Yoni – Symbol of Cosmic Mysteries
Cultures throughout the ages have venerated the yoni as the symbolic representation of the mystery of the cosmos. As the primal source of all being, it constitutes the entrance into the universal womb from which we all come and to which we all return. In Hinduism, it is the attribute of the goddess Shakti, consort of Shiva. In Earth-centered, Nature-based religions, it is the sacred symbol of the Great Goddess, the Great Earth Mother herself. Above all, it is the matrix of generation, the universal focus, the be all and end all of existence. It is the shrine of worship for the great mysteries of the universe, the ultimate representation of life.
Ancient thinkers believed that the key to the mysteries of the universe was to be found in the mysteries of sexual union, in the intimate fusion of the fiery, active, generative energies of the male principle embodied in the lingam with the gentle, passive, receptive qualities of the female principle typified by the yoni. Within this framework, the yoni epitomizes the cosmic receptacle as well as the ultimate source, sacrosanct entrance as well as primordial cave, universal vessel as well as genesis. It is the most sacred place, the most sacred space. It is the inexhaustible fountain of life itself.
Finely sculpted like an exquisite flower opening its luxurious petals in a tender gesture of accessibility and receptivity, the yoni is infinite beauty gleaming in radiant splendor and enchanting magnificence. It is the focus of adoration in the sensuous worship of the purely feminine, in itself and for its own intriguingly symbolic features as much as for its creative energies, for its delicate configurations and inexhaustible complexities as much as for its primordial essence as the supreme mainspring of life. It is that which is to be venerated as an integral and paramount aspect of our sexuality.
Yonic veneration is as old as humanity itself, its archetypal symbolism as deeply imbedded in the human subconscious as any of the primeval expressions of our sexuality. Early societies recognized long ago and deeply appreciated the importance of reverent admiration for the primary components of procreative involvement underlying the very survival, the very mainstay of the evolving cultures. They built shrines and temples dedicated to the adoration of the reproductive aspects of the human totality, decorated them with elaborate and detailed representations, and paid homage to the symbolic depictions with special festivals and commemorations. They held sacred that which makes us fully human, makes us the only truly sensuous beings consciously aware of their sexuality, held sacred the relevance of deeply erotic passion and the primeval need for sexual adulation.
Temples in Celebes were once replete with female figures characterized by exaggerated breasts and pudenda, which served as objects of veneration over centuries of historic development. In Eastern religions, particularly in Indian spirituality and in the esoteric Tantrism of the Far East, the veneration of the yoni retained its primal importance throughout history and still today constitutes an integral aspect of worship. Western cultures, on the other hand, experienced increasing trends towards Puritanism, especially in matters concerning sexuality.
In ancient Greek society, groups of early Puritans campaigned vigorously against the widely popular nudity or semi-nudity of women in the streets and, in particular, the public display of any kind of sexual attributes. By the time of the conversion of Constantine the Great to Christianity in the 4th century CE, all phallic temples in his vast empire were systematically destroyed and all forms of Pagan worship banned to put a definitive end to what were considered highly unacceptable practices in a progressive and christianized civilization.
Yet in continental Europe, yonic veneration survived well into the Middle Ages despite the rapid expansion of Christian principles across the continent. Witness, for instance, the famous Sheila-na-gigs of Ireland and other European countries. These overtly sensuous female figures with their legs spread wide and pointing to or contemplating not their navels but their clearly exposed and carefully delineated yoni formed an integral aspect of medieval church architecture. Inserted into the keystones of the arches over church doors throughout the country and across the continent, they retained immense popularity for many centuries.
In France as well as in other countries, sex cakes baked in the shape of the yoni were sold in Catholic churches as objects of fertility well into the Middle Ages as well. In addition, many of the churches were still then decorated with phallic representations hanging from the walls and being suspended from the ceilings. Outside in the churchyards, wax phalli and phallic cakes were sold together with the yonic baked goods for the same reason of promoting fruitfulness and rich harvests in the community. Meanwhile, young women rubbed themselves publicly against standing stones and statues of saints to ensure personal fertility for themselves in their own sacred ritual.
