Evolution of Religion
Religions of the world are often categorized as sex negative or sex positive. Religion throughout history has been one of the major societal shapers of attitudes toward sex and sexuality. Four distinct patterns of religious thought can be identified in human cultures. The earliest religious system seems to have been animism, the feeling that animate and inanimate objects had spirits. From this system evolved polytheism, clustering these diverse spirits into larger and more comprehensive categories of gods and goddesses.
Monotheistic thought seems to have been an alternative development to this trend conceiving of one force to be the originator and operator of the multiple forces. These systems often intermix as polytheism mixes with animism, as among the Greeks. Strangely enough, monotheism also mixes with polytheism and animism as in the example of Catholicism in South America where natives often go to Catholic church but worship ancient deities and animistic spirits in Nature.
Having passed through the first three stages some 3,000 years ago, Vedic scholars of India brought humans to the culmination of religious thought on this planet by the advent of Monism, the concept that :
ALL IS ONE.
Everything is the same eternal energy, unbounded, changeless, and manifesting into many forms. Humans were no longer empowering their lower survival circuits to separate self from the rest of existence but enacting a higher comprehension of self as a total functioning part of the greater whole. Humanity has arrived at the point where some members can see the total interrelation of all things. Some Humans, particularly in the East, seem to have come full circle from the realization that everything contains a spirit of life, to the idea that all was spirit or living energy. These humans added a new dimension, the dimension of awareness….awareness of self as not separate from the whole but a conscious part of it. This concept does not necessitate a conscious creative deity.
This seems to be a natural evolution of the mind whether on an individual or a societal level. So it is with the human animal as well as with his religious philosophy. Piget’s studies in child psychology show that a young child is essentially animistic, and moves beyond this view according to the precepts of his culture. If his/her development proceeds so far as to include enlightenment then another circle is completed.
Today we are confronted by the planetary situations, which demand the opening of new circuits, new understandings new comprehensions and most importantly new actions, which are optimally perceptive, and optimally effective. Both Eastern and Western thought systems have something to contribute to this new evolutionary cusp that will raise humankind to a new level of perception and effectiveness.
Today we are confronted with a growing need to merge the two systems. The west exhibits dynamic creativity; conquering and controlling nature’s surface aspects. It is Yang, patriarchal and concerned with power. The East exhibits passive magnetic receptivity and openness. It is Yin; female, open to the underlying power and quiet reserves of primordial mother earth.
This period of planetary crisis demands a synthesis of dynamic and receptive, of creativity and acceptance of male and female energy principles. Western science is beginning to see the need to include vast areas that it had heretofore been irrationally outrageously and unscientifically dismissing. For its part, the east is opening its private, mystical esoteric researches to Western repeatable scientific controls to advance the larger transpersonal-scientific-anthropological-psychology which evolutionary agent Timothy Leary is calling Exo-Psychology* (see Leary, Timothy, Neurologic, What does Wo/man Want, Exo-Psychology, Neuropolitics)
The five senses have been of great developmental import for the competing mammal called human .And these will probably retain a place of importance in our emerging functioning for quite some time. But they must not remain our total repertoire. At present, we use only a tiny fraction of our brains, our intelligence, our consciousness, and our spirit. This must change if we as a species are to confront the gigantic and ever-growing threats produced by our primitive understanding of technological-neurological evolution.
A species that is not able to adapt (add to its repertoire) is doomed to perish, for we live in a universe of unceasing change. Becoming consciousness of our evolution as a species we must link new consciousness circuits with ancient primitive survival circuits to radiate a creature of greater freedom, openness, understanding and affinity. Such a creature, Homo-futurus, would see its species and all species interwoven in a vast ecologic tapestry covering the entire earth and looking to the stars for more connections. Such a creature will evolve a natural organic technological-neurological society geared to the rhythms of the womb planet.
We do know that the Indo-European invasions of India around 1000 BCE (Before Current Era), brought great change to India as they did in Europe and the Middle East. This invasion lead to a merger of the dominant male Indo -European gods with the Mother Earth Goddesses of ancient India. Writing disappears for a while as these steppe barbarians absorb and transmute the culture and learning of India. By 800 BCE the classic Vedas (books) on proper ways of worship were beginning to be written. By 500 BCE., Hindu thinkers developed the concept of cosmic consciousness; all things composed of atoms of unchanging energy, ever changing in form. These writings of the Vedantic School gave birth to Yoga, various methods of meditation and included sexual meditation techniques.
It is important to note that it speaks continually of love in a society of arranged marriage. The Kamasutra, like Chinese love manuals, is quite detailed, enumerating for example five kinds of kisses, eight stages of oral intercourse and approximately 50 sexual positions. Numerous devices are detailed for heightening male and female pleasure. It is clear that Gupta society with its strong successful middle (merchant) class found sex to be both fun and utilitarian and little or no shame was evidenced. Sex was considered enjoyable, natural and need not be hidden at all.
Love was an art like dancing or writing, Good lovemaking demanded an artistic composition of variations designed to give the ultimate in pleasure and satisfaction.
