Virgin Birth as Female Rite of Passage Myth?

Share thoughts and ideas regarding what can be done to meet contemporary humanity's need for rites of initiation and passage.

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Alwin
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Virgin Birth as Female Rite of Passage Myth?

Post by Alwin »

Recently, I was asked if I new any good myths that related to a woman's first menstruation. My first thought was of the Virgin Birth, though I have never heard of that association and it doesn't make sense in the Christian context. These are some ideas that struck me as being appropriate to that type of myth: The Virgin in the myth doesn't actively participate in the cause of her change; it is spontaneous in much the same way as menstruation occurs. The girl/virgin is forced by her bodily change to release her child self and embrace her new role of an adult woman. The child and woman are forced to come into a new relationship and that can only happen if the two roles are defined separately. I was thinking a lot about Jungian dream interpretation when I was asked the question, and the idea of a girl being torn in two by the change in role which is expected of her as she reaches womanhood seems like it is well symbolized by myth; as well as the involuntary aspect of the change as represented by a virgin birth. I just wanted to see what others thought of this idea and whether there are Virgin Birth myths that might have been used in this way. Thanks

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Post by Cindy B. »

Hi, Alwin.

Given the little I do know about mythology, linking virgin births to female puberty in this way seems wide of the mark to me. True, the two situations as you described them both involve passivity on the young woman’s part, but otherwise I, anyway, see no similarities. My take on virgin birth stories—and I’m guessing here--is that they likely arose in those groups that viewed women’s sexuality as undesirable for whatever reason, even something to be feared, so better safe than sorry—have that god, demigod, or hero born of a pure young woman yet untainted by her sexuality; and no need to bother with seeking her consent prior to the act of conception since she serves as a mere vessel… Yes, my bias is showing here. ;)

As for myths that do address the feminine as you described, stories similar to Demeter's and Persephone's come to mind.

Cindy
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Post by noman »

My take on virgin birth stories—and I’m guessing here--is that they likely arose in those groups that viewed women’s sexuality as undesirable for whatever reason, even something to be feared, so better safe than sorry—have that god, demigod, or hero born of a pure young woman yet untainted by her sexuality

- Cindy
That’s a funny way to look at it, Cindy. In most cultures, a woman’s sexuality is sacred, honored, and protected, not something feared or undesirable. In ancient Rome the temple of Vesta was serviced by seven vestal virgins. In Greek mythology, when Anteon was out hunting with his dogs he accidently got a view of Artemis / Diana bathing. For this transgression he was turned into a stag and hunted down by his own dogs and killed.

Michelangelo’s Pieta is a representation of the son of god, who looks like he is about in his thirties, with his mother who looks like she’s about twenty. It doesn’t make logical sense. But the earthly value of virginity is being used as a symbol for a divine value. Queen Elisabeth (1533-1603) was called ‘the Virgin Queen’ by her subjects. An honorable title - but I wonder if anyone really believed it literally.

About fifty years ago, in the West, the rules about sexuality began to change for many, such that the transformation from virginity to non-virginity became, for many, inconsequential. It’s like getting a drivers license or something. Virginity and modesty lost a great deal of value – for many. I keep saying ‘for many’ because this so-called sexual revolution didn’t sell to everyone in the West.

My personal feeling about this is that we are naturally schizoid over female sexuality. We have this great honor of women’s sexuality, and respect for romantic love and sex, and of the ‘magic’ power of creative potential. But it is also feared and loathed – bringing in the pornographic side of female sexuality. It’s feared and loathed because it is so desirable – if that makes any sense.

* * * * * * *

Alwin,

I can’t think of menarche explicitly used in any mythology. But it seems it would show up in primary culture mythology. Menstrual blood has a place in mythology; typically it is both sacred and forbidden.
Menstrual blood, in Aboriginal communities and clans, was a source of djang, power and magic. When a woman was menstruating she had to stay apart from the main camp.

- Aboriginal Mythology, Nyoongah Mudrooroo, 1994

There is the story of the Wauwaluk Sisters of the Yirrkala people of Australia. The older sister was pregnant due to incest. The two sisters flee their homeland. Their journey takes them to a magic waterhole of the God-snake Julungul. The older sister has given birth to a child and some of her blood flows into the sacred water-hole disturbing the great god-snake Julungul. Her blood desecrated a sacred place. So this giant god-snake comes out of the waterhole, not too happy, and approaches the sisters. The older sister tells the younger one to dance. Julungul stops to admire this dancing. The sisters take turns dancing. They outlast Julungul till she goes to sleep. But the older sister’s blood is still a problem, Julungul smelling the blood, approaches the terrified sisters who take refuge in a little hut. Julungul coils around the hut and eventually swallows the sisters and child.

