From Prostitute to Priestess, Reclaiming the Whore into Our Wholeness

When I was growing up, “whore” was one of the dirtiest, most degrading names you could ever Call a woman.

Certainly “tease” was much more acceptable, making you at once desirable and untouchable, while “whore” made you easy, used, abused, discarded, and cheap. On the far other end of the spectrum was of course the “prude” who was cold, closed, frigid, bitchy, and a highly prized trophy if one could strip her down into the gutter and reveal that she was in fact a whore in hiding.

Simply developing large breasts in your pre teen or teenage years, having fleshier parts of your body in general, beginning menses at a young age, or being a girl with darker colored skin, were all outrageous and yet highly common merits for being called a whore.

I remember having an obsession with thinness, hiding from everyone that I began bleeding, and refusing to date any of my male friends, because as long as I could maintain a childlike body and a “clean” record I could somehow slip through the cracks and avoid the shameful projections of sexuality and its inherent and apparent sin. (Which by the way I still didn’t.)

Through healing my own traumatizing teenage experiences surrounding relationships and sexuality, working with women as an embodiment facilitator, and uncovering the women’s mysteries that reveal our true nature, I have come to understand that the shaming and demonization of the archetype of the whore is the true culprit for much of our sexual disease, abuse, and dysfunction.

And this is why I’m so passionate about shining light upon the holy whore now.

It’s important that we acknowledge that whatever within a culture has been considered taboo, shameful, or a means for abuse, rejection, and abandonment, naturally becomes shoved into the shadow. Our need to survive through tribal connection is so profound that we will actually dismember essential aspects of our wholeness simply to be received, liked, and accepted by the majority within our society.

Paradoxically, this dismemberment manifests in what can often appear as polar opposite expressions. Hence, why we have the common archetypes of the “whore,” the “prude,” and the “tease” in relationship to our sexuality particularly in our teenage years when we first enter the initiatory territory of sex, power, and desire (our greatest cultural taboos).

Imagine if we had known, imagine if all young women today knew, that sex is not sinful, flesh is not unholy, breasts and curves and melanin are sacred, and our wildness, our desires, our menstruation, and all that is associated with what women’s mystery schools call “the red river” and the power of the womb, were reclaimed as the source of a woman’s power to birth, manifest, and heal for the sake of herself, her ancestors, her future generations, and our world.

How might we as a collective heal if that were to happen, beginning with you?

Where Does Our Sexual Shame Originate From?

We all know the story of Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden and the snake who comes along and convinces Eve to eat from the apple of the tree of knowledge, even though the voice of God from up in the sky has told them it is forbidden. Many feminist theologians have traced this snake to be the incarnation and presence of the Goddess Lilith, Adam’s first wife born as his equal, who left the garden when Adam demanded she lay beneath him during sex, representing her as “lower than.”

In many ancient traditions, most notably tantra and yoga from India, the snake is symbolic of awakening consciousness. The kundalini energy that resides at the base of the spine, is activated, and rises up through the central channel of the body to meet the crown and unite spirituality with sexuality. If we look at snake as the true potential for awakening, how does that shift how we perceive the snake entering the garden and communicating to Eve, the sexually uninitiated naive woman, that she should eat the fruit from the tree of knowledge?

The garden is also mythologically linked to the womb, and the apple being connected with Goddess, particularly Venus in her expression as Aphrodite, the sensually awakened woman. Mythologists have also traced the tree in the garden of eden itself to Asherah, the original African Mother Goddess and wife to Yahweh, the father God himself speaking to Adam and Eve to NOT feast from the tree of life. It’s reasonable to believe that this all points to the story of the beginning of patriarchy, when Goddess became lesser than, dangerous, demonic, and taboo, and the voice of God was to be listened to at all costs.

What if the true roots and source of our sexual shame, was a distorted story that separated a woman from her original true power that resides within her own womb?

Who is the True Whore and Where Did She Come From?

Feminist theologians have traced the word "whore" back to the word "hor" which in ancient Semitic languages of the Middle East meant "cave" or "womb."

Isn't it interesting that the word used for an organ that exists within a woman's body, the organ that is responsible for the creation, gestation, and birth of a human life, has become synonymous with a word for a woman who is overtly sexual or has sex for money?

There is no coincidence. Womb priestesses were in fact the earliest "whores" in the temples of Isis, Hathor, and Aphrodite, enacting what was known as Hieros Gamos, or divine union between masculine and feminine energies embodied through man and woman, in the spiritual art of anchoring Heaven down on Earth, and exalting Earth up to Heaven.

Perhaps the most famous Whore is Mary Magdalene from the New Testament in the Bible, for centuries depicted as a prostitute who both redeemed herself through the forgiveness of Jesus and also witnessed his resurrection. Mary Magdalene carried the symbolic Scarlet Letter on her chest, an "impure" and "untouchable" woman until she was healed through Christ's love.

