sophiaserpentia (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
sophiaserpentia) wrote2005-02-24 01:06 pm
sophiaserpentia) wrote2005-02-24 01:06 pm
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Sabrina the Qedesha (what that means)
I've commented at some length about why I chose the magickal motto Sophia Serpentia. I don't believe I've commented, though, on my choice of the name "Qedesha."
[Deuteronomy 23:17] There shall be no whore of the daughters of Israel, nor a sodomite (qadesh) of the sons of Israel.
This word qadesh (QDSh) (which is now typically translated as "male temple prostitute") is etymologically related to qadash (QDSh) which means "consecrate" or "sanctify":
[Exodus 13:2] Sanctify (qadash) unto me all the firstborn, whatsoever openeth the womb among the children of Israel, both of man and of beast: it is mine.
Note that these words have the same consonants and are different only by a vowel. A mystery therein; the sacred and profane, the ordained and the forbidden, so close and yet so far, separated by what? Sex and obedience. A man who associated with or became a male temple prostitute was using his reproductive potential in a self-determined way, rather than in the way commanded by Jehovah.
The approval of Jehovah hinges on obedience; the qedeshim were associated with a different cult -- probably a Canaanite religion practiced in the same region -- and so were among many in Judaea doing pagan practices. Judging from the amount of space given to pagan practices ("doing what was wrong in the eyes of Jehovah") in the Old Testament, it's reasonable to conclude that the priests of Jehovah had to struggle, sometimes mightily, to keep their practices and teaching foremost among the people of Judaea.
Perhaps the qedeshim were connected somehow with the gallae of the cult of Cybele; they derive from the same archetypal current, I think. Perhaps (speculating a bit more now) the qedeshim even included John the Baptist.
Now, how this concerns me.
I am a firstborn son.
I also feel as though I am called to fulfill this in the first sense. It is impossible for me to convey in words the deep sense of satisfaction and fulfillment, and I daresay spiritual completion, which I feel from giving pleasure.
So I have taken sometimes to referring to this as "my calling," though there are difficulties with stating this in a literal sense. I am sure, for example, that I have a romanticized notion of what it means to be a "temple prostitute." Perhaps the idea itself is to some degree a romanticized notion. But the idea of sacred pleasure, pleasure as a means to draw one out of the false garden of the Archons, appeals to me on many levels.
[Deuteronomy 23:17] There shall be no whore of the daughters of Israel, nor a sodomite (qadesh) of the sons of Israel.
This word qadesh (QDSh) (which is now typically translated as "male temple prostitute") is etymologically related to qadash (QDSh) which means "consecrate" or "sanctify":
[Exodus 13:2] Sanctify (qadash) unto me all the firstborn, whatsoever openeth the womb among the children of Israel, both of man and of beast: it is mine.
Note that these words have the same consonants and are different only by a vowel. A mystery therein; the sacred and profane, the ordained and the forbidden, so close and yet so far, separated by what? Sex and obedience. A man who associated with or became a male temple prostitute was using his reproductive potential in a self-determined way, rather than in the way commanded by Jehovah.
The approval of Jehovah hinges on obedience; the qedeshim were associated with a different cult -- probably a Canaanite religion practiced in the same region -- and so were among many in Judaea doing pagan practices. Judging from the amount of space given to pagan practices ("doing what was wrong in the eyes of Jehovah") in the Old Testament, it's reasonable to conclude that the priests of Jehovah had to struggle, sometimes mightily, to keep their practices and teaching foremost among the people of Judaea.
Perhaps the qedeshim were connected somehow with the gallae of the cult of Cybele; they derive from the same archetypal current, I think. Perhaps (speculating a bit more now) the qedeshim even included John the Baptist.
Now, how this concerns me.
I am a firstborn son.
I also feel as though I am called to fulfill this in the first sense. It is impossible for me to convey in words the deep sense of satisfaction and fulfillment, and I daresay spiritual completion, which I feel from giving pleasure.
So I have taken sometimes to referring to this as "my calling," though there are difficulties with stating this in a literal sense. I am sure, for example, that I have a romanticized notion of what it means to be a "temple prostitute." Perhaps the idea itself is to some degree a romanticized notion. But the idea of sacred pleasure, pleasure as a means to draw one out of the false garden of the Archons, appeals to me on many levels.