Religious Sex Objects

Long, long ago, when man was very young, and the moon was still mistress of the night skies, the earth was a wondrous place filled with gods, demons, sorcerers, and djinns. Miracles were real, and magicians accomplished stupendous feats. There was no pollution, no smog, no nuclear sword of Damocles dangling over the green fields and blue seas. Best of all, there were no Kremlins or Pentagons where sleep was forbidden to enter. Although darkness provided cover for terrors and evils, it also afforded protection for lovers, who did the same things by the dying embers of fires that they do now in centrally heated apartments.

As the most intelligent of beasts, man soon learned a great deal about his environment, he built shelters, and became the master of fire. He also began forming ideas about the sun, the moon, and the stars. But one mystery completely baffled him—the mystery of life itself, the knowledge that he could reproduce himself. This was the greatest miracle of all, and it stood to reason that everything surrounding this miracle was steeped in magic and the supernatural. Recognizing himself as part of the overall tapestry of nature, man could fit his own sexuality into the pattern with no difficulty. Human fertility was obviously related to the fertility of fields. Spring was a time of renewal, rebirth, and therefore, a time dominated by deities related to fertility. Since human fertility was related to love and lust, then logic dictated the facts. Love, fertility, sexuality, springtime—all were somehow mystically related, and over the centuries, beliefs became more complex, more interrelated, more sophisticated.

The sexual organs were looked on as objects of pride, frequently venerated because of the powerful magic surrounding them. Consequently, ancient artists, in depicting the uncovered body, depicted it as it was, marble genitals were not smashed and replaced with sexless fig leaves until guilt-ridden Europeans arrived on the scene to wield their righteous hammers.

The most universal ancient use of artificial human genitalia, however, was not primarily artistic. The chief function of these artifacts was religio-magical. It was accepted that the genitalia exerted powerful influences when called on properly. The male influenced fertility, and the female afforded protection against evil. The reasoning behind this was perfectly understandable. These were the portions of the anatomy which, when themselves properly used, brought pleasure and, ultimately, life. Obviously, if they had the capacity of bringing into action such powerful forces that new life resulted, they must have salutary effect elsewhere in nature. Hence, the origin of genital amulets to ward off all evil.

Symbolic Shelahs

Among those figurines to have survived the ravages of time and Victorian outrage are the less-than-familiar Shelah-na-gigs of Ireland. Often hideous and threatening in appearance, many have glaring eyes, bared teeth, and bony, death-like ribcages. What they all have in common are spread thighs and gaping vulvas of cavernous proportions. Originating in pre-Christian times, they remained popular over the centuries, eventually to adorn churches and other buildings as amulets against the evil eye and other occult perils. Of course, the Irish were not the only ones to employ such objects, and similar artifacts can be found throughout Europe.

The interrelationship of sex and religion in the ancient world was so extensive that one can elaborate on only a few of the more interesting aspects of it. A well-known illustration is the frequently quoted description by Herodotus of ancient Babylonian temple prostitution. In it he describes how women would prostitute themselves to the first man who offered them a piece of silver within the sacred precincts of the temple of Ishtar. He erroneously calls the goddess Mysitta, a name that probably stems from the even more ancient Akkadian Mu'alltu, meaning "the one who brings forth," which was one of the many titles given to the goddess.

Erotic Solomon

Lesser known Babylonian texts, dating back to nearly 2000 B.C., tell of a sacred, ritual marriage between the king as the incarnate deity, and a priestess representing the fertility goddess. During the ceremony, the priestess is adorned with ornaments of gold, silver, carnelian, and ivory. Statues of the goddess were similarly decorated, the most prominent feature being a golden vulva. In one of these texts, the priestess sang a love song to the king which went as follows:

I will open my bosom,When he shall have made love to me on the bed.Then I shall in turn show my love for my lord,I shall fix for him a good destiny…I shall fix for him as destiny,To be the shepherd of the land.