During this period, art galleries of erotic paintings arose throughout India’s large cities. Famous courtesans called Apsarases, usually hosted gala public viewings at these galleries. Courtesans were considered to be representatives of the Goddess on earth and were supported by generous patrons. The art on the walls were sexual depictions of these famous courtesans with their most famous clients. Various positions of the Kama Sutra and Tantric ritual positions were unveiled for all to see, appreciate and practice. Indian society viewed sexuality as a normal glorious function to be used in the enhancement of life and spirituality.
Courtesans played a pivotal role in Indian society from the time of the Gupta 4th century C.E. to the British repression in the 1700’s C.E. A notable picture of the courtesan life is given in the Manimekbalai, written in the time of Vatsyayana. The Apsarases, commanded considerable fees and made generous donations to social and religious events. They built temples and ritual baths and probably contributed substantially to the great sexual temples like Khajuraho and Konorak. These temples were vast sanctuaries containing dance halls and theaters where plays of religions nature were performed. We know form European chronicles that these dances were licentious and provocative. The seemingly outlandish positions portrayed in sculpture and art are brought into more believable light when European chroniclers tell of the amazing agility and suppleness of theses temple dancers. Each temple possessed groups of hereditary professional Devadasis, dancers who performed for the gods and laymen. These dancer were schooled as sexual Tantric teachers to stimulate males for long illuminating sex.
Cities in this period were surrounded by pleasure gardens. They were decorated with flowering trees, pavilions and ponds. These were public pleasure gardens provided by the rulers, for the enjoyment of all.
Men and women of many classes could attend, to experience all the pleasures that life had to offer including lovemaking. The literature of the period contains many references to the joyful riotous noises that filled the city from these gardens as dusk descended. Inside the cities were private houses of highly trained courtesans and public houses with varying degrees of trained Apsarases. Many of these women were highly respected and well trained in all the sensual arts as were the ancient Greek Hetaera . The literature of the period tell us that all these houses had elaborate erotic wall paintings to titillate and stimulate. Love and all acts of sensual nature were considered tributes to the god and goddess.
It should be noted here that like most ancient societies, sexuality was open and varied with none of the stigmas attached today. It would seem ancient societies tended toward bisexuality more than current societies. Lesbianism is often depicted and described down to the dominances played by certain females.
Male homosexuality played an integral part of life with various homosexual practices being described and depicted in detail. Transvestites played an important role and were invited to weddings and religious ceremonies as a symbol of good luck.
Indian Tantra we see reference to masturbation as training for total merger with the god (man -fish symbolism). While Tantra concentrates 99 percent of its energies on male-female, yin-yang exercise we also see mentioned vaguely the idea of male-male intercourse as a path to the godhead (man-bird symbolism) Gods of love and ecstasy .
BUDDHIST TANTRA
Buddhist Tantra begins to be recorded about 600 CE. It is a Tantra stressing long sustained intercourse with full retention of all energy. In the Hevajra Tantra we learn that male and female adepts would spend one year together practicing, then switch partners at the end of each year, for being Buddhist, no attachments could be formed. The classic position of Buddhist Tantra is the man sitting cross legged, his arms around the back of a woman who sits facing him, her legs around his waist, her arms holding him.
They are continually stimulated by intercourse, and filled with energy which is retained inside them without outlet. The Buddhist calls this Vajrayana, the thunderbolt. The most well known Buddhist mantra “Om Mani Padme Hum”, refers to this; Vajra, the male organ within the padme, Lotus-flower, denoting womanhood. Later groups developed this meditation into one using sexual energy and visualizing female sexuality or Taras (female Bodasativas). By avoiding a physical woman Buddhism came to avoid the attachment it feared, It is based on the Hindu meditation on the Kundalini, the energy serpent who rises through the chakras to illuminate the meditator.
In Japan, the Geisha courtesans were often the leaders in fashion, taste, music, and general aesthetics. They were also the embodiment of erotic stimulation. As in Japan, Indian courtesans were highly skilled in the sixty four arts which included dance, music, singing, and perhaps most notably the art of love making. In India they represented the sexuality of Mother Earth herself. In the 15th Century CE, Kalyanmalla wrote the another of the great Indian texts on lovemaking the, Aranga Ranga. The 15th to 18th C.E. Century saw a flowering of erotic painted miniatures of couples in various sexual positions described from these two books and from Tantric teachings. The 12th C.E. Century onwards illustrated books of sexual positions were given to couples as marriage gifts.
Sex for males in the western world concentrates on ejaculation-orgasm. Wilhelm Reich, an America pioneer in energy and negative ion work, was fond of saying that by energizing the entire body with intense breathing one can sensitize the entire body to a totally orgasmic plane of experience. Eastern schools of Tantra found this same transcendence through the use of physical sexual ritual. (see h chapter for history of Tantra as a spiritual force). From ancient Indian origins Tantra spread to create Hindu, Buddhist and Taoist Tantra. In Tantric training, one extends sex by withholding orgasm for extended periods and thus entering a trance state or extreme bliss sometimes called smadhi. Smadhi may be defined as a blissful timeless and total dissolution of the ego.
