Our language is pathetically inadequate at accurately representing the aspects of our being often described by it. You do not ‘have’ a soul any more than you ‘have’ a body. How can you possess that with which possession is possible? Similarly, you do not ‘have’ a mind — that with which ‘having’ is apprehended. The true character of the soul and our relationship with and to it remains largely inaccessible to language.

The soul is a -=way of becoming=-, a kind of living path, which might be understood as an array of potentials, processes, and (nonordinary) abilities which, unless and until they are awakened, remain largely in a state of dormant potentiality.

Sexuality has long been associated with magical activity and ritual, in part because what we call an orgasm may be understood as a brief and limited experience of the nature and senses of the soul, effected by the peculiar circumstances and physical tensions that precede and elicit it. These forces focus and compress our physical senses and our relational capacities, producing a moment of ecstatic tension where we gain a brief and partial experience of the soul’s active presence.

Our common cultural stories about our nonordinary nature are confusing and pseudoreligious… but the actual nature of the soul is profound and limitless. Crisis, ecstasy, attentive intention, or deep stillness may lead us into a direct experience of this… providing the spark which brings her anatomy and activity to the light of awareness and, if we are fortunate, the exquisite flame of ongoing development and active presence in and as our experience.