“Harlot” is used extensively throughout the Bible, and it does not mean what we think it means from today’s perspective. Harlot is derived from various words meaning “holy woman” as discussed earlier and refers to either a temple woman or a priestess. However, the way in which it is used in this and other biblical contexts implies prostitution or other sexually explicit behavior that is not acceptable to the new religion. It is the Hebrew fear of assimilation with neighbors that is being extolled here. They are afraid that their own people will be “seduced” by the Goddess peoples and lost to the Hebrew religion. These passages are the battle reports from confrontations on the front lines in an attempt to gain control over a most ancient and well established religious belief system.
The third book of the Old Testament is Leviticus, written by the Levite priests to define all the laws governing the Hebrew people. It covers every aspect of a person’s life: eating, butchering, offerings, and repentances. What will be detailed here are the passages relating specifically to women and how these laws impact their lives. These laws are fundamentally concerned with what they call “unclean” states of human beings. These are not conditions subject to soap and water washing to bring unclean into clean. These concerns are deeper and more profound, particularly for women. Women are proclaimed unclean every month when they menstruate. But they are seen as particularly unclean when they give birth, and they are more seriously unclean when they give birth to a female child. Now, women are made to pay fines. These fines are in the form of sin offerings in goods, animals and money paid to priests. Women, as seen in these passages, have gone from being self-sovereign, to being dirty creatures who must be penalized.
In other creation myths, no matter how hard the Greeks tried to believe that Zeus birthed through his forehead, or the Hebrew tried to believe that Adam birthed woman from his rib, or any of the other strange attempts to have men appear to give birth to humans, the people themselves know that only women give birth to children, only women. Now it seems that if he comes to terms with the inevitable fact that he cannot give birth, then procreation (sex and giving birth) will be made into a loathsome, evil process, with punishments meted out in the most shameful manner possible.
The first laws given specifically toward women are Leviticus 12:2, 5, 6, 7. They say,
Lev. 12:2 – If a woman has conceived and born a male child, then she shall be unclean seven days; as in the days of her customary impurity she shall be unclean.
Lev. 12:4 – She shall then continue in the blood of her purification thirty-three days. She shall not touch any hallowed thing nor come into the sanctuary until the days of her purification are fulfilled.
Here we see that instead of woman being the reason the sanctuaries were originally built to worship her life-giving miracles, she is now banned from entering them or from coming in contact with any object considered holy.
Lev. 12:5 – “But if one bears a female child, then she shall be unclean two weeks, as in her customary impurity, and she shall continue in the blood of her purification sixty-six days.” So, the penalty is double if the woman births a girl child.
Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying,
Lev. 12:6 – “When the days of her purification are fulfilled, whether for a son or a daughter, she shall bring to the priest a lamb of the first year as a burnt offering, and a young pigeon or turtledove as a sin offering, to the door of the tabernacle of meeting.” And then the priest shall make atonement for her because the woman is not permitted inside!
It is difficult to describe how horrible and outrageous these laws must have sounded to those who came from the neighboring Goddess cultures where new life was always sacred and welcomed … not sins to be atoned for, particularly by men. In fact there is no notion of sin in Goddess ways. This conflict against the Goddess was really about control over the sexual freedom of her women, their acceptance and legitimacy of any child born to a Goddess woman, and women’s ability to conduct the business of their lives in freedom.
Merlin Stone writes, “The lack of concern for the paternity of children among the Hebrew people who continued to revere the Queen of Heaven, thus allowing matrilineal descent patterns to continue as a result of the sexual customs, seems to have been the crux of the persecution of the ancient beliefs by the priests of the Hebrew tribes.”10
Practices of the Goddess peoples are defined for us by being prohibited by these laws. They are making statues (idols) either by carving or clay; practicing divination or soothsaying; men shaving around the sides of the head or the edges of their beards; “making any cuttings in your flesh for the dead,” or tattoo any marks on the body; have regard for medium and familiar spirits; take a wife who is a holy woman (“harlot”).
Then, Lev. 21:9 “The daughter of any priest, if she profanes herself by playing the harlot, she profanes her father. She shall be burned with fire.”
