The Historical Tradition of Sacral Sex and Contemporary Media Manifestations of Carnal Sex

Abstract

Clay tablets excavated from Mesopotamia, inscribed with obscure cuneiform texts, excited the interest of scholars, who translated many of them during the 20 th century. These texts disclosed the previously unknown civilization of ancient Sumer. Many of them integrated intimate carnality with passionate spirituality in the service of the Divine feminine. This article begins with the translation of Sumer's sensuous and erotic texts concerning conjugal intimacy with the Divine feminine. It uncovers a patterned sequence of motifs involved in this valorization, which in turn evoke the recognition of the same motifs encoded in the subtler less sensuous biblical texts. When sacral sex was disallowed, the Divine link became spiritualized, requiring men and women to choose between sexless spirituality or non-spiritual carnal sexuality. Movies, television, and video have long served the public hunger for vicarious sexual knowledge. The unexpected public response to popular films with a spiritual theme sets the stage for a contemporary version of the ultimate romantic fantasy that recovers the ancient union of carnality and spirituality.