The first peoples to look askance at sex in religious observances were the Egyptians and especially the Hebrews. In the course of spreading the doctrine of monotheism, they tended to downgrade the gods of their neighbors, especially those gods displaying overt sexuality. It was the Hebrew attitude towards the alleged sinfulness of others that gave Christianity its initial anti-sexual bias. The result was, at times, almost ludicrous. The Song of Solomon, which contains probably the most explicitly erotic passages in the Old Testament, was interpreted by Christian theologians as representing Christ's love for the Church. Nothing could have been further from the truth. The sensual King Solomon, who had 700 wives and 300 concubines, is hardly likely to have anticipated either the coming of Christ of the foundation of a Church by his followers. Consider the following excerpt from Chapter 8:

How beautiful are thy feet with shoes, O prince's daughter.The joints of thy thighs are like jewels, the work of the hands of a cunning workman.Thy navel is a round goblet, which wanteth not liquor;Thy belly is like an heap of wheat set about with lilies.Thy two breasts are like two young roes that are twins.Thy neck is a tower of ivory; thine eyes like the fish pools in Heshbon, by the gate of Bath-rabbim;Thy nose is as the tower of Lebanon which looketh toward Damascus.Thine head upon thee is like Carmel, and the hair on thy head like purple.The king is held in the galleries. How fair and how pleasant art thou, O love, for delights.

A fascinating aspect of pre-Christian fertility customs, or phallic worship, is the background to the celebration of Easter, and the custom of eating fish on Friday. The ancient Babylonian goddess Ishtar, mentioned earlier, was essentially the same entity to all ancient peoples, regardless of what name she was known by: Isis, Aphrodite, Venus, or Astarte. Friday was her sacred day, and the fish, one of the most universal sex symbols of all, was frequently consecrated to her on that day, and eaten by her worshippers, who afterwards practiced public phallic rites. The early Christians merely took over the spring fertility festival and transformed it into Easter. The name itself comes from Astarte.

Satyrs and Satan

Another transformation was that of the pagan satyr. To Romans, the satyr was, at best, a lower-echelon supernatural creature, a carefree, sylvan ex-urbanite who spent all his time frolicking in the woods with nymphs, gobbling grapes, guzzling wine, and attending orgies. He was probably the prime symbol of Roman wish-fantasy fulfillment. To early Christians, however, the satyr represented the mythology of a civilization that to them was hostile, and therefore sinful. He certainly characterized sensuality of the highest degree, and represented the antithesis of the Pauline doctrine that "The body is not for fornication, but for the Lord." So what did the Christians do to this harmless forest hedonist? They used him as the physical prototype for their devil, the arch-enemy of God and man, the personification of all evil.

Compare the saga of St. Mary the Egyptian, traditionally the patron saint of whores. Born in Rome during the reign of the emperor Claudius, she entered the oldest profession at the age of 12 and and worked steadily for 17 years, after which she became a Christian. Determined to worship in Jerusalem at the true Cross, she worked her way across the Mediterranean by the only trade she had ever known. But when she reached the shrine in the Holy Land she was repulsed a number of times by an invisible force. She finally gained admittance, according to legend, by taking a vow of chastity and spending the next 40 years in the desert. But the fact that she traversed the road to salvation largely on her back was not lost on future generations, for Mary's act of giving her body to the sailors in payment for her passage was depicted on stained glass in a number of European churches.

"Fascinating" Phallus

One of the greatest problems to confront the church for several centuries was the eradication of out-and-out phallic worship. It should be mentioned at this point, that one of the Latin names applied by the ancient Romans to the penis was fascinum. The word was used primarily to describe phallic amulets, and from it we have derived our modern words fascinate and fascination. One of the surviving proofs that Christians continued to pay homage to the fascinum is found in an 8th-century ecclesiastical edict: "If anyone has performed incantation to the fascinum, or any incantation whatsoever, except anyone who chants the creed or the Lord's prayer, let him do penance on bread and water during three Lents." The persistence of the practice was such that 500 years later, the Synod of Mans decreed severe punishment for any person "who has sinned to the fascinum, or has performed any other incantations…" etc.

