Radiating heaven
his nakedness,  moonbathing
on a dishevelled bed

©2011 Beatrice van de Vis

quivers of ecstasy

the fluttering butterfly

his lips on the skin...

©2011 Beatrice van de Vis

.
Rain cascading down
through  bare branches,  how wondrous
--after lovemaking


©2009 Beatrice van de Vis 

Tanka

Dusk, the green valleys,

your cello bows to the moon,

and with each note

my breast too, like the strings,

stirs with longing, for your touch.


©2008 Beatrice van de Vis 

a mouse

clicking on the inbox

speaks of love


inside the box

thoughts of love

-turn to lust


at the cybercafe

she writes giddy verse

lust- moist


©2007 Beatrice van de Vis 

counting the colours

of the rainbow, I stop at red,

pomegranate dark and wet

-fiery imprints on your skin

of last night's lipstick kisses
 ©2007 Beatrice van de Vis 

Pomegranate

Stained lips on billet-doux

Red suffused screen


A wanton dream

Parades undressed, proud.

How it weeps, the dark


Sommnolent at dusk

Scent of succulent red fruit

0h.... how hard we are!


©2007 Beatrice van de Vis

Bridal Mysticism

The Ecstasy of Saint Theresa (of Avila) by Gian Lorenzo Bernini (1598-1680)

It has long been maintained that mystical ecstasy, also called Bridal Mysticism -achieving "Union with God, or the Beloved" is sublimated sexual desire. As a state of consciousness it can be said to be an altered state (as being in love is) which so called mystics (e.g. St Teresa de Avila) attained though prayer, music, fasting, physical penance and various other means. There is another school of thought that says that the language used, whether words or pictorial, is merely a metaphor for "spiritual" love. In my view the truth falls between the two theories, particularly if one looks at the difference between sex and eroticism; with sex, the aim is gratification, with eroticism the purpose is to maintain a continuum of desire. Quoting CS Lewis and Turner on the subject:

"Eros is that state which we call "being in love" Sexual experience can occur without Eros, without "being in love"..... Eros includes other things beside sexual activity......Within Eros it is rather about the Beloved. It becomes almost a mode of perception, entirely a mode of expression." (The four loves - C.S.Lewis)"

Freud and others, describe the pleasure of sex as the reduction of tension, in Eros, on the contrary, one does not wish to be released from the excitement, but to hang on to it. The aim of sex points towards gratification, whereas with Eros it is about desiring, forever reaching out, expanding.

D. Turner says that what makes the erotic model of love so appealing in the interpretation of the Song of Solomon is that, for example, in the monastic life, the partial withdrawal from the world, is situated "at a point of intersection between this world an the next, between time and eternity, ... between anticipation and fulfillment" Just like erotic love, like the moment of "being in love" (Eros and allegory: Medieval exegesis on the Song of Songs- D. Turner).

Therefore if the purpose of sex is the release of tension, in eroticism it is the exact opposite, the aim being to maintain a continuum of heightened sexual awareness and desire.

St. Teresa described the soul's intense desire for God in the language of erotic passion. In this, she belongs to a long tradition of mystical experience that is known as bridal mysticism:

c.1559-62: Teresa experiences, perhaps several times, her famous "transfixion" or "piercing" by a cherub with a golden, fiery-tipped spear. She records this in her Life as follows:

"I saw an angel close by me, on my left side, in bodily form. This I am not accustomed to see, unless very rarely. Though I have visions of angels frequently, yet I see them only by an intellectual vision. . . . It was our Lord's will that in this vision I should see the angel in this wise. He was not large, but small of stature, and most beautiful--his face burning, as if he were one of the highest angels, who seem to be all of fire: they must be those whom we call cherubim. . . .I saw in his hand a long spear of gold, and at the iron's point there seemed to be a little fire. He appeared to me to be thrusting it at times into my heart, and to pierce my very entrails; when he drew it out, he seemed to draw them out also, and to leave me all on fire with a great love of God. The pain was so great that it made me moan; and yet so surpassing was the sweetness of this excessive pain that I could not wish to be rid of it. The soul is satisfied now with nothing less than God. (Life, 29.16-17)"

The symbolism of bridal mysticism already existed in early Gnostic Christianity, where the Sacrament is likened to the Bridal Chamber, there the union takes place between the feminine soul and the masculine spirit, thus transcending mundane existence. Related symbolism is found as well in the writings of the early Christian mystic Origen and the Neoplatonic mystic Plotinus.

Early forms of bridal mysticism owe much influence to the myths of Eros and Psyche. The anonymous homily Exegesis of the Soul which describes the sacrament of the Bridal Chamber is indeed a gnostic interpretation of the Hellenistic myth. Greek themes and images were rediscovered in Italy and Europe during the Renaissance, and Bernini's illustrated symbolism is close to the tale of Eros and Psyche. Psyche (Gr.soul) starts out as a mortal, and she is elevated to the status of an immortal, by Zeus, only when Eros wants her as a bride. For St. Teresa, the experience of the spiritual wound culminates in spiritual marriage, union with the beloved, a complete union of God and the soul.

References
-Lewis, C.S. -The four loves
-Turner, D. -Eros and allegory: Medieval exegesis on the Song of Songs
-Walsh, William T. -Saint Teresa of Ávila (1943)
- http://aras.org/se_ecstasy.html

the morning heat comes
in a shroud of cloud today,
-a summer in veils,
it spreads hidden and silent
like your caresses at dawn

 ©2007 Beatrice van de Vis

Erotic Haiku

cello suite--

between her open legs

deep and high notes

Serge Tome


an open window

rain scent washes away

the smell of our love

Gina Hamm


plucking a camelia

he enters the moonlit

bedchamber

Pamela A. Babusci


pussy willows...

he opens her

for the first time

Pamela A. Babusci