Free Love and Mysticism in 16th century Mexico

The unfortunate fact is that one of the best sources of detailed information on pre-modern same-sex eroticism comes from legal records when those relationships came under scrutiny either by religious or secular authorities. This not only means that those case histories often are accompanied by tragic fates or at least unhappy ends, but it means that we can get an image of the participants as viewing their own experiences negatively.

Marina de San Miguel was eventually bullied into labeling her erotic experiences as sin and heresy, the result of having been misled and tempted by the devil. But if we read past and beyond the text on the page, we get a glimpse of a religious community that considered "free love"--including homosexual relationships--to lie outside of the question of sin or innocence. The Alumbrados were certainly not the first or only religious sect to take this view. I wouldn't hold up the Alumbrados as any sort of enlightened philosophy--it had its deeply peculiar aspects as much as any other religious philosophy--but beliefs such as theirs provide an interesting counterpoint to the common belief that homosexuality was universally condemned by those considering themselves Christians.

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