Sex ll. A Self Portrait
Forward by Marion Woodman
Nancy QC asked herself the very question that many of us must be asking when we pick up this book: "What is it in me that is drawn to the sacred prostitute?"
To our modern minds, the words themselves seem contradictory. "Sacred" suggests dedication to a divine spirit; "prostitute" suggests defilement of the human body. How can the two words be related when mind is separated from matter, spirituality from sexuality? The mystery of this paradox is the subject of this book. Its potential for healing is crucial to many floundering relationships.
Today, when a man falls in love with his perfect woman, he projects onto her attributes of the divine mother: beauty, goodness, chastity, life-giving love. She in turn projects onto him attributes of the divine father: loyalty, power, virility, the Rock of Gibraltar at the centre of her life.
In the beginning, love and lust are one in their unconscious Garden of Paradise.
When reality creeps into that Garden - often after the marriage ceremony - the projections begin to shatter. The man may feel himself strangling in the noose of his partner's expectations; her very goodness then evokes his guilt as he fantasies freedom with a 'real woman' who can receive him as a 'real man'.
While he loves his 'perfect' mother, at the same time he seeks to escape her dark side, the devouring witch to whom he can never give enough. She, insecure in her own womanhood and sensing his withdrawal, finds herself clinging like a rejected child to a father who is pulling away.
Trapped in their love (or neurotic dependence), one or both may find another, less perfect, partner with whom to have a relationship that is more human, more lusty, with fewer strings attached. This split may hold for a long time. Within the split however, lie rage, expressed or repressed, and a profound yearning for total union.
If consciousness is introduced into the situation, the cause of the disturbance may become clear. In dreams for example, the woman may suddenly become mother in the marriage bed, the man become father. In bringing their bodies to conscious awareness, women often discover they cannot surrender to sexual penetration. They realise they are either mother to their husband-son or daughter to their husband-father.
In both situations, their body says no to incest. However dearly they may love their husband in spirit, their matter rejects the unconscious relationship. Then a period of celibacy can lead to sexual and spiritual integration.
Now, as men are becoming more conscious, their matter is likewise rejecting incest with mother or daughter, and their impotence is propelling them to a new level of relationship in which mature man unites with mature woman. It is a time of intense anguish for both men and women, a time that demands patience, courage and fearsome honesty.
In my analytic practise, I am constantly faced with dream images that each sex is unconsciously projecting onto the other. Centuries of repressed rage manifest in dreams of cutting off dictators heads, arms, genitalia. Centuries of grief appear in images of feminine sacrifice on monolithic rocks or dining room tables.
The unconscious battle of the sexes is one thing; the conscious battle is far more painful, far more bitter. The rage and grief are in the dreams of both men and women who are becoming conscious of their ravaged femininity.
In addition, sensitive men are facing their personal grief for the patriarchy's betrayal of the feminine. Sensitive women are facing the wall lodged in their own bodies - a wall that stands adamant against penetration and spiritual surrender. The fear of being penetrated, in both sexes, is no less than the fear of penetrating.
Many physical illnesses erupt when this fear becomes conscious and cannot be overcome in the life situation. Dream images of creatures that are part human, part animal - terrified creatures that scuttle about the bedroom - leave the dreamer deeply disturbed. The possibility of masculine and feminine uniting in harmony seems to fade into darkness.
The light of the sacred prostitute penetrates to the heart of this darkness. As so vividly described by Nancy Qualls-Corbett, she is the consecrated priestess in the temple, spiritually receptive to the feminine power flowing through her from the Goddess, and at the same time joyously aware of the beauty and passion in her human body.
Surrendered to the cosmic energies of love, she magnifies the Goddess in physical delight and spiritual ecstasy. She opens the masculine to the potency of penetrating to the divine and the feminine to the rapture of surrender to it. The mystery of that union dwells beyond the finite bonds of personal love.
While contemplating the possibility of healing the split between sexuality and spirituality through connection with the sacred prostitute, modern men and women need also to contemplate the dangers. We are not at the same place in the evolution of human consciousness as were the ancient sacred prostitutes.
Centuries of splitting spirit from matter have left us far from either the understanding of the experience of matter as sacred. Daily the earth is raped. Daily the wisdom of the human body is ravaged by the mind.
So long as we are unconscious of the divinity inherent in matter, sexuality can be manipulated to fulfill ego desire; the sacred prostitute is not present, nor is the Goddess being invoked. Instead of manifesting as a transformative power that can mediate between wounded instinct and the radiance of the divine, the Goddess is called upon to justify lust and sexual license.
Light does not come through incessant wallowing in the dark. All our rage, our bitterness, all our fears, are stepping stones that lead through darkness into light. But they are merely stepping stones. Only from a clear vision of oneness, an experience of genuine love, can we live our own truth. Whether this experience is given through another human being or through a solitary connection with the divine, this is the experience that illuminates our lives.
