des Menschengeschlechts) [‘Marriage Reform (Marriage as a completely new foundation for improving well-being and ennobling human sexuality)’] Stuttgart, Wilhelm Digel.
• Alice Stockham M.D., and H.B. Fischer: Die Brautehe [‘Bridal Marriage’] Leipzig, successors to E. Fischer.

During intercourse of this kind, which may extend to about a small hour, one should hold fast in thought the feeling of union with the source of all being and surrender to the unnamed rapture arising from that feeling; as stated, no emission may occur, and this is much easier to achieve through the mentioned mental orientation than one might assume.
Further, as the two bodies rest chest to chest, so will the nerve-centres in the chest newly-created through breathing-exercises come close together, and thus provide uncommon encouragement to a mutual spiritual androgyny.
As the human soul resides in the blood, so the adjacent body-parts of the marriage-partner will succeed in the aim of balancing polarities from the androgynous point of view.
Only in this way, through the radiant light-seed of the gnostically developed man alone, can woman be redeemed from the realm of the lower Demiurge and, with impeccable righteousness in works and good deeds alongside it, advance as far as the lower Pleroma (table: section II); there is no other path of redemption for woman.
Since only the man can lead her back to the Home of Light by serving her, as indicated, through his own ennoblement, it falls to her to serve him in whatever may be necessary, so as to promote his spiritual perfection wherever she knows and can — which perfection also means her own salvation.
Do not forget: woman was broken out of the androgyne, receiving beauty as a substitute for the seed that remained with the man. As Eve she pressed toward matter, toward the earth, and the man followed her, carried away by her beauty. Let woman now, therefore, carried away by the male spirit, follow the homesick man back again into the paradise of the Pleroma.
One may still hear the same voice today: we are called homewards…
The woman should therefore serve the man according to her powers, especially by relieving him of the small cares of everyday life, since he must already struggle sufficiently with the great cares; and through Gnostic marriage she will be richly rewarded for her service. (The woman being harmonious and not of an opposite pole, in the sense of the next chapter!)
We would note here that the conduct of Gnostic marriage, as we have indicated it, is already a test of whether one may count oneself among the called — those who would correspond to Hans Blüher’s Primären [‘Primaries’] (cf. Die Aristie des Jesus von Nazareth). One should not imagine that there are very many of them, not even many. Those who cannot keep their seed to themselves, who must use it for begetting or waste it for pleasures of whatever kind, are the Secondaries, the petit-bourgeois, and so forth; they may safely leave heaven to the angels and the sparrows, and must labour here in the iron bondage of the lower Demiurge until they have paid all that they owe.
But any Primary will never taste death, whether terrestrial or astral; as Pneumatikoi, as spiritualised beings,  they will continue to speed towards their eternal home of light, the Pleroma. —
Although we are fully aware that we have given only hints here, they are nevertheless numerous enough to show every earnest seeker a beginning that he may now put into practice within himself.
In connection with this we would also mention two small writings that might serve as supports on this path, although we are and remain of the opinion that each person must find the light only through and within themself, and should strive toward it — as the opening motto of this subsection expresses in other words.

• Ali Bakûr: Die Sphinx im Menschen, [‘The Sphinx in Men’ Schmiedeberg & Leipzig, F.E. Baumann. Price: stitched 2.50, bound 4 marks. To be had of any bookseller.
• W. Omar: Geistige & leibliche Wiedergeburt [‘Spiritual and Physical Reincarnation’] in the Book of Healing & Fulfilment ECCE HOMO part II. Geber-VERLAG Freiburg.