Sex Pt ll. A Self Portrait. Temujin Photography
Hierophant Self Discovery :: The Sacred Prostitute by Nancy Qualls - Corbett. An Excerpt
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 the 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 by 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 sexual 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 inseperable.
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 prostittuion 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 relationshp 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 priima 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 Sacred Prostitute by Nancy Qualls - Corbett.
The rest of this excerpt can be found in my 'pages' section and indeed the book widely available from any bookseller. There is also another fascinating piece from Diana Rose Hartmann in the same section.
The longer excerpt from Nancy Qualls - Corbett on The Sacred Prostitute
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