Marion Woodman
Shaman Vl (Artwork)
The Sacred Prostitute. Nancy Qualls-Corbett
On my first excursion to Israel several years ago, I noticed numerous little clay statues in the small gift shops of the Kibbutzim and in the larger antique stores. I was attracted to these figures almost magnetically. Each had the form of a woman. Some were delicately molded while others were crudely formed; some depicted the entire body with intricate designs on the gown or headdress, others were simply fragments of a small head with only a suggestion of facial expression. They were not reproductions, they were originals dating back to long before the Common Era. (BCE).
Excavated from the ruins of many towns and villages of this ancient land, they were images of ancient goddesses. Because they were found in such great numbers, the Israeli government allowed those of less than museum quality to be sold and taken out of the country.
They reminded me of James Michener's novel, The Source, which describes the excavation of the imaginary tell of Makor in eastern Galilee, a site reminiscent of the actual tell of Megiddo in north-central Israel, whose first city dates back to 3,500 BCE.
As the novel's archeologists unearth artifacts which disclose practises of community life in the unrecorded civilisations piled high on the rubble of earlier societies, the author spins a story of the people and customs of the age in question. The small clay statues brought to mind a chapter in the book telling of the goddess Astarte.
In Makor, in 2202 BCE, a husky farmer, Urbaal purchased this special statue of Astarte at great expense, although he already owned three others. "She was six inches high," writes Michener, "nude, very feminine, with wide hips and hands cupped below circular breasts. She was erotic and plump, delightful to study and reassuring to have in one's presence."
Urbaal worshipped Astarte, for it was she who could assure the fecundity of his land and his wives. It was through her powers that he might become the man chosen to lie with the beautiful ritual priestess in the temple of Astarte for seven days and nights, as was the custom during the religious feasts of thanksgiving. The priestess, a sacred prostitute was tall and exquisitely beautiful.
A perfection of the goddess Astarte, for no man could look at her provocative form without seeing in her the sublime representation of fertility. She was a girl whose purpose was to be loved, to be taken away and made fertile so that she could reproduce her grandeur and bless the earth.
Holding the little goddess tenderly in his hands, Urbaal prayed for her intercession. "Help me, Astarte. Let it be me."
As ancient civilisations such as Urbaal's were destroyed, their clay images buried under ruins for eons, so were the gods and goddesses who protected and insured their growth. No longer did the sacred prostitute, the human woman who embodied the goddess, dance in the temple to excite the communication of the body and soul. The temple of the goddess of love, no longer vital, went underground.
Who was 'the sacred prostitute'? And what happened to the developing consciousness of human kind when people no longer venerated the goddess of love, passion and sex?
These questions bothered me. Much as I wanted to put them out of my head, they continued to jostle and nag me as if, almost autonomously, the sacred prostitute and her goddess wanted to be known. I felt compelled to investigate historical accounts of sacred prostitution, the goddess' role in the lives of ordinary people in ancient civilisations, and the sacred sexual ceremonies enacted in the temple of love. But most of all, I wanted to know what relevance these ancient rituals might have for men and women today.
In the course of my investigation, other questions emerged. What has happened to our understanding of the goddess, the divine feminine, in contemporary times? Why is woman's sexuality so exploited, so debased, when once it was revered? How can men come to know and to value the deeper meaning of feminity? And why is sexuality cut off from spirituality, as if they were opposites?
This last question in particular, claimed my attention. Listening to these stories men and women told me, I became increasingly aware that in their lives sexuality and spirituality were often in conflict, and sometimes both were absent.
As an analyst I saw many people who felt they were unloved, or even unworthy of being loved, and many who had altogether lost the capacity to love. I saw that the acquisition of material gains or power offered only false hopes of personal fulfillment.
I observed that a person's spiritual search through the avenues of organised religion at times resulted in confusion, additional conflict, guilt and despair. This dis-ease was expressed in different ways: "I feel empty inside," someone would say; or "My life has no meaning, I'm simply existing" or "My body is dead" or even "My soul is dead."
Inevitably, I related these statements to my research, to the questions that nagged at me. I began to see the pervasive emptiness people complained of could be explained in terms of the loss of the goddess - the one who renews life, brings love, passion, fertility - and the sensuous priestess - the human woman who brought the attributes of the goddess into the lives of human beings.
The connection to an important layer of instinctual life - joy, beauty, a creative energy that unites sexuality and spirituality - had been lost.
My observations were not restricted to the consulting room. The proliferation of substance dependency, physical abuse, sexual promiscuity, and living on the fast track in order not to feel the emptiness of one's life - all point to the loss of a vital element in life. Without superficial props, a certain dullness creeps in and we are confronted with the lack of personal resources which could engender a new sense of vitality.
Contemporary men and women, unlike Urbaal of ancient times, no longer have the opportunity to hold tenderly the little image of the goddess or become awe-inspired while viewing the sacred prostitute dancing in the temple, her beautiful body the representation of joy and passion. Without benefit of direct experience, we can know of the sacred prostitute only through reading deciphered cuneiform tablets or ancient manuscripts describing her rituals. The rational mind has simply relegated her to the category of "archaic pagan practises."
