One of the things I love about the way life works is how significant things tend to clump together. A little while ago in a piece called Sex and Violence I mentioned the concept of the Temple Prostitute and my friend, Pegasus asked for some more info. I've also recently "met" (if that's the correct word for what one does online) a group calling themselves the Temple of Ishtar. On top of that I've found a group of American Qadishtu (more on that word in a moment) and I've just re-read Gilgamesh. Also, my friend Bridget recently gave a talk on ancient and modern Pagan attitudes to sexuality which mentioned Temple Prostitution.
I think the Gods are trying to tell me something, so maybe I should listen for once!
Anyway, I think I need to start off with what I know about these prostitutes, and I think it would a good idea to use some more sensible terms.
We have no word in English to describe the people I'm talking about. Whoever gave them the title prostitute did them a terrible disservice. It's technically correct in that they made their living by having sex with people, but so does a porn star. We have an image (I do anyway) of what a prostitute is like and it's pretty sordid. I've actually met a few prostitutes and, frankly, I'm amazed they make any money! It's definitely the wrong word so, as from now, I'm going to use a new term I've learned - Qadishtu.
Quadishtu
A Qadishtu is a sexual priestess, one for whom the act of sexual intercourse is given as a form of worship. What we know of this practise comes primarily from ancient Mesopotamia. It was expected of a woman that she would, once in her life, act as a priestess in the Eanna temple and have sexual intercourse with whoever wanted her. Most of the time the Qadishtu was someone who made it their profession and lived, or at least worked, in the Temple full-time.
We also h
ave evidence that this practise was common well outside the walls of Uruk and for quite some time. Some 1,500 years later and roughly 1000 miles away in Biblical Canaan and Syria the practise was still going on. Deuteronomy 23:17-18 mentions it:No Israelite man or woman is to become a shrine-prostitute.You must not bring the earnings of a female prostitute or of a male prostitute into the house of the LORD your God to pay any vow, because the LORD your God detests them both.
There are also references in I Kings, II Kings and Job. The Hebrews (or their leaders anyway) didn't like it at all!
So Who Were They?
Well for a start, they weren't all women. There were men as well. In fact the word Qadishtu refers to a woman. The male word is Qadash or Qedesh and I suppose the plural (it being a Semitic term) would be something like Qadishtim.
There are stories which tell of religious ecstasies where the men would castrate themselves. It appears that these men were naturally effeminate, whether castrated or not, and worked in the same way as the women. There may be a remnant of this in the Hijra of India, some of whom are castrated, many of whom work as prostitutes and are regarded with a mixture of awe and superstitious dislike. Many of the societies that we would consider "primitive" have kept a special place for their "third sex" members
I have no idea whether the customers were all male or not, but I don't believe there was any deliberate form of discrimination. I can see the job of a man being difficult, though, if he is expected to perform on demand. It would be easier for him to be on the "receiving end".
Most importantly though, is what they were doing it for. There are many ways of earning a living and there must have been some distasteful moments where a Qadishtu would have to "lie back and think of Babylonia". The point is that, unlike in our strange and hypocritical modern age, sex and sexuality were celebrated openly as good things. Most of the mythology we read nowadays is taken directly from Victorian and Edwardian scholars who edited heavily according to the appallingly prurient morality of their day. Here's an example:
"O Ishullanu of mine, come, let me taste of thy vigour, Put forth thy hand, too, . . . . . . . . . ."
(Gilgamesh Book VI, R. Campbell Thompson, 1928)
"Sweet Ishullanu, let me suck your rod, Touch my vagina, caress my jewel"
(Gilgamesh Book VI, Stephen Mitchell, 2004)
To be a Qadishtu was a source of pride and honour. It was to be a representative of the greatest and most powerful Goddess Inanna. The word Qadishtu comes from a Semitic root which literally means "Holy"
Inanna
Inanna seems to be a most powerful and primal goddess. She doesn't go all Victorian when it comes to sex either. She shaves her pubes off like a modern porn queen and hangs around outside pubs to take out her sexual lusts on drunken men. (Don't believe me? I got it from Wikipaedia)
She's quite aggressive too, in many ways. Her lovers tend to die by violence, and s
he can't handle rejection one bit. Despite the constant sex, though, she's not a Goddess of childbirth - just the bit that tends to lead to it!
