The Sacred Prostitute in Feminine Psychology
I will start posting on this topic based on the book The Sacred Prostitute, External Aspect of the Feminine by Nancy Qualls-Corbett, a renowned Jungian Psychologist who is worth having a look at. This is a little book with some great ideas, but we must go beyond it... or at least try to Book published by Inner City Books, Canada (Toronto), 1988.
I would like to add that modern Assyriology has pointed out that probably the Sacred Prostitute issue might have been implied by Herodotus without historical and factual context, and followed by others blindly. I am at work, but Frymer-Kensky pointed this out, as well as other serious modern scholars. I stick to the opinion of modern scholars, but find there is a Greater Mystery in the way the Mesopotamians viewed the body as sacred, from Ninhursag-ki to Inanna/Ishtar, of course. We can even talk perhaps as a proto-Tantra. Thus, I will be exploring this material here with you and let´s see where we get from here...
best,
Lishtar
From the Depths and To the Heights to share in all spheres
The ancient connection between spirituality and passionate love has in modern times become lost to the depths of the unconscious, leaving a broad sense of dissatisfaction and boredom in relationships.
When the Goddess of Love was still honored, the sacred prostitute was virgin in the original sense of the word (one in herself), a person of deep integrity whose welcome for the stranger was radiant, self-confident and sensuous. Her raison d´etre was to bring the goddess ´ love into direct contact with mankind.
In this union of opposites - masculine and feminine, spiritual and physical - the personal was transcended and the divine entered in. In those days, human sexuality and the religious attitude were inseparable.
This exhilarating book, solidly based on the psychology of Carl Gustav Jung, powerfully illustrates how our vitality and capacity for joy depend on restoring the soul of the sacred prostitute to its rightful place in our conscious understanding.
Lishtar´s Note: I would say that it is the relationship with the body and matter not dissociated from the Spirit that is of paramount importance. For if the sacred prostitute was a construct by Herodotus, it is a fact that lovemaking was a sign of civilization in Mesopotamia, thus Enkidu is turned into a full human by the votary of Inanna/Ishtar, or it is through the love of a woman that he changed. The same archetypal idea is repeated again in the myth of the Marriage of Martu here in Gateways (Classical Texts). If you want to go modern, there is Tarzan and Jane or even Richard Gere and Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman.
Have you ever thought of how good it felt when you first fell in love and were corresponded? Or when you fell in love again... recently? It felt hm.... the closest to the Divine, I would dare say...
There is a French movie about pre-historic times. The couple always mated from behind. But the moment they mated looking into each other´s eyes, they "met" in other realms. It is a fantastic scene because... to my mind... they fall in love with each other. It is in the last scene of this movie. And then... both contemplate the stars, or eternity.
Lovemaking make us divine and yet so very human in the eyes of the Beloved. It make us vital, full of energy, believing in the future we make be ...
No wonder lovemaking is soooooo very dangerous to patriarchy... and Inanna/Ishtar suffered such a bad press and passionate worship.
We may not have had the sacred prostitute of Herodotus´misconceptions, but we had Inanna/Ishtar as the gutsy love and war goddess, the vision of Transcendent Humanity, the Bridge to the Gods and All-Women in the Sacred Rite to the All-Men represented by the chosen BrideGroom and Royal Shepherd. And we had Nanna and Ningal, and Enki and witty Ninhursag and Nergal and Ereshkigal. To name just the few ones whose stories we can access... and there are stories of complementary still to be discoverd and translated for sure!!!
If the king had to be the Perfect Man, he was made so by the love of the Goddess...
Tomorrow, we start exploring such issues to try and go beyond the written word to the Mystery revealed in the existence of each and everyone of us. I chose the image of the Divine Feminine for women to start with.
cyberhugs,
Lishtar
From the Depths and To the Heights to share in all spheres
From The Alchemy of Opposites
by Rodolfo Scarfalloto, with forword by Robert Anton Wilson
... When sexuality is explored at a deep enough level, it opens the door to a place that is beyond duality.
