The phallus represents the ability of spiritual vision to penetrate through appearances in order to find the Divine Presence hiding there.

Whenever I visit a rock formation in Arches National Park called "The Phallus," I'm reminded of the fact that in India, rock lingam carvings are common both in temples and in shrines spread out across the landscape. There, they symbolize the capacity of spiritual vision to PENETRATE through appearances in order to find the Divine Presence hiding there. We might also say that phallic energy represents the ability of the meditative gaze to SEE THROUGH the seeming solidity of form in order to find the transparent spaciousness of divine bliss present there. In any case, it represents a sacred masculine energy, something that is increasingly rare in our time.

However, many people have difficulty seeing the symbolism present in ANY creaturely thing, including especially realities like the phallus or lingam. For them, the lingam represents only the process of reproduction and the experience of pleasure and nothing more. Theologian Paul Tillich would trace this difficulty to the triumph of a philosophy of NOMINALISM in our day. This is the belief that universals - like the Sacred Masculine, the Ground of Being, or Mother Earth, for example - occur in NAME ONLY and thus have no actual reality. It seems in fact that most people only believe in the reality of particular things. For them, even God is an individual thing rather than a mysterious and loving presence that suffuses all creatures and all states of mind. They experience no universal Ground of Being that would give meaning to all things, no stream of divine Life that would connect all things together into a single, seamless Whole.

This nominalistic kind of mindset fosters a belief that a spiritual practice like yoga is only about "me and my body," with no innate connection to the divine energy coursing through all things. Similarly, meditation is interpreted in terms of "me and my thoughts," and fails to connect the meditator to a deeper level of awareness penetrating all phenomena. Is it any wonder then that young people growing up in our culture feel alienated from the universe, and often can't find anything Deeper to tie it all together? It is time, I believe, to recover the sacred symbolism of phallic energy; the capacity, that is, to penetrate all forms and appearances in order to find the universal Presence of divine Love dwelling there.

Photo: The Phallus, Desert Paintbrush; Arches National Park, UT: April 20, 2013