There are characters just like Inanna all over the mythology of Europe and the Near East, and probably the rest of the world as well. Inanna is her Sumerian name (a language used by the Ancient Babylonians specifically for religious purposes), in Akkadian (ie. the normal language of 2,500 BC Uruk) she's called Ishtar. She's also called, in various languages across the Near East, Astarte, Asherah Esther and Ashtoreth.
The Romans identified her with their own Venus, which is very appropriate as they are both Goddesses of the morning and evening star. Likewise, in Greece, she is considered the same as Aphrodite. In Norse she's Freya and in Ireland she's the Morrigan (lit: "Great Queen").
The Qadishtu's job was one of worship by sex. A Qadishtu was the vessel of the Queen of Heaven herself and to have sex with her would be an incredibly important act of communion, not to be taken lightly. Similarly, if ancient texts are anything to go by, the Qadishtu enjoyed their job a lot. Hell, why not - it was their job to have orgasms for the good of the community!
Where Are They Now?
Nowadays due to 2000 years of Christianity we separate the sacred from the normal when we should be find the sacred in the normal. We separate sex from the spiritual and consider it profane. We hide it away as something "dirty" or "shameful" and don't talk about it in polite company. Even someone like myself, who thinks (and writes) about these things, has suffered the brainwashing that we all get about sex. I don't think sex is dirty or shameful but I still keep pictures of it private. I believe sex is a beautiful and sacred act but I don't think I could do it with people watching!
I consider myself fairly open-minded and well-educated on the topic but most people that I've met during my working life (blue collar) are not. They have a contradictory attitude which makes them disgusted to see teenagers snogging on the street, but lets them watch a porno DVD of the most blatantly abusive type. The only difference between them and me, really, is that we're all brainwashed but I realised, and am trying to do something about it.
So what can we do about it? Attitudes to sex are changing, particularly amongst the better educated and marginal groups like Pagans, but ground-level changes are very slow. In the end, though, in order to change society we need to change ourselves - the only bit of society we've any real control over - and hope others follow. There are modern-day Qadishtu like the lovely Inara de Luna and a variety of sex-educators, workers and helpers but they're often marginalised as nutters or worse, pornographers and therefore "dirty".
Intimacy
I think our attitudes to sex in general could well be improved by improving our attitudes and habits concerning intimacy. Specifically we need to look at touch and nudity.
Touch is
a funny thing for an adult human. We're sociable creatures yet distant from each other at the same time. Small children don't care, they touch each other all the time without it being considered a problem. Babies actually physically need to be touched, held, cuddled in order to grow up healthily.
Somewhere between the child and the adult, though, we develop this weird thing called personal space. Personal space varies according to how crowded your upbringing was but it can be considered as about 12" with a person you really like and about 3 or 4 feet for ordinary social contacts. I have no idea why we develop personal space, and I'd be grateful to anyone who can enlighten me. At the same time we also have a craving for human contact, usually in the form of a friend or loved one.
Look at the different behaviours of the adults and children around you and you may notice something quite interesting. Adults will avoid touching and entering each other's personal space unless they are either lovers or one is trying to dominate the other. But, it's perfectly acceptable for an adult to touch a child (hair-ruffling) or a child to touch an adult (like the three-year old who will plonk themselves on your knee).
The answer to this is, of course, to be open to touch. Not to touch other people more, because that would be invasive, but to invite them to touch you. One of the most wonderful experiences I've discovered is the "friend cuddle". Nine times out of ten I've found that, rather than shaking hands with a friend, opening your arms to them has the result of causing a massive sense of relaxation in the other person. Tension drops, acceptance is felt and the two people become both physically and emotionally more intimate. I'm extremely glad to say that Pagans do this a lot and consequently we don't feel so tense if we're crowded into a small area together.
The Free Hugs guy is a genius and pioneer!
