Esoteric Christianity 04 Spiritual Marriage

In this lecture, the first miracle of Jesus, the transmutation of water into wine at the Wedding in Cana of Galilee, is explained. Spiritual Marriage is the real beginning of Esoteric Christianity. A Spiritual Marriage makes use of all the forces manifested between husband and wife for spiritual development. Love blossoms in the spiritual marriage. The esoteric meanings of Cana, Galilee, Gilgal, syneisaktism, and the Hebrew letters ג Gimel, ל Lamed, י Iod, ו Vav, ז Zayin, and ח Chet and also explained. Syneisaktism (‘sin-ay-sak-tism’, from Greek συνεισάκ “to add or bring together”): the practice of a chaste man and woman living together in a spiritual marriage. The term is most closely associated with early and medieval Christianity. Several related terms are used to label such communities, for example, the virgins subintroductae, the agapetae, and the gynaikes syneisaktoi. The practice was widely adopted in early Christianity: “Nor was syneisaktism a phenomenon peculiar to one locality; it can be found in Ireland, Syria, North Africa, and many other centers of Christianity.” Clark, Elizabeth A., John Chrysostom and the Subintroductae, Church History, 46(1977), p. 173 “Of one thing we can be sure: there was hardly a church province in ancient Christianity in which spiritual marriages were unknown.” Seboldt, Roland H. A. Spiritual Marriage In the Early Church: A Suggested Interpretation of 1 Cor. 7:36-38, part 2, Concordia Theological Monthly Volume: 30 Number: 3 in 1959, p. 176-189