The
Erotic Society
Dr
Raven Dolick MsD Nov 19, 2014
All
rights reserved
What is the difference between eroticism and pornography? The former seeks to arouse sexual desire subtly while the latter wants to be as explicit as possible. Eroticism is seductive, feminine, suggestive, leaving so much to the imagination. Pornography is graphic, masculine, leaving nothing at all to the imagination.
The Earth Goddess and Eden
The ancient Mesopotamians often depicted the Earth Goddess standing next to a sacred tree and with a wise serpent for a companion. Mesopotamian culture evolved into that of the Babylonian Empire which conquered the kingdom of Judah and enslaved the Jews. The Jews became the deranged people they are today during their captivity in Babylon. That's when they turned to their volcanic war god Yahweh to save them. That's when they became fanatical monotheists. That's when they wrote the evil texts that became their holy writ. That's when they rewrote history to give the impression that they had always been ardent followers of Yahweh.
It was in this period that they wrote the tale of the Garden of Eden. The Earth Goddess and her tree were combined into a single entity: the Tree of Life. This tree was joined by a second - the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. The Goddess's old and trusty companion - the wise serpent - became the sly creature that lurked under the tree, ready to tempt Adam and Eve into deadly error.
Throughout the Jewish Torah, pagan symbols are readily appropriated and promptly demonised. The Torah is one of the greatest acts of propaganda in history, written by bitter and twisted prophets yearning for revenge against their Babylonian masters.
Much of the tale of the Exodus from Egypt was actually a fantasy version of the freeing of the Jews from the Babylonian Captivity, except it wasn't Yahweh that got them out but Cyrus the Great of Persia.
The Eden story is an attack on paganism, an attack on Babylon. Above all, it's an attack on the Earth Goddess, associating her with evil in the shape of the serpent. From the outset, Judaism was an insult to women. Judaism was always an authoritarian patriarchy, a fascist dictatorship of masculine values. Women were blamed for everything, and were excluded from all religious functions. While pagans revered women and had as many priestesses as priests, Abrahamism didn't have even one priestess. Goddesses were relegated to demons. Eve was portrayed as the first sinner.
In some Jewish sources, Eve was the second not the first woman. Her predecessor, Adam's first wife, was called Lilith ("she of the night"). She bickered constantly with Adam and bore him devils and demons as children. She and they were banished from Eden. So, "God" got it wrong not once but twice. Is this the God of Blunders? He doesn't seem to have a clue what he's doing.
It's extraordinary that any woman tolerates Abrahamism since it was never anything but the primary source of the toxin of sexism. Yahweh was always a jealous, angry, vengeful male deity who lived alone on a high volcanic mountain - a fiery, masculine sky god. Like the volcano, he was ready to erupt at any moment and destroy everything around him. There was nothing sexual about life in his world - he fashioned life out of clay, not via a woman's womb. He had no need for women.
Temple Prostitution
In Babylon, the Earth Goddess evolved from a motherly fertility deity into a nubile sex goddess - Ishtar. Her priestesses acted as avatars for their mistress, delivering sexual ecstasy in her name by serving in her temple as ritual prostitutes. To win the favour of a priestess, a man had to offer a silver coin and utter a prescribed phrase invoking the goddess.
Through the money they collected, the priestesses could glorify their goddess with ever more wondrous temples and statues.
The Greek historian Herodotus wrote, "There is one custom amongst these people which is wholly shameful: every woman who is a native of the country must once in her life go and sit in the temple of Aphrodite [Ishtar] and there give herself to a strange man."
Babylon thus acquired a notorious reputation for sexual impropriety and debauchery, thus it was no surprise for it to be described in the Book of Revelation as, "Babylon the Great, the mother of prostitutes, and of the abominations of the earth."
Unlike most women, who were raised to be good mothers and obedient wives who stayed behind doors (and were veiled when they ventured out), priestesses/ prostitutes were well educated, cultured, cultivated and wealthy. They were highly skilled in music, philosophy, conversation, and, of course, sex. In the Enlightenment, courtesans performed the same role, and Japanese geishas in the modern day.
Ordinary women of ancient Greece needed a release from the boring routines of their lives and they found it in the ecstatic religion of Dionysus. They drank enormous amounts of alcohol in wild, hilltop locations and abandoned themselves to the most frenzied passions. They had orgies with men who took the role of the god and his lusty, goat-like satyrs. It was this imagery that haunted the medieval Christian mind. Witches were accused of holding debauched sabbats where they summoned the goat-like Devil and his demonic minions. Christian priests and monks regarded women as "the Devil's doorway." Girls were encouraged to offer their virginity to God and become brides of Christ - celibate nuns.
Christianity, in its war against paganism, took the whole pantheon of pagan gods and goddesses and simply rebranded them as devils and demons.
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