Diakonissa Deborah writes:  A few musings from the readings on sacredmarriage:

Sexual allure is symbolic of our connection to the earth. When the view ofsexuality is unbalanced, the earth is unbalanced. A balanced view of sexualityneeds to be restored in order to help restore the earth.

Sexual magikal practices were used in the temple so common people could haveaccess to practices once only used by kings and priests. This is a type orforeshadowing of God’s coming down to man through the sacred marriage(preparation for Yeshua and MM, perhaps?).

If the loss of Ishtar (representing the spirit of fertility, the earth goddess)disorganizes all nature, then the reverse must be true: by restoring thegoddess to her rightful place, nature will be re-organized. When Paul saysin Romans that all nature groans in anticipation of the revelation of thesons of God (Rom 8:19), he only got half of the picture–all nature waitsfor the sacred partnership to be revealed.

WHY IS SEX SHAMEFUL? This whole subject bugs me. I realize many of the writerslisted are from much more conservative times. But if we are created in God’simage, this includes the body. While I don’t believe God has a physical body,there must be something about our bodies that reflects part of who He is,or He would not have created us in this form. If we are created in His image,then why are the desires of our physical bodies bad or evil? One of the chiefproblems the religious leaders had with Yeshua was that he enjoyed hisphysicality. He liked to eat and drink. Why is it so difficult to assumethat he would abhor sexual activity as well? Some folks feel that the denialof fleshly desires (sex, tasty food, drink–especially alcohol) leads toa higher level of spirituality. But I don’t think it’s healthy to jump fromunfulfilled desire to repression. The intermediate step is to learn to enjoyphysical things (good food, good drink, exercise, sexual activity); thenlearn to moderate them; then learn to channel that energy into spiritualthings. It should be a step-by-step process. In this way, we can truly glorifyGod in our bodies, by celebrating life to its fullest extent. Repressionof desires that God placed within us DOES NOT GLORIFY GOD!! Sorry for shoutingbut this whole subject gets me steamed up. I hope I can be in a positionto teach this more balanced way of life to my daughter, so she doesn’t haveto go through all that repression of the beauty God created in her.

Okay, off the soapbox for now. . . .

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Option to Write Questions:

Diakonissa Priestess Guyon wrote:

I am much more the teacher type! So here are some questions instead of musings.

1. What does the mystical marriage with the queen goddess of the world represent?The hero’s total mastery of life; for the woman is life.

2. What civilization believed that ritual marriage was essential for prosperityto be brought to the land? Sumerian

3. Who was the good handmaiden of Eanna? Ninshubur

4. Who was in some way responsible for the selections of kings in the Sumeriancity-states? Ishtar

5. In the Bible, what did “temple prostitution” refer to? the concept ofsacred marriage

6. T/F In Egypt and Babylon, the consort of God had sex with many human men.F

7. What planet are Innanna, Hathor, Anat, Athena and others identified with?Venus

8. What does Ishtar represent? spirit of fertility

9. In art, how is Innanna usually represented? warrior-goddess

10. What was Ishtar usual symbol? star or star disc

11. T/F Ishtar was a complex deity. T

12. T/F It was common practice in Phoenicia to have ‘temple boys’. T