20 One of many temple freezes form ancient Konrak 12th Century showing fellatio being performed by temple priestess.
CHAPTER 2
A short history of Sex
The earliest religion we can truly discern seems to have been animistic, the cult of the mother Goddess.
The earth Mother manifested herself as the power enshrined in rocks, streams, lakes, trees, and all other natural objects. All of creation was considered to be imbued with the creative spirit of life. Representations of the human creative force began to be carved . The Yoni (vagina) and phallus (lingam) were represented as worship objects probably dating back 30,000 years ago.. By the time of agriculture some 10,000 years ago people concentrated their worship on a Mother Goddess figure that embodied all the creative powers of a fruitful earth. Since the Mother was obviously the creative force from which life sprang. these religions were focused on woman as the eternal creator. The Earth Mother was the sustainer or life, the representative of all women, manifesting herself through sexual flowering of the earth providing creation and nurture for all.
From our earliest indications it seems humankind was worshiping the procreative act because this act created new life and made their world continue. In Europe we see it clearly in the peoples of Keltic Britton and Ireland, Western Europe, the Aegean world and Mediterranean worlds. Certainly it encompassed Asia and the Indian Subcontinent. There is no doubt that the religions of Mesopotamia and Egypt include strong elements of this worship of the Earth Mother. The Minoan civilization on Crete was perhaps the high point of Mother worship before its destruction around 1200 B.C.E.
It does seem that most of the preliterate early peoples were matrilineal at least in tracing ancestry.
Ancient funerary equipment certainly seems to suggest an equality of the sexes that we do not see after 3000 B.C.E. in Greece, Rome or under Christianity. These societies were largely agricultural, seeming to view the Mother as the giver of all life. Whether these were matriarchal societies remains unknown since we have no literature from that period. We know only that the ancient societies of Europe worshiped the sexual principle and celebrated by carvings of the vulvas and phallus. They especially produced statues portraying the Mother Goddess in childbearing and milk giving forms. Mother Goddess Statutes are the main form of religious symbol revered for twenty five thousand years before writing begins.. In Greece before the Indo European invasions of the mainland and in Crete we have paintings and statuettes that indicate high appreciation of women‘s power.
The Etruscans of pre -Roman Italy seem to have operated in a very egalitarian fashion. The Etruscans woman, unlike their Roman counterparts, ate with the men, and are portrayed in painting as equal members of society. When the nomadic Indo- European peoples of the steppes descended into Germany, France, Italy, Greece, Iran, India and Mongolia around 1200 BCE. They brought with them sky gods in male form. They invaded and initially destroyed the ruling religions and agrarian social and political institutions.
But they found they enjoyed the newfound comforts of civilization. They discovered farms, towns, homes, metallurgy, and writing. These were all new luxuries to them and all based in agriculture. Their new wives and slaves told them they must worship the mother for a fruitful earth. Slowly new religions were created by marrying the mother goddesses to the father gods. This established a somewhat balanced pantheon of male and female god and goddess, each governing certain aspects of creation. Animism still thrived with various sprites, nymphs, water sprits, sea spirits, and fecundity spirits. These minor earth elementals were in charge of wells, streams, rivers, lakes, and forests, as extensions of the great mother.
But it is clear that European society comes under absolute male domination . A Pastoral herding people of the steppes cascades over the goddess worshiping farmers of the Mediterranean. They proceeded to set up societies where women were reduced to chattels to serve men. All societies that show any egalitarian nature are ruthlessly suppressed or gradually inundated.
Goddess worship seems often to have been orgiastic. Procreation often took precedence over fatherhood.
This was natural in pre- Indo European societies where inheritance was through the mother. We have no real clear evidence that matriarchal (rule by women) societies ever existed But with the coming of the paternal sky gods of the Indo-Europeans around 1300. BCE (Before Current Era) things changed in Europe. To these horsemen of the steppes, women were a lower order. These tribes inherited through the male line and wanted to know for sure that they fathered their children.
Because of this the ancient goddess worship of the yoni and lingam is subjugated to the father religion. In Norse and Greek mythology the Gods overthrow the giants (keepers of the natural world) and male dominance comes into play. In Greece the new, Greek Indo-Europeans storm and destroy Troy and Knossos and bring about the fall of the old Mother Earth religion. The Earth Goddess Demeter-Persephone, Parvati, Durga, Kali, survive but are presided over by the great male gods of Zeus, Poseidon, Hades, Vishnu, Brahama, Shiva.
Even the male dominated religions that had been established around 1500 -1000 BCE. included the worship of sexuality as part of religion and the social norm. In Greece and Rome the phallus was publicly displayed and worshiped as the fertilizing force that impregnated the Mother in all her forms. In Greece a statue of Hermes with erect phallus was enshrined in front of most homes. Hierapolis, the great temple of Venus, had an entrance that was guarded by two 200 feet high phallic statues. In Rome they practiced the cult of Priapus, the (giant erect penis). The Priapus was highly regarded in Rome and the virile member was usually painted in vermilion or cinnabar outside the entrance of each house. The phallus bestowed good luck and prosperity while dispelling evil and danger. A phallic amulet was often worn about the neck for luck. Such a flying Phallus was the luck symbol for the city of Pompeii, made famous by the eruption of the volcano Vesuvius.
