Welcome back to White Rose of Avalon my Darlings!    For this week’s Femme Fatale Friday, and the first Femme Fatale Friday of October, I have decided to discuss the connection between Sacred Sexuality and the Divine Feminine.    It is well-documented that in ancient civilizations there were several Goddesses that had Priestesses who served as Divine Prostitutes.    These Priestesses would initiate the King by performing the hieros gamos or Divine Marriage.    This is at the heart and core of Sacred Sexuality practices!

The ancient Greek term for these Sacred Sexual Priestesses was Hetaira.    This class of Divine Prostitute is often also referred to as a Courtesan, having been born of a higher class and being more educated than other lower-ranking women who worked as Divine Prostitutes in Temples after having been freed from slavery!    To me, it is the Hetaira that would have served fertility, sexuality, and love Goddesses from time immemorial.    I will be using this term throughout this post, even though I will be focusing on the Divine Feminine in the Celtic and Faery context, as I think it is the term that most readily explains the type of Divine Prostitution utilizing the hieros gamos as I will be discussing it!

Hetaira are the representatives of the Goddess of Sovereignty who act as her voice in the world of man.    Many Celtic Goddesses were known to be emboldened by their sexuality, whether or not they can be classed as related to Love Goddesses.    While Blodeuwedd and Rhiannon are both associated with love and sexuality, having romance as a prime plot point in their tales and helping their own path to Sovereignty, other great Celtic Faery Queen Goddesses, like my beloved Morgana le Fay, are proponents of Sacred Sexuality to embolden Sovereignty through a more Enchantress and Sorceress lens.    Sexual freedom and sexual liaisons were certainly part of Morgana’s story, we see this in the story of her romances with Guiomar and Accolon, but her prime objective as a Sovereignty Goddess is to test the worthiness of Knights and Kings not through seduction, instead by making them endure trials.   The best example of this is her role-testing Gawain in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight!

The other Welsh Celtic Faery Goddesses like Blodeuwedd, Guinevere, and Rhiannon are more readily associated with Hetaira through the fact that the sexual union between themselves and the King literally served as the right to rule the land!     For an example, we can look at the style of Hetaira Priestesshood that would appeal to Blodeuwedd, with whom I have a deep bond.    I see this Hetaira as being her representative to initiate Kings through sexual congress, but ultimately finding your own Sovereignty through the Sacred Sexuality of only having sex as an expression of true love.    That is what truly embodies the energy of Blodeuwedd as a Goddess of Seasonal Sovereignty!    Likewise, we can look at the style of Hetaira Priestesshood that would appeal to Morgana as part of her Priestess Path being more about Sacred Sexuality within your relationship being used to express love, but also to express your own Divine Feminine Enchantment.    In other words, Hetaira working for Morgan le Fay would be using sex magick to enhance their enchantment and Glamour during spells and rituals.    This is what truly embodies the sexual energy of Morgana, being both a Sovereignty Goddess and a Goddess of Faery Magick!    

At the end of the day, any Celtic Faery Queen can be said to find value in the expression of Sacred Sexuality.    Heiros gamos is often also called the Faery Marriage because the threads of this tradition are commonly found throughout folklore, not only within the Celtic myth but also within legends and faery lore that descended from earlier mythic tales.    I focused on Morgana and Blodeuwedd particularly here, as I have the deepest knowledge of their energy, tales, and values they seek in their devotees!    I hope you have enjoyed this short Season of the Witch Femme Fatale Friday about how Sacred Sexuality ties into the Divine Feminine.   What do you find most interesting about Sacred Sexuality?   Let me know your thoughts in the comments below!

Note on Image: The image at the top of the post is a painting of Tristan and Iseult with the love potion from their tale.    I found the image on https://www.celticembodiment.com/blog/sacred-union.

Tarot Note: I have a page offering tarot and oracle readings for those interested in these services!    I am very happy to be offering these readings to my treasured readers at White Rose of Avalon!  Link to page: https://whiteroseofavalon.life/tarot-and-oracle-readings/   

Further Reading

• The Sacred Sex Rites of Ishtar by Annie Deiu-Le-Veut
• The Mabinogion translated by Sioned Davies
• Vita Merlini by Geoffrey of Monmouth
• Sir Gawain and the Green Knight