The Sacred Whore
BY ISHTAR STAUNTON 
Abstract
The attitude to sexuality in contemporary culture is affected by the norms and values of capitalism, patriarchy and mainstream monotheistic male-centred religion. Although 'whore' has negative connotations for modern people, the cult of Ishtar was serviced by prostitutes from temples inhabited by priestesses. Ishtar herself is known as the ‘compassionate Whore’. The culture of the temples of Ishtar is detailed and juxtapose this with modern ideas of morality. I analysis the potential for a whore to also be a popular spiritual deity and what this means. I frame my analysis within a feminist/pagan framework and my own unique insight.
I TURN THE MALE TO THE FEMALE.
I AM SHE WHO ADORNETH THE MALE FOR THE FEMALE.
I AM SHE WHO ADORNETH THE FEMALE FOR THE MALE.
The words of the goddess Ishtar.
The whore is traditionally regarded as a symbol for sin; this is because we have a distorted and illogical attitude to the sex act which is anti-life. The whore sells sex so therefore is peddling a commodity that has already been contaminated by mainstream religions, patriarchy and capitalism. Ishtar the compassionate whore has also been called Har or Hora - from which the words harlot and whore sprang. In Ishtar we see a mixing and vindication of spirituality and sex. The perception of this emotive term - 'whore' - is complex and multi-dimensional. For most people, it is not a concept that can be easily intertwined with spirituality. Although the contemporary sex industry has within it women that are broken, abused and addicted, they are not all victims. Camellia Paglia describes harlots as not being the casualties of men, but rather their 'conquerors'. To her the whore is an ‘outlaw who controls the sexual channels between nature and culture.’
The sacred whore appears in the earliest records, integral to society when humans were first coalescing in cities and beginning to master the written language. The sacred prostitute can be seen also as a powerful archetype or aspect of a man's anima, the endogenous feminine, muse and avatar . The major work of the oldest known author, the Sumerian priestess Enheduanna, is a poem of sacred devotion to the hierodule (sacred whore) of heaven, the goddess Inanna. Ishtar, famous goddess of the earliest known civilization Sumer and then of Babylonia, was a prostitute. Her many other names over the centuries included Great Whore of Babylon, Heavenly Prostitute, and Mother of Harlots. Inanna/Ishtar was served by powerful prostitute-priestesses who were the vehicles of her creative life in their sexual union with the men who came there to perform a sacred ritual.
In contemporary society the concept of prostitution is one that causes a visceral revulsion in conventional morality - virtually internationally - a symptom of which is how the many colloquial terms for a prostitute such as 'whore' or 'harlot' are commonly used as denigratory pejoratives towards women generally. In Babylon, centre of the Akkadian civilization, women prostituted themselves for the glory of Ishtar. The sacredness of the sex act was rewarded with money. It is what sustained the temples, which were 
also places of healing and learning.
Ishtar is an exciting and dangerous goddess - simultaneously of healing, war and justice. The goddess Ishtar exhibited a rich diversity of powers, for she also had a terrifying aspect as goddess of war and storms. She is primarily a fertility goddess venerated as both the morning and evening star. She was born anew as a maiden every morning and became a whore every evening. Her primordial origins are suggested by images depicting her with the magical Tree of Life, the sacred serpent, and numerous birds - linking her with the earliest snake-bird goddesses known to us in many cultures. The Babylonian epic of Gilgamesh, from the Babylonian period 1800 BCE, explains sexual relationships of the time. It tells of how the Goddess Ishtar and the women of her temples offered sexual assistance. The high priestess at these temples would initiate 'sacred weddings' (similar to the Celts at Tara in Ireland). The rites were linked to the grain harvest. Like the grain, humans lived through fertilization, birth, death and regeneration. These dramatic recreations of the processes of nature would be expressed as a re-enacting of the marriage of the goddess of love and fertility with her lover, the young, virile vegetation god. Certainly, the duties of the hierodule often included celebrating the sacred marriage - Heiros Gamos. These may have been performed from 6500 BCE. Qualls-Corbett writes - "The sacred marriage, symbolizing the union of opposites, represents the need for wholeness, on the level of the individual psyche and also, we may hazard, on that of the group. It brings together in equal status the masculine and feminine; it grounds spirit and spiritualizes earth." In sacred marriage a ranking man (e.g. a king) and woman's intercourse makes by an act of sympathetic magic, land and animals fertile and abundant. Sacred texts indicate that when Ishtar descends to the Netherworld all sexual activity ceases everywhere on earth. 
The temples of Ishtar were stratified societies with high priestesses at the top. This female hierarchy danced and made love for the Goddess. The women helped men who offered money to Ishtar’s temples. The temple prostitutes were respected; this is reflected in laws passed making it a serious offense to speak badly of the holy prostitutes. It was not just women who served Ishtar with sexual service, men did this also. Ishtar is also known as the patron saint of transvestites. She sometimes is described in a transgendered way herself. Ishtar has been described as the 'bearded goddess' and the goddess 'who can turn men into women'.