Numerous licentious festivals were held yearly in Rome. December 25 and Easter were just the largest, both celebrating sexuality. There were parades of giant phallus around which worshipers danced and sang bawdy songs, frolicked and often indulged in sex. The Biggest Roman Festival was celebrated on December 25. December 25th was also celebrated as the birthday of Sol Invictus and of Mithra. Mithra was to favorite god of the Roman Legions who helped spread his cult throughout the Roman world. His worshipers called him the Shepard and Son of God, and celebrated his rites with baptism. The early Christian church found this setup so enticing; they proceeded to co-opt his titles, birthday and festival as Christ’s own birthday and festival.
We do know that patriarchic (rule by men) societies tend to control sexual outlets in very strict fashion.
Certainly, most of the world has been basically patriarchic for the last 6,500 years or so. In all of written history we are dealing with a world controlled by males and catering to their sexual needs. This does not mean that attitudes toward sex are identical in each society. But it does mean that attitudes on control of women are very much the same. Patriarchic societies tend to concentrate on passing titles and land through male children. With this design they must be sure who is the father of each child. Following these precepts women must be strictly secluded and controlled to insure parentage.
In ancient societies like Egypt, Sumerian, Greece, Rome, sexuality was highly valued and holy. To the Christians sex was dirty and shameful and a sin against god. To the Hindu sex was a pleasurable sacred duty. To the Muslim sex was a joy and even heaven was an unending orgasm for men. To the Japanese and Chinese sex was a great joy to be carefully practiced as an art. The views differ greatly but the control of woman does not. All these societies place women under the direct and complete control of father and husband,at least until the 20th century.
The classical Greece that gave us philosophy, theater, democracy etc. treated women as chattels. Most women were kept uneducated and confined to the home for childbearing. It was not to get much better for women for the next 2000 years. In Rome a woman was under the absolute life and death control of her father, then husband for her entire life. Greco-Roman society was a fertile ground for a system that continued suppression of women. Thus it was not difficult for these societies to accept a male oriented, female dominating religion when Judio-Christianity came knocking. However, the Romans considered the Jews to be a minor yet troublesome people with nothing to offer the empire but territory and commerce.
The Roman world would have ignored all the extremes of the Jewish thinking (particularly the puritanical focus) as barbaric, had it not been such a pivotal part of the new Christianity.
The ancient world worshiped Magna Matter, the Great Mother: To the Romans Hera-Venus, To the Greeks Demeter-Aphrodite. In Egypt, she was Isis, in Babylon, Ishtar, in Phoenicia, Astarte, in Phrygia, Cybelle, Ephesus, Artemis to the Persians, Anaitis. It is interesting to note that in the West the goddess take two forms, the mother and the whore. In the East no such separation was necessary as all aspects of the goddess were worshiped together. This is a dichotomy that will continue in an even stronger vein when Christianity appears.
What allowed the Greek mind and the Roman organizational genus to excel was their view of the gods. To the Greeks and Romans gods cared only that they should not be disrespected and that ritual were carried out to honor them. They usually had no interest in the world of men, offered no rewards for good behavior and certainly did not answer prayers nor promise a glorious afterlife. It was left for the Greeks and Romans to make the best of the world themselves. Which is exactly what they were free do. They put their gods on the periphery and made man the center of all things, excelling in philosophy, mathematics, history engineering, government and leaving lasting legacies for human civilization.
The Greeks frankly admired sexuality and the naked body. Buttocks, bosom and genitals are all mentioned in equal measure as stimulants. In Greek mythology when Paris judges between the three great goddesses it is not just beauty of form, face and breasts he is judging. The Greeks found great sexual allure in the buttocks. There was even a temple dedicated to the beauty of the buttocks. It was called Aphrodite Kallipygos, which translates Aphrodite of the beautiful buttocks. Interestingly enough in such an open society we see no evidence whatever of sado-masochism we will see in the church repressed middle ages. The Phallus and Pudenda are paraded openly in public parades and are referred to in” holy awe”
If we look into the classic ancient world prior to Christianity, we still find sex and religion were intertwined in everyone’s mind with the process of creation. Sexuality was holy. There was no separation in people’s minds dividing the sexual act into a secular one. Sex and its enjoyment were part of the divine plan, a holy activity that bore no shame and was openly celebrated.
In Greece and Rome the phallus was publicly displayed and worshiped as the fertilizing force that impregnated the Mother in all her forms. A statue of Hermes with erect phallus was enshrined in front of every home. At Hierapolis, the great temple of Venus had an entrance that was guarded by two 200 feet high phallic statues. In India, even today after five thousand years, we still see the joined lingam in the Yoni (penis in the vagina) portrayed openly and vividly all over public streets and in holy temples. Such public display of sexuality in India has been a constant for the last 4000 years.
