ToxicFemininitySucks
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- Jun 26, 2022
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All quotes from when God was a woman by merlin stone
Temple prostitution was a central part of "goddess worship" in ancient times. The temple was in charge of the land and livestock and there was no separation of church and state. It would appear there was no way out of participating within this system for someone living in this society.
Pg147
During biblical times it was still customary, as it had been for thousands of years before in Sumer, Babylon and Canaan, for many women to live within the temple complex, in earliest times the very core of the community. As we have seen, temples owned much of the arable land and herds of domesticated animals, kept the cultural and economic records and generally appear to have functioned as the central controlling offices of the society
The way the author refers to "love" when discussing random, casual fornication is sickening.
Women who resided in the sacred precincts of the Divine Ancestress took their lovers from among the men of the community, making love to those who came to the temple to pay honor to the Goddess. Among these people the act of sex was considered to be sacred, so holy and precious that it was enacted within the house of the Creatress of heaven, earth and all life. As one of Her many aspects, the Goddess was revered as the patron deity of sexual love.
But according to the author, feeling disgust at this fornication free for all is because we're programmed by "male religions".
And "open acceptance of ALL human sexuality" sounds like the mess society finds itself in.
Pg 148
People today, raised and programmed on the “morality” of the contemporary male religions, may find the ancient sexual attitudes and customs disturbing, shocking or even sacrilegious. Yet we should consider the likelihood that such judgments or reactions are the result of the teaching and conditioning of religious attitudes present in our society, which are themselves based on the ideologies of those who initially and repetitively condemned the sexual customs of the Goddess. In the worship of the female deity, sex was Her gift to humanity. It was sacred and holy. She was the Goddess of Sexual Love and Procreation.
But in the religions of today we find an almost totally reversed attitude. Sex, especially non-marital sex, is considered to be somewhat naughty, dirty, even sinful. Yet rather than calling the earliest religions, which embraced such an open acceptance of all human sexuality, “fertility-cults,” we might consider the religions of today as strange in that they seem to associate shame and even sin with the very process of conceiving new human life. Perhaps centuries from now scholars and historians will be classifying them as “sterility-cults".
Married women as well were involved in the temple prostitution.
Documentary evidence from Sumer, Babylon, Canaan, Anatolia, Cyprus, Greece and even the Bible reveals that, despite the fact that the concept of marriage was known in the earliest written records, married women, as well as single, continued to live for periods of time within the temple complex and to follow the ancient sexual customs of the Goddess
The author takes a rather cynical view that the suppression of this perverted goddess worship was all about politics, not morality. While it is true that fornicating with random men does make it hard to keep track of paternity, there is no proof, just assumption (see the "probably") on the writer's part that the Israelites were not simply following God's commands.
Pg 150
This anti-sexual attitude was not the result of a more inherent purity or lesser sex drive among the adherents of the Judeo-Christian beliefs. As we shall see, it was probably developed and propagated for purely political motives, aiming at goals that would allow the invading patrilineal Hebrews greater access to land and governmental control by destroying the ancient matrilineal system. From the time of the earliest Indo-European conquests, laws concerning the sacred women of the temples, the qadishtu—laws dealing with inheritance rights, property rights, business rights and their legal and economic relationship to their children—continually appear in the codes.
Alongside the greater sexual restrictions for women, we find the Levite priests and prophets repeatedly condemning the sexual customs of the temple as well. I suggest that the point of the confrontation was as follows. If, as qadishtu, sacred women of the Goddess, women made love to various men rather than being faithful to one husband, the children born to these women would be of questionable paternity. Sumerian and Babylonian documents reveal that these women, through their affiliations with the temple complex, owned land and other properties and engaged in extensive business activities. Various accounts report that they were often of wealthy families, well accepted in the society.
A mother looking forward to her daughtet also being a prostitute? Being proud of this? There are some definite parallels here to modern society and how it is supposedly "empowering" to sleep around.
Following the original kinship customs of the Goddess religion, children born to qadishtu would probably have inherited the names, titles and property of their mothers; matrilineal descent would have continued to exist as the inherent social structure of the community. Daughters may have become qadishtu themselves. One inscription from Tralles in western Anatolia, carved there as late as AD 200 by a woman named Aurelia Aemilias, proudly announced that she had served in the temple by taking part in the sexual customs, as had her mother and all their female ancestors before them.
Hilariously, the writer takes exception with temple prostitution being called prostitution. What else should it be called that these women were engaging in?
Women who made love in the temples were known in their own language as “sacred women,” “the undefined.” Their Akkadian name of qadishtu is literally translated as “sanctified women” or “holy women.” Yet the sexual customs in even the most academic studies of the past two centuries were nearly always described as “prostitution,” the sacred women repeatedly referred to as “temple prostitutes” or “ritual prostitutes.” The use of the word “prostitute” as a translation for qadishtu not only negates the sanctity of that which was held sacred, but suggests, by the inferences and social implications of the word, an ethnocentric subjectivity on the part of the writer.
