Julie McIntyre - Sex and the Intelligence of the Heart: Nature, Intimacy, and Sexual Energy

This book is, in essence, a love story. It is a falling in love with self, with another, and with Earth story. The journey of being in loveof letting love in to shape you, grow you, change youtakes you through many landscapes, territories unknown and unfamiliar to you, to the windy, rocky precipice of deep change. The journey is punctuated with surprises, brilliant insights, deep joy, and a discovery of rich, dynamic, internal strengths, and genius. Travel well.

Dedicated to
Hailey Elizabeth Kennington
and
Araina Marie Kennington.
And for Darian Sahara Marie Ronanto the
day we meet on this extraordinary journey.
Also, to the young girl inside each of us.

May your spirits stay wild, unbroken, and joined to Earth.
May your bodies be strong and your hearts beat passionately.
May your minds always be hungry.
May you know deep love and ecstatic joy.
May wonder and awe be your constant companions.
And may your souls be whole and thrum from the adventure.

Thanks are extended to the following authors, translators, and publishers for granting permission to reprint:

Who Makes These Changes? by Rumi, which appears on page 67, is from The Essential Rumi, translated by Coleman Barks, and is used by permission of the translator. The Essential Rumi was originally published by HarperSan Franciso.

A Third Body and One Source of Bad Information, which appear on pages 19899 and 21314, are from Loving a Woman in Two Worlds and Morning Poems by Robert Bly, and are used by permission of the author. Loving a Woman in Two Worlds was originally published by Dial/Doubleday. Morning Poems was originally published by HarperCollins.

Flowers and The Movement of Great Things, which appear on pages 9899 and 16970, are from The Taste of Wild Water: Poems and Stories Found While Walking in Woods by Stephen Harrod Buhner, and are used by permission of the author and the publisher, Raven Press, Silver City, New Mexico.

Fearing for My Life, Do You Recognize Me Now, and A Third Body, which appear on pages 33, 18789, and 2023, are from Dancing with the Beloved by Paul Ferrini, and are used by permission of the author and the publisher, Heartways Press, Inc.

The text from The Sexual Teachings of the White Tigress: Secrets of the Female Taoist Masters by Hsi Lai, which appears on page 118, is used by permission of the author. The Sexual Teachings of the White Tigress was published by Destiny Books, Rochester, Vermont.

The poem by Rumi beginning If you want to know god, which appears on page 166, is from The Spiritual Practices of Rumi by Will Johnson, and is used by permission of the author. This version of the poem is Johnsons rewording of the Coleman Barks translation published in The Essential Rumi. The Spiritual Practices of Rumi was published by Inner Traditions, Rochester, Vermont.

SEX AND THE INTELLIGENCE
OF THE HEART

A beautifully written and honest book about exploring the depths of sensuality and consciousness and how this awareness affects our lives, relationships, and the planet.

BRIGITTE MARS, AUTHOR OF THE SEXUAL HERBAL

With unflinching honesty, Julie McIntyre beautifully delivers a critically important message for all of us on the path to self-realization: a rarified spirituality divorced from the human energies and impulses of the erotic simply doesnt work. Ecstasy is our birthright, and the shaming of our bodies needs to stop now.

WILL JOHNSON, AUTHOR OFBREATHING THROUGH THE WHOLE BODY AND RUMIS FOUR ESSENTIAL PRACTICES

Sex, Earth, and Spirit are one. Fearless sex, healed earth, healed soul: all one. The afflicted modern mind has forgotten this truth; contemporary sages merely glimpse it. McIntyre has done the profound work to reclaim and thoroughly live it. With this book, she has created a glorious bible with innumerable inroads to joy.

APHRODITE PHOENIX, AUTHOR OFARE THEY BAD GIRLS OR BRILLIANT?

Acknowledgments

F or all those whove awakened my heart, which beats stronger because of you.

This being my first book, there are many peoplefriends, companions, associates, partners-in-crime, pioneers, and believersfor whom I am deeply grateful and who I would like to acknowledge. To all of you, who in no small way encouraged me to lift the bushel basket and reveal what has been tenderly hidden.

To Stephen Buhner, more than you know, I am eternally, deeply grateful to you, for believing in me, for your love, companionship, deep friendship, and for claiming my soul from the lost and found. Thanks to Trishuwa for your love, for transformation, and for friendship; and to Margaret Rhode for your friendship, love, and all the treats you left at my door. I thank M. John Fayhee for encouraging me to hold nothing back; Jaxon Burgess for your enduring and caring friendship; and Mark Heffernan for your original songs, stories, and friendship. Thanks to Julie and Tanya for giving me a column in Tapestry magazine month after month in which to practice. And thanks to Phil for being a great pen pal.

I thank the men in my life: my lovers, husbands, and partners; James P. Ronan for marriage and friendship and Jon (Hawk) Stravers Sr.; for the Driftless adventures; and Jon Stravers Jr., whose spirit kept showing up in moments of deep griefmay you be whole in spirit on the other side, you are missed dearly. And I thank my son, Garrett Ronan who helped me along the way.

I thank the gang at Isaacs Bar, the Buffalo Bar, and Dianes Parlor in Silver City, New Mexico; the Buckhorn Saloon in Pinos Altos, New Mexico; and the Main Entrance in Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin. I thank you for your companionship and laughter, support and friendship. I thank you all for being part of my life and encouraging me to be who I am: Allan, Shawn, Fred, Farhad, Luan, Jean, Gay, Erika, Hans, Aleisha, Colette, Benjamin, Challa, Calixte, Kevin, Sahuara, Stephanie, Lisa, Jay, Rebecca, Merla, my Irish familyLucy, Joseph, Michael, and especially Nikki, for your friendship and support and for reading the manuscript.

I thank Flick, who with aging arthritic joints and loss of hearing traveled countless miles up and down the stairs to my loft and napped on the floor near me while I wrote, fretted, and, at times, excavated this book.

I gratefully acknowledge John Seed, Arne Naes, Johanna Macy, Dolores La Chapelle, and the early Deep Ecologists whose fearless devotion has been a well of inspiration and influence. I thank Rosemary Gladstar for giving me a place to start teaching this work, and the women at the Womens Herbal Conferences, my apprentices and students, who sat in my classes and said to me afterward: You have to write this book. I am grateful to the life-drawing classes at Western New Mexico University, where I was paid to pose nude while I spent time in interior work.

I thank Jon Graham whose initial letter of acceptance of the manuscript I referred to countless times to keep me going; and Laura and Kate, editors from heaven, who corrected my grammatical inadequacies, made suggestions, and who work to make authors dreams come true.