However, modern theologians and gnostic Christians are now coming out of the proverbial closet and revealing the true nature of Mary Magdalene, not as a prostitute, but rather as a womb priestess and tantric beloved to Jesus himself.

There are many stories and gospels that depict Mary as a priestess, carrying large vials of expensive perfumed oils like frankincense and anointing Jesus and the disciples, as well as blessing Jesus' feet with her tears and wiping them erotically with her long hair. Such practices were typical of the priestesses of Isis, and we can assume Mary had quite a lot of money to be pouring bottles of expensive oils as blessings and that her relationship with Jesus was sexual in nature.

We can also look to the symbolism of the cave where Jesus is reborn, and consider it as Mary Magdalene's womb, healing the sacred masculine when he has been crucified by his own demons, received through the deepest embrace of the holy Mother that redeems all through Her love.

What shifts in our collective relationship with the archetype of the whore when we reframe the original prostitute in the bible as a wealthy priestess who rebirths the masculine through her cave, or womb?

How Does the Wounded Whore Appear in Our World?

Let me make it clear that when I say wounded, I do not mean that anything about us is broken, tainted, bad, or wrong. Rather, it being wounded means it is wound like a string, bound, tangled up in a chain that at once seemingly separates us from our true nature and is also the very pathway that guides us home to our true nature.

So the “wounded” whore is the outer expression in our world of our distance from the true origins of the majesty of the womb itself, and the very gateway that will bring us home to remembering. With that in mind, let’s unwind our way home, shall we?

As I mentioned earlier, it’s powerful when we recognize the way that one core wound can manifest in seemingly opposing directions. For some women, a wounded whore may manifest through sexual repression, fear of personal power, disconnection from one’s own wild nature, poor boundaries and people pleasing, self diminishment, and/or a lack of discernment in making wise choices. For others, it may manifest through sexual reaction, manipulation through sexual power, sexual choices that dishonor oneself, self destructive attention seeking, overt rebellion in reaction to societal norms, and explosive anger and rage.

In what ways have you seen yourself at various stages in your development either repressing or reacting to the power of your own sexual essence? What was the deeper intention beneath that? What wanted to be restored, sanctified, embraced, and healed within you to remember the true nature of your sexual magnificence as a child of this Earth?

How Does a Healthy Whore Appear in Our World?

Just as it’s important to recognize the wound patterns and distortions, we also need a healthy understanding of the true nature of the whore so we can recognize her within ourselves and within our world.

If a true whore is a woman embodying her womb wisdom, her womb power, and wild red river of passion, we can assume that when a woman embraces her inner whore she becomes vibrant, healthy, and whole just like all vital expressions of nature.

As the voice of our power, discernment and our very life force, when we have a strong connection with our inner whore, we have a strong and healthy sense of boundaries. We have solid instincts that inform our actions and keep us safe from predatory energy in the world. We feel the wild joy and passion of life itself, of being alive, of expressing ourselves creatively, and of trusting in our desires.

We do not react or repress our wild desires and sensual passions, rather we relate with them internally in a healthy way to address which are worth pursuing and which are worth transforming. We feel a deep connection with our own pleasure and feed ourselves the nourishment we need to keep birthing our creative expressions, never allowing ourselves to starve and hunger for food that might trap us in the outer world.

Above all, a woman fully embracing her inner whore has a deep love for life and she radiates this magnetic quality into the world, bestowing all that she touches with a sense of awe and gratitude for our very existence.

How Do We Heal and Reclaim This Power Now?

No matter how far we may have wandered, no matter how distorted the collective, and no matter how many generations removed we may be from our original priestess ancestors, we all have the power, the ability, and the sacred invitation to reclaim this medicine that is our birthright now.

Through awareness we can slowly strip back the projections and distortions that have caused us harm and deluded from the truth of our sensual creativity and divine power. Journaling, meditating, reflecting, and sharing with trusted others in safe space. Through loving self touch we can meet our sexual energy with a sense of reverence, devotion, and innocence to dissolve the harmful or traumatic imprints and caress ourselves with new memories of healing, safety, and love. Through our courage to meet with the more shadowy aspects of ourselves and to decide to be the safe space that can hold us through it, we allow more untapped power to flow freely to us and through us that can serve us in our creativity and relationships in the world.

The journey is a spiral, it requires time, patience, gentleness, tenderness, forgiveness, and it’s always helpful to remember that you are worthy of a lifetime for unraveling the true nature that is you. What a sacred and precious gift to devote yourself to remembering you.

If you’d like to dive deeper into this medicine and self reclaiming, come receive our free guide Virgin and Whore with rituals, meditations, and journaling to more deeply embrace your whole nature.