What about nudity, then? I've written a lot about nudity, and I'm sure I will again because I like it! One of the things I've found about social nudity is the absolute degree of acceptance, both from other people and oneself. I have found that clothes hide a lot more than just
your body. When we dress we are subconsciously projecting an image, even if we don't think about it! Nobody sane and normal deliberately dresses to look bad (fancy-dress parties excepted). When we dress we put a personality on with our clothes and thus hide a part of ourselves.
First-time nudists almost always use one word to describe their experience - liberating!. They're right too. Once you find that you can't hide anything then you almost immediately realise that there was no need to hide anything in the first place. There is no need for a shield because there is no threat to be protected from and the personality that you would otherwise have put on can be your own.
In doing this you are, like with the friend cuddle, inviting intimacy.
What's This Got To Do With Sex?
Nudists will tell you that nudism isn't sexual. It isn't, but it is intimate and intimate is sexy. Sex is the ultimate intimacy. You can't have sex fully dressed (you've got to remove something!) and you definitely can't do it without touching (I'm not talking about phone sex here - that's something entirely different!)
The Qadishtu offered a valuable service to their community. By being intimate and vulnerable, by "opening up" to all comers they performed a marvellous Taoist paradox - they got on top by being underneath. They were valued for their nakedness and loving touch and the sacred nature of lying with them. They were powerful and important people - perhaps a memory of a bygone age of matriarchal communal sexuality - and this sense of acceptance and holiness in the sexual act would be passed into the wider community. Therefore, not only would it be an act of worship to have sex with the Qadishtu, but also to have sex with one's spouse(s) at home
Religion should, first and foremost, be fun. A religion is there to make one's life better and what could be better than more cuddling, nudity and sex - they are acts of worship to the Great Goddess Inanna.
Life is sacred, let's live like it is.
Love,
Seán
(Gilgamesh Book VI, R. Campbell Thompson, 1928)
"Sweet Ishullanu, let me suck your rod, Touch my vagina, caress my jewel"
(Gilgamesh Book VI, Stephen Mitchell, 2004)
To be a Qadishtu was a source of pride and honour. It was to be a representative of the greatest and most powerful Goddess Inanna. The word Qadishtu comes from a Semitic root which literally means "Holy"
Inanna
Inanna seems to be a most powerful and primal goddess. She doesn't go all Victorian when it comes to sex either. She shaves her pubes off like a modern porn queen and hangs around outside pubs to take out her sexual lusts on drunken men. (Don't believe me? I got it from Wikipaedia)
She's quite aggressive too, in many ways. Her lovers tend to die by violence, and s
he can't handle rejection one bit. Despite the constant sex, though, she's not a Goddess of childbirth - just the bit that tends to lead to it!There are characters just like Inanna all over the mythology of Europe and the Near East, and probably the rest of the world as well. Inanna is her Sumerian name (a language used by the Ancient Babylonians specifically for religious purposes), in Akkadian (ie. the normal language of 2,500 BC Uruk) she's called Ishtar. She's also called, in various languages across the Near East, Astarte, Asherah Esther and Ashtoreth.
The Romans identified her with their own Venus, which is very appropriate as they are both Goddesses of the morning and evening star. Likewise, in Greece, she is considered the same as Aphrodite. In Norse she's Freya and in Ireland she's the Morrigan (lit: "Great Queen").
The Qadishtu's job was one of worship by sex. A Qadishtu was the vessel of the Queen of Heaven herself and to have sex with her would be an incredibly important act of communion, not to be taken lightly. Similarly, if ancient texts are anything to go by, the Qadishtu enjoyed their job a lot. Hell, why not - it was their job to have orgasms for the good of the community!
Where Are They Now?
Nowadays due to 2000 years of Christianity we separate the sacred from the normal when we should be find the sacred in the normal. We separate sex from the spiritual and consider it profane. We hide it away as something "dirty" or "shameful" and don't talk about it in polite company. Even someone like myself, who thinks (and writes) about these things, has suffered the brainwashing that we all get about sex. I don't think sex is dirty or shameful but I still keep pictures of it private. I believe sex is a beautiful and sacred act but I don't think I could do it with people watching!