Priestesses shared Her divine title as Ladies of the Evening. Beautiful love songs were sung to Ishtar, Goddess of Sighing: "the One who turns the male to the female." "Sweet are Your lips, Life is in Your mouth." Her holiest symbol was a vulva made of lapis lazuli and gold. Ishtar called herself the 'protector of all prostitutes'. The harlots in Ishtar's service not only sold sex but cilivilisation. They informed men of transcendence of the spirit in the body and maternal devotion.
Merlin Stone points out in 'When God Was a Woman,' that patriarchal cultures tend to abhor sacred prostitution, because it infers a lack of concern for paternity. Children conceived by magical forces do not need to know their fathers. Cultures where the sacred prostitute figured prominently. were usually matrilineal and female-focused, writes Qualls-Corbett, and considered Nature, eroticism and fertility the core of existence.
The priestesses of Ishtar specialized in dancing, music and singing. The dance of the women of Ishtar can be considered the mother of the belly dance. Its elements included snake-like arm and body moves, expressing the dual nature of dark and light, internal and external expressions, vibrations of the abdominal area, vigorous hip and pelvic movements, hypnotic veils, descents to floor and the ritual wearing of a belt worn low on the hips, linked to the girdle that was Ishtar's symbolic emblem. (A ritual piece of costume still used in informal dancing in the Middle East today.) We have no description of Ishtar's "Dance of the Seven Veils", we can only speculate on the seductive, hypnotic moves a powerful love goddess would make.
Ishtar has no snobbery. She would manifest in the lowliest taverns to the cheapest of prostitutes saying that they reflected something of her own divine nature. The temples of Ishtar were centres of knowledge about birth, birth control and sexuality. Religious inscriptions seem to imply that the temple prostitutes were healers and sex therapists. Perhaps sex is a multi-dimensional event that has been downgraded and associated with the basest aspects of life. How strange this is when this very act is what we attribute our very existence to.
In Mary Daley's book Gyn/Ecology she subverts the insults specific to women into positive affirmations. She has a term for this, 'hagography'. If language is the currency of thought then women and men’s paradigms are deeply affected by the words and concepts we learn. Many words exist only to insult women and have no male counterpart, one of them is 'whore' - a woman who charges for sex or more loosely a 
woman who invokes arousal in males.
Radical feminists, perceive prostitution as symptomatic of a social perception of females as sexual objects to be used by males in exchange for economic rewards. For the radical feminist, the dynamics of contemporary male-female social relationships, such as courtship and even marriage, are represented by the archetype of prostitution. Many heterosexual feminists (particularly in the eighties and nineties) became political lesbians as sex with males was regarded as a compromise to their politics.
We live in a sex-obsessed, yet sex-negative culture. Sex has generally been despiritualized and framed within the paradigms of patriarchal qualities – invasion, control and sublimation. Ishtar consciousness can be used to counteract this phenomenon. The Goddess philosophy generally can create an atmosphere were sex can become a transformative act, guiding (men in particular) to higher states of awareness. Some feminists like Dworking have contributed to the sex-negativity. Writing so bleakly about the male sexual psyche is on a metaphysical level contributing to the problem. She also spurred valuable conversation and thinking about sexual politics and ethics. A sexual pleasure is a worthwhile goal, as are other forms of sensual pleasure. We are embodied creatures, and the experiences that our bodies can provide us are as valid as any other form of knowledge.
Male sexuality within patriarchy is often, aggressive, genital-centered, disconnected, performance oriented, objectifying, and promiscuous. Female sexuality can generally be perceived as the opposite of these traits. Jaggar argues that definitions of whore inform us of the social moral and religious codes of that society.
Ishtar and those connected to her such as Lilith and Salome, have been demonized by the religions of The Book. They are symbolic of the perceived unclean nature of the sex act. They are emblematic of deprivation, immorality and danger to the established social order. Patriarchy has always endeavored to control the sexual power of women. Endorsing this through social norms and values and religion. In prostitution, this restraint is represented by the male pimp. However some eastern religions involve sex as a way of spiritual elevation. This benefits both men and women, who see each other as god and goddess. This creates a harmony and respect between the sexes which is healthy on a macro and microcosmic scale. Religions such as Christianity can often make women feel bad about their bodies, their sexual nature and even being assertive. Religions like Christianity and Islam suppress the erotic and hag component of female divinity. This is damaging to the female psyche and to the male anima (inner female). The result of a male centred world that functions on competition is imbalance. The
imbalance is manifesting itself in the destruction of the environment.