For the mind at peace, sexuality is a source of wisdom and creative power (Lish adds connectedness, relatedness, joy, inspiration, passion and play). A number of authors pointed this out (Reich, Lowen, the Tantric priests and priestesses). ...
The general consensus among the above mentioned authors is that if we explore sex (Lish naturally prefers lovemaking ) - beyond power games, shame, ownership and exploitation - we discover a power that goes beyond biological procreation and feeling good. (Lish adds that this is what Enkidu discovered through Shamhat ... to start with). Through the ages, many religions and spiritual disciplines have recognized this power and attempted to control it (with very little success in the West, Lishtar would add snif snif).
The transcendental quality of lovemakingin its full magnificence and innocence is realized when it is used as a way of knowing self rather than gaining power over the beloved or others. Expressed in its purest form, it takes us to a place beyond sexuality - for it is beyond duality.
---
Lishtar stresses that sensuality is as important as sexuality. The pleasure of being alive and feel the worlds within manifested without with or without the physical presence of the Beloved... for in actual fact, the Beloved never leaves us, wherever we go...
The Beloved is the Wondrous Stranger who truly knows us from the start. His/Her arrival in one´s life may be as a flash of recognition and wonder, which has the promise of everlastingness.
If the mind is already at ease, lovemaking can easily be used to discover the bliss that goes beyond the act itself; you just do what comes natural, you respond to him/her and pleasure and curiosity will lead the way in Perfect Love and Perfect Trust.
We understand this when we can fully grasp that dualities without turn by lovemaking into complementarity at the deepest and most intimate mind, heart, body and soul level. It is not that opposites attract, but... we search for our complements... and some are dumb enough to get stuck into the differences only.
Finally, lovemaking goes beyond itself ... or isn´t it a wondrous thing to have breakfast with him or her... the morning and all mornings after????
Debunking the myth of sacred prostitution
Decided to start up this morning with the word of scholarship on the alleged cultic prostitution in Mesopotamia. My source is Professor Frymer-Kensky - Chapter 18 of her fabulous "In the Wake of Goddesses: Women, Culture and the Biblical Transformations of Pagan Myth", 1992, Fawcet-Columbine, New York.
pag. 200
There is no real evidence for sexual religious cult activity. The charge that the women of Canaan and Israel had a sexual initiation with a stranger derives ultimately from classical allegations, in particular Herodotus "description" of the practices at the Mylitta (Ishtar) temple in Babylon:
follows Herodotus´s quote on the foulest Babylonian custom that compels every woman in the land once in her life to sit in the temple of Ishtar and have intercourse with some stranger... I will spare you from the complete quote
back to Professor Frymer-Kensky:
Herodotus is talking about Babylon, not Syria or Israel. Furthermore, this does not seem to be an accurate description of Babylonian practice. No cuneiform text supports the idea that the women of Assyria or Babylon did this. Herodotus´ observations about Babylon are generally not as accurate as those about Egypt, and even his observations about Egypt are not that trustworthy. Herodotus, like all Greeks, wrote about "barbarians" with the intention of proving the superiority of Greeks and allegations of cannibalism and sexual licentiousness abound. .... All the later Roman and Christian allegations of sexual initiation ultimately derive from this one passage in Herodotus. There is no reason to believe that the people in Ancient Israel - or even Canaan and Babylon (Lishtar´s addition) had religious cultic activities which involed or celebrated sexual activity. Lishtar´s Note: apart from the Sacred Marriage Rite, there is no evidence of myth, prayer or incantation so far that talks about sexual prostitution. Sacred lovemaking, oh yes! Lots of poems, and the whole cycle of Inanna and Dumuzi is a sound evidence. Bride and bridegroom this is what the young couple is. Approved by both families. This is irrefutable evidence.
