Are you called to the taboo feminine..?
Art: Cole Keister
by Lian Brook-Tyler
ARE YOU CALLED TO THE TABOO FEMININE..?
As I was preparing to open the temple doors to The Rose Quest (which happened yesterday!), I’ve been deep in somaticontemplation (a luscious portmanteau of somatic and contemplation - a body-felt pondering - that was birthed as I wrote this) about the complete receptivity that The Rose Quest is calling us to, the Sacred Prositute, who lies at the heart of the quest, who she is, and the deep shadow surrounding her vocation... which is the reason that even those rare women called to her will so often shy away in denial, disbelief, and shame.
We are living in a culture that is entrenched in a shadow pole of extremes around female sexualiy and sensuality:
Repression or Denial: An aversion to physical intimacy, fear of sexua expression, or viewing it as harmful, shameful or impure, resulting in a rigid, punishing, moralistic, or self-denying approach, rejecting its sacredness altogether.
Objectification or Commodification: Sexuaity is seen as a means of manipulation, control, or power, leading to the overindulgence or misuse of the energy, the objectification of oneself or others, where intimacy is reduced to a transactional act driven by ego, gain, or power dynamics, devoid of spiritual meaning.
But the woman who is already on the path of the soul is well aware of these extremes, and yet it doesn’t mean she is altogether free of them, typically they'll show up more subtly and therefore insidiously (albeit innocently):
• She may fantasise about and strive for divine perfection in herself or her potential or actual partner (whilst avoiding going deeper with healing her own wounds)
• She might over-identify with spiritual purity and distance herself from the wild, animalistic, 'dirty', and imperfect aspects of her body and physical intimacy.
• She might be so focused on the spiritual, she becomes emotionally and sensually detached.
Or on the other side…
• She may seek validation through her sexuality, conflating her worth with how others perceive her sexua power - this can lead to sacrificing her own needs and boundaries.
• She might subtly manipulate men using her magnetism to enchant and gain influence over them (with SIX Venusian placements - we won't even count the asteroid Goddesses - if anyone knows this, it's me...)
• Or in focusing too much on what a man or men want from her, she may lose touch with her own deep desires, leaving her feeling unfulfilled and inauthentic.
(Often, to keep things interesting, it’s a bit of both ends of the pole.)
But the Sacred Prositute sinuously snakes deeply into, around, and then transcends these poles, welcoming, understanding, accepting, and healing all… She shows us how the sensual and the sacred can come together in union.
She invites us into the darkest corners of our minds to see and heal the ways we close and grasp.
She shows us the oils, the dances, the scents, the silken translucent veils that form the altar upon which we lay our bodies down to pray.
She guides us to open our hearts to ourselves, to the ones with The Stranger’s imprint, and to the Divine.
She lights the way to the aspects of our soul that can only be discovered and recovered when we enter these most forbidden of places.
This is the most unreasonable of requests, the most unlikely of longings, and the most terrible of quests… But if your soul knows it’s one you came here for, maybe it’s time for you to follow the trail of rose petals into her temple.
"And on her [Aphrodite’s] sparkling throne, she has let loose her will for all to hear, bringing to light the whispers of the heart and the honeyed taste of longing." Sappho
You can follow the trail here (though there's so much I can't express in words on a page).
All my love, and in devotion to union,
Lian
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