In Deuteronomy much is a repeat of Leviticus, but some passages are different. In Deuteronomy 18 under the heading of “Avoid Wicked Customs” it is stated that “When you come into the lands which the Lord is giving you, you shall not learn to follow the abominations of those nations. There shall not be found among you anyone who makes his son or his daughter pass through the fire, or one who practices witchcraft, or a soothsayer or one who interprets omens, or a sorcerer, one who conjures spells or a medium, or a spiritist, or one who calls up the dead … for these nations which you will dispossess listened to soothsayers and diviners …” The dispossessed nations are those of the Goddess, a fact which is now clear. In Deuteronomy 22 on rape of a woman, if she is raped in the city, she is as guilty as the man who raped her because she did not cry out. Both are killed by stoning. But if a rape happens in the country, only the man is killed because the woman’s cries could not be heard. Adultery has the death penalty. Not being a virgin before marriage can bring the death penalty because the woman has insulted her father and destroyed the price he can get for marrying her off.
Excluded from membership in the congregation are Deu. 23:l–“He who is emasculated by crushing or mutilation.” Deu. 23:2–“One of illegitimate birth shall not enter the congregation of the Lord; even to the tenth generation none of his descendants shall enter the congregation of the Lord.” Paternity was the only measure of legitimacy under the Hebrew law and, therefore, no person of the neighboring communities who was from the matrilineal descent practiced could be Jewish, even though, irony of ironies, the only true measure of being Jewish today is whether or not the mother of the child is Jewish. These priests “wrote with scornful contempt of any woman who was neither a virgin nor married, and insisted that all women must be publicly designated as the private property of some man, father or husband.”11 But the Hebrews in Canaan did not exist in a vacuum; seeing themselves surrounded, they were vehemently opposed to religious tolerance.
Deu. 13:6 – If your brother or son or daughter or wife or friend suggest serving other gods, you must kill them, your hand must be the first raised in putting him to death and all the people shall follow you.
This sentence also will be lifted right out of the Old Testament and used later as justification in the process of the European Inquisition when they wished to kill people for holding beliefs differing from those permitted by the Roman Catholic Church.
The Song of Solomon
By far the most beautiful, lyrical and out-of–place book in the Old Testament is the Song of Solomon. Some have said that it is part of the Goddess tradition with its poetry bordering on the erotic. Some say it has Persian influences, with the oriental love-making traditions for which they became renowned. Others note that it resembles the courtly love poetry of the Middle Ages and the songs of the troubadours. The song is a love poem between two young people. The man is called “The Beloved” and the woman is “The Shulamite.” This particular passage reminds one of the erotic prayer from Innana to her “honeyman,” which was seen previously with the exception that the speaker here is a man and not a Goddess:
&nb
sp; You have ravished my heart, my sister, my spouse; you have ravished my heart with one look of your eyes, with one link of your necklace. How fair is your love, my sister, my spouse! How much better than wine is your love, and the scent of your perfumes than all spices! Your lips, my spouse, drip as the honeycomb; Honey and milk are under your tongue; and the fragrance of your garments is like the fragrance of Lebanon. A garden enclosed is my sister, my spouse, a spring shut up, a fountain sealed. Your plants are an orchard of pomegranates with pleasant fruits.… (a list of spices) … a fountain of gardens, a well of living waters, and streams from Lebanon.
“My sister, my spouse” has a definite ring of the matrilineal marriages of the royalty of Egypt, with brothers and sisters from the same mother marrying in order to keep the line of descent in the family of the matriarch. The reference to pomegranates has always before referred to the Goddess and the vulva, and it most likely does here also.
A little later in the poem, the woman says,
Oh, that you were like my brother, who nursed at my mother’s breasts! If I should find you outside, I would kiss you; I would not be despised. I would lead you and bring you into the house of my mother, she who used to instruct me. I would cause you to drink of spiced wine, or the juice of my pomegranate.
