Greetings from the Order and Ordinance. Welcome back! As we’re still under Vevaourei, Period of Lord Saifaosé, we shall tackle more topics regarding the general concept of Love, emotions, personality, etc. Today we’re touching on what could be considered a hot topic depending on your general perspective; today we’d like to cover the topics of sexuality, sexualism, naturality, and gender from a Xyphoist perspective. So let’s begin.

Sexuality

Working off from a previous commentary regarding the state of the mortal vessel and how regardless of the form of the vessel, the soul is the source of Self and personality. This same concept applies in regards to the existence of a Self’s sexual orientation during the period of mortal life. The vessel, a container created by Natural Force to hold the soul in the period of Life in Xyphojinami, is just that—a container. The vessel can come in many forms based off the conditions of Nature itself, which includes geographic conditions, biological conditions such as genetics, etc. In the specific case of Humans, you can have tall people, large people, brown people, blonde people. You can have blue eyes, you can deep voices, you can have all kinds of forms and shapes. In the more specific case of natural binaries, Human anatomy has been categorized in sexes: male, female, and intersex. Before we jump into gender, let’s tackle how sexual attraction applies to these binaries first.

From a Xyphoist perspective: the vessel is the vessel, but the SOUL is the source of the Self and personality, and the soul isn’t confined to the corporeal binaries of the vessel. The soul is a condensed spirit, and spirits are ethereal and undefined by physical nature. So, while it is true that once a soul enters a vessel, the Self is the determining entity to what the complete mortal shall feel or think or desire. It’s because of this that, from a Xyphoist perspective, the matter of sexuality isn’t even on the radar of things to be considered “an issue” or a problem. A soul in a male Human vessel finding attraction to another soul in a male Human vessel is something so unimportant on the grand scheme we as Xyphoites couldn’t imagine wasting our time seeing this as an issue. A soul has found attraction to another soul, perhaps due to the physical characteristics of the vessel itself, but Love is a Divine attribute that goes far beyond those superficial traits.

Of course, this has evolved into a societal issue mostly due to the influence of Deceptuary’s theigrited philosophies and their baseless condemnation of such relationships. Truly, one could not thing of such an unnecessary hatred for such a superfluous case; yet the Theigriet is petulant and found a means of creating division and control through the avenue of sexuality. The Xyphokonic Ordinance sees no issue with same-sex relationships as Romantic Love is far beyond that of the vessel in general; Love is the Initial Will and Divine. The vessel applies only to the conditions of its current Nature. This would mean creating Romantic Love Contracts between two people of the same sex is of no issue; Love Contracts bound two souls together, not two vessels. Even in Death, the Contract will be held in the Remembrance of the fallen beloved, as we see in the Sacred Lesson “Love’s Untimely Quarrel.”

Gender

With that said above, we can apply this same perspective to Gender. It’s first important to recognize that the terms “sex” and “gender” are not synonymous. Sex is a biological state, while gender is a societal role or creation. Different societies have assigned various roles to the sexes over time and culture. The general role or expectations within Greek society could be VERY different than the general roles or expectations in Aztec society; all of these societies created different expectations depending on their various histories, conditions, social needs, etc. That’s the formation of gender, it is conditional and not a function of nature. Sex is based of the natural state of the biological Human vessel.

Regardless, what we perceive as man or woman in terms of gender is entirely dependent on those social roles, but the soul is, yet again, a soul. It is ethereal, it is spirituality given personality. The soul’s personality, the Self, can have feminine or masculine traits, as all people tend to have in some degrees. Even the most masculine of men will still cry given the right conditions, such as the death of their child or some other traumatic experience or pain. The most feminine of women can exert traits seen as masculine, such as protecting their child physically from an assailant. Now these are very rudimentary examples, perhaps outdated, but the crux of the Xyphoist perspective is that the Soul and its Self are not bound by the physical vessel; they are spiritual. The Self, the personality, can show masculinity or femininity in whatever degree the personality falls into; the vessel is simply holding that Self and its personality.

