ABSTRACT
The puer is a friend of 'heresy' to the extent he is patron of the new and different. His alienation from the female principle presents issues for sexuality, asceticism and ethics of the kind Camille Paglia noted gays as introducing to Western culture. But all ideological/doctrinal heresy is also an aspect of society's ongoing problems with any kind of individualism and dissent. Relative to Christianity, gayness ana various claims of gay spirituality actually or potentially challenge the following doctrines in ways that could be considered 'heretical'. In Jungian, archetypal terms the vertical and the horizontal directions might be classified as spiritualities of the puer and of the Great Mother respectively, but not, as might be expected, of the hermaphrodite. Medieval Catholicism, remote from Jewish sources, did not distinguish between spirit and soul for reasons and with results, including in gay thought. No matter how therapeutic asserting Original Blessing may be for especially gays, it is a kind of heresy.
