By Andrew Rutajit

Spring is in the air and the fertility rites and rituals are abounding. These rites and rituals are the veins, which lead directly to the heart of our very own sexual history; the fertility rites have had an influence on sex just as much as sex has influenced the fertility rites.

The very concept of fertility is a beautiful thing and creating a human life is alchemy at its finest; it is seen as a miracle even in our advanced society. Confusion and ignorance regarding procreation (including menstruation) is and has been widespread, this too has had a profound effect on many rituals of old. Some believed that sexual intercourse was not necessary for procreation. The ancient Hebrews believed that only the father contributes to the actual creation of a child; he plants his seed inside a woman, who serves only as an incubator or greenhouse. This was the pre-scientific western view of conception as well. As we learned more and more about pleasure, sexual techniques, anatomy and reproduction - the keeping of secrets and the censoring of this information worked its way to the top of the agenda.

If you are fond of the censoring of sex and pleasure, you can thank the Catholic Church. People say I pick on the Catholics too much, but history is what history is. The farther back in religious history you look, the more sex can be found. However, there are conservative Christians today who believe sex is strictly for procreation.

Nothing is so much to be shunned as sex relations.
~ Saint Augustine (354 AD - 430 AD)

Outside of religion, as far back as our nearest primal ancestors, the Bonobo monkeys, sex is not restricted to reproduction. For bonobos, sex means anything from "hello" to "goodbye" and everything in between. However, science once thought that we came from the territorial, chest-beating, and quick-tempered chimpanzees, but we actually share more than 98 percent our DNA with the Bonobo; they are truly our nearest relatives and their sexual play reflects this in addition to their DNA resemblance. Like us, more often than not, the bonobos have sex for reasons other than procreation -- because they enjoy it. Unlike us, the bonobos are matriarchal and peaceful; the male bonobo's rank is based on his mother's seniority. Today, we live in a patriarchal society that is at war incessantly.

That being said, this is not an essay on evolution; let's talk about sex, baby! Everyone knows the connection between Easter and a bunny rabbit. Rabbits are known for having lots of sex (especially in the springtime); as a result, they became a symbol for the fertility rites of spring. As above, so below - we humans have found ways of ritualizing the sex act between mother earth and father sky.

In our book and video, Jan and I state, "One thing that is not often mentioned is that the female anthropomorphism of the earth in these ancient philosophies was often considered to open up like a flower (or vagina) and was believed to derive from the sun (shaft). The sun was anthropomorphized as the head of the sky god's penis, which plunged into the womb of mother earth nightly in the heavenly act of coitus. The semen was symbolized by rain, which originated from the sky god's penis and fell onto the womb of Mother Earth, impregnating her and thus bringing life into the world."

By the middle Ages, nearly every English village had a Maypole. The Maypole represents the sacred phallus of Father Sky, thrusting into the womb of Mother Earth.

The participants would dance around the pole with red and white ribbon, thus raising a "cone of power." This ritual is said to harness the power of the participants; notice how these males and females are separated into two circles, one within the other -- the males are "inside" the females. This symbol extends to other architecture and design:

A Church's steeple combines the fertility rites of the maypole and often includes the "cone of power" as well. In this ritual, the participants do not dance around this pole, they gather below it in song and worship. Just don't tell the congregation of this church that they participate in pagan rituals, they may stop tithing.

Another example of the Maypole-like phallus of the Sky God, is the obelisk:

The Washington Monument and the waters of life.

I couldn't resist.

The phallic "Oriental Pearl Tower"

Granaries (used for storing seed) with phallic shapes Oftentimes, only men are allowed inside.

Breast-like Granary

Of all the sex and sexual symbolism throughout history, it sure is demonized today. A friend of mine recently sent me an article by Dan Abrams titled, "Mississippi Outlaws Sex Toys." It's one of those articles that are summed up quite well in the title. One of my favorite quotes in the article was "Mississippi's laws would make you believe sex is the single greatest threat to public safety and well-being. After all, it's illegal in Mississippi to have sex with someone you're not married to..."

