To even utter these words in the same breath seems like such a contradiction in our modern, patriarchal society, that you may feel repulsion, dissonance, disgust. But you also may feel a small tickle in your soul, a soft remembrance of an ancient truth, a resonance of something lost in time.
This is because the sacred whore is an archetype; that is, a symbol for something deep within our within our collective psyche. And, even though this archetype has been banished from our consciousness, she lingers still in our subconscious memory.
She heals through sexuality and sensuality. She knows the true nature of our sexuality is not shame but transcendence. She keeps the flame of our life force alive. Yet, she has been repressed for millennia, which has created a disconnect from this vital aspect of ourselves.
If, like I was, you are unfamiliar with the origins of this archetype, let me fill you in.
You see, relatively speaking, shame related to sexuality is a modern phenomenon. For over 300,000 years, humanity practiced goddess worship. Women were revered and celebrated for their ability to birth and nourish new life. The feminine principle was seen as the Creatrix of not just human life, but all that is. The goddess blessed her people with not only fertility but also inspiration, creativity, abundance and prosperity. As such, the feminine attribute of sensuality was seen as a virtue, not a sin. Early civilizations, such as Sumer, believed sexual intimacy offered the potential for spiritual evolution. Physical connection served as a portal for divine communion.
The sacred whore was a holy conduit to the goddess herself. By servicing her clients, she would become a channel for divine feminine energy. Sacred whores were revered and respected. They often lived within, and were supported by, the temples. A union with a sacred whore was believed to have a civilizing effect on her clients. A brutish, violent man would become more calm and compassionate after visiting with her.
In the Sumerian, sacred marriage rites, kings coupled with priestesses to reenact the goddess Inanna’s sexual communion with her lover, Dumuzi. The priestess, as the stand-in for the goddess, became the portal through which Inanna’s blessings of prosperity and abundance poured forth to the community.
Sex didn’t have the shameful connotation that it does today. Instead, it was considered a natural, beautiful and potent act of devotion that unlocked a connection to divinity and higher awareness.
However, when Indo-European cultures invaded and brought with them a more masculine-oriented paradigm, the attitude towards sex shifted. Male deities became more prominent and powerful than female ones and emphasis shifted away from everything related to the goddess - including the natural world and man’s ‘animalistic’ urges. Women went from being revered and respected for their feminine powers to being shamed and oppressed. The Hebrew and Christian religions usurped many of the ancient, pagan myths, removing or demonizing the feminine principle in the process. The Fall of Eve is a classic example, making Eve, the disobedient woman, responsible for humanity’s fall from grace. (Source: “Goddesses” by Joseph Campbell)
Eventually, women were decreed property of either their fathers or their husbands. As such, sex was no longer a valuable commodity a woman could sell or barter; it was something that was expected to be given within marriage in exchange for financial security.
Of course, the sacred whore archetype never went away; she just went underground. She has resurfaced in various forms such as the courtesan, the flapper, the Hollywood sexpot and the pop star. In all these iterations, she leverages her sexual power to inspire pleasure and personal liberation for both herself and her audience or clients. When she’s fully expressed in her magnetism and power, it’s a win-win. She uplifts herself and others with her sensual energy. Still, our society has an ambivalent attitude toward her. She’s an object of both lust and loathing simultaneously, of great desire and deep disdain. The sacred whore reflects back to us our own suppressed desires and our internalized shame around our sexuality. No wonder we feel conflicted about her.
The irony is that, while in today’s society, we think of the whore as the most demeaning label possible for a woman, the sacred whore wielded much power through her sexual surrender. When the patriarchy deemed prostitution immoral, women lost a tremendous amount of power in the world. As women, when we discard shame about our bodies and instead, own and celebrate our sexuality, we are empowered. When we embrace our inner, sacred whore and choose to love our physicality, we embody archetypal energy, we reclaim our role as priestess and we open the door to transcendence, transformation and ascension for ourselves and others.