This act of swallowing becomes like the transgression of eating the fruit in the Garden of Eden. Julungul is questioned by other god-snakes of other clans. She feels guilty for maybe having eaten relatives. Finally she admits to the other god-snakes she has eaten the Wauwaluk sisters. So one of the other god-snakes asks, “Well why don’t you give me some?” Julungul says, “I can’t - they are maraiin”(sacred knowledge). Then Julungul realized she wasn’t speaking; the sisters who she had swallowed were speaking through her.

The tale ends as the sun is coming up, and Julungul says to her people that she has given them the rituals and now must retire to a distant cave. She places a large boulder over the cave so that no one can come in and out.

I love this story because it has everything a person could want in a myth. There are transgressions both by humans (incest) and god (eating forbidden food.) There is birth and human sacrifice. There is a very descriptive at-one-ment with god. Does human consciousness speak through god or god through human consciousness? It isn’t clear in this story. There is also the typical alienation of god and her people with the provision of rituals given to her people before going into exile.

Perhaps it’s not everything you’d want in a myth-tale but still a great story. I thought of it because postpartum bleeding was necessary to move the story forward, even though this blood is considered profane. It’s the idea of nature and biology as initiating the action. That’s probably why Eve was the first, in the Eden tale, to eat of the luscious red apple (in the modern version) from the forbidden tree of knowledge. Not because she is more evil than her couch potato husband, but because woman is the natural life-force.

So perhaps menarche can be suggested in some myths even if not stated explicitly.

- NoMan

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Post by Neoplato »

Just a wee bit out of my league here, but there should be some sort of myth and/or rite of passage associated with this. The ability to give birth should be honored and not be a hush hush it happens to all women thing. I think this would be more associated with the baptism ritual than virgin birth. The ability to conceive life may be a precursor to the ability to conceive life from onself? Either way, it seems like a good reason to have a big party to me. :)
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Post by Cindy B. »

noman wrote:That’s a funny way to look at it, Cindy. In most cultures, a woman’s sexuality is sacred, honored, and protected, not something feared or undesirable.
Hey, noman.

Unfortunately for us women, the characterization of female sexuality that you put forth is not universal. Consider this, for example, from the Bible:

When a woman has a discharge of blood her impurity shall last for seven days; anyone who touches her shall be unclean till evening. Everything on which she lies or sits during her impurity shall be unclean. Anyone who touches her bed shall wash his clothes, bathe in water and remain unclean till evening. If he is on the bed where she is sitting, by touching it he shall be unclean till evening. If a man goes so far as to have sexual intercourse with her and any of her discharge goes on to him, then shall he be unclean for seven days, and every bed on which he lies shall be unclean. If a woman has an issue of her blood that runs many days past the time of her separation, all the days of the issue of her uncleanness shall be the days of her separation: she shall still be unclean. Every bed whereon she lies all the days of her issue shall be unto her as an unclean bed. Any man who touches her bed and chair shall be unclean. He must wash his clothes, and himself and be unclean until the evening. If her issue stops, she shall then number to herself seven more days and after that she shall be clean. And on the eighth day she shall give an offering of money to God's minister. And the minister shall offer half to teach God's word and the other half to feed the poor. [Thus fulfilling "God's law for women."] (Leviticus 15:19-30)

If you're interested, this article offers an overview of "Menstrual Taboos Among Major Religions":


Cindy
If the path before you is clear, you’re probably on someone else’s. --Jung

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Post by Clemsy »

Hi Cindy,

I hope you don't mind. I edited your post so that the link didn't cause the window to scroll off the page.

Clemsy
Give me stories before I go mad! ~Andreas

Cindy B.
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Post by Cindy B. »

Thank you, Clemsy. I tried to figure out how to fix the page myself without any luck. I'm technologically-challenged. :wink:

Cindy
If the path before you is clear, you’re probably on someone else’s. --Jung

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Post by noman »

Hello Cindy and all,

Alwin suggested an association between menarche and virgin births in mythology. You said that’s ‘wide of the mark’ and I tend to agree. I don’t think there is an archetypal relationship between virgin births and menarche or menstruation. When I said “women’s sexuality is sacred, honored, and protected” I was not referring to menstruation, but to the general protection afforded a young woman by her family, her tribe, against sexual aggression or debasement.

Remember it was Helen whose abduction resulted in a ten year siege of Troy.

In the Ramayana, Sita, the lovely wife of Rama, is abducted by the King Ravana and taken to the island of Lanka so that she can be rescued.

