Friday 27 February 2009

Mother, Are You Sacred Whore?

This is opening dialogue from the dissertation, EROTIC RITES, Copywrite Loraine Hutchins
Order Erotic Rites Now!


I am the first and I am the last
I am the honored one and the scorned one
I am the whore and the holy one
I am the wife and the virgin
I am the barren one and many are my daughters
I am the silence that is incomprehensible
I am the utterance of my name.
- Gnostic prayer, found in the Nag Hammadi manuscripts

Contemporary sacred sex teachers say that women especially embody the Divine, that we are indeed goddesses. But we have no corresponding image of female divinity in mainstream United States culture today to express this. The Virgin Mary notwithstanding, religious images of the female tend to reflect the sexual inequality present in society, more token gestures such as inserting "Father/Mother God" occasionally into Sunday morning liturgy, or saying that God "has a female side too," rather than real structural change. Regardless of claims that God is beyond gender and contains all, our language and thinking still keeps God's gender male. Women are not seen as embodiments of the divine. The classic virgin/whore dichotomy prevails.

Sacred sex beliefs and practices attempt to defy and transform this virgin/whore dichotomy by reversing and re-integrating it; revering woman as life-giver and erotic source, and centering on mutual recognition of the divinity within oneself and others. But with thousands of years of patriarchal oppression and woman-hating behind us, it is hard for a goddess-presence full of erotic spiritual authority to prevail. Many common attempts to make sex sacred and expand God's gender seem to manifest the Goddess first in her most non-threatening aspects -- Sacred Prostitute or Sacred Whore; a nurturing, enchanting, all-forgiving fantasy, more courtesan and geisha than queen. Seeking my own touchstone with female divinity's guidance, I listen for Her through meditation and prayer.

* * * * * * * * * *

Me: Good morning Mother. Thank you for giving me this new day of life. Your image as Sacred Whore has tormented me throughout my research. So I thought it was time I come to you directly and discuss with you what I've been thinking.

She: Namaste, my beloved. The divinity in me salutes the divinity in you. It is good to see you awake before dawn and seeking me.

Me: How do you decide to show your holy erotic energy in this broken world? Calling you the Sacred Prostitute seems just about as accurate as calling the Catholic priest the "temple bartender" just because he serves communion wine. I know it's compelling to juxtapose the holy and the taboo, the sacred and the profane, in one seamless image, that it gets people's attention. But where is the honor in comparing worship to a commercial exchange of services? I fear it caricatures your true erotic power.

She: Most of my children are not ready to honor me properly yet. My Sacred Whore aspect works for now if it helps them remember that the erotic and the holy are one. That's a start. What troubles you about my erotic power?

Me: It's not your sexual vitality, it's how people claim to represent you and express you. Some of the women I most admire now call themselves Sacred Prostitutes and say they channel you, that they help their clients worship you through them. I share their desire to help people heal sexually, to approach sex as worship and be spiritually nourished by the erotic vitality of life. But I see us more as wounded healers under patriarchy -- in need of your healing ourselves, and in need of releasing the distorted view we have of you as overly sweet and compliant.
I want us to all minister to each other erotically and spiritually, not have the erotic part be the only woman's role or the spiritual part be the man's. But we are still bound by gender stereotypes and broken by oppressions. If Temple Whores were not defined by men and the marketplace, if the ancient stories told about them were not so focused on serving men's needs and supporting male supremacy, I would feel differently about being one. But then whore would probably not even be a relevant term any longer, if one of priestessing's many roles was erotic, and lovemaking was no longer unequal or subject to commercial exchange.

She: Thank you for understanding that the erotic is a part of worship and that tending the erotic is one of my priestesses' many roles. You know, I trust that devotion to me is also connected to defending women's freedom, defending my body the earth, and ending the exploitation of all living beings?

Me: Yes, Mother, I am a daughter of the feminist environmental movement and I know that you are Gaia, our home planet, and a sentient being, as much as you are the Erotic Temple Priestess people fantasize about. I know you need people to defend you, to fight for you, that sexual healing is only part of your job. I am embarrassed how far we are from honoring you, y/our body the earth. That's why it bothers me when people call you Sacred Whore.

She: Why so?

Me: Because I am haunted by what people have done and are still doing to you, by nightmares of how we have distorted you, misunderstood your mercy and wisdom and love. At first I was fascinated to find out that some sex workers serve in your name and embody you in client interactions, and that some human service professionals -- massage therapists, counselors, ministers and nurses - have begun doing so too. But now there are tacky alienated commercial sex ads on the Internet using your name. Trashy novels feature goddess/dominatrixes "healing" men sexually so they're "cleansed" to go out and do more violence again. Journalists use the Sacred Prostitute term so loosely that they call girl children sold into bondage by their poverty-stricken parents devadasis, blurring all distinction between slavery, economic hardship, worship and consent. Last summer I even found Holy Slut imagery in a New York Times high fashion review. It saddens and sickens me.

She: Child, I am Lilith accused of consorting with and birthing demons, Lilith who left Adam and God to clean up their Garden mess a long time ago; I am La Malinche sold and raped at age 15 and then accused of betraying my people because of my bondage; I am squatting, tongue-bared, Sheela Na Gig spreading my genitals over ancient Irish stone-carved church archways, I am all the witches of the Middle Ages burned at the stake for being too sexual, too independent, too spiritually powerful and real. Bad press is nothing new to me.

Me: So how can I help you be better understood, in your full erotic and spiritual power?

She: Know my aspects, know all my power, for it is yours too. Remember darling Lalla, the medieval Sufi singing and whirling naked for her people. Remember Ama-no-Uzume, the baudy exuberant Japanese crone who danced naked to beckon Japan's sun goddess back into the light. Remember Baubo, the ancient dry nurse of Greece, who cheered the grieving Demeter by spreading her vulva and clowning. Remember me -- the old broad sex queen who's seen it all! Have some perspective here.

Me: You make me laugh! I love you. You help me have courage to be a wounded healer in this world, to both protect and defend myself, yet also find ways to make positive changes too.

She: Knowledge and healing will spread, my beloved, as people grow toward me and toward each other. Learn more about my many aspects, those that have survived patriarchy, and those that have not. Correct people's mis-impressions of me, and of what sacred sex truly is. Do not cease uttering my name.



source: http://www.lorainehutchins.com/mother.html

No comments: