Gothic News

The battle of the sexes began when the Goddess was suppressed and male gods were elevated. The new gods were stern, unforgiving and lacked the sensuality and kindness they had replaced. An era began where men were dominant and women were no longer encouraged to express themselves sexually, while men satisfied themselves with slaves and prostitutes as they felt the urge.

The New Worship
In the midst of this spiritual void, cults sprang up to continue the worship of goddesses-and now gods- through sexuality. These ranged from the new incarnations of the fertility deities, such as Demeter, to the lustier gods, like Dionysus and Pan. Despite their unpopularity with the patrician classes-it was virtually impossible to impose control on the worshippers- the cults thrived among slaves and lower ranks of society, women especially-a new outlet for spiritual sexuality.

The Rise of The Mystery Cults
The cult phenomenon was peculiar to Mediterranean areas. They were shrouded in secrecy, in some cases, completely hidden for fear of reprisal. Members performed initiation rituals then joined the pursuit of the cult goal: experiencing the Divine for oneself.

Breaking The Norm
The climax of ceremonies was an encounter with the sacred and profound spiritual experience. It was common for celebrations to reach origastic levels. The cults offered a haven from the phallocentricity of outside life and encouraged equality of both sex and class. Most importantly, there was an atmoshpere where expressing oneself was fully encouraged-a necessary outlet for their members, who came from almost exclusively repressed lifestyles.

The Cult of Demeter
Demeter was the Greek Goddess of the Earth and of harvests. a manifestation of the Earth Mother, or Gaia, Who had been worshipped all the way back to the Stone Age. Her cult thrived in Eleusis, near Athens, until it was finally suppressed in 389 AD by a Christian emperor. In the classical myth of the Goddess, She searched for Her daughter, Persephone, Who had been taken to the Underworld and neglected Her duty in blessing Earths’ fertility until Her daughter was found. She became associated with the seasons and to the members of Her cult, with personal renewal and symbolic death and rebirth. The main rite was called the “Thesmophoria,” a three day ceremony of symbolized copulation ending in a ritual that lifted participants out of themselves into a higher, ecstatic spiritual level, called “beholding”.

Spiritual Heights
This ceremony was so secret that not a single account of it exists today but it is likely that a psychotropic drug was involved, possibly in the potion called “kykeon,” a large part of the rite. It led to spiritual visions that were said to profoundly change the lives of all who experienced them.

Isis and Her Divine Lover
Egypts’ mystery cults were dedicated to Isis, the much loved and long worshipped Goddess of fertility and the wife of Osiris. Isis is said to have gathered together and breathed life back into the dismembered parts of Osiris after He was killed by His brother, Set. Isis and Osiris were powerful symbols of resurrection and of divine love between the Gods.

Not So Sacred
The cult was spiritual and sexual in nature, originally centered around personal wholeness through spiritual encounters-mainly in the form of temple prostitution. Sadly, by the time it took the form of a cult and became popular in Rome and Greece, the Christian era dawned and the powerful symbolic nature of the sacred marriage rite and the roles of its participants as Goddess and God had been lost. It was no longer understood that participants filled the roles of Goddess and God, which ultimately made the cult offensive to the Roman invaders. The link between sexuality and spiriutal awakening, though, remained firmly in place for the entire life of the cult.

Dionysus’ Followers
The androgynous Dionysus was linked with madness and intoxication and orgies. His cult was the second most largest in Greece.

Borrowed Sexuality
Two festivals were held in His honor: Lesser Dionysia in December and Greater Dionysia in March. In the latter celebration, the worship, fueled by a large amount of wine, tended to begin with dramatic plays and descended into orgies, the participants losing themselves completely. The cult eventually reached Rome, where it quickly became popular among the lower classes and infamous for the Bacchanalia-orgies held in the Gods’ honor several times a month (an increase from the original twice yearly festivals). Outsiders were horrified by the lusty nature of the cults’ activities, ehich had become frantic and orderless. They were banned in 186 BC but were reintroduced in 49 BC when patricians suddenly took an interest and the cult was warped into a militaristic one. In its’ glory days, the Dionysus cult offered an erotic celebration of spirituality like no other.

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Sexual History: The Mystery Cults