Which brings the topic of transgender, non-binary, intersex situations into hand. Once again, the Xyphoist perspective would ask: “Why would these even be an issue?” The vessel is temporary, the Soul is ethereal, the roles are created by varying societies, and so this is a situation that isn’t even on the radar of things to be considered “problems.” A transgender individual is a soul with a Self in a vessel that they feel doesn’t match what a social setting demands of their personality, so they choose to modify how that vessel presents itself or choose to act out of those roles to match the personality of the Self. This is such a non-issue on the grand scheme of things, it’s shocking we even have to say this when so many other matters of Cosmic importance trouble us daily.

Sexualism

Now we come to a term we coin as “sexualism.” Simply put, the general action of sexual attraction or sexual behaviors in general. Moving away from sex as a term meant to refer to biological binaries, we now speak about the general action of sexual arousal, sexual intercourse, sexual attractions, etc. The BIG question would be “is sex immoral, taboo, dirty?” or “what kind of sexual acts are considered immoral, bad, taboo?” And to both of these, the answer is “when it is not consensual or desecrates the dignity or Remembrance of someone.” The Lords were very clear that sexual abuse, rape, sexual coercion all fall under the immortal act of Belligerent Force. Right off the bat, any sexual action that is nonconsensual or meant to inflict pain or suffering is immortal without question.

In terms of sexual acts regarding desecration, that would include defiling the remains of one’s Remembrance or other acts seen as offensive or meant to create a needless disturbance to others. This immediately includes necrophilia for it absolutely defiles the remains of a dead individual’s remains. Other such acts, such as intentionally doing sexually unwanted acts in spaces where they are otherwise offensive is an obvious case. Nobody dining with their family wants to be subjected to such a display. In general that wouldn’t be consensual to those around you.

A Xyphoist perspective isn’t going to be prying into the bedroom of others, telling them they can’t have sexual intercourse in a certain position, and we already established the issue of same-sex relations is NOT an issue in general. These types of intimate relations are PRIVATE, and the Ordinance is certainly not going to condone the proselytizing sin of telling people how they shall have intercourse. In that same light, the general idea of sexual pleasure, often seen as dirty or immoral under other philosophies, is yet again another non-issue regarding this topic. And that leads into our final segment.

Naturalism

In regards to our mortal bodies, a part of their functioning is sexual arousal and pleasure; we can feel an enjoyable and invigorating sensation of sexual nature, both physical and also psychological. Nature is the creating force and creates every condition. And while other philosophies, such as theigrited philosophies but not limited to, have deemed these desires to be sinful, it would make no sense from the Xyphoist perspective to see this sensation as, again, an issue. It isn’t creating any foreseeable physical and non-consensual harm, it is part of nature and is part of sexual reproduction as well as recreational sexual intercourse, and it’s a natural part of the development of Humans as they grow. To make people feel shame for processes of their own bodies they have no control over is like punishing someone for sneezing or having a muscle cramp.

Now it doesn’t mean one shouldn’t still keep themselves in check with any actions in general, but the act of being sexually aroused isn’t sinful or shameful, it is part of the body’s functioning and more often than not something one doesn’t control. This is particularly true of young Humans who haven’t fully developed. Puberty is a chaotic time, full of emotional, psychological, and sexual development. It isn’t a shock that one going through this stage of life would explore their sexuality or sexualism, and punishing them for doing so can do more harm to this very fragile time in life. It seems almost irrational to blame an adolescent for exploring in this time of their life; rather, making sure they aren’t causing harm to themselves by engaging in actions they clearly aren’t ready for is a much more reasonable, and educating them on the topic and of their changing physical forms instead. This includes teaching of psychological effects as well as the physical. What a Xyphoite would not do is blame Humans, created by Nature, for their natural states and conditions when such conditions aren’t innately causing destabilization to the equilibrium. Sexualism is part of Naturalism, and with all things in life, should be handled with balance and reasonable care.

—voX, lnX, whX