Romans found the penis and its representation beautiful. The flying Penis was even the symbol (flag) of the small but famous city of Pompeii. Phallic art and sculpture were portrayed all over Roman streets.
This celebration of sex is not public knowledge today because the Roman Catholic Church deliberately destroyed countless erotic works. Most of the erotic works that survive lie hidden in their vast vaults under the Vatican. Because of the public attitude fostered by the catholic and protestant church’s most erotics owned by museums today are still hidden in their own museum vaults.
In Persia the old religions of Cyeble, World mother goddess of the multiple breasts is subsumed by the new fire religion of Ahura Mazda male god of light. He is called the Shepard of his people, and baptizes his followers under the name of his earthly incarnation, Mithra whose birthday is December 25. The Roman soldiers fell in love with Mithra in his warrior manifestation and spread his cult all over the empire. Early Christianity had such a really difficult time coping with Mithraism. They deliberately adopted many of his titles and honorifics, his birthday and rites like baptism to compete with his popularity.
HOW CERTAIN RELIGIONS TAKE OVER AND SUPPRESSES SEX
THE JEWS AND SEXUALITY
Historically the Jews were a relatively unimportant people until the triumph of Christianity pushed their religious ideas to the forefront. Judea was a very small kingdom often split by its own rulers and often experiencing mixed cultures and religions. It was often in a subservient position to other greater peoples, either from direct conquest or from servant status due to more powerful neighbors
It is in fact a misunderstanding to think of the Jews as a people solidified in the belief in the one god Yahweh. During the 1000 years from the exodus from Egypt until the Diaspora (70 C.E.) They shared the basic traditions, mythologies and cosmological traditions of their neighbors the Mesopotamians, Egyptians, Phoenicians, Canaanites, Assyrians and Persians. They were in constant flux, often worshiping other gods along side Yahweh with temples and offerings to the many fertility gods extant in that period. Until 70 C.E. the destruction of the great temple in Jerusalem, the Jews worshiped as other Semitic peoples by ritual and sacrifice lead by priest. With the destructions of their great temple by the Romans, (for revolt) the Levite priest and ritual sacrifice ceased to exist The Talmud (Jewish Holy Book) itself was written over a period of almost 1000 years reflecting different epics and eras as it evolves. It was not finished until the end of the 1st century CE.
Thee early books worshiping Yahweh show him as a phallic god. Abraham was worshiping the Phallus.
Again and again the bible states he is erecting phallic pillars all over the landscape. And making his servants swear by touching his penis. This totally fits in with the timbre of the times, as phallic worship was traditional in Sumeria and all Semitic from where he came and brought their flood myths. Solomon made tribute to an erect stone at Gideon. Jacob worshiped pillars (Genesis 28. Circumcision is also a type of phallic worship, offering a part of the man’s most precious possession to the god who allows erections and pleasure from his organ.
During the captivity in Babylon Jewish local god who lived in a box called the tabernacle changed.
Yahweh had been a local god of Palestine serving the local Jewish people; he could not travel anywhere especially to Babylon. In Babylon they are suddenly without a god. Some Jews decide to reinvent the concept of Yahweh, making him omnipresent and omnipotent, basically so he can be a world god and be powerful in far away Babylon.
After the return from exile in Babylon Judaism became solidified into and in even greater level of intolerance toward other cultures that would lead to conflicts with the Greeks and finally the Romans. Now we see the first reference to resurrection,(Ecclesiastes) . Combined with this we see a change in sexual attitude. Suddenly sexual pleasure is wicked. The old Genesis standby of blaming women is again taken up by Jewish society as a whole. Woman was seen as controlled by the spirit of fornication and her desires. Suddenly, celibacy, which was once a sin against god, is exalted and so is virginity. Homosexuality becomes a capital crime.
The books of the ancient Jews show a society primarily interested in women as sexual commodity to be deposed of or even destroyed by men. We see that a non-virgin, if discovered was to be stoned to death. with her adulterer. Why? Because the man had stolen property and because the woman was damaged property, which brought dishonor to her husband. God rewarded Lot by giving him escape from Sodom and Gomorrah, after offering his virgin daughters to the mob to be raped. In Judges we read of a Levite of the priest clan offering his concubine to the mob to be raped to death. The crime here according to the bible is not the death of the women but the loss of property to the Levite. The ancient Hebrews did not even consider women worthy of honor or laws of protection except as property. The Tenth commandment even lumps women in with asses and cows as property.
Christianity and Sex
The new Christian society of 200 CE, builds on these Judao-Roman concepts continue this suppression of women. ‘ St’ Paul strove to make sure early Christian society treated women with the same mistrust and disrespect that he had grown up with in Judea. He said Women were a distraction sent by the devil to beguile and seduce men. Genesis had taught him that they had brought sin into the world and continued to do so. Other books of the Old Testament had taught him that women were chattels akin to cattle and mules. Paul totally ignored Jesus’ treatment of women and Jesus’ mother Mary as unimportant. For Paul to think God (Jesus) conceived by a lowly woman was unthinkable. Instead he helped spread the notion that an angel had “used” Mary’s womb only as a vessel in which to grow the Holy Spirit. This was in keeping with the Greco-Roman mythology where gods impregnated human women . By Making Jesus the son of god, Paul placed the new Jesus religion in a context the Romans could understand.
