Page 200 - Nursing: The Philosophy and Science of Caring

a dmi ni st ering sacr e d nu rs i ng a ct s
what grounds us in the body physical and includes not only the base
instincts and needs for food and fluid and elimination but also human
sexuality.
Human sexuality includes the birthing of new ideas, creativity,
and self-expression at many levels. This need is energetically related
not only to our human, individual inner and outer forms of expressiv-
ity of self but also to our relationship with self and our ways of relat-
ing to others. Further, this need is associated with our need to control
the dynamics of our physical environment (Myss 1996). It is also asso-
ciated with power, authority, and money, as well as physical, environ-
mental, and biological forces.
Such archetypal energy enables us to generate a sense of personal
identity and protective boundaries with our external world. It is the
energy of self-sufficiency, our survival for being-in-the-world without
having to “sell” ourselves (Myss 1996:130).
Having a mate or a life partner includes forming a union with a
person of the same sex as well as having a heterogeneous relationship.
The sexual expression need embodies creativity, the urge to contribute
to the continuum of life. There is the expressed need to sow seeds of
life, to generate matter out of energy, out of potentiality. Symbolically,
this need represents our need to form sacred unions with other human
beings, from which the continuation of life comes (Myss 1996).
The need for sexual expression is present in all aspects of one’s
being, beyond the physical, sexual act of intercourse itself. However,
cheap messages from the media and marketing promote “sex” as a
commodity to be bought and sold, displayed and performed, sepa-
rate from any emotional-intimate loving context. This association of
“sex” with object is demeaning and ultimately unfulfilling to self and
other.
We violate our spirits when we fail to honor our relationship and
vows to others after we have established a sacred union (Myss 1996).
However, this is not to say that situations, choices, and circumstances
may require that we reconsider our covenants; discord, infidelity,
divorce, and separation can and do occur. As Myss (1996:82) put it:
“The act of divorce [and other dissolutions] is not in itself dishonor-
able, but we are meant to be conscious about the manner in which we

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