Sometimes churchmen themselves were the sinners. In the Chronicle of Lanercost we read of what happened during Easter week in 1282 at Inverkeithing, known today as County Fife, Scotland. A parish priest by the name of John put up a wooden image of the pagan god Priapus in the town square. Then he led all the young girls of the town in a dance around the statue while he himself carried a large wooden phallus. He then "accompanied their songs with movements in accordance, and urged them on to licentious actions by his no less licentious language." For this Father John got himself into hot water with his bishop, but defended himself on the grounds that he was only acting in accordance with local customs.

Church and Phallus

In France, ancient phallic rites adapted to Christianity amid similar strains. Especially intriguing was the de facto conversion of the god Priapus from pagan deity to Christian saint. "In the south of France, Provence, Languedoc, and the Lyonnais," wrote Thomas Wright over a century ago, "he was worshipped under the title of St. Foutin. This name is said to be a mere corruption of Fotinum or Photinus, the first Bishop of Lyons, to whom, perhaps through giving a vulgar interpretation to the name, people had transferred the distinguishing attribute of Priapus. This was a large phallus of wood, which was an object of reverence to the women, especially to those who were barren, who scraped the wooden member and, having steeped the scrapings in water, they drank the latter as a remedy against their barrenness, or administered it to their husbands in the belief that it would make them vigorous."

Other phallic saints were worshipped elsewhere in France, Belgium, and Italy. In certain areas it was customary for brides to offer their virginity to the saint with the wooden phallus. It was a convenient way to avoid embarrassing explanations to a husband expecting a virgin. How could a pious man argue against his wife's devotion to a saint?

Another phallic custom that lasted well into the 19th century was the baking and eating of phallic cakes on feast days, especially during the Easter season. In the village of Saintes, folk observed the Fête des Pinnes, or Feast of the Penis, every Palm Sunday. Carrying the little phallic cakes, along with their palm branches, the women and children would march to church. There the priest blessed the cakes, after which they were stored away for the rest of the year.

Probably one of the most offbeat objects ever to find its way into the church was the so-called holy prepuce. Its history is filled with mystery and contradiction. Despite the renunciation by the early church fathers of old Jewish customs, among them circumcision, the Church continued to celebrate the Feast of Circumcision. According to The Holy Prepuce and the Miracles, "Having done away with the actual ceremony it would seem inconsistent that the Church would continue to take its celebration into consideration at any time. The strange events which occurred in connection with the Feast of Circumcision, may perhaps seem a trifle peculiar on the surface, but when we consider the frantic quest for holy relics that swept Europe in the middle ages, a glimmering of understanding appears."

Thus, during the 13th or 14th century, the abbey of Coulombs in the diocese of Chartres came to possess a valuable relic of tremendous importance. Although the monks never revealed how this relic came into their possession nor from whose beatified body it had been snipped, it was generally believed to have arrived via strictly miraculous means. The Holy Prepuce, as it was called, was revered by all who came near it, for it had the power to render sterile women fruitful. The mere possession of so efficacious a relic did wonders for the reputation of the abbey, and for more reasons than one. Not only did the Holy Prepuce cure sterility, its merest touch assured women of an easy delivery.

In time, its reputation spread beyond the borders of France. King Henry VIII of England insisted on borrowing it so that his Queen, Catherine of Aragon, might avail herself of its special powers. Unfortunately, it was not returned immediately. In fact, it took 25 years to find its way back to Coulombs, during which time there was an alarming increase of sterility. Happily, it was eventually delivered back into the hands of its rightful guardians where, as far as we know, it is still serving the community as a contra-contraceptive.

