3. True Conjugal Love Unites a Man, a Woman and God
World Scripture
When a man is at home, the foundation of his house is the wife, for it is on account of her that the Shekhinah (divine Presence) does not depart from the house. So our teachers have understood the verse, “And Isaac brought her into his mother Sarah’s tent” (Genesis 24.67), to mean that the Shekhinah came into Isaac’s house along with Rebecca. Esoterically speaking, the supernal Mother is together with the male only when the house is in readiness and at the time the male and female are conjoined. At such time blessings are showered forth by the supernal Mother upon them.12
Zohar 1.50a (Judaism)
Woman, O Gautama, is the sacrificial fire, her sexual organ is the fuel, the hairs the smoke, the vulva the flame, sexual intercourse the cinders, enjoyment the sparks. In this fire the gods offer semen as a libation. Out of this offering a new person is born.
Brihadaranyaka Upanishad 6.2.13 (Hinduism)
The Originator of the heavens and the earth; He has appointed for you of yourselves spouses, and pairs also of the cattle, by means of which He multiplies you.
Qur’an 42.11
See now, when desire brings man and woman together, there issues from their union a son in whom both their forms are combined, because God has fashioned him in a mold partaking of both. Therefore a man should sanctify himself at such time, in order that the form may be as perfect as possible.
Zohar, Genesis 90b (Judaism)
When a man begins to consecrate himself before intercourse with his wife with a sacred intention, a holy spirit is aroused above him, composed of both male and female. And the Holy One, blessed be He, directs an emissary who is in charge of human embryos, and assigns to him this particular spirit, and indicates to it the place to which it should be entrusted. This is the meaning of, “The night said, a man-child has been conceived” (Job 3:3)…
Then the spirit descends together with the image,13 the one in whose likeness the spirit existed above. With this image the man grows; with this image he moves through the world.
Zohar 3.104b (Judaism)
By the first nuptial circumambulation the Lord shows you His ordinance for the daily duties of wedded life. The scriptures are the Word of the Lord, learn righteousness through them, and the Lord will free you from sin…
By the second nuptial circumambulation you are to understand that the Lord has caused you to meet the true Guru; the fear in your hearts has departed; the filth of selfishness in your minds is washed away… By the third nuptial circumambulation there is longing for the Lord and detachment from the world…
By the fourth nuptial circumambulation the mind reaches to knowledge of the Divine and God is inwardly grasped. Through the grace of the Guru we have attained with ease to the Lord; the sweetness of the Beloved pervades us, body and soul. Dear and pleasing is the Lord to us; night and day our minds are fixed on Him. By exalting the Lord we have attained the Lord: the fruit our hearts desired, for He has arranged these nuptials. The soul, the spouse, delights in the Beloved’s Name. The Lord God is united with His Holy Bride; the heart of the Bride flowers with His Name.14
Adi Granth, Raga Suhi, M.4, p.773-74: the Laavaan (Sikhism)
Teachings of Sun Myung Moon
A man is born to find a woman, and a woman is born to find a man. We are created as man and woman to reach a higher level of God’s love through our union. As single people we cannot reach the fullness of God’s love—true love. We may touch God’s love, but it will only be one-dimensional love. As single people we cannot experience God’s three-dimensional and spherical love.
Therefore, a man and woman marry in order to reach that higher realm of love. In God’s original world before the Fall, when a husband and wife united they would form a mighty center, creating a sphere. The stronger the horizontal bond between them, the more they would connect to the vertical power of love. Their minds and bodies would revel in it and totally become one.
(109:275, November 2, 1980)
When husband and wife are one in heart, they should become one in body. When they are one in heart and body, then they become one with God. The husband and wife become one in the center of love’s shimmering light as God covers the place where the man and woman are joined. The light embraces them and transforms them by its mysterious power. It transports them to an inexplicable, wondrous state.
(296:33, October 11, 1998)
God first created Adam as His incarnation. At the same time that Adam is God’s Son, he is also God Himself, wearing God’s body. Next, God created Eve as Adam’s partner in order to perfect horizontal love as the ideal love of husband and wife. At the same time that Eve is God’s Daughter, she is also the Bride who perfects God’s horizontal ideal of love in substantial form.
Where Adam and Eve reach perfection, marry with God’s blessing, and consummate their first love, this is precisely the place where God receives His bride in substantial form. This is because God’s ideal absolute love descends vertically and participates in the ideal conjugal love flowing horizontally between Adam and Eve. The true love of God and the true love of human beings—one vertical and the other horizontal—join, reach perfection and bear fruit at a single point.
(277:198- 99, April 16, 1996)
What is the purpose of marriage? It is to fulfill God’s ideal of creation. An individual by him or herself cannot fulfill it. It requires that we form a couple whose hearts are united with the heart of God, the Subject of all creation. Thus, when He moves, we move, and when He is still, we are still.
That is how the inner and outer become one. Unless we set the standard as a couple through which we can harmonize with God, we cannot fulfill His purpose of creation.
(35:321, October 19, 1970)