Saturday 28 May 2011

The divine feminine

I have strayed back into the blogosphere yet again. I suppose it is because I feel the need to connect with my passions. For a while now, I have been trying to get past a very severe case of writer's block in the book I am writing about Inanna. For I have been having problems with reconciling two approaches. First, I have been striving to be as academically rigorous as I can, being very careful not to make any assertions that I cannot support from established and accepted sources. However, this has made for a very dull read. Furthermore, it does not take account of my own journey and the very personal relatinship I have with Her and why I feel she is deeply relevant to today.

So I thought perhaps it would be a good thing for a while to come back to this blog. To reconnect. To work through some stuff and become more authentic and less concerned with the judgements of putative readers. And, almost immediately, I found my ire raised and my hear pumping. I checked onto one of the most informative blogs, Medusa Coils and found a video from a group of men who expressed a love of the divine feminine.

It made me angry and I posted a comment which may or may not be approved by the blogger. So, immediately, I was reconnected with my passions. And this is good. for I am, first and foremost, passionate. I realise now as I write that what angered me the most was the total lack of any passion within these men. They spoke as the embodiment of reason. They spoke of their desire to worship but did not mention their desire to fuck. Sexual desire is not reasonable, it is messy. Within it, at least as far as I am concerned, are drives to both dominate and be dominated. Within sex, there are sweat and bodily fluids, groaning and panting. It is, above all, physical and emotional. It is the interplay of vulnerabilities and, when it is at its best, the loss of control and ego. And, most importantly, it does not depend on the union of male and female "energies" but can express itself in any configuration of genders. Desire is wholly unreasonable. It is one of our deepest drives, second only to survival.

Of course, it must be tempered and mediated by reason. There must be full consent between both, or all, parties. Without such consent, the interplays are lost. It is a game, and laughter may well occur - as well may tears. It is deadly serious, for vulnerabilities are revealed and may be exploited. On either,both, or all, sides. It is, above all, always risky. Or it should be. Pushing the participants beyond the zone of comfort into a deeper understanding of themselves. Which can, at times, be unpleasant.

None of this figured in the video. Desire was abstracted. The physicality, despite the talk of the divine nature of women's bodies, was not really there. They spoke of "woman" in the abstract - of male and female as "energies". Sure, on one level this is true, but there is also the level of a shared humanity. In sex, it is human bodies and their sensations that are involved. In the songs of the sacred marriage, Inanna does not abstract into the energetic. Rather, she calls on Dumuzzi to plough her vulva. She brings the act into the physical realm. For it is, first and foremost, a physical act.

My own puberty coincided with the Lady Chatterley trial and I remember taking the copy of the paperback, sneakily borrowed from my mother's and stepfather's bedroom, into the bathroom. It prompted my first ever ejaculation. Lawrence had many faults, but what i remember to this day was that both participants were portrayed as human. "Tha shits and tha pisses" said Mellors, "tha'rt a real woman". The divine feminine does neither.

7 comments:

Medusa said...

Welcome back! Of course I posted your comment. I found it, and your post here, fascinating. Thanks!

Medusa said...

Oh, and I meant to include this, my previous comment, I added your post here to this month's "Buzz Coil." Couldn't wait until next month. It's down at the end, under "Update"

Paul said...

Welcome back and what a come back. The notion of "Divine Feminine" is in part a concept of Christian theology attempting to bring feminine "energy" into the Trinity in the person of the "Ruah Yahweh" - the Breath of God, the Holy Spirit. Of course the Holy Spirit is the most completely de-fleshed person of the Christian Trinity quite without a physical body. Thus this Divine Feminine is never going to wake you at 2am, hot, sweaty, wet, passionate demanding your body. The concept comes in part from a tradition that has real problems with the flesh.

muzuzuzus said...

Good to see you back. I feel you, and sexuality is a powerful beautiful and wild thing. But also,,, be careful not to alienate people who for whatever reason dont have sex.

Ie, sexuality can manifest in more ways than physical sex.

Idris said...

Thanks, Medusa, I am glad you found it interesting.

Paul - yes that is exactly how I feel. It is the old dualistic thinking adjusting to new times and new concepts- striving to co-opt them.

Muzuzuzus, Thanks.
Yes, I am aware that many people, for whatever reason, may not be having sex. For a good part of my adult life I was among them. However, if I were to stop and consider whether what i write might alienate some people then I may never write. In fact, I think that it was this fear, among others, that kept me from writing for a very long time. I can only write from my own experience and from my own heart. Sometimes, I might be clumsy and cause needless offence. If this happens I can only say that this was not my intent and apologise.

Fox said...

Brilliant stuff! Ive only just found out about your blog via Medusa Coils (which i only just found!). Im a bloke who has always been drawn to Goddesses since very young (now 50+). Ive tried to say to myself its all nonsense many times but still keep coming back to Her and i think finally i must just roll with it rather than keep fighting against it. I cant envisage any goddess that is de-natured and rarified such as the so called diveine feminine abstraction. I want Her to be real and embodied.
Anyway, a brilliant blog and im wading my way through all your posts.
PS Have you had a look at Peter Grey's "The Red Goddess" which contains some Inanna material in it with reference to his love that is Babalon? Its a very visceral work and his love and lust for his Lady drips off the pages-worth a look!
In Nomine Babalon

Idris said...

Thanks for your kind words, I am glad that you enjoy my blog. I too find it impossible to relate to the rarefied and abstract- perhaps I am simply too "unevolved" to do so - I have certainly been accused of that - as I have also been accused (with a little more justification) of promoting a religion of sex. What is not acknowledged in such criticism, however, is that the Abrahamic mindset is, in its attempts to regulate and control women, itself totally obsessed with sex.

Goddess, to me, is the totality of human experience and potential - including those things that are not "pretty" or "civilised" but are an intrinsic part of our make-up. The attempts to deny their reality and power have, I feel, resulted in horror as they simply emerge warped and twisted by theological or ideological wranglings and appear as the Will of God, or History, or Destiny in order to project themselves onto whatever "other" has been identified this season. Yesterday it was the Jews, today it is the Muslims, tomorrow....who knows.

Would like to read "The Red Goddess" but have so far been unable to locate a copy anywhere near my price range.