His most brilliant creation was adding a totally new focus. He thought up the idea of God sending his son to die for man’s sins. This was to lead to a salvation concept and numerous converts among the poor slaves of the Empire. Jesus would have been utterly surprised that such a claim was being made in his name. Paul continued to consciously steer the early church onto a path that treated women as chattels. It was not until four centuries later that the worship of the Mother insinuated itself back into Catholic worship.
Unfortunately both Christianity and Islam, also born of the desert, were to absorb most of this repression, generating their own expanded view of Judaism. Early Christians and Gnostics were so appalled by sex that they advocated complete celibacy as an end to humanity and reunion with god. They did not succeed in establishing this self-destructive precept among their converts so Christianity did live on. Then they promoted the idea of the sexless priest based on the one male god being alone without sex. Partly this was because they were unable to let go of their obsession of sex as sin. After many years of struggle within the Catholic church, around 500 CE (Present era) church leaders finally managed to force public celibacy on most Western Christian priest. This has led to an unnatural perversion in the Catholic Church producing countless molestations of minors and female worshipers over the last fifteen hundred years.
From its earliest contact with the Western world the church actively promoted the idea that sex was unclean and not to be enjoyed. As late as the 1500’s the church suggested a sheet with a strategic hole in it be placed between husband and wife in bed so they could have sex for procreation and eliminate the pleasure aspect. Even in the 20th century the Catholic Church has promoted sex between husband and wife only for the creation of children and not for pleasure.
In fact the Catholic church’s ridiculous stance of forbidding birth control on an overcrowded planet stems from his worldview. Woman is regarded as simply a vehicle for male sperm. The Patriarch Abraham promised to worship only Yahweh. In return, God promised Abraham his seed would be a numerous as the sands of the Sea. The real reason for this covenant is because woman has no right to determine what goes on in their own bodies because they are only Adam’s rib. They are chattel to be used in bearing more male children to worship god. They have no rights, their fathers and husbands determine to whom they are sold or deeded.
The later Roman Empire saw the rise of half dozen Oriental mystery religions, all promising salvation, and redemption and everlasting life to their believers. For the first several hundred years Christianity was just one of these aberrant Oriental religions. They all sprang out of Eastern mysticism and promised a savior who would Sheppard his flock to eternal life. Christianity triumphed over them by directly borrowing and incorporating strong emotional pulls like eternal life, baptism, and virginal birth and holidays. Soon they would borrow and add the concepts of an eternally virginal mother of god. They took the idea of celibate shaven headed priest able to intercede with god from the religions of Isis and Cybelle. The sensors full of incense that are swung in Catholic ceremonies come directly form the Egyptian Isis ceremonies.
Christians then proceeded to co-opt Pagan religious ceremonies like Easter, Christmas, Halloween and others as their own. Easter was originally a Pagan rite of spring, the maypole symbolizing the male phallus impregnating the ground (Mother Earth). Rabbits and eggs of course were Pagan symbols for fertility.
Eostre (Easter) is the name of an ancient Pagan Fertility Goddess of Briton. The festival of Eostre was held on the Vernal Equinox when the light of day and dark of night are of equal length. This festival welcomed the coming of spring, revering the rabbit and eggs as symbols of birth and celebrating festivities with hot cross buns symbolizing the Yoni.
But the primary reason for the triumph of Christianity was its emphasis on and promise of redemption and resurrection. To the downtrodden slaves of the Empire (about half its population) it offered the premise of a celestial afterlife and eternal salvation without work. This idea of redemption through a savior was also borrowed from mystery religions like Mithra, Isis and Cybelle. Unfortunately, Christianity made the big mistake of also retaining and incorporating old Jewish concepts into its new religion. To be “Christian” one also had to accept Judaic concept of sin. Christ had never said that man is born in sin. But (St) Paul and (St) Augustine proclaimed loudly that man is born in sin and only the redeemer Christ can save you by his sacrifice. Their view, not Christ’s, became church doctrine.
Most of the practical Romans considered all the new mystery religions to be silly and impractical.
Christianity differed form the other three in that it “borrowed” unabashedly form the other three.
Christianity attached itself to the Oriental mystery promise of salvation-rebirth-eternal life and to redemption from sin, through a savior. At the same time it retained traditional Judaic concepts like “born into sin,” repression of sexuality and woman as the scapegoat for all sin.
Christian churches still say each baby is born with sin from the sin of Eve! The “dirtiness of the body and sex“ is reflected in the statement in Genesis “They knew they were naked and covered themselves.”, “Woman as evil” is stated directly in Genesis when Eve is punished, not Adam, for tasting of the fruit of the tree of knowledge by eternal pain in childbirth. “Knowledge as evil” is also reflected in Genesis when both Adam and Eve are punished for wondering why one tree was forbidden to them; why knowledge was forbidden to them.