Indeed, the term 'sacred prostitute' presents a paradox to our logical minds, for, as I have indicated, we are disinclined to associate that which is sexual with that which is consecrated to the gods. Thus the significance of this temple priestess escapes us, and we remain disconnected from an image that represents the vital, full-bodied nature of the feminine.
Without this image, modern men and women continue to live out contemporary persona roles, never fully realising the depth of emotion and fullness of life inherent in the feeling tone which surrounds the image of the sacred prostitute.
Much as the archaeological artifacts described by Michener revealed values of ancient civilisations, images from the deep recesses of our unconscious can enlighten us by disclosing aspects of ourselves which have been repressed or ignored.
We bury these images when they create conflict with some conscious value or attitude; consequently we lose the meaning symbolised by them. New models or images take their place. As older images, such as the little clay statue symbolising the communion of sexuality and spirituality, become inaccessible to our conscious understanding, so a source of vital energy escapes us.
In the body of psychological thought developed by CG Jung, such images are considered 'archetypal'. An archetype is a pre-existing for that is part of the inherited structure of the psyche common to all people.
These psychic structures are endowed with strong feeling tones. The archetype, as a psychic entity, is surrounded by energy which has the ability to activate and transform conscious contents.
When the archetype is constellated, that is, activated, the release of that specific energy is recognised by consciousness and felt in the body through the emotions. Thus, for example, when the archetype of the goddess of love is constellated, we are imbued with the vitality of love, beauty, sexual passion and spiritual renewal.
Jung writes that the loss of an archetype "gives rise to that frightful 'discontent in our culture.'" Without the vital feminine to balance the collective patriarchal principle, there is a certain barrenness to life. Creativity and personal development are stifled.
When the divine feminine, the goddess, is no longer revered, social and psychic structures become overmechanized, overpoliticized, overmilitarized. Thinking, judgment and rationality become the ruling factors. The needs for relatedness, feeling, caring or attending to nature go unheeded. There is no balance, no harmony, neither within oneself nor in the external world.
With the disregard of the archetypal image so related to passionate love, a splitting off of values, a onesidedness, occurs in the psyche. As a result, we are sadly crippled in our search for wholeness and health.
As I began to appreciate these implications, not only for the individual but for society as a whole, another difficulty took shape. If the problem was the loss of certain aspects of the feminine archetype, then it was important to regain them. But how? Archaeological digs offered a wonderful model. Instead of digging deep in the earth to recover hidden treasures, I would 'dig' in the dark, mysterious spaces of the unconscious to bring those dormant images to the light of consciousness.
The historical accounts I had read, and recorded laws dating from time immemorial, provided a framework, the basic data about the image for which I was searching. Information from universal literature, such as myths, fairy tales and religious documents, so rich in archetypal images and motifs, filled out the profile.
As these stories told of characteristic traits and activities of the goddess, the image of the sacred prostitute took on more substance and a distinct personality. These sources gave me an understanding of the attributes of the goddess and her votary; I could then translate them, as it were, into psychological dynamics.
Most important in finding the relevance of the sacred prostitute to contemporary life were the symbolic images stemming from dreams, visions and fantasies, and from common life experiences, of modern men and women. The image of the sacred prostitute, which connects the essences of sexuality and spirituality, could be discerned in various ways as she appeared in each individual's unconscious material. It was interesting to see that once the image was made conscious, there was a noticeable change in the person's attitudes.
These separate steps of my investigation lent themselves to the format of this book. The historical accounts of the sacred prostitute are elaborated in the opening chapter, which then looks into the demise of sacred prostitution and the cultural and psychological changes which resulted.
The second chapter discusses the general psychological significance of sacred prostitution. The third and fourth chapters describe the image of the sacred prostitute as it appears in dreams of men and women, respectively, and its meaning in terms of masculine and feminine psychology.
The final chapter takes the image forward, as it were, exploring ways in which the vital powers of the goddess of love and the sacred prostitute might be re-activated in the lives of modern men and women.
The psychological orientation of this work is that of the Jungian school of thought, analytical psychology. Dream interpretation is based on the synthetic or constructive approach, in which the symbolic expressions of the unconscious are amplified through archetypal images or motifs.
I do take exception with some of the teachings of Jung and his early male followers on the question of feminine nature. Their contributions deserve recognition, for they went against current beliefs in emphasizing the importance of the feminine to the health of the psyche; however, their point of view was essentially patriarchal.
Certainly, at that time this point of view had not been widely contested, and it is understandable that Jung and other men viewed the feminine psyche according to their experience of what Jung called the anima, a man's inner image of woman.
