Qadosh - Qadeshim.

9. Qadeshim

SINCE this Degree, Knight Kadosh, 30°, deals with the Templars, it will be fitting to conclude this chapter with a discussion of the inspiration for the "abominable" rites which they were accused of practicing. For, while the charges may be trumped up, it is quite possible that there is some truth to them. Qadosh means Holy, Holiness, Consecrated.

In ancient times, the concept of Holiness was altogether different from the way we have been conditioned to regard it. Any attempt to demonstrate that the mysteries attaching to sexuality are those which unveil the Mysteries of Divinity only brings down scorn and condemnation, even today. But, the innermost secrets of religion partake of the Mysteries of Sex. And we don't mean metaphorically, as some might think, wishfully.

Qadosh is intimately connected to the concept of The Temple. The Temple is intimately connected to the concept of the DurAnKi ~~ 'the Bond~Heaven~Earth'. The DurAnKi, in its turn, is intimately connected to the concept of Shekinah. All of these are associated with the concept of the Holy Grail, be it a chalice, a bloodline, or a communicating link with the Divine. And this all comes together in the performance of rites which lead to the manifestation of divinity, of the Baphomet, as it were. We know from practical experience, and are not just conjecturing wildly!

In the Tabernacle, and then in the Temple, the Shekinah was the Divine Splendour which radiated from the Mercy Seat, when the High Priest communicated the sacraments to the Lord. In the ancient religion of the Jews, the Shekinah was always a feminine attribute, like the Holy Ghost of Gnostic and Christian theologies. In fact, Raphael Patai writes at length of the Shekinah being female. He demonstrates that the Shekinah was none other than Asherah, the Hebrew Goddess, a goddess which the Hebrews inherited, as did the Egyptians before them, from the Sumerians. Her name was originally Ninharsag, the lady of the Western Mountain (i.e., the Great Pyramid).

Devotees of the Goddess, not only known as Asherah, but as Qudshu or Qetesh, were known as Qadeshim. These devotees operated in the Temple precincts, and were generally males. When the Yahweh cult rose up and crushed the authentic worship, the Qadeshim were deemed immoral, abominations, sodomites and dogs. This is the real meaning of the condemnation of homosexuality, and of 'sodomy' so-called. Every minister seems to know what happened in those days, for they all describe it as if they were there in person. Yet, nothing of the sort took place. The true story of what happened in Sodom and Gomorrah is to be found in Sitchin's The Wars of Gods and Men. International Politics isn't nearly as exciting as "evil pleasure," so-called.

The Mystery of Shekinah is sexual. The Qadeshim performed in honor of their Goddess, who manifested in the form of the Shekinah, and blessed and/or cursed the people. The marriage bed, in Orthodox Judaism, even today, is presided over by Shekinah. Hindu and Buddhist Tantrik Sects consider sexuality to be the way to God-hood. Only those of us in the world where mainstream Christianity and other superstitions have poisoned the Sanctuary of Life are made to consider sexuality to be dirty, unclean, wicked, bad karma, etc. True, we need taboos in order to make it exciting, but we do not need this unnecessary intrusion into our lives by meddling do-gooders, who are bent on making everybody think and act just the way they want everybody to think and act. If you can control the sacraments, then you have the whole world in your grasp. This is a grave misfortune, and a fatal error, and must be corrected.

The Old Testament spends a considerable amount of time and space condemning the Qadeshim, yet were it really wrong, it would not have been stamped out, it would have become the Orthodox way, since the mark of error seems to lie in whatever the Orthodoxy claims to be correct. This is in perfect keeping with the discussion of Dante, given above, by Pike.

The Qadeshim (and Qadeshah, the female equivalent of the Qadeshim) were cult prostitutes in Israel and Canaan. These colleges existed in Babylon, Egypt, Greece, in fact, everywhere. The Hebrew Feast of Booths, or Tabernacles is drawn from this practice, as is the mating rite granted to the Benjaminites, and the Robin Goodfellow plays, referred to elsewhere.

In fact, Succoth, which is the name for the Feast of Tabernacles, is from Succoth Benoth, another form of Inanna.

NOW ON TO ANOTHER EXTRACT FROM OUR BOOKSHELF

1. Ancient Sex Worship, by "Sha Rocco", pp. 43 - 47. This work was originally published as The Masculine Cross, in 1874 (New York: Asa K. Butts & Co., 1874). It was reprinted as The Masculine Cross and Ancient Sex Worship, (New York: Commonwealth Co., 1904); and as Ancient Sex Worship (Geneva, Illinois: Better Yet, 1977). "Sha Rocco" was the pseudonym of Alisha S. Hudson. The extract we have taken is "Religious Prostitution" and "Shaga".

The present selection is included because it demonstrates some of the key features of the Authentic Tradition as it was practiced in the West. In Readings of the Authentic Tradition -1 we have shown how the teachings were transmitted in India and Tibet, and their migration to the West. Without an understanding of and an appreciation for these practices, it is impossible to take an unbiased point of view regarding these matters. In ancient times, salvation was had through the sexual process. Not just any sexual act, like having offspring would do. It had to be with a specially consecrated priest or priestess in the temple of the deity one worshipped. By the time the Authentic Tradition reaches the Gnostic period, the emphasis is changed from National Observance to Individual or small group Observance. Today, in the Aeon of Horus, the emphasis can include Solitary Observance, although it is not against any law to hold group ceremonies!

RELIGIOUS PROSTITUTION

"Passing from figures, paintings, statuary, ornaments, and symbols, it is requisite to notice the religious observances, the actual practice of the faith held by the world's primal worshippers.