I consider myself fairly open-minded and well-educated on the topic but most people that I've met during my working life (blue collar) are not. They have a contradictory attitude which makes them disgusted to see teenagers snogging on the street, but lets them watch a porno DVD of the most blatantly abusive type. The only difference between them and me, really, is that we're all brainwashed but I realised, and am trying to do something about it.
So what can we do about it? Attitudes to sex are changing, particularly amongst the better educated and marginal groups like Pagans, but ground-level changes are very slow. In the end, though, in order to change society we need to change ourselves - the only bit of society we've any real control over - and hope others follow. There are modern-day Qadishtu like the lovely Inara de Luna and a variety of sex-educators, workers and helpers but they're often marginalised as nutters or worse, pornographers and therefore "dirty".
Intimacy
I think our attitudes to sex in general could well be improved by improving our attitudes and habits concerning intimacy. Specifically we need to look at touch and nudity.
Touch is
a funny thing for an adult human. We're sociable creatures yet distant from each other at the same time. Small children don't care, they touch each other all the time without it being considered a problem. Babies actually physically need to be touched, held, cuddled in order to grow up healthily.Somewhere between the child and the adult, though, we develop this weird thing called personal space. Personal space varies according to how crowded your upbringing was but it can be considered as about 12" with a person you really like and about 3 or 4 feet for ordinary social contacts. I have no idea why we develop personal space, and I'd be grateful to anyone who can enlighten me. At the same time we also have a craving for human contact, usually in the form of a friend or loved one.
Look at the different behaviours of the adults and children around you and you may notice something quite interesting. Adults will avoid touching and entering each other's personal space unless they are either lovers or one is trying to dominate the other. But, it's perfectly acceptable for an adult to touch a child (hair-ruffling) or a child to touch an adult (like the three-year old who will plonk themselves on your knee).
The answer to this is, of course, to be open to touch. Not to touch other people more, because that would be invasive, but to invite them to touch you. One of the most wonderful experiences I've discovered is the "friend cuddle". Nine times out of ten I've found that, rather than shaking hands with a friend, opening your arms to them has the result of causing a massive sense of relaxation in the other person. Tension drops, acceptance is felt and the two people become both physically and emotionally more intimate. I'm extremely glad to say that Pagans do this a lot and consequently we don't feel so tense if we're crowded into a small area together.
The Free Hugs guy is a genius and pioneer!
What about nudity, then? I've written a lot about nudity, and I'm sure I will again because I like it! One of the things I've found about social nudity is the absolute degree of acceptance, both from other people and oneself. I have found that clothes hide a lot more than just
your body. When we dress we are subconsciously projecting an image, even if we don't think about it! Nobody sane and normal deliberately dresses to look bad (fancy-dress parties excepted). When we dress we put a personality on with our clothes and thus hide a part of ourselves.First-time nudists almost always use one word to describe their experience - liberating!. They're right too. Once you find that you can't hide anything then you almost immediately realise that there was no need to hide anything in the first place. There is no need for a shield because there is no threat to be protected from and the personality that you would otherwise have put on can be your own.
In doing this you are, like with the friend cuddle, inviting intimacy.
What's This Got To Do With Sex?
Nudists will tell you that nudism isn't sexual. It isn't, but it is intimate and intimate is sexy. Sex is the ultimate intimacy. You can't have sex fully dressed (you've got to remove something!) and you definitely can't do it without touching (I'm not talking about phone sex here - that's something entirely different!)
The Qadishtu offered a valuable service to their community. By being intimate and vulnerable, by "opening up" to all comers they performed a marvellous Taoist paradox - they got on top by being underneath. They were valued for their nakedness and loving touch and the sacred nature of lying with them. They were powerful and important people - perhaps a memory of a bygone age of matriarchal communal sexuality - and this sense of acceptance and holiness in the sexual act would be passed into the wider community. Therefore, not only would it be an act of worship to have sex with the Qadishtu, but also to have sex with one's spouse(s) at home
Religion should, first and foremost, be fun. A religion is there to make one's life better and what could be better than more cuddling, nudity and sex - they are acts of worship to the Great Goddess Inanna.
Life is sacred, let's live like it is.