Writers like M. Esther Harding, an early advocate of Jungian thought, view the essence of feminine psychology in sharp contrast to masculine psychology. It is from the works of Harding and other women authors, mediated by my own experience, that I have distilled my image of the essential elements of the feminine nature.
Certain terms in this book, such as anima and animus, are more or less unique to Jung's psychology. These are defined as they appear. Where Jung refers to the feminine principle, I have chosen instead to speak of feminine nature - from Latin natura, meaning birth or the universe. 'Nature' implies that which is inborn, real, not artificial; that is the meaning I wish to impart when speaking of the psychic nature of the feminine.
Where I refer to Eros, it is in the sense originally elaborated by Jung, describing the inner law of psychic energy which pertains to relatedness, to joining, to mediating. My references to modern religious thought are concentrated on Western Christian tradition.
Oriental and Near Eastern religious practises, although rich in symbolism relating to the sacred prostitute and the divine feminine, will not be discussed here (except for amplification in a few instances). By the same token there are many parallels in Oriental mythology, but my investigations have been limited to Western cultural mythology and early Middle Eastern mythology.
Included here are some case studies in which the image of the sacred prostitute was relevant. I realise that it is not pertinent in all cases; my intention is simply to illustrate the dynamic function of the image where it is found.
I am indebted to those who gave permission to use their personal material. Their names and background have been changed to protect their identity.
My conclusions are not to be viewed as a definitive statement regarding the nature of women, for I am considering only one aspect: the instinctive, erotic, dynamic facet of feminine nature. More specifically, I am writing about the positive aspects inherent in the archetypal image of the prostitute.
It has two faces, the sacred and the profane. The dark side is readily known; it manifests in the countless mean-spiritied ways in which feminine sexuality is misused. The positive aspects are less known, for the sacred elements have been split off.
Stated generally, my purpose is to bring to conscious awareness aspects of feminine nature which have been misunderstood, devalued or lost to the unconscious. In particular, I examine the interrelatedness of sexuality and spirituality and discuss how each may bring life to the other.
To this end I demonstrate the manner in which the archetypal image of the sacred prostitute can be an active factor in the lives of modern men and women. Finally I explore ways to redeem this image from the unconscious, so that the sacred prostitute and what she represents psychologically may have a valued place in contemporary life.
One last observation. In undertaking to write about the sacred prostitute and the goddess, I have chosen figures towards whom many people, women as well as men, may feel some resistance, however unwillingly. Whatever its individual origin, such resistance has a basis I take seriously; the pervasive Logos orientation of our culture. That attitude, to which we are all more or less prone, would have us place a higher value on doing than on being, on achieving rather than experiencing, on thinking more than feeling.
While I respect this view within limits, I have not catered to it here. For instance, I could not present the image of the sacred prostitute by rigorous argumentation or scholarly discourse. My early attempts to do so seemed to take from her the very life I was trying to convey.
Like a round peg in a square hole, the image would not fit such a structure. As the reader will see, I have given a place here to imagination and feeling. In this I was guided by my subject. I hope she shows herself in conscientious research, reflective thinking and clear prose - that is, in human narrative for a human audience.
The sacred prostitute, although lost to history in our outer reality, can be a vital, functioning aspect of individual psychic processes. To become conscious of her, to feel her, to allow her expression, adds a new dimension to life - a dimension as one might imagine, of an erotic and exhilarating nature. It is this sacred servant of the divine goddess, the goddess of love, whom I now present.
Shaman Vll (Artwork)
The Goddess and her Virgin.
O, young damsels, who receive all strangers and give them hospitality.
Priestess of the goddess Pitho in the rich Corinth,
it is you, who, in causing the incense to burn before the image of Venus
and in inviting the mother of love, often merit for us her celestial aid and procure for us the sweet moments which we taste on the luxurious coaches where is
gathered the delicate fruit of beauty.
BF Goldberg. The Sacred Fire; The story of Sex in Religion.
The Sacred Rituals.
Imagine, if you will, travelling to a foreign land, a strange land where only a few have journeyed. There we come upon the ruins of an ancient civilisation, now forgotten. Outlines of half-buried stones suggest the foundation of a once majestic temple. Portions of huge, broken marble columns lay scattered about as if some giant force had destroyed them.
Wandering among these ruins, imagine the life once lived here. Our mind's eye can see the temple as it once must have been, glistening in the sunlight, a rectangular structure, spacious, with intricately carved pediments, its roof supported by the massive fluted columns.
Beams of light from all angles penetrate the walls. Through the open doors we can peer into the inner sanctuary. A figure moves gracefully before the altar, illuminating it by bringing fire to the clay oil lamps all around. Behold the priestess of the temple of Venus, the goddess of love. She is the sacred prostitute.
She is a mystery, concealed by veils. We see her only dimly. Yet in the flickering light we discern her shapely feminine outline. A breeze lifts her veil to reveal her long black tresses. Silver bracelets adorn her arms and ankles; miniature crescents hang from her ear lobes and lapis lazuli beads encircle her neck. Her perfume with its musk-like aroma creates an aura which stimulates and enriches physical desire.