Now there is no doubt that the pomegranate is the woman herself. She closes with “Make haste, my beloved, and be like a gazelle or a young stag on the mountain of spices.” This remarkably sensuous “song” may be the only remaining Goddess culture indicator left in the Bible. It is so strong, so lithe, so filled with overt and erotic sexuality, that it is almost startling to find it nestled between Ecclesiastes and Isaiah. There are no explanations for it and no introduction to it. But here it is in all its Goddess sensuality and sexuality, totally unlike the other books seeped in war-torn lamentations and proscriptions against sexual freedom, particularly for women. Is there any possibility that the scribes and censors failed to comprehend the depth of the ancient symbols and sexual messages contained herein?
The Book of Ezekiel
The last book of the Old Testament pertaining to the Goddess, Her works and Her women, is Ezekiel and the story of the two harlot sisters: Samaria and Jerusalem.
Ezekiel 23:1 – Son of man, there were two women, daughters of one mother. They committed harlotry in Egypt, they committed harlotry in their youth; their breasts were there embraced, their virgin bosom was there pressed.
These were the goddesses of Egypt, Assyria, Babylon. This was Isis, Innana, Ishtar, Ashtoreth, the most powerful and most revered Goddesses in the world.
Then the male god spoke:
Ezekiel 23:25–27 – I will set My jealousy against you, and they shall deal furiously against you: they shall remove your nose and your ears, and your remnant shall fall by the sword; they shall take your sons and your daughters, and your remnant shall be devoured by fire. They shall also strip your of your clothes and take away your beautiful jewelry. Thus I shall make you cease your lewdness and your harlotry brought from the land of Egypt, so that you will not lift your eyes to them nor remember Egypt anymore.
After all that is said 23:29: “They will deal hatefully with you, take away all you have worked for, and leave you naked and bare.”
Ezekiel 22:30–31 – I will do these things to you because you have gone as a harlot after the Gentiles (anyone who is not Jewish), because you have been defiled by their idols. You have walked in the way of your sister; therefore I will put her cup in your hand. 23:32 … “you will be laughed to scorn and held in derision.” 23:33 – You will be filled with drunkenness and sorrow, the cup of horror and desolation …
All across the ancient world can be seen statues or edifices with sculptures of women as Goddesses whose noses have been ripped off by other ancients incited by these phrases. This is evidence that these passages were intended as calls to action and not just as rhetoric to preach.
The Cult of Mithra
Leaving the Old Testament and traveling to ancient Rome, we find that the Hebrews were not the only ones with a new god whom they were attempting to make universally accepted. From his homeland in Persia the cult of Mithra journeyed to Rome with his mystery religion. According to his legend, Mithra was born on December 25, which was called “birthday of the unconquered Sun.” How he was conceived is a matter for contradicting statements: Either he sprang from the union between Sun god and his own mother; or he was born of a mortal virgin; or he was born of a female Rock, called the “petra genetrix” fertilized by phallic lightning from heavenly father. Believe as you wish.
Mithra’s birth was attended by shepherds and Eastern Magi who brought gifts to his sacred birth cave of the Rock. As an adult, Mithra performed miracles: raising the dead, healing the sick, making blind see and lame walk, casting out evil spirits. He carried the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and his ascension to heaven was celebrated at the spring Equinox which is now the Christian Easter. Mithra also held a Last Supper with his twelve disciples, representing twelve signs of the Zodiac. (The Dance of the Hours of the Goddess peoples.) Marking remembrance of this, his followers made a ritual meal of bread marked with a cross (called mizd, Latin missa, English mass) which was one of the seven Mithraic sacraments and a model for the later Christian seven sacraments. When he died, Mithra’s image was buried in a rock tomb, the same sacred cave that represented his mother’s womb, if one followed his creation from the sacred stone. From it he was withdrawn and believed to live once again.