Love,
Seán
6 comments:
Commendable blog, not much I coiuld disagree with there. Attitudes to sex have become so utterly tainted nowadays I don't think it will ever change on a huge scale but there is nothing to say it can;t change on a smaller scale - away from the yes of the beast of industry and commercialism. If that beast caught sight of the worship of Inanna it would have it marketed and profitable within a week.
As for personal space, that's an interesting topic and I will reply to that with an actual blog as it's one of many blogs I've put off writing for a while.
P.S - great pic :P
Thanks, Sean! Just what I asked for re the Temple Prostitutes (as you say, a terrible term!)...
You'll be interested to know that Corinth was a centre of Aphrodite worship. The Temple Courtesans were very much in activity when Paul was writing his Epistles to the Christian community there. Apparently they were celebrating their Salvation with group sex sessions, often involving incest. Paul was none too pleased. Alas, the Church Fathers didn't feel that contextualising the Epistles to the Corinthians and so we were lumbered with a universal 'morality' which was actually extremely specific in nature. Thanks for that.
To do my usual Judeo-Christian 'spanner in the works' thing: the prohibition against Temple Sexuality in Kings came out of the discovery of the Deuteronomy Scroll by King Josiah. As any fule kno, the Deuteronomy Scroll is the most nightmarishly fascistic Book of Moses, but it wasn't included until Josiah. So pre-Josian Judaism (ie that of everyone from Abraham to David and Solomon) was not influenced by it. This is why the description of these two Kings and the First Temple is hugely sympathetic in Samuel & Chronicles but much less so in Kings.
In the pre-Josian texts, David and Solomon practise a much freer Judaism, with Asherahs in the Temple, music and dance as forms of worship and, in the Books of Solomon (Proverbs, Song of Songs and Ecclestiastes) a much more mystical, male/female, trantric element. Indeed Wisdom as a Feminine Energy is associated with Solomon. In the Essene Scrolls, they say that David never read the Deuteronomy Scroll kept in the Ark of the Covenant. Thus there are two Judaisms. That of Josiah and onwards and that of everyone up until Josiah...
In the post-Josian texts, known as the Deuteronimist Judaism, all reference to femininity is erased. The Asherah Trees are removed from the Temple and Solomon is described as having gone whoring after foreign Gods. It is with Kings and the Deuteronomists that the absolutist male monotheism we associate with Judaism comes in. Its great exponent is Elijah, who battles hard with the Jewish Priests of Asherah, who embodies the Tree of Life that is Wisdom.
But the pre-Josian spirituality continues within Kabbalah in the form of the Shekinah and the Divine Marriage between the Lesser Countenance and the Daughter. It is also still present in the Books of Solomon. Even more interestingly, the Ark of the Covenant, as it stood in Solomon's day, had on it the two Cherubim in sexual congress, something which shocked even the Gentile sackers of the First Temple. Thus the Ark demonstrated how the Divine Marriage of the Song of Songs lead to access to the Zero Point between the Male and Female Cherubim which was where God spoke to the Israelites...
Then its worth remembering how the Kabbalists believed that love-making, particularly on the Sabbath, brought forth the Shekinah. By pleasuring one's wife, one pleasured the Sabbath Bride, bringing blessing on the household...
So once again, its more complicated!
Then, if you look at Gnostic Christianity, you will find that it is full of sexual imagery. Indeed, one of the Nag Hammadi manuscripts describes the joy of Spiritual Union with God as analogous to the pleasure of sex. Also, its very possible that the Ceremony of the Bridal Chamber involved some form of Sexual Rite.
Meanwhile the Hieros Gamos, or Divine Marriage, remained in Christian culture for centuries, even up until the Middle Ages. Take a look at Mechtild of Magdeburg if you want to see what I mean! Of course, it became spiritualised rather than physicalised, but the whole existence of so-called Bride and Love Mysticism was based on it... And in Christian Alchemy and Christian Hermeticism, sexual imagery was key to the Higher Consciousness...
Its also worth remembering that the Church ran brothels until just after the Middle Ages!
Its also worth remembering that sex with the Temple Courtesan was predicated on the idea that the Goddess was incarnate in the Courtesan while it was happening. These were Priestesses too, after all. So the Hieros Gamos was quite literally taking place.... As above, so below...
