Sex as Symbol: The Ancient Light in Modern Psychology

There is a fell quality to the mating urge that gives it the force of a natural and unimpeachable authority, which appears for a time to sweep away every obstacle and override the obstructing power of every consideration, whether of advantage or injury. It carries a virtual cosmic sanction with it. -from "Love and Hate" How does gender and the sex drive manifest itself across human cultures? How is the dual nature of humanity-male and female, spiritual and physical, animal and divine-expressed in the tangible world? Alvin Boyd Kuhn, a prominent proponent of the early 20th-century doctrine of theosophy, which sought to find the universal truths that underlie all human religions, here explores the hidden connections across cultures that unify rites and customs found around the globe: circumcision, the secondary status of women, myths about communion with deities, and more. In fluid prose that approaches a stream-of-consciousness reverie, this treatise seeks to uncover a fundamental basis for human ideas about sex, gender, and love. American philosopher and scholar of comparative religion ALVIN BOYD KUHN (1880-1963) is also the author of Theosophy (1930) and The Lost Light (1940).