“Like early Christianity, Mithraism was an ascetic, anti-female religion. Its priesthood consisted of celibate men only. Women were forbidden to enter Mithraic Temples. The women of Mithraic families had nothing to do with the male cult, but attended services to the Great Mother, in their own Temples of Isis, Demeter, Diana or Juno.”12
If Mithra were born from a Rock, future followers were led to believe that the story of creation was embodied by the blood of a bull named “sole created,” who was the partner of first man. Perhaps this is why bestiality was so prominent in the ancient world. Even in the Old Testament, the original partners of Adam were animals. When ordinary people heard all these creation stories that did not include human females, what else were they to believe was expected behavior between human males and the animals surrounding them if repeatedly told that no female humans participated? In the myth of Mithra, all creatures were born of bull’s blood. Interestingly, the bull was castrated and sacrificed (echoes of the Goddess Cybele and Attis existing in the same chronological period), whereupon the blood was delivered to the Moon for magical fructification! (The Moon of course is a manifestation of the Goddess.) And all of this story-telling was intended to exclude women’s natural process of birth giving! Mithra originates in ancient Persia from an earlier Aryan religion, one of the twelve zodiacal sons of the Infinity Goddess Aditi. Another of Aditi sons became Mithra’s enemy Aryaman, then Ahriman, the Great Serpent of Darkness.
Herodotus (5th Cent. BCE Greek) said, “The Persians used to have a sky-goddess Mitra, the same as Mylitta the Assyria Great Mother; Lydians combined male Mithra with spouse Anahita as the androgynous Serpent and Dove of Anatolian mystery cults.” It was Anahita whose element was water, who created the “flood” during which one man built a boat and saved himself and his cattle. This story may have been based on an even older Hindu Flood of Manu, translated trough Persian and Babylonian tests to appear in the Hebrew Old Testament. Mithra was the spirit of fire, light, and the sun. Mithra eschatology says that
the great battle between the forces of light and darkness in the Last Days would destroy the earth with its upheavals and burnings. Virtuous ones who followed the teachings of the Mithraic priesthood would join the spirits of light and be saved. Sinful ones who followed other teachings would be cast out into hell. The Christian notion of salvation is almost entirely a product of this Persian eschatology, adapted by Semitic ememites and sun-cultists like the Essenes, and by Roman military men who thought the rigid discipline and vivid battle im
agery of Mithrasim appropriate for warriors.13
Under the emperors Julian and Commodus, Mithra became supreme patron of Roman armies. Christians also eventually aligned themselves as “soldiers for Christ” and called their savior “Light of the World,” celebrating their feast on Sun-day rather than the Saturday Sabbath of the Hebrews. Christians also adopted the Mithraic High Priests title of “Pater Patrium,” who became the “holy father, pope.” In 307 CE, the Roman Emperor officially designated Mithra protector of the Empire. In 375 CE, Christians appropriated Mithras cave temple on Vatican Hill. In 813 CE, the Christian Church of Rome adopted the Mithraic festival of Epiphany, marking the arrival of the Magi at the savior’s birthplace. Augustine wrote that some of the resemblances between Christianity and Mithriasm were close enough, that priests of the Mithraic worshipped the same deity as he did.14
In order to make the men believe in this new set of rules and regulations there had to be the rewards. It was particularly important to have these rewards because the new laws were very strict about food (what one could and could not eat), about contact with sexual gratification, and that meant including all sexual contact with men, with women, with animals, or with self-gratification through masturbation. Appetites were suspect and to be repressed. Why? Because the Goddess worshippers, women and men alike, were noisy, rapacious, dancing, singing, making loud music, feasting on delicious foods, engaging openly in sexual behavior with abandon during festivals of energy and abundance, in order to keep communities peaceful and productive by channeling the natural sexual forces into creative avenues, rather than having them spill over into negative or damaging encounters. They knew the power of energy. So they called it up, brought it forth, released spiritually and sexually to the Goddess, and then asked Her to regenerate all back into the earth once again. Under this system, nothing gets stuck, degenerates into violence, nor turns back inward to harm the human being. All is kept flowing and fluid. The Life force is joyous. There is a confidence, happiness in the playing of cymbals, the dancing of feet, the spiraling swirl of people as they proceed up the mountain or circle in the moonlight in the sacred groves. And there is blood: women’s blood, the blood of sacrifice and the blood of the voluntarily castrated.
Daughters of the Inquisition Page 20