Song of Songs : from transcending to "transcendental" sex (2)

Abstract

The oral, narcissistic and perhaps depressed woman lover introduced in the first article of the same title by the present author in this issue of the Journal for Semitics is nothing but a shadow cast by her bright background. Her neediness and narcissism are due to her false self, which makes her available for projective identification with all the diverse religiosities carried by her but also allows her to dissolve in the feeling of being in an embracing love, her own projection. In this transcendental aspect the feminine resembles the divine. Contrary to the traditional or common reception of Song of Songs as either transcending the foreground sexuality through an allegorical interpretation where exclusive attention is given to its spirituality or, in contrast, a literal approach where a greater holding background is ignored respectively, the text can be read in its openness to sexuality as a pointer towards various religious subtexts. This is despite the fact that no explicit reference to any religiosity is apparently made in the text. When transcendence refers to the realm that includes all lower levels of existence, certain possibilities in Song of Songs can be opened through transpersonal psychology to suggest that the sexuality depicted also has a transcendent dimension.