In Hollywood movies, certain parts of the human anatomy are never allowed to be filmed, even with an R-rating. However, horror films depicting someone cutting off their own limbs are not only tolerated but their sequels are highly anticipated. The bandwidth of tolerance to fornication in film has been narrowed substantially in recent years. Many movies that got a rating of PG in the 80's, would surely get a rating of "R" today. You can't even say the WORD "fuck*" more than once or twice in a movie without it getting an "R" rating just for that! If some had it their way, married couples in movies and television shows would be as they were not too many years ago In shows such as I Love Lucy, married couples slept in separate beds, an onscreen kiss could last no longer than 5-8 seconds, female characters never got pregnant, even Elvis had to be shot from the waste up in order to exclude his hip gyrations from the television audience. The noose may not seem to be as tight as it once was, but we continue to live in a society utterly scared of its sexual nature - but it wasn't always this way:

"Blood sugar baby...Sex magik"
~ Red Hot Chili Peppers

Divine sexuality such as Tantric Yoga (white, black, and gray), Karma Sutra, controlled breathing, meditation (I.A.O.) and other sacred sex techniques and rituals, combined with some of the above methods were also employed. Today, these techniques (like those in the higher degrees of alchemy) remain elusive; the exact methods are vague and will always remain mysterious to the simply curious.

Sexy!

Remember the Spanish Fly? It's one of the most well known of all aphrodisiacs. It's literally made from the dried and often powered bodies of cantharides beetles or blister beetles like the one above. Yohimbe bark, cannabis, alcohol, mandrake, chocolate and many other substances (including powdered crocodile penis and powdered rhinoceros horns) have also been used as aphrodisiacs throughout antiquity; these substances have been viewed as "magical" in nature. Many of these techniques were fruitless while others produced Viagra-like results.

This belief in "love magic" did not end with shamanic brews, perfumes, ointments and tinctures. It expands into personal objects of the desired loved one ("love charms" - a lock of hair for example); some objects were more personal than others. It was once thought that if you could bring your desired love into contact with your sweat, menstrual blood, or semen, he or she would be overpowered with affection toward you. It was not uncommon for food to be laced with these substances and fed to the object of desire.

Rebis / Hermaphroditus.

In Greek mythology, Hermaphroditus was the son of Hermes and Aphrodite. The name comes from the joining together of Hermes and Aphrodite - HermAphrodite. Together, Hermes and Aphrodite are the rebis. Jung sees the rebis as a marriage between the male and female parts of the psyche. In our book, Jan and I have much more information on the rebis than I care to mention here; but notice the symbolism in the square and compass, who is holding what?

The square, with its legs apart, represents the female.

The compass, like the phallic itself, can become erect and penetrate.

For the higher degrees of understanding, the compass can be symbolized with a simple circle; oftentimes, the circle will have a dot in the center. This dot is made when the compass penetrates the paper and is most often symbolic of the male phallic (viewed from directly above) when shown like this. In esoteric Christianity, the sigil of the encircled dot represents the sun. However, the encircled dot as the sun sigil and the encircled dot as a phallic sigil are surprisingly analogous. As I mentioned earlier, the sun was anthropomorphized as the head of the Sky God’s penis and his divine semen was symbolized by rain, which impregnated Mother Earth. The encircled dot, like most phallic symbols, is not merely a phallic symbolic; it also represents the males generative ability.

When the compass is married with the square, the generative principle is symbolized with the letter "G". This can also be symbolized by drawing the actual shapes these tools make and coupling them together. Once again, the male (circle) is "inside" the female (square) :

A wedding ceremony is not a celebration; the celebration is the reception that follows the wedding ceremony. The wedding itself is a fertility rite that is chalked full of rituals: The wedding cake, engagement ring, wedding ring, wedding arch, the Jewish tradition of breaking glass, the unity candle, the veil, the brining together of opposites (yin/yang - man/woman dressed in black and white), the list goes on and on -- Rice thrown at a wedding is symbolic of sowing the seed; symbolically tying together the farm's harvest and the newlywed's plans for procreation.

These fertility rites and rituals are politically correct in this country, especially when they employ religious overtones. However, the actual act of sex is less than politically incorrect, it is utterly demonized. Consider this What is it that truly makes the mother of Jesus so special? She was a virgin. Modern religion has been at war with sex for as long as it has been pilfering other religions for knowledge and lore.

If you wanted to marry this lovely Ethiopian lady, she would have no say in the matter and it would cost your family some goodscattle for example. The size of the plate in her lip reflects her "bride price" (yes, this falls under the topic of "sexual slavery," which has gotten much television attention in the past couple weeks; even Oprah talked about it). In this marriage, the woman's body, especially her ability to reproduce, becomes property of the husband.

The goods paid for these brides were/are usually paid up the chain of hierarchy in the tribe or clan. This extends to the category of arranged marriages and sex economy, whereby romance and falling in love before marriage remain unique to the lower class. Knowing that goods for a bride would be paid up the chain of hierarchy, physical and mental attraction between the actual couple becomes less important than the allure of the family's financial state and/or position of political power.

Can you find the Xbox in this photo? When the naked body is demonized, it becomes a guilty pleasure to sneak a peek. As a result, to dress oneself in minimal clothing is to increase seduction. Suppress sex, and you can use sex to sell just about anything. If you haven't found it yet, the Xbox is directly underneath two of the highest paid breasts in Japan.