One of the most famous scenes in the Mahabharata is when one of the Kauravas decides to disrobe the beautiful Pandava Princess Drapaudi in front of the entire court. It was a family feud. The Kauravas were the bad guys and had the Pandavas in a defenseless position. So Princess Drapaudi, of the Pandava clan, is about to be disrobed in public, and prays to Lord Krishna for help. Anyone not familiar with this story can see what happens here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQgErU7k ... re=related

Anyway, the sanctity of women’s sexuality is probably one of the most universal themes in all humanity. I believe that has something to do with the virgin birth motif.

But menstruation is a whole nuther matter. The passage you cite in Leviticus is more often the rule than the exception. Anthropologists found practices toward menstruation strikingly similar. It often included isolation, as Mudrooroo reports of the Aborigines. It often included taboos against sex and other activities such as cooking. This has not been a small issue to anthropologists.
The widespread occurrence of menstrual taboos and their cross-cultural similarities has spurred a search for their universal origins, once identified with the very wellsprings of social organization (Durkheim 1897:50) and, more recently, of religious thought (Douglas 1966:6).

Yet for all of the significance attributed to menstrual symbolism by anthropologists and others, and for all of the fascination with which its origins and functions have been pursued, little has been firmly established. While menstruation itself has at least a degree of biological regularity, its symbolic voicings and valences are strikingly variable, both cross-culturally and within single cultures. It is perplexing, then, that the study of menstrual symbolism has been limited by a paucity of detail regarding such variation, by imbalances in ethnographic reporting, and by overly reductionistic theoretical frameworks.

- Blood Magic: The Anthropology of Menstruation, various authors, Edited by Thomas Buckley and Alma Gottlieb, 1988
Not being a scholar, I would like to try my hand at ‘reductionistic theoretical thinking.’

Freud among others suggested hygiene played a role. That doesn’t seem tenable to me. There was an ancient Greek ritual where a person lay beneath some wooden planks while an animal was slaughtered above, allowing the animals blood to drench the initiate. It was a blood baptism. The Mesoamerican human sacrifices were a bloody affair. The priests and helpers (deacons?) would be drenched with the blood of the sacrificial victims. I just don’t think primary cultures would have even vague, intuitive sense of the importance of hygiene. Some men’s initiation rights mimic women’s menstruation by blood letting from their private part. They sometimes drink the blood. These are people that have no sense of hygiene as we know it. So why would there be that sense of hygiene applied to women?

Another theory, that I think was popular in the 60s, was that seclusion of menstruating women was associated with male castration anxiety. Campbell mentions this in Primitive Mythology:

P103 The sexual aspect of the symbolism of this fantastic rite is almost too obvious to require comment. The subincision wound is frequently referred to as a “penis womb or vagina”’ so that the male has been intentionally converted by the operation into a male-female. “The ‘vaginal father,’” as Dr. Roheim has observed, “replaces the ‘phallic mother’ of the infantile situation,” and the blood that is drawn form the subincision wounds, therefore, corresponds in the men’s imagination to the menstrual blood of the women – which in the usages of women’s magic is extremely potent. That one of the most pronounced traits of primitive psychology, in many parts of the world, is the savage male’s horror of menstruation has long been a commonplace of anthropological knowledge. “It is a well-known fact,” states Dr. Roheim, “that the sight of the bleeding vagina produces castration anxiety in the male…. The boys must always have been afraid of the castrating vagina; now the fathers have this powerful weapon.” But now, too, the lads themselves have been given it. Their traumatic separation from the mother in the rite of circumcision has thus been balanced by an achievement of identification, simultaneously with the mothers and with the fathers. “We are not afraid of the bleeding vagina,” they now can say; “we have it ourselves. It does not threaten the penis; it is the penis.” And finally: “We are not separated from the mother; for ‘we two are one.’”

Primitive Mythology, Joseph Campbell, 1959
This is one of the few times I have to part company with my guru Joseph Campbell. I have this image of one of those old black and white Hollywood films depicting primary cultures, with the drums beating and spears and torches. The big chief says, ‘Woman bleed. Me fear woman. Woman taboo. Lock her in hut – alone. Then the woman walks off covering her face with her hands in shame.

Campbell is always talking about facing fears and dragons; accepting danger and evil. Primary culture males aren’t wimps. If menstruation was horrifying to males why wouldn’t they bring the menstruating woman out and face the horror as part of their ritual. Perhaps use the blood somehow, the way men use their blood. Why would the menstruating woman be isolated – isolated from other women who would hardly be afflicted by the psychological horror? There is something about the ‘castration theory’ that I just can’t buy. These people slaughter animals all their lives and celebrate it. They aren’t horrified about cutting off a male animal’s private parts. They sometimes celebrate the slaughter of other human beings – and eat them. No, no, no… no. Impossible. Just impossible.

I have my own theory but luckily it’s