Another Case of ‘Sacred Prostitution’?

In Phoenix, Arizona, the Phoenix Goddess Temple is offering erotic massage, etc., in return for “offerings.”

Women at the temple take names like Magdalena, Shakti, and Devima. There’s also a high priestess named Gypsy, and a tall, lithe blonde named Leila, who advertises her measurements (36-26-37) on her page at the temple website, which includes photo galleries of each goddess.

The goddesses practice techniques that include genital touching for a “religious offering” of money that generally ranges from $204 to $650. Their advertisements go in the adult sections of local newspapers, including New Times, but Phoenix Goddess Temple founder Tracy Elise says the temple is not a brothel — it’s a church, and the services offered are religious rituals to enrich people’s lives.

This gambit has been tried before in other states and not ended well. Our cultural-legal system has no place for “sacred prostitution,” even when presented under the banner of freedom of religion.

British writer Robert Graves, author of The White Goddess (one of the most influential books of the Pagan revival), included a similar sort of temple in his fantasy novel Watch the Northwind Rise, also called Seven Days in New Crete (1949).

I do agree that sexual healing can and does take place. But the legal deck is stacked against offering it openly—you might suspect that when even the “alternative” newspaper calls it “New Age prostitution.

Classics scholar Stephanie Lynn Budin, author of The Myth of Sacred Prostitution in Antiquity, has weighed in elsewhere about the Phoenix Goddess Temple.

What drives me really nuts is that this tends to promote the idea that pagan religion is libertine; that this is what you get if you don’t honor some anti-material, anti-body, generally male deity codified in a book somewhere.  This then makes it easier to exploit people seeking new spiritualities, claiming that this is part of the deal.

Her argument, as I understand,  is that we interpret the writings of Herodotus and other ancients through our own sexual preoccupations and that the reality of the Pagan past was something different.

(Hat tip: Caroline Tully.)

8 thoughts on “Another Case of ‘Sacred Prostitution’?

  1. Pretty hard to deny the role of prostitutes in Tantra, though ; and the issue of sacred prostitution in the Near East is still an open issue. What is more important is determining the sincerity or cynicism of the claim. If sincere, it will be approached in a very different way than a scam trying to cover itself. In any case, it is relevant to paganism vis-a-vis the Christian morality which is largely responsible for anti-prostitution legislation. I am not saying there are not rational arguments to be had on both sides, but rather that as a matter of history, these laws come from a moralistic attitude stemming right out of Christianity, and many pagan religions have a much more open attitude about sexuality. And, for clarification, paganisms often were libertine — within proper, regulated festival limits. It is this balance and alchemy we have lost.

  2. I agree with Siegfried in that we are treading a delicate balance, because yes, many pagan traditions include sexual freedom, practice, etc. and at the same time we don’t want to give “mainstream” religions a reason to distrust us, or what have you. The main issue I have with this temple and its practices is that they advertise in the adult sections of newspapers. You’re not going to attract only adherents this way, you’re also going to get every Joe-off-the-street trolling for barely-legal sexual experiences. Where could they advertise? I don’t know, I guess, but it just seems like they could find another method. Also: “Magdalena?” Really?

  3. What makes this look to me like simple secular prostitution is the fact that all the “priests” and “priestesses” are limited to a body type of conventional good looks, and the fact that they charge big bucks. In my view, sacred prostitution would involve people of all body types, colors, shapes, and even a range of ages. I consider myself to be a sex-positive, sexuality-affirming Pagan who believes in the value of sexual healing.

  4. Rombald

    The main issue here is that if something is illegal, no allowance should be made for religion. Feel free to argue for legalisation of prostitution, but you should then argue for legalisation of secular prostitution.

    There have been a number of cases in the UK recently in which Christians have claimed that their religiously based unwillingness to obey civil law renders them victims of religious persecution. These were a couple of cases of B&B places not allowing two gay men to have a double bed, and a case of a Christian private school claiming the right to cane children because of “spare the rod, spoil the child”. Well, if something is illegal, religious teachings should carry no weight. Personally, I agree that hitting children should be illegal. I don’t actually agree with the law about gays and hotels (although I would certainly welcome gays if I were a hotelier), as I think a hotelier should be able to take a my-way-or-the-highway about conduct on his/her property. However, my view applies also to homophobic atheists, and being Christian should make no difference. I even think that circumcision of minors should be illegal, as tattooing of minors is, and rabbis and imams who do this should be imprisoned.

    Once one moves away from this principle, what is to stop Muslims claiming the right to beat their wives (the Quran) or kill apostates (in the Hadith), or even to stop neo-Aztecs claiming the right to cut the hearts out of people on the roof?

  5. Rombald

    As for prostitution more generally, I am in two minds about whether it should be legal. However, I don’t think opposition to legalisation is solely due to Christian-influenced anti-sex or pro-chastity values. On the contrary, really, as prostitution was legal, and licensed by the Church, almost everywhere in mediaeval Europe.

    I think the issue is more to do with the tendency for prostitutes to be vulnerable and coerced. In the UK, for example, most street prostitutes are heroin addicts, and most brothel prostitutes are foreign, many having been tricked or trafficked.

    Even in the case of people who freely choose to be prostitutes, when they could get a different job, or live in a country with a welfare system, there is the issue as to whether one has the right to self-degradation. This is not as clear-cut as it sounds. For example; if someone asks you to kill them, and you do so, you are still guilty of murder. In England about 20 years ago there was a case in which the police thought they had found snuff movies, as the people filmed were having their penises nailed to tables, and so on. It turned out that they had all been consenting adults, but those responsible were nevertheless imprisoned for GBH.

    Of course, one may argue that prostitution is not degrading, but that is a separate issue.

  6. One thing that you may not realize, Rombald, is that the First Amendment (protecting freedom of religion) is a stronger law than anything you have in Britain.

    That said, it can be overruled if government proves a “compelling interest” in regulating the behavior claimed to be religiously motivated.

    There have been many cases involving marriage issues, entheogen use, land use and “sacred sites,” etc., and even some “sacred prostitution” cases before. In the last, the defendants have generally lost in the courts. But that does not stop people from trying.

    Issues of public accommodations are fairly settled. Employment issues are still cloudy (someone correct me) — in other words, a religious entity demanding that its employees follow that faith tradition. It only gets iffy if public funds are involved somehow.

  7. Argentwolfwing writes, “You’re not going to attract only adherents this way, you’re also going to get every Joe-off-the-street trolling for barely-legal sexual experiences.”

    Well, yes. Who said it was “adherents only”? Haven’t you heard of Aphrodite Pandemos?

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