As the sacred prostitute moves through the open temple doors she begins to dance to the music of the flute, tambourine and cymbals. Her gestures, her facial expressions and the movements of her supple body all speak to the welcoming of passion. There is no false modesty regarding her body and as she dances the contours of her feminine form are revealed under an almost transparent saffron robe. Her movements are graceful, as she is well aware of her beauty. She is full of love and as she dances her passion grows. In her ecstasy she forgets all restraint and gives herself to the deity and to the stranger.
"A thousand pens of gold, and ink scented with musk," are needed to describe the feminine appeal, beauty and sensuality of this vision as she quickly passes throug our mind's eye back into the dark recesses of the temple.
Imagine the sacred prostitute greeting the stranger, a world-weary man who has come to the temple to worship the goddess of love. No words are spoken; her outstretched arms and the soft, warm expression of her radiant eyes and face say what needs to be said.
In her private chambers, the sacred love-room of the temple, fillled with the fragrance of herbs and flowers, she bathes the stranger, offering him balm. She tells him amusing stories of her training - how the temple priests and other ritual priestesses taught her the art of love-making.
"Keep your fingertips close to your knees and your eyes lowered. When you look sideways try to press your chin into your shoulder," she tells him, playfullly mocking them.
She prepares a tray of fresh dates, nuts and fruit which she lays before him, along with bread dipped in honey. The sacred prostitute and the stranger drink sweet wine from a single silver cup. She came to the temple, she tells him, in order to fulfill the law of the lan, which every maiden must do.
With more reverence she speaks of her devotion to the goddess as she approaches the small marble image of Venus. In the near darkness, alone in her rapture, she performs the ritual of lighting the perfumed oil lamp, gently swaying and chanting softly in prayer of thanksgiving to the goddess.
The stranger watches quietly and thinks to himself,
How different she is from me, how strangely different! She is afraid of me, and my male difference. She is getting herself naked and clear of her fear. How sensitive and softly alive she is, with a life so different from mine! How beautiful with a soft strange courage, of life.......How terrible to fail her, or to trespass on her!
As the sacred prostitute turns back to the stranger she removes her saffron robe and gestures to him to stand before the image of Venus. He moves awkwardly at first, but deep within the stirring of his manhood gives impetus to strong strides. He kneels in honour before the goddess of passion and love and offers a prayer of supplication that she will receive his offering.
The sacred prostitute leads the stranger to the couch prepared with white linens and aromatic myrtle leaves. She has rubbed sweet smelling wild thyme on her thighs.
Her faint smile and glistening eyes tell the stranger that she is full of desire for him. The gentle touch of her embrace sparks a fiery response - he feels the quickening of his body. He is keenly aware of the passion within this votary to the goddess of love and fertility and is fulfilled.
The woman and the stranger know that the consummation of the love act is consecrated by the deity through which they are renewed. The ritual itself, due to the presence of the divine, is transforming. The sacred prostitute, now no longer a maiden, is initiated into the fullness of womanhood, the beauty of her body and her sexuality. Her true feminine nature is awakened to life. The divine element of love resides in her.
The stranger too is transformed. The qualities of the receptive feminine nature, so opposite from his own, are embedded dep within his soul; the image of the sacred prostitute is viable within him. He is fully aware of the deep emotions within the sanctuary of his heart. He makes no specific claims on the woman herself, but carries her image, the personification of love and sexual joy, into the world.
His experience of the mysteries of sex and religion opens the door to the potential of on-going life; it accompanies the regeneration of the soul.
We are privileged also to witness the most important celebration in this strange land, the feast of the New Year. This festival is unusual for it lasts many days and occurs during the time of the summer solstice, when the land and vegetation are parched and brown from the scorching summer sun.
Great feasts with ample containers of beer and wine are prepared at the temple of love; after all, it is the locus of potency and fertility. The temple musicians play lively music which enhances the merriment, the dancing and love-making. During the celebration, sacrifices are also made in the temple in order to return to the goddess in thanksgiving some portion of the life she has provided.
The first grains and fruits, the first offspring of the livestock, and even the first child - that which was most precious - are sacrificed to her. (Today we may find these rites cruel, primitive and pagan, and choose to dismiss them as such. Yet to better comprehend the rationale behind such practises, we must view the ritual as enacted in much the same way as, for instance, the Holy Eucharist, which according to Christian tradition is build on a human sacrifice - the symbolic libation of blood for the strengthening of life.) The people of this time and locale feel the connection of blood and fertility. In these rituals they offer up libations of blood to increase the power which gives more abundant life to earth.
Enterting into the festivities, we find that the celebration culminates in the hieros gamos, the sacred marriage. This ritual is the traditional reenactment of the marriage of the goddess of love and fertility with her lover, the young, virile, vegetation god. The chosen sacred prostitute, a special votary who is regarded as the personification of the goddess, unites with the reigning monarch, identified with the god. This union assures productivity of the land and fruitfulness of the womb of both human and beast; it is the "fixing of all destinies." (Babylonian and Assyrian Religion).