Genesis had begun and established a tradition in the Jewish culture of treating women as chattels who had brought evil into the world. With the above ideas circulating in the Jewish world it was natural for Paul to see women as evil seducers who lead men astray into questioning faith. Because of this original sin, his savior must suffer and die in agony so that the sins of mankind are erased. Thus Christianity begins its strange dichotomy of mixing a god of love with a god dying in agony on a cross. This is burned into the Christian child at an early age that he or she is evil, a sinner, of worth only because a god died in agony that you might be saved. This unwholesome concept demotes the whole humanity to a position of never being whole, complete or perfect.
Christianity thus combines love of god with death and human sacrifice in a way little different than the abhorred Biblical Philistines flinging their babies into the bellows of Baal for sacrifice. This sacrifice of innocence whether it is Christ or babies is an extremely primitive view of the godhead. The idea that someone must die in order to appease god is immature.
Christ never talked about sex or sexuality in the books the church allowed into the New Testament.
Nevertheless the early church reflecting its putitanitical heritage began by railing against Pagan licentiousness. Soon the church found itself condemning sex entirely. It began to paint sex itself as an evil only to be tolerated for procreation. It follows that the mother of god must be a virgin so that she is not tainted by sex. Christ must die on a cross as a sacrifice to placate the father god for the supposed sins of his followers. So Christianity must promote as its highest ideals abstinence and expiation of self-guilt.
Life is not to be lived in joy. You must remember constantly your guilt for the sins you are born with and the guilt for current temptations of the flesh you cannot avoid.
ISLAM
Islam took a slightly different tract. This system dating from 622 CE, was called Islam, which means surrender (to the faith) and its followers were called Muslims (surrenderers). The prophet had said, “Search for learning though it be as far away as china”. Taking Mohammed’s message to heart, the great trade city of Baghdad by some 150 years after his death had become the world center for philosophy, crafts, and mechanics, arts and science. . Between the 8th and the 12th centuries Islam preserved much of the still extant but disappearing learning of the classical world. They also extended themselves to encompass scientific inquiry.
In these years progressive Islam changed the world. They revived Greek medicine and science. They imported the Hindu numeral system (now called Arabic numerals), creating the nine-digit system and zero thus replacing the cumbersome Roman numerals. All this was to stimulate and make possible the rapid spread of the Renaissance and later the age of Enlightenment in the West. Unfortunately the holocaust of Genghis Khan and decimation of Islam lead to Islamic denial of leaning, resulting is conservative fundamentalism which still controls it in the 21st century. Islam still holds that slavery is ordained in the Quran and that female captives can be taken in was as slaves and concubines.
When Islam suddenly closed down in the 12th Century CE the West was moving a different direction, Creating a societal opening for women and intellect. The cult of the Virgin Mary gained prominence offering a view of Mary (Woman) as virtuous and pure, elevating her as the bible did not.. By association woman’s status began to rise slowly. Although women’s elevation was opposed by Catholicism and many Protestant sects Woman have been on the slow rise politically and socially in the West since the Renaissance.
By the 1500’s the view of women had improved considerably. The Roman church resisted strongly the rise in the status of women by instituting witch hunting. Seventeenth h century scientific discoveries would prove that woman was not a simple incubator of male sperm but an equal partner in procreation.
Beginning in 1517 CE, Luther questioned fundamental values of the Catholic Church which had ruled Europe for a thousand years. This Protestant movement helped to launch the Renaissance and the Modern world as the ancient Catholic Church’s view of woman and sex as evil was challenged and upended.
The Protestant failed by accepting many basic precept of the Catholic church like the censored bible they had created. Though Protestants denied the authority of popes and denied the need for priests the did not revoke the absurd proposition that man is born in sin. It would still be well into the 20th century before society was ready to question the churches views of sex as dirty and sinful.
Japan and China
Unlike art in the West, erotic subject matter has historically been an integral and socially accepted part of art in the East. Early examples of Japanese and Chinese art date back to the 11th and 13th centuries BCE. In China erotic art seems mostly to have remained in the hands of artisans whose names are not known . But in Japan, not only was the art accepted but also its masters were renown. In Japan these masters devoted considerable portions of their works to the erotic and were praised for their accomplishments in these portrayals. The first erotic works extant in China date from the Han Dynasty 206 BCE to 24 CE. Handbooks on sex were being produce as a normal gift for bride and groom by 100 CE.. For the Chinese Sexuality is a joy to be viewed as one of the greatest blessings and pleasures of life.
In Ancient China, Taoist masters shaped the Chinese idea of sexuality. It was a far cry from the one shaped by the early Christian church fathers. The sexual act was considered part of the universal laws of nature and to be viewed as one of the greatest blessings and pleasures of life. It was never associated with moral guilt or sin. Young couples in China were presented with “pillow books” picturing and describing postures, positions and techniques of sexual activity. Since all was a combination of the yin and yang (the male and female forces of the universe), it was obvious that sex was a sacred duty to be performed frequently and with full enjoyment and consciousness. We know that full and complete sex manuals of over 20 chapters were produced early as the Han Dynasty some 100 years before the birth of Christ. They included chapters on: foreplay, fellatio, cunnilingus, positions for intercourse, methods to create female orgasm, control techniques for long sex, and theories on practical and spiritual significance of sex. Of course they contained titillating explicit pictures of couples enjoying sex.