"It would appear, or rather it does appear, that phallic worship, or religion, was, first, an instinct or passion; second, it was a privilege and luxury; third, it was a pastime or calling; fourth, it became dominating and imperative; fifth, by euphemistic transformation, it was merged into the Hebrew cultus; and seventh, the Hebrew cultus was further modified into the Christian religion. In support of the first proposition that it was instinctive, or passion, and sexual passion at that,we have the law which ruled out those male devotees whose damaged sexual structure disqualified them for actuating their rites (Deut. xxiii, 1): 'He that is wounded in the testicles, or hath his privy member cut off, shall not enter the congregation of the Lord.' The above quotation also offers a shoulder of support to our second proposition, namely, that their religious rites were a privileged luxury. As men were inspected in regard to fitness, women were provided in view of that fitness.

"In Num. xxxi, 18 and 35, we are assured, without a lisp or a twinge of horror, that thirty-two thousand Midianitish virgins were consecrated to this end. We need not go into details about the manner in which the sacrifice was made; but we must call attention to the fact that a Christian church still promulgates the same idea, in an alleged spiritual form, and that the nunneries of Christendom are vailed, perhaps decent, counterparts of those Oriental establishments where women consecrated their bodies and themselves to fulfil the special duties of their sex, as they were taught in the name and for the glorification of their Deity.

"There was a temple in Babylonia where every female had to perform once in her life a (to us) strange act of religion: namely, prostitution with a stranger. The name of it was Bit-Shagatha, or, 'The Temple,' the 'Place of Union.'

"Words and history corroborate each other, or are apt to do so if cotemporaneous. Thus kadesh, or kaesh, designate in Hebrew 'a consecrated one,' and history tells the unworthy tale in descriptive plainness, as will be shown in the sequel.

"That the religion was dominating and imperative is determined by Deut. xvii, 12, where presumptuous refusal to listen to the priest was death to the offender. To us it is inconceivable that the indulgence of passion could be associated with religion, but so it was. Much as it is covered over by altered words and substituted expressions in the Bible ~~ an example of which see men for male organ, Ezek. xvi, 17 ~~ it yet stands out offensively bold. The words expressive of 'sanctuary,' 'consecrated,' and 'Sodomite,' are in the Hebrew essentially the same. They indicate the passion of amatory devotion. It is among the Hindus of to-day as it was in Greece and Italy of classic times; and we find that 'holy women' is a title given to those who devote their bodies to be used for hire, the price of which hire goes to the service of the temple.

"As a general rule, we may assume that priests who make or expound the laws, which they declare to be from God, are men, and, consequently, through all time, have thought, and do think, of the gratification of the masculine half of humanity. The ancient and modern Orientals are not exceptions. They lay it down as a momentous fact that virginity is the most precious of all the possessions of a woman, and, being so, it ought, in some way or other, to be devoted to God.

"Throughout India, and also through the densely inhabited parts of Asia, and modern Turkey, there is a class of females who dedicate themselves to the service of the Deity whom they adore; and the rewards accruing from their prostitution are devoted to the service of the temple and the priests officiating therein. With an eye to piety and pelf, the clerical officials at the Hindu shrines take effectual means for procuring none but the most fascinating women for the use of their worshipers. The same practice prevailed at Athens, Corinth, and elsewhere, where the temples of Venus were supported by troops of women, who consecrated themselves, or were dedicated by their parents, to the use of the male worshippers. In modern times, reform and improvements have been effected; but it is certain that intercourse between the sexes in sacred places is common in India at the present day. The Hebrew word zanah, which signifies 'semen emittere,' was the name of a woman who lived and practiced the same rite outside of the temple, from motives other than those esteemed pious. Feasts and holy days were devoted to this passion, and generally concluded with excess.

SHAGA.

In the Assyrian language, Shaga signifies 'a feast.' The nature of this feast is explained by Diodorus Siculus. He says, 'Our Gala or Solar days begin with fasting as a prelude to another form of sensual enjoyment.' A detailed description of one of them conveys only a proximate idea of them. The most disgraceful of the Babylonian customs is the following: 'Every native woman is obliged once in her life to sit in the temple of Venus and have intercourse with a stranger. And many, disdaining to mix with the rest, being proud on account of their wealth, come in covered carriages, and take up their station at the temple with a numerous train of servants attending them. But the far greater do thus: Many sit down in the temple of Venus wearing a crown of cord around their heads; some are continually coming in, others are going out; passages marked out in a straight line lead in every direction through the women, along which strangers pass and make their choice. When a woman has once seated herself, she must not return home until some stranger has thrown a piece of silver into her lap, and lain with her outside of the temple. He who throws the silver must say thus: "I beseech the Goddess Mylitta to favour thee," Mylitta being the Assyrian name for Venus. The silver may be ever so small, for she will not reject it, inasmuch as it is unlawful for her to do so, for such silver is accounted sacred. The woman follows the first man that throws, and refuses none. When she has had intercourse, and has absolved herself from her goddess, she returns home. Those that are endowed with beauty and symmetry of shape are soon set free, but the deformed are detained a long time from inability to satisfy the law: some wait for the space of three or four years.'

"A similar custom exists in some parts of Cyprus. This custom is referred to in I. Sam. ii, 22, where 'the sons of Eli lay with the women that assembled at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation.' It is needless to say for the benefit of the captious that the temple of the Assyrians was the tabernacle of the Hebrews. In both were congregations of the Lord. In both the holy presence of their God was made manifest."