one-in-herself: comforting illusion #909

I said move over once, move over twice.
Come on baby, don't be cold as ice.
I said I'm traveling on the one after 909...

~ beatles

from the back cover: 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'être was to bring the goddess' love into direct contact with mankind. Using Google Scholar to search for references to this book yielded a fascinating sounding paper: Full-body-mega-kundalinigasm: 'sacred' sex and sexual politics by Kath Albury. Unfortunately, as you'll see if you hit that link, the thing is protected from prying eyes; it'll cost you 23 bucks to read it (I can recommend several porn sites that'll give you full access for a lot less). The article, btw, is from Volume 15, Number 2/July 1, 2001 of Continuum: Journal of Media & Cultural Studies. The same search also found a possibly even more fascinating sounding paper titled "Too Hot for God": Beasts and Sovereigns in Prostitutes’ Discourse (PDF), which is quoted in the right sidebar. The Yoni Sacred Symbol of Female Creative Power this is one instance where Amazon's Look Inside™ grafik adds a certain special touch. On a final note here, it appears that the title "Too Hot for God" comes from the following "Liturgy for Lilith" by Cosi Fabian, who also has a piece called "The Holy Whore: A Woman's Gateway to Power" in the book pictured directly below her "poem." I am Lilith Grandmother of Mary Magdalene I am Lilith Whose sexual fire was too hot for God I am Lilith The first woman Who chose the rage of exile Over the cancer of servitude I am Lilith Mother to the motherless I am Lilith Whose blood covers the moon I am Lilith Standing on owl’s claws At a woman’s crossroads I am Lilith The Great Whore Whose charm lured the warrior Into my Goddess’s final warmth ...and so on. Here's the book...

Among the many wondrous "benefits" wrought by the Jung/Eliade axis have been its mystically retro notions of "the feminine." If you liked the barefoot and pregnant trope, you're gonna love sacred prostitution. “ If the decision to become a prostitute has the same mythological function and ramifications for each woman who makes it, how can it be sovereign rather than merely programmatic? Would such a programmatic quality not merely return the prostitute to the extreme representative of women’s disempowerment and exploitation, rather than constituting a statement of autonomy? ” ~ from "Too Hot for God" (see text for full reference)

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