...
pages 201-202
The Mesopotamian temples contained all kinds of women functionaries, long translated priestesses or hierodules. Once again, serious studies of the documents relating to these women show that there is no evidence that any of them performed sexual acts as part of their sacred duties. The only form of sexual service that we do not have to doubt was the sacred marriage of Sumerian times. There we have unequivocal statements that the king slept with the goddess.
We proceed now to examine the image of the Sacred Prostitute in the psychology of women. In actual fact, the intention is to go beyond the construct of the Sacred Prostitute to embrace a wholer manifestation of the Dynamic Non-Maternal as personified by Inanna/Ishtar for tje Feminine.
There is much more to the Lover-Warrior that strikes the eye, and what was conceived by the ancient Mesopotamians at the level of the Dynamic Non-Maternal and Inspirer and Inspired Feminine was hardly actualized in the lives of their contemporary women and men. But at least The ancient Sumerians and Mesopotamians conceived the idea of the "dangerous" and i9mmnesely alluring liberated Goddess. Only one in the pantheon, but there.
Perhaps it is out task here and now to facilitate the return of Inanna/Ishtar in Her fullness for the liberation of the coming generations of women. And men who love their women and want them whole.
I normally finish my talks on Inanna/Ishtar with a quote that says "may the Lover and the Beloved be one within and without you". Do you remember that the transcendence of sex is to go beyond duality?
So mote it be!
best,
Lishtar
From the Depths and To the Heights to share in all spheres
Re: Debunking the myth of sacred prostitution
Now that we established that the issue of sacred prostitution is a construct by Herodotus, which is sadly responsible for much of the bad press suffered by our tradition in terms of our views of sexuality, the question still remains on the importance of the Sacred Passionate Feminine for the wholeness of masculine and feminine psyche.
We will try go beyond the split of matter and spirit, which is so talked about by normal pagans to search for the seeds of wholeness in our tradition. We have a body of literature that shows from the beginning sexuality as sacred, a gift to be enjoyed within a religious context as well. We have love poetry involving a couple that will become the archetypal Lover and Beloved, perhaps one of the first and most passionate in world religion, Inanna and Dumuzi, the forerunners of Solomon and Sheba of the Song of Songs, the passionate anomaly which was allowed for once and no more in the Old Testament Bible.
And we will see hopefully too that most of our present hangups about sexuality in the West would not exist to the extent of our present-day 0,aberrations and misconceptions because our soul ancestors at least conceived in their pantheon a reality that made women and men sacred, passionate, sexual beings. For if the representatives of humankind were the king and the priestess in the Sacred Rite, there was a collective expression of passion, play, connection and relatedness to be emulated by all.
The return of the passionate feminine in full glory is therefore a healing that needs yet to be accomplished in our days. Self-defined and in connectedness, full of joy, Guide of Souls.
Dangerous, independent, not homebound, what a threat to the established order!
Passionate, playful, the image of Wisdom through Experience, from girl to bride and grieving young widow, what an image of feminine integrity and wholeness She is!
From the Heights and to the Depths and back to Heights again, all woman and divine, ensouled matter and Spirit of Flesh She is Inanna/Ishtar. For if the sacred prostitute never was, Inanna/Ishtar has ever been.
I kindly ask you therefore to go beyond once and forever the Sacred Prostitute construct to embrace the wholeness of the Love Goddess in perhaps Her most alluring and complete portrait of antiquity.
And may this way the Bride and Bridegroom of your Soul become once more one with you within and without in all levels and spheres!
cyberkiss to you and bowing to the Heights Above and Depths Below,
Lishtar
From the Depths and To the Heights to share in all spheres
From the courtship of Inanna and Dumuzi
My fair-faced brother did fifty
As if dumb struck I moved twoard him
Trembling below I pushed quietly to him...
First female orgasm in world literature!!!
I am quoting the masters. This is not mine but Professor Jerrold Cooper´s...
Outstanding text follows soon in Gateways.
luving you very much too,
Lishtar
PS: this is a weekend special
From the Depths and To the Heights to share in all spheres
Points to remember:
When studying goddesses in Mesopotamia, it is important to remember that
1) Mesopotamians did not debase women as the ones who had committed for facilitated the fall, legating to humankind the burden of the original sin; 2) sex was sacred and definetly not the precondition for loss of paradise by humankind, as in the Old Testament, and 3) neither were women considered the carriers of doom to humans, like the Greek Pandora, whose curiosity set free all evils, although she also gave humans hope... a poor consolation for her act, in fact.
In fact, in Mesopotamia humankind or women and men were created as helpers to the gods so that the workings of creation could be accomplished. Nowhere in the myths of the Creation of Humankind in Mesopotamia it is implied that women were inferior, or created second to men. Even if one reads the patriarchal Enuma Elish, Marduk had to kill the awesome Great Granny to build the universe and Babylon out and upon and from Her body.
However, Mesopotamia was patriarchal as far as our written evidence shows. Let´s face it, to dig canals and irrigation systems require muscle power. If one is having babies, it is impossible to do both and build cities... which were built by the surplus of baskets, or agriculture according to myths.
So in the outer, men ruled. But their women were not seen as such inferior beings as later civilizations. For Goddesses existed and provided a parameter, a model of wholeness for men and women alike.
The key to understand better how much more liberated our ancient ancestors were lays also in the figure of Inanna. Because some of the age-old women´s tasks and duties cannot be seen as liberating. And the Goddess of Ultimate Liberation is exactly the Gutsy Non-Fixed and Not-Homebound Lady of the Morning and Evening Star.
No matter how we have evolved, motherhood still binds women to the home... temporarily at least. But it doesn´t bind the soul. It does not bind the spirit, although the physical person may be bound to the kid for some time.
Mesopotamia, nevertheless, shows that Goddesses were both mothers and rulers, co-creators with their counterparts.
You have to erase the misconceptions of later patriarchal bias towards women to dive into the fabric of a civilization that created men and women as equals, who worked as equals, although outer power was given to the male of the species for his vigor and physical strength needed to conquer a very hostile environment.
Interesting, isn´t it???
And very real.
Don´t forget that Inanna was HerSelf a Mommy. But She is not defined by being just a mommy... Or... She was/is your Unorthodox Mommy. Liberated and Liberating as well.
See how easy it is to understand Meso Goddesses once we get rid of the misconceptions that did not plague our soul ancestors but do prevent many these days from grasping the Triumphant Feminine as Equal and Co-Creators with their Partner Gods???
One has to go to the Beginning... and the beginning was not definetly only male or only female.
However.... we may have well started mythologically with Mother Nammu the Sea and Mother Tiamat....
extremely busy,
Lishtar
From the Depths and To the Heights to share in all spheres
The Cosmological Articulation of Sexuality
Life in Mesopotamia started first from a prima materia, a prime matter that contained the potential to create life. This prima materia was originally feminine, according to the most ancient model of creation, the Southern or Eridu model. Lists describe the first mother as Nammu, or the watery deep, Mother, first One, who gave birth to the gods and to the universe. She is also a goddess without a spouse, the self-procreating womb of the Universe, at once fertile and fertilizing.
Next, by a process of division, within the embrace of Mother Nammu, the Sky (Anu) and the earth (Ki) were born. And within the embrace of the first couple, Enlil, Lord Air, manifested. As He expanded and grew, Enlil caused the separation of Heaven and Earth. But at that time, Ki was already pregnant by An, and in due time, She gave birth to the first goddesses and gods of the land.
We see that within Nammu and from the beginning, earth and heaven were seen as complimentary, one depending upon the other and both equally important. Throughotu Mesopotamian history, the joint power of earth and sky continued to be invoked and conjured by with the expression 'by [the power of] Heaven and Earth'.