There were also erotic novels, sculptures and paintings designed for mutual stimulation and the creation of mutual desire. Intercourse, fellatio, cunnilingus and anal intercourse were considered acceptable pleasures but no male fluids (Yang) were to be lost. At these very early dates we see it emphasized that the man’s ability to control himself and satisfy the woman is of far more important that good looks or youth. Cunnilingus was strongly approved, as a preparation for the woman. Long foreplay was essential to move the woman to fine receptivity and activate the production of her yin essence in abundance. The idea was for the penis to absorb this Yin essence while enclosed in the vagina. Therefore it was necessary to stimulate the female so she would produce copious Yin fluids. Master Tung-hsuan recommended long period of dalliance before penetration. The “Jade stalk” should hover, floating around the precious entrance to the” Cinnabar gate “while it’s possessor kisses the woman lovelingly, allowing his eyes the pleasure of her body and her golden cleft. Penetration is not recommended until the “cinnabar gate” is in flood; that is juicing copiously. Master Tung-hsuan moves on to recommend combinations of penile movements in a wide variety of styles, moves and postures.
The Rise of Confucianism as a religion destroyed much this open approach to sexuality. By the birth of Christ in the West, Taoism was being inundated by Confucianism and views were changing. Confucian philosophy began to envelope the government and the populous.. Family conventions, and the sexual and social rights of each member of the household, become more important that the pure enjoyment of sexuality. Taoist sexuality, like Tantra in India had to go somewhat below ground, but surviving teaching.
Japan
Japan made use of the same phallic symbols and goddess fertility images found all over the world in pre-historical religions. Sex would become a hallmark of Japanese art; portraying the genitals of both male and female in exaggerated form. This focus on enlarged genitalia alludes to the reverential nature in which these areas of generation were viewed. The enlargement also frankly alludes to deliberate titillation-aphrodisiacal nature, along with an educational component. This enlargement of genitals has continued to be a primary feature of Japanese erotic art into the 21st century.
When Buddhism arrived in the 6th Century C.E. it found Shintoism firmly established with deep connections to phallic worship and the peoples fertility festivals. Japanese folklore and folk art abounded with phallic representations at popular festivals have continued into the 21st century.. Buddhist artists joined other artist in creating Shunga, erotic art by 701 CE. All this reflects the Japanese attitude that sex is a totally natural and highly positive act of extreme importance in daily life
Raja and lover enjoy using s swing to enhance sexual stimulation.
INDIA
The lingam (penis) and Yoni (vagina) were worshiped in India from long before civilization began. There are indications of their worship in the first Indian civilization of Muhanjaro-Daro. Erotic couplings are portrayed on temples as early s the 3rd Century BCE. The ancient Vedic tales of hero warriors give descriptive accounts of sexuality and rituals involving sacrifice of holy semen.
The oldest extant sexually explicit temples, totally devoted to sexuality, come from India in the 10th to 12th Centuries ’s Present Era. . There are huge complexes of temples each decorated with hundreds of figures in sexual postures. At the great temples of Konorak and Khajuraho we see our finest culmination of erotic temples. They supply an overwhelming display of human sexuality in almost all its forms
The figures are extremely sensual even after 1200 years. The figures of the women are full, rounded and opulent as if to invite stroking. The vulva is freely exposed for the appreciation of viewers as an object of beauty in and of itself.. Often the Devadasis (Temple courtesans) are attended by a smaller attending women preparing or stimulating the male. This reflects historical accuracy, as we know Devadasis usually had a least two novices in training to help with their sensual arts and lovemaking. The temples were living sexual training centers where trained tantric priestesses and trained male adepts lived and continually practiced sexual Tantra with each other and with ordinary men and women to educate them in the ecstatic worship of life energy.
It is incorrect to think of Temple priestesses as prostitutes as we think of the word today. This is a Christian interpretation imposed by Puritanism. These women were holy representations of the mother goddess. They were highly trained in the highest social cultural accomplishment of their time. To interact with them was considered a divine worshipful interlude. Often they were teachers of sexuality to adolescents of the society.
Islam in India
Islam successfully invaded Northern India in the 12th to 17th centuries CE. At first their desert puritan thinking was shocked and dislocated by the opulence of India. But very soon rulers began to appreciate the voluptuous of Indian courts. and Islam did not oppose sensuality. They also looked into the local Hindu raja’s harems where they heard seductive tales of tantric lovemaking. They proceeded to adopt it with great appreciation, even forgetting the Islamic ban of portraying humans and animals. They began sponsoring tantric art to teach and titillate themselves.
Muslim Islamic ruler enjoys sex with Indian courtesan.