An intellectual is a person who has discovered something more interesting than sex.
~ Aldous Huxley

Continuing on this train of thought, I should mention Aphrodite again and the world's oldest profession - prostitution. There were many temples in the Greek world built for Aphrodite. She was the goddess of love, beauty and seduction; not only that, but she is the patron goddess of prostitutes. The temples had "temple priestesses" who served as love objects for the priests, kings and other elite. Aphrodite was based on Astarte, the Phoenician counterpart of the Babylonian goddess Ishtar. Ishtar is also known to be a prostitute. The Greek word for prostitute is porne - it's where we get the word "porn" in porn-o-graph. It was derived from a word meaning to "sell" and probably described the selling of the female sex slaves.

Lest we forget the Greek Island of Lesbos; the word "lesbian" is derived from this island. Unlike todays understanding of the word, these Lesbian women had quite and affinity for the opposite sex. Sex thrived on this island and the women there were said to be quite tallented, especially when it came to fellatio.

Speaking of ancient Greece and fellatio, the ancient Greeks didn't judge others on their sexual preference any more than we today judge others on their preference of baseball over football. This lack of prejudice is all well and good; however, pederasty was also popular during these times. In ancient Greece pederasty, the sexual activity between man and boy, took place under strict rules of procedure. The boy would have a mentor (a MEN-tor) in hopes that he would be raised in the ways of the world better than his distant and (more often than not) ignorant father.

After the two males broke off their pederastic relationship (this usually happened when the young initiate grew a beard), the young male's first heterosexual experience would most likely take place at a symposium in front of many other people; this was all part of the initiation rites and ceremonies of adulthood in ancient Greece.

Ganymede holding a cockerel and a hoop, traditional pederastic gifts. 500-490 BCE.

It's not uncommon to see a cockerel in Grecian art. The cockerel was a traditional gift among the pederastic elite. However, the cockerel itself is symbolic as well. The cockerel or "cock" is symbolic of the male phallic -- so is Saint "Peter" (pictured above). When you see the cock in Grecian art as a gift exchanged between a boy and man, it's safe to assume this is a symbol of a pederastic relationship between the two.

Man fingers a boy's penis, c 480 BC. --- Interior of a drinking bowl, clay, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford.

Roman Catholic Priest and Altar Boy

The pederastic and public sexual fertility rites of Greece were stomped out as Christianity took its grip and became the new reality. However, these rites may have continued within the Church and could be reflected in the recent nationwide child molestation charges of numerous Catholic Priests nationwide. After all, the bible was originally written in Greek.

The Snake in the Garden of Eden is Satan - Satan is Lucifer - Lucifer is Venus (During the fourth century, the planet Venus was called Lucifer) - In Greek myth, Venus is Aphrodite - Aphrodite is symbolic of Sex. Is it any wonder why the snake is demonized by the Church?

Personally, I think a turtle makes a better zoomorphic symbol for the male phallic than a snake. Consider its ability to extend and retract as well as its physical shape.

The Church had a stronghold on its flock via the confessional. Initially, Christians had to make only one public confession and it lasted their entire lives. However, this is an ideal way to get into the minds of your followers and hear their darkest secrets straight from them. Consequently, regular acts of contrition became mandatory and the noose was pulled tighter and tighter around the freedoms people had. It worked like the opposite of supply and demand "You supply us with information regarding what you do in your personal life, and we will demand that you stop doing those things." This is why I admire in Martin Luther so much, he did away with confessional AND the doctrine of transubstantiation. However...

...if you think these monks and nuns, who presented themselves as being more powerful than the desires of the flesh, didn't fornicate, think again.

Of the delights of this world, man cares most for sexual intercourse, yet he has left it out of his heaven.
~ Mark Twain

My essays are usually much shorter than this, yet so many topics relating to sex remain unmentioned in this essay. Sex and sexual desires are completely normal and our history reflects this; culturally suppressing these desires and demonizing sex itself brings about disastrous results. Our ancestors really did a number on us; sex is one of the few things we don't talk about, even today. Even married couples will not talk about sex with each other regarding what they like or dislike. This is a far cry from the sexual fertility rites and techniques throughout antiquity. As a "safer" alternative, people meet online where they are nameless, faceless, and free to reveal their sexual fantasies to another nameless and faceless person, without risk of being linked to the fantasies themselves. While science tries to put a patent on a non-plant-based to cure for sexually transmitted diseases, the general populous will continue to "Have a Whirl" on the wheel of sex - not having a clue what they are doing and only hoping to land on pleasure and not a lifetime of pain.