Temple prostitution was a central part of "goddess worship" in ancient times. The temple was in charge of the land and livestock and there was no separation of church and state. It would appear there was no way out of participating within this system for someone living in this society.
Pg147
During biblical times it was still customary, as it had been for thousands of years before in Sumer, Babylon and Canaan, for many women to live within the temple complex, in earliest times the very core of the community. As we have seen, temples owned much of the arable land and herds of domesticated animals, kept the cultural and economic records and generally appear to have functioned as the central controlling offices of the society
The way the author refers to "love" when discussing random, casual fornication is sickening.
Women who resided in the sacred precincts of the Divine Ancestress took their lovers from among the men of the community, making love to those who came to the temple to pay honor to the Goddess. Among these people the act of sex was considered to be sacred, so holy and precious that it was enacted within the house of the Creatress of heaven, earth and all life. As one of Her many aspects, the Goddess was revered as the patron deity of sexual love.
But according to the author, feeling disgust at this fornication free for all is because we're programmed by "male religions".
And "open acceptance of ALL human sexuality" sounds like the mess society finds itself in.
Pg 148
People today, raised and programmed on the “morality” of the contemporary male religions, may find the ancient sexual attitudes and customs disturbing, shocking or even sacrilegious. Yet we should consider the likelihood that such judgments or reactions are the result of the teaching and conditioning of religious attitudes present in our society, which are themselves based on the ideologies of those who initially and repetitively condemned the sexual customs of the Goddess. In the worship of the female deity, sex was Her gift to humanity. It was sacred and holy. She was the Goddess of Sexual Love and Procreation.
But in the religions of today we find an almost totally reversed attitude. Sex, especially non-marital sex, is considered to be somewhat naughty, dirty, even sinful. Yet rather than calling the earliest religions, which embraced such an open acceptance of all human sexuality, “fertility-cults,” we might consider the religions of today as strange in that they seem to associate shame and even sin with the very process of conceiving new human life. Perhaps centuries from now scholars and historians will be classifying them as “sterility-cults".
Married women as well were involved in the temple prostitution.
Documentary evidence from Sumer, Babylon, Canaan, Anatolia, Cyprus, Greece and even the Bible reveals that, despite the fact that the concept of marriage was known in the earliest written records, married women, as well as single, continued to live for periods of time within the temple complex and to follow the ancient sexual customs of the Goddess
The author takes a rather cynical view that the suppression of this perverted goddess worship was all about politics, not morality. While it is true that fornicating with random men does make it hard to keep track of paternity, there is no proof, just assumption (see the "probably") on the writer's part that the Israelites were not simply following God's commands.
Pg 150
This anti-sexual attitude was not the result of a more inherent purity or lesser sex drive among the adherents of the Judeo-Christian beliefs. As we shall see, it was probably developed and propagated for purely political motives, aiming at goals that would allow the invading patrilineal Hebrews greater access to land and governmental control by destroying the ancient matrilineal system. From the time of the earliest Indo-European conquests, laws concerning the sacred women of the temples, the qadishtu—laws dealing with inheritance rights, property rights, business rights and their legal and economic relationship to their children—continually appear in the codes.
Alongside the greater sexual restrictions for women, we find the Levite priests and prophets repeatedly condemning the sexual customs of the temple as well. I suggest that the point of the confrontation was as follows. If, as qadishtu, sacred women of the Goddess, women made love to various men rather than being faithful to one husband, the children born to these women would be of questionable paternity. Sumerian and Babylonian documents reveal that these women, through their affiliations with the temple complex, owned land and other properties and engaged in extensive business activities. Various accounts report that they were often of wealthy families, well accepted in the society.
A mother looking forward to her daughtet also being a prostitute? Being proud of this? There are some definite parallels here to modern society and how it is supposedly "empowering" to sleep around.
Following the original kinship customs of the Goddess religion, children born to qadishtu would probably have inherited the names, titles and property of their mothers; matrilineal descent would have continued to exist as the inherent social structure of the community. Daughters may have become qadishtu themselves. One inscription from Tralles in western Anatolia, carved there as late as AD 200 by a woman named Aurelia Aemilias, proudly announced that she had served in the temple by taking part in the sexual customs, as had her mother and all their female ancestors before them.
Hilariously, the writer takes exception with temple prostitution being called prostitution. What else should it be called that these women were engaging in?
Women who made love in the temples were known in their own language as “sacred women,” “the undefined.” Their Akkadian name of qadishtu is literally translated as “sanctified women” or “holy women.” Yet the sexual customs in even the most academic studies of the past two centuries were nearly always described as “prostitution,” the sacred women repeatedly referred to as “temple prostitutes” or “ritual prostitutes.” The use of the word “prostitute” as a translation for qadishtu not only negates the sanctity of that which was held sacred, but suggests, by the inferences and social implications of the word, an ethnocentric subjectivity on the part of the writer.