Sacred and Profane: The Whore In Context

I have worked hard in my life to take back the meanings of various words that were used in derogatory or demeaning ways; like slut, cunt, and bitch. I embrace these words now and when someone chooses to use them in a derogatory or demeaning fashion toward me, they tend to get rather flustered and the wind removed from their sails, when I look at them with a big grin and say, "Thank you."

Here is the article in full. It's well worth the read. Following are excerpts that touched me specifically, and also the etymology of the words Sacred and Whore.

Sacred and Profane: The Whore in Context, by Eric Francis

Excerpts:

...She is any woman who can surrender enough of her personal identity into an erotic experience that the Goddess may be experienced directly through her. In a society where God is purported to be a man, this is the issue.

You may recognize the sacred whore as the lover who does not put a bargaining value on her sexual favors. You may notice that she is unusually responsive to your specific needs for pleasure or comfort.

...In summary, she is a woman who truly feels good about sexual pleasure, who understands and accepts that it is necessary, and who is not bound by the conventional rules of society. She is a woman who decides for herself when it comes to her own sexuality. Many, many women aspire to this, often secretly.

...The word sacred, from the same root as sacrifice, means worthy of religious veneration, as opposed to profane, which means cast outside the temple. Interesting that the word venerate has as its root Venus, who is the goddess of love and the patron of courtesans. What is sacred and profane thus have a lot to do with who decides where the temple is, and who determines what's allowed in its doors.

...We might also consider the word whore. American Heritage features a prominent sidebar in its third edition dictionary, which says that the Indo-European root ka, to like or desire, is the source. "From the stem karo derived from this root came the prehistoric Common Germanic word horaz with the underlying meaning 'one who desires' and the effective meaning adulterer. From this word came the Old English word hore, the ancestor of Modern English whore. The same stem produced the Latin carus, 'dear', from which came Modern English caress, cherish and charity, the highest form of love." So remember that when you hear any of these words: they are all part of the same word group as whore.

"Contact with East Indian culture has added yet another pair of derivatives from this Indo-Eropean root to the English language," the editors continue. "From the stem kamo came the Sanskrit word kamah, 'love, desire', from which are derived the English borrowings Kama, 'the Hindu god of Love,' and Kamasutra, 'a Sanskrit treatise on the rules of love and marriage according to Hindu law'."...

So there you have it. I hope that you read the article. It is truly fascinating.