The Reformation with its much stricter Puritanism and significantly narrower approach to religious propriety finally succeeded in subduing and ultimately eradicating the ancient yonic and phallic practices during the latter parts of the 16th and the early decades of the 17th century. Ever since then, Western civilization has suffered from a stunted approach towards anything sensual and sexual to the point of complete and thorough suppression of sexuality in any way, shape, or form. By the time of the Victorians, even the mention of the primary sexual organs, let alone any kind of representation or display thereof, had become the greatest and most strictly observed – and enforced – taboo of European as well as, by then, North American etiquette and social acceptability.
Very little has changed since then. During the Victorian age, only prostitutes, harlots, and some of the male members of the lowest classes were still more or less freely expressing their sexuality in various antisocial ways, and they were effectively ostracized from the proper and duly repressed society. In our own age, articulations and demonstrations of sexuality have been labeled anything from smut to pornography and have been similarly relegated to the fringes of what is commonly considered proper society, regardless of their intent. Sexual manifestations, representations, and verbalizations in practically any form to this day constitute the essence of the greatest of all social taboos, no matter how artistic, how tastefully erotic, or even how spiritual in nature and significance they may be.
It has only been over the past few years that some women as well as organizations have been reclaiming a growing pride in their sexuality and their sexual attributes. The yoni as an integral aspect of female sexuality is gradually becoming a focal point of literary as well as artistic representations and interpretations again, reclaiming its rightful place in the universal scheme of things. Increasing numbers of books and articles are being composed and web pages created for the specific purpose of purifying and clarifying our society’s attitudes and conceptions of the yoni, elevating it once again to its status of sacred symbol of the cosmos.
After all, the yoni itself hasn’t changed in any way over the course of our long evolution and historical development. Only the social and religious attitudes have undergone such drastic changes so as to transform something as sacrosanct as the yoni, the great source of all life, into an object of shame and derision commonly and routinely referred to with some of the basest and most offensive words in our vocabulary. The ancient Romans are at least partly to blame for this: their word for the yoni, the Latin pudenda, has its root in the verb pudere, meaning “to be ashamed”, and literally translates into “a place of shame” or “that of which one ought to be ashamed”. Western civilization has successfully managed to propagate the ancient Roman attitude over centuries of sexual repression right into the supposedly enlightened and progressive present without ever questioning or even considering the background or the underlying reasoning of its puritan value systems.
Yet the yoni is still the same sacred place, the same temple of worship it has always been, despite the negative attitudes our society has so carefully and thoroughly proliferated over time. Any visual or tactile encounter should therefore be regarded as a spiritual experience capable of enriching and expanding the soul of the beholder as well as the soul of the holder. The yoni has never ceased to be an object of great beauty, a significant source of creative energy and inspiration worthy of admiration and symbolic veneration. It deserves to be approached and treated with the utmost of care and deep reverence for its existence and for everything it represents. As the symbol of cosmic mysteries, it not only merits but demands great tenderness and genuine love for the intense pleasure and satisfaction it has to offer as its ultimate reward. It also merits spiritual awe in the face of the charged sensuousness, the universal energies with which it has been endowed and for which it was created in its original and primordial form.
© 2008 Peter Baltensperger
Image: Yoniversum
Peter Baltensperger is a Canadian writer of Swiss origin and the author of ten books of poetry, fiction and non-fiction. His stories, poems, essays and articles have also appeared in several hundred publications around the world. His erotic writing has been published most recently in The International Journal of Erotica, In the Buff, Erotic Tales and My Wife and Her Lovers, and is forthcoming in The Mammoth Book of Erotic Confessions.
He makes his home in London, Canada with his wife Viki and their two cats and a tortoise.