As for preferring to have sex in private rather than having people watch, well the Hermetica (Hellenic/Egyptian non-Christian spirituality) says that the beauty and sacredness of sexuality is such that it is good to do it in private so that its energy is not debased. So you're in good Pagan company there!
In the end, sex is where the Divine Marriage truly takes place. Something happens between us which happens nowhere else and no other way... Its wonderful...
Lol!
Great post, Sean! Thank you!
I blame the Victorians...
Thanks, Sean, for a fairly accurate blog on ancient and modern Qadishti (the plural form of Qadishtu, it comes from the Akkadian, a pre-Semitic language).
I have to say, though, that the word "prostitute" did not start out as a demeaning, negative term. It's original meaning was "to stand in for [the Goddess]". The ancient priestess-prostitutes were, indeed, representations of the Goddess, and by having sex with them, supplicants could experience that divine sexual union.
I also wanted to comment on the bit about every woman being expected to serve the Temple in a sexual capacity at least once before marriage - Herodotus is the source of that, and he is notorious for his biased and negative opinions of other cultures' practices. While it may have been true, it's important to take his stories with a grain of salt.
Anyway, thanks for the link! And thanks for the positive portrayal of the Qadishti! :)
In sacred loving bliss,
Inara de Luna
www.TempleRedLotus.com
See my blogs:
petals-in-ink.blogspot.com
qadishtublog.blogspot.com
Womble - I completely agree! The Vics had a GREAT DEAL to do with fucking up our views about fucking. Of course, under their enlightened rule prostitution hit its all time peaks. Alas, the women involved didn't have the honour of channelling the Goddess in the process. Instead they just got screwed, literally and financially. As above, so below... NOT!
But I do think the Vics have a lot to do with our problems on this front. The Vics and the Prots. Cold climates aren't good for sexual jumpings around. The Catholic nations never managed to keep it in their pants much in spite of living closer to the centres of religious powers than us.
What would be nice would be if we allowed sexuality to be a sacred and/or intimate thing again. Ultimately I think there should be no legislation on how people should behave sexually, so for me the Puritan approach that all sexuality is bad is as bad as expecting every woman, whether she wants to or not, to partake of the role of Temple Prostitute. Both ways are, in a sense, subordinating individual sexuality to a religious norm. In the end we should be able to chose. Perhaps, once again, this is our moment of opportunity as, with consensus on religion on the decline, in this country at least (not so sure about the US and Iran!), we have the opportunity to allow people to pursue the lifestyle they want.
Perhaps we can all be High Priests and High Priestesses of sexuality now. Wouldn't that be great?
Here's Mechtild of Magdeburg on her own Divine Marriage with Christ:
"When the game is over, then let one see how the scales tip - the noblest angel, Jesus Christ, who soars above the Seraphim, who is undivided with his Father. Him shall I, the least of souls, take in my arms, eat him and drink him and have my way with him. This can never happen to the angels. No matter how high he dwells above me, his Godhead shall never be so distant that I cannot constantly entwine my limbs with him; and so I shall never cool off. What, then, do I care what the angels experience?"
" 'Lord, now I am a naked soul
And you in yourself are a well-adorned God.
Our shared lot is eternal life
Without death'
Then a blessed stillness
That both desire comes over them.
He surrenders himself to her,
And she surrenders herself to him.
What happens next - she knows -
And that is fine by me.
But this cannot last long.
When two lovers meet secretly,
They must often part from one another inseparably."
"You are the feelings of love in my desire.
You are a sweet cooling for my breast.
You are a passionate kiss for my mouth.
You are a blissful joy of my discovery.
I am in you
And you are in me.
We could not be closer,
For we two have flowed into one
And have been poured into one mould.
Thus shall we remain forever content."
"I delight in loving him who loves me, and I long to love him to the death, boundlessly and without ceasing. Be happy, my soul, for your Life has died for love of you. Love him so fiercely that you could die for him. Thus you burn ever more without ever being extinguished as a living flame in the vast fire of high majesty."
Not bad for an uneducated German Beguine of the 13th Century!
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