To my mind, the famous Hermetic maxim "as above, so below" is one and the same with its Mesopotamian counterpart 'by the power of Heaven and Earth', which encompassed the powers of the whole Universe. The Mesopotamian expression, nevertheless, predates the Egyptian maxim by some millennia, because it is rooted into the myths of creation, which consist most probably in the most ancient stories of the land under consideration.
more tomorrow!
best,
Lishtar
From the Depths and To the Heights to share in all spheres
The Cosmological Articulation of Sexuality in Babylon
In the Enuma Elish, before Great Granny Tiamat is murdered by great-grandson Marduk, the prima materia is split into two components, the first couple, Apsu and Tiamat. Tiamat is related to the semitic word for sea and feminine, Apsu is masculine. The Single Mother is therefore replaced by the first couple and creators of the universe. :
When on high heaven had not yet been created,
Earth below had not yet been brought into being,
When Apsu, primeval, their begetter,
Primal Tiamat, their progenitress,
Still mingled their waters together
When no grassland had been formed, no reed thicket laid out,
When no gods whatever beeing brought into being,
Were not yet existent, their destinies undetermined,
At that time, the gods were created within them...
These are the first lines of the Enuma Elish. Within the primeval couple, the gods were created. No hint to inferiority of the feminine in relation to the masculine. The lines show parallelism instead, begetter and progenitress.
Thus, even in Babylon, in the before of all befores, women were not associated with fall or sin or doom...
have to work...
love, light and laughter,
Lishtar
From the Depths and To the Heights to share in all spheres
Re: The Cosmological Articulation of Sexuality
Although Professor Lambert in Leick´s Sex and Eroticism in Mesopotamian Literature (1994, Routledge) says that the Enuma Elish avoids sexual metaphors, the mingling of waters is quite explicit
I particularly find that the Waters as the single source of life is still easily recognizable, and is complemented by the masculine principle of the Apsu.
Thus, the model of complementarity is very much present.
from Dijk 1964:45:
The Great Earth (Ki) made herself glorious, her body flourished with greenery,
Wide Earth put on silver metal and lapis lazuli ornaments,
Adorned herself with diorite, calcedony, cornelian and diamonds,
Sky (An) covered the pasture with irresistible sexual attraction, presented himself in majesty,
The pure young woman (Earth) showed herself to the pure Sky. The vast Sky copulated with the wide Earth
The seed of the heroes Wood and Reed he ejaculated into her womb
The Earth, the good cow, received the good seed of Sky in her womb,
The Earth, for the happy birth of the plants of Life, presented HerSelf
I simply adore this myth
How far do we differ from the first Couple every time we get ready for the Beloved????
we are the old people
we are the new people
we are the same people
stronger than before.
almost time for me to lock up,
Lishtar
From the Depths and To the Heights to share in all spheres
Re: The Cosmological Articulation of Sexuality
... and the Northern Model
In the South, the cosmological model for the creation of life was based on the Waters, either the Primeval Sea and then the ferilizing and fertilized waters of the deep. This is the Eridu model, the first to be developed in Mesopotamia.
The Northern or Nippur model is based on the relationship of Heaven and Earth, considered the generators of life. Nippur becomes the religious capital of Mesopotamia, and the city´s High God is Enlil, Lord Air and the first of the younger generation of gods to be born out of the embrace of Ki and Anu.
Again, in the Nippur model we have no hint of superiority between Heaven and Earth, who are joined in primordial unity, which is only interrupted by the growth of Enlil, Lord Air, the first fruit of the Divine Mating.
As our new members may not fully aware of , we have with us in the board and in the Gateways2Bab Ring the WebMaster and scholar who has the best website on Nippur, the Sacred Capital of Mesopotamia and Home of the God Enlil and his consort Ninli. So visit www.dubsar.com/nippur.html
And ... enjoy your Saturday and Sunday as well!
best,
Lishtar
From the Depths and To the Heights to share in all spheres
Book published by Inner City Books, Canada (Toronto), 1988.
the closest to the Divine, I would dare say... 
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