Courtly Love: The Path of Sexual Initiation

by Jean Markale

Book Overview

A comprehensive examination of the rituals and philosophies that created and sustained medieval troubadour culture - Debunks the myth of the platonic nature of courtly love, showing the many sexual similarities to the Tantric practices of India - Reveals how the roots of courtly love go back to the matriarchal cultures of neolithic times The widespread turmoil that shook Western Europe as it entered the new millennium with the year 1000 prompted a...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0892817712
• ISBN13: 9780892817719
• Release Date: November 2000
• Publisher: Inner Traditions International
• Length: 248 Pages
• Weight: 0.65 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Courtly Love -- from then to now

Courtly Love is a subject much discussed and much misunderstood. Jean Markale helps to clear the fog away from the subject, revealing the practice, and the culture within which it grew, in terms of a moral-poetic quest and an enhanting experience of heterosexual relationships. Perhaps the leading expert on all things Celtic, Markale traces the history of the concept from its life-giving roots in pre-Roman times through its various manifestations in southern France, to the deformations forced upon it by the Catholic Church, to its relation to Tantric Yoga. Courtly Love is not so much a unique study as an important reappraisal of the first appearence of the idea of elective love within post-Roman Europe. It is definitely worth the read!