Miraculous Prepuce

The abbey of Coulombs was not the only repository of a holy prepuce. Others claiming to have one were the Cathedral of Puy in Velay, the Collegio church in Antwerp, the Abbey of Our Saviour of Charroux, and the church of St. John Lateran in Rome. Like the monks of Coulombs, the established authorities of St. John Lateran never revealed to the world how they gained possession of their holy prepuce, but they were always emphatic in their assertion that it was the only authentic one. Its existence, however, was infinitely more precarious than any other. During the periodic sacks of Rome by Gothic, Vandal, and even Christian incursions, it was stolen and carried off. But it always found its way back to its holy sanctuary, and the sacrilegious thieves were invariably punished by terrible fates.

In The Holy Prepuce and the Miracles we are told of one particular theft in which the casket containing the relic along with several others was buried outside Rome and never recovered by the thief. "Thirty years later it was discovered by a priest on the property of a wealthy lady. Not knowing that the box he had found contained a number of sacred relics, the honest father took it at once to the owner of the land on which he had found it. Upon being opened, it was found to contain part of the anatomy of St. Valentine, the lower jaw of St. Martha, with one tooth still in its socket, and a small packet inscribed with the name of the Savior. Noticing a most fragrant aroma that was permeating the atmosphere, the lady picked up the little packet, assuming it to contain some aromatic balm. The moment she touched it her hand stiffened and swelled perceptibly. A further investigation proved that she was holding none other than the miraculous holy prepuce stolen from the church of St. John Lateran."

Guilt and Innocence

Unfortunately, there is a darker side to the relationship between sex and religion in Christian Europe. One can almost pinpoint the date from which it began to go sour. It was 1484 when Pope Innocent VIII issued his renowned bull against witchcraft, Summis Desiderentes Affectibus. Although witchcraft was the ostensible target, sex was at the bottom of it all. Accusing witches of "perpetrating the foulest abominations, and the filthiest excesses" and of "hindering men from performing the sexual act and women from conceiving," the Pope set the tone for one of the severest persecutions in European history, one that was to continue for centuries, to span oceans, and to cost literally millions of innocent lives.

The witch hunters, although they never quite succeeded in stamping out witchcraft, provided future psychiatrists and novelists with the raw material for centuries of nightmares. In addition to the horrors concomitant with witchcraft came those attending the beliefs in vampirism, lycanthropy, incubi and succubi, all of which had their roots hopelessly tangled in religio-sexual mythology, superstition, and guilt.

Unquestionably, the most horrifying byproduct of a twisted religious anti-sexual attitude lies in the case of the Skoptsi. A Russian religious sect, first discovered by authorities in the 18th century, the Skoptsi (whose name is taken from the Russian word for eunuch) were a fanatical religious sect whose concepts of purity were so extreme that they demanded total and absolute sexual abstinence. They believed that Adam and Eve had been created sexless, and that genitalia and female breasts were abominations created by the forces of evil to drive mankind into a state of sin. It was said that in the course of their religious meetings they would work themselves into hysterical frenzies and then mutilate one another with swords, knives, razors, and hot pokers.

As time passed they enjoyed periods of freedom followed by others of severe persecution. They continued to practice voluntary castration and breast amputation, but relaxed their severe rules to allow the faithful to have a child or two before submitting to the operation, in order to prevent their ranks from thinning down. Some writers assert that they managed to survive and reproduce, not by procreating, but by kidnapping children of others. Whatever the truth of these reports, they apparently managed to perpetuate themselves underground and spread to other sections of Europe and even to America.

Happily, there are no other religious sects of any consequence among us which impose such drastic measures on their followers. There are still too many who regard virginity as a virtue, and sexual education as a Communist plot, just as there are still too many Communists around who regard sexual freedom as some kind of Western plot. As for the established churches, there appear to be definite signs of progress. Protestant ministers are giving valuable abortion counsel and, though there are few who will admit it openly, certain Catholic priests have even dispensed birth control advice in the confessional. Perhaps the religious sexual revolution is not quite around the corner, but there is every sign that the churches are losing their age-old mania about sex.