Um, Like, Oh My Goddess!

I am really getting back into learning about goddess worship these days. I took a class or two in college and was really into the subject, incorporated some of it into my own personal philosophy, but haven't really done much about it recently. Until I found this awesome book and it seems to be exactly what I want to know about it all.

I'm not a militant feminist per se, and I think men are just super, thanks, but I've always been curious why fertility, femininity, and celebration of the life-giving capabilities of women is seemingly absent or scarce from any modern religious doctrine. I've always had a nagging sense that our "Judeo-Christian tradition based" society is really backwards when it comes to sexuality and its role in achieving spiritual enlightenment. We've all been made to fear our own sexuality, and in general punish or scorn the symbol of a "sexual" woman as temptress or whore. The "lusty" woman is a force of evil, and to be attracted to, or worse, participate in the sexual act with her is a source of intense collective male unconscious guilt. The old Eve eating the apple dilemma. And oh, that Mary Magdalene. Just sluts messin' shit up for everybody.

You know what? I think that blows. So I started investigating.

Turns out, before Christianity and the "Patriarchy" came around and f'ed stuff up (**did you know an estimated 6 to 9 million people, 85% of them women, were executed for "witchcraft" during the 15th-17th centuries? That's a friggin' holocaust, peeps!**), certain women had rights and were in fact allowed to be leaders, queens, run the goddess temples, etc. They were worshipped for their sacred sexuality, their beauty, and were considered the human embodiment of the goddess and symbols of love and fertility. They were known for their dance, their massage and healing touch, for giving advice and guidance. These women would dance at community celebrations for the harvest and blessing of the fertility of the land, their beauty and sensuality a symbol of the fruitfulness of the earth and its gifts to humanity. Check out this sexy re-enactment of the sacred prostitute's dance: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AcJIflaPEQk

Then she'd pick one lucky representative man of the village to participate in the "sexual act" with her as a symbolic ritual celebrating human love and creation, thus "re-activating" the ongoing creative cycle of the earth.

Academics and scholars of this stuff use the term for these women "the sacred prostitute" (not to be confused with the "profane prostitute", which also existed in ancient society--more on this later).

Here's some interesting movie clips from a documentary about the sacred prostitute. If you're at all familiar, tantra, the Kama Sutra, and all of these more commonly known sexual traditions play into the "sacred prostitute" mythology and practices. You've probably heard these women and the goddess they represent, too: Salome's "Dance of the Seven Veils" is based on the 'Welcoming Back' of Ishtar - Inanna- Isis. Also Known as Astarte, Ashtar, and Aphrodite among other names.

"Whether in public celebration or in the quiet privacy of her temple chamber, the sacred prostitute expressed her true feminine nature. Her beauty and sensuous body were not used in order to gain security, power, or possessions. She did not make love in order to obtain admiration or devotion from the man who came to her, for often she remained veiled and anonymous. She did not require a man to give her a sense of her own identity; rather she was rooted in her own womanliness. The laws of her feminine nature were harmonious with those of the goddess. Her raison d'etre was to worship the goddess in love-making, thereby bringing the goddess' love into the human sphere." -Nancy Qualls-Corbett, "The Sacred Prostitute: Eternal Aspect of the Feminine"

I like that. She doesn't want your money or your power or your soul or identity, she's got her own. She's just working to remind you that there is joy and beauty and fun and female moon goddess love out there. Turning the idea of "whore" upside down.

I am smitten with this subject. I kind of feel like it's my "great gig in the sky", my particular societal archetype. And once you google it, there's a whole crazy world out there about it!

I'll probably write more on this subject, but that's sort of an introduction to what I'm thinking about this whole thing.

There's so many crazy images to pick from, but here's a modern-day interpretation I like very much. I think it says something. What does this image evoke in you? I'm curious to hear what other people have to say on the subject, if anything?