At the beginning, joyous music and ecstatic love songs fill the air, capturing the passionate and erotic musings of the sacred prostitute as she makes her special preparations for this most important observance.
When for the wild bull, for the lord, I shall have bathed,
When for the shephard Dumuzi, I shall have bathed,
When with....my sides I shall have adorned.
When with amber my mouth I shall have coated,
When with kohl my eyes I shall have painted,
Then in his fair hands my loins shall have been shaped,
When the lord, lying by holy Inanna, the shephard Dumuzi,
With milk and cream the lap shall have smoothed....,
When on my vulva his hands he shall have laid,
When like his black boat, he shall have....it,
When like his narrow boat, he shall have brought life to it,
When on the bed he shal have caressed me,
Then shall I caress my lord, a sweet fate I shall decree for him,
I shall caress his loins, the shephardship of all the lands,
I shall degree as his fate.
After much feasting and merriment, the bridal couple retires to the sacred chambers of the ziggurat, the tower of the temple. There the nuptial bed is perfumed with myrrh, aloes and cinammon. The waiting masses sing hymns and love songs to enhance the rapture and the fertilizing power of the goddess and her lover, the sacred prostitute and the king.
The king goes with lifted head to the holy lap,
He goes with lifted head to the holy lap of Inanna,
The king coming with lifted head,
Coming to my queen with lifted head....
Embraces the Hierodul......
What would we feel standing at the foot of the ziggurat? If we were fortunate, we would be filled with awe so that our experience would be a kind of participation. Perhaps we could share the feelings of the sacred prostitute whose human desires and emotions, and creative chthonic energies, are expressions of the divine. Perhaps we could share in her understanding that the nature of the goddess dwells within her feminine being.
The Priestess
The sacred prostitute, whom we have beheld here in imagination, was a reality of ancient times. Inscribed clay tablets, unearthed relics and excavated temples tell of religious ceremonies celebrating the potent goddesses of love and fertility. through recorded laws and ancient documents we know of the existence of women who participated in these sacred rituals.
But what do we know about the women themselves? what were the joys or complexities of their everyday lives? And what was their relationshp to the goddess?
Writings from the ancient civilisation of Sumer shed some light on these questions. There the goddess of love in her celestial beauty was worshipped as the moon goddess. Actually, the first writer in history whose name and works have been preserved was Enheduanna, born ca. 2300 BC. A priestess of the moon goddess. Her poetry reads like a personal diary, filled with her adoration of the moon goddess, political upheavals, her banishment from the temple and her return.
She writes with sensuality and intimacy to the goddess of love, Inanna. "She speaks to a deity who has descended to earth as an ally, as a friend to help her in her need." She writes of her image of the goddess Inanna and the Divine Essences;
Lady of all the essences, full of light,
good woman clothed in radiance
whom heaven and earth love,
temple friend of An,
you wear great ornaments,
you desire the tiara of the high priestess
whose hands holds the seven essences,
O my lady, guardian of all the great essences,
you have picked them up and hung them
on your hand.
You have gathered the holy essences
and worn them
tightly on your breasts.
Enheduanna also experiences the powerful wrath and fury of her love goddess, the goddess of the moon in her dark phase;
Like a dragon you have filled the land
with venom.
Like thunder when you roar over the earth,
trees and plants fall before you,
You are a flood decending from a mountain,
O primary one,
moon goddess Inanna of heaven and earth!
your fire blows about and drops on our nation.
Lady mounted on a beast,
An gives you qualities, holy commands,
and you decide.
You are in all our great rites,
Who can understand you?
The moon priestess realizes the absence of love when the goddess is not present in the lives of the people;
...you have lifted your foot and left
their barn of fertility.
The women of the city no longer speak of love
...wtih their husbands.
At night they do not make love.
They are no longer naked before them,
revealing intimate treasures.
Great daughter of Suen,
impetuous wild cow, supreme lady commanding An,
who dares not worship you?
Apparently a new ruler, Lugalanne came to power and changed the sacred rituals. Enheduanna as high priestess was banished from the temple. She writes of her despair and the loss of her feminine beauty when she no longer felt the connection to her love goddess;
You asked me to enter the holy cloister,
the giparu,
and I went inside, I the high priestess
Enheduanna!
I carried the ritual basket and sang
your praise.
Now I am banished among the lepers.
Even I cannot live with you.
Shadows approach the light of day, the light
is darkened around me,
shadows approach the daylight,
covering the day with sandstorm.
My soft mouth of honey is suddenly confused.
My beautiful face is dust.
But then Enheduanna is restored to her former station. She knows once again her joy, her beauty and her relationship to the goddess;
The first lady of the throne room
has accepted Enheduanna's song,
Inanna loves her again.
The day was good for Enheduanna, for she was dressed
in jewels.
She was dressed in womanly beauty.
Like the moon's first rays over the horizon,
how luxuriously she was dressed!
When Nanna, Inanna's father,
made his entrance
the palace blessed Inanna's mother Ningal.
From the doorsill of heaven came the word; "Welcome!"
The descriptive and sensitive writings of Enheduanna bring to light the deep devotion of an individual human woman, a priestess, to the love goddess. Enheduanna experiences her beauty and sensuality as gifts bestowed by the goddess. When she can no longer worship in the temple, she feels a dark and shadowy emptiness, and her own reflection of the goddess, her radiant feminine beauty, is concealed.
When the love goddess was banished, intimate pleasures and the language of love could not continue in the lives of the people.
Through the imagery in Enheduanna's poetry and historical accounts of the sacred prostitute, we can more clearly understand her significance in the religious rituals where she was the major and decisive figure. Yet the sacred prostitute remains a mystery, in large part because our modern attitude makes it difficult for us to grasp what we see as a paradox in her image; her sexual nature was an integral aspect of her spiritual nature. For most of us that conjunction is a contradiction. In ancient times, however it was a unity.
Shaman Vlll (Artwork)
The Origins of Sacred Prostitution
During the millennium when the sacred prostitute existed, cultures were built on a matriarchal system. Matriarchy here does not simply mean that women replaced men in authority positions; rather, the focus was on different cultural values.
Where patriarchy established law, matriarchy establishes custom; where patriarchy establishes military power, matriarchy establishes religious authority; where patriarchy encourages the aresteia of he individual warrior, matriarchy encourages the tradition-bound cohesion of the collective. William Thompson. The Time Falling Bodies Take to Light.
Matriarchy was concerned with cultural authority as opposed to the political power emphasized bt the patriarchy. In the ancient matriarchies, nature and fertility were the core of existence. The people lived close to nature, therefore their gods and goddesses were nature divinities.
Their deities ordered destiny by providing or denying abundance to the earth. Inherent in the individual's human nature was erotic passion. Desire and sexua response experienced as a regenerative power were recognised as a gift or a blessing from the divine. Man and woman's sexual nature and their religious attitudes were inseparable.
In their praises of thanksgiving or in their supplications, they offered the sex act to the goddess revered for love and passion. It was an act, honourable and pious, pleasing to both the deity and mortal alike. The practise of sacred prostitution evolved within this matriarchal religious system and thus made no separation between sexuality and spirituality.
There are other speculations on the origins of sacred prostitution. Perhaps it grew, as many customs do, from a simple need. It was primarily women who performed the menial tasks of the sacred places and in time, as they were associated with sacred things, they acquired a certain sanctity.
Being unattached, these women were sought out by men; consequently, their religious powers grew. They were thought to be in close relationship with the gods - often such woman was considered to be the wife of a male deity. Thus she was endowed with the power to interpret his will or to grant a blessing or a curse.
Another hypothesis regarding the institutionalisation of sacred prostitution stems from a civil rite. In early primitive tribes, a young girl was offered to an appointed tribal member, someone other than a man who could be her husband, for a defloration ceremony.
It was an initial rite into tribal membership. As the tribe developed culturally, this act was offered to the tribal god in order to procure divine favour. A vestige of this rite was evident in medieval Europe in the so-called jus prima noctis, the right of the lord of the manor to the first night with a bride. He might relinquish this right for a fee or he might insist on the defloration himself. In either case the bride had to present herself to the feudal lord before joining her husband.
Still other writers explain the origins of sacred prostitution as a development of the cult of the Great Mother or Mother Earth. She was the goddess of all fertility, her blessing for reproduction of crops and children and animal life being vital to the early agrarian cultures.
Connected to the goddess of fertility, although in a subordinate position, was the son-lover husband. It was supposed that as this union of the goddess and her consort ensured fertility for the land, so it should be imitated by the women who sought her blessing.
Whatever the reason or combination of reasons for its development, there is no question that sacred prostitution existed for thousands of years in widespread civilisations. Wherever the goddess of fertility, love and passion was worshipped, the sacred prostitute was an integral member of the community.
An ancient record of the goddess comes from the land of Sumer, often referred to as the cradle of civilisation. Clay tablets tell stories of the goddess Inanna, Queen of Heaven and Earth, the Morning and Evening Star.
Inanna, a prominent deity in the Sumerian pantheon brought to earth in the Boat of Heaven gifts of civilisation and culture, such as music, crafts, judgments and truth.
She also brought the art of love-making, a cultural achievement. These ancient texts also introduce the sacred prostitute as Hierodule.
The following poem describes the goddess as "you who sweeten all things" and confirms the similarity between the goddess and the sacred prostitute;
The faithful shepherd, he of the sweet chant,
Will utter a resounding chant for you,
Lordly Queen, you who sweeten all things,
Inanna, it will bring joy to your heart.
Lordly Queen, when you enter the stall
Inanna, the stall rejoices with you,
Hierodule, when you enter the sheepfold,
The stall rejoices with you.....
This many - faceted goddess of love, passion, war and death was called Ishtar by the Babylonians. Her sexual activity was emphasised through descriptions of her as "the sweet voiced mistress of the gods," yet she was also known for her cruel and relentless fickleness towards her lovers. Since she was the bringer of love and sexual joy, she also held the power to take them away.
Without this tempting, full-breasted goddess, nothing that concerned the life cycle could come to pass. When Ishtar makes her descent into the Nether World, no passion is felt on earth; sterility overcomes the land, in a situation similar to that which the moon priestess Enheduanna described.
The poets explain;
Since the Lady Ishtar descended to the land of No-Return
The bull does not spring upon the cow, the ass does not
bow over the jenny
The man no more bows over the woman in the street,
The man sleeps in his chamber
The woman sleeps alone.
Again on her return to earth, life and love are awakened, as Ishtar exclaims in a hymn;
I turn the male to the female;
I am she who adorneth the male for the female,
I am she who adorneth the female for the male.
Ishtar was called the Great Goddess Har, Mother of Harlots. "Her high priestess, the Harine, was considered the spiritual ruler of 'the city of Ishtar'" An ancient ivory wall carving depicts Ishtar seated in a window frame. In this typical pose of the prostitute, she is known as "Kililii Mushruti" or "Kilili who leans out". She sys, "A prostitute compassionate am I"
An account of sacred prostitution is recorded in the Gilgamesh Epic, completed about 7000 BC, though possibly it comes from a much older oral tradition. The story describes the heroic feats of the legendary King Gilgamesh, who was part human and part god. He spurned Ishtar's amorous advances and was so powerful that the deities became angry.
The gods design a plan to rob Gilgamesh of his authority and domination. On the uncultivated plains they place a wild hairy man, Enkidu. So like the animals is he that he roams and grazes with them. Enkidu is spotted by a hunter at the watering hole where the animals come to drink. Gilgamesh is told of this and plans to capture the wild, animal man. He sends a Herem, a sacred prostitute consecrated to the goddess, to the watering place with the hunter.
When they come upon Enkidu the hunter bids the woman remove her garments, "laying bare her ripeness". She "opened wide her garments, exposing her charms, yielded herself to his embraces, and for six days and seven nights gratified his desire, until he was won from his wild life. Alienated now from his animal companions, Enkidu us led by the sacred prostitute to the gates of the city, the centre of human civilisation.
From these ancient chronicles the image of the sacred prostitute emerges. In her embodiment of the goddess, she is the bringer of sexual joy and the vessel by which the raw animal instincts are transformed into love and love-making.
It is in this sense that Hesiod said, "the sensual magic of the sacred whores or Horae 'mellowed the behavior of men'".
In later civilisations, the sacred prostitutes were often known as Charites or Graces, since they dealt in the unique combination of beauty and kindness called charis (Latin, caritas) that was later translated 'charity'. Actually it was like Hindu karuna, a combination of mother-love, tenderness, comfort, mystical enlightenment and sex.
NANCY QUALLS-CORBETT
A Freed Slave. A Mature Man. Temujin
Why? Because there is nothing more magnificent than a slave who has been freed. A son who has revolted and turned over the tables and mastered his ancestry. Who has broken out of his bourgeois strangulation and freed his Sacred Pimp self into the world forever. The day I can quiver in anticipation. The day I can finally be with a man, who is strong enough to hold me and mature enough to catch me if he can.
Temujin © 2011
There are but two tribes in the world. Temujin
Those who live by the heart and through the sex of the soul and those who live by the absence of the heart and with no respect for either sex or the soul. The true tribe and the false tribe.
To be liberated from falseness, you have to acknowledge the full horror of non existence that living by the absence of the heart creates and you have to feel your passport to the true tribe.
And once feeling it you have to value it. Otherwise you stay plugged in forever.
My passport to truth was that I just didn't fit in - literally and figuratively. And that trying to fit in almost killed me.
And so I left polite society. With its thirst for power, contempt for humanity, its bigotry, its eurocentric shallowness of bodyfacism and its material greed.
And, oh yes, it's hatred for woman. The body of a woman. The sex of the soul and the humanity of the heart.
Where patriarchal domestication means that a woman still believes in the hearth and home, more than she values the sanctity of sex and the independence of the human spirit.
Where patriarchal domestication and enslavement means a man can only believe in the sexless tribe, rather than the sanctity of sex and the independence of the human spirit. And indeed sexual love.
The polite society that breeds a pack of cowards through the greatest, most effective, most matrix entrenched, form of human control on the planet. The Stepford society.
There are but two tribes in the world.
Temujin © 2005
Sex ll. A Self Portrait
Thank you to outside sources for photography. Darkroomed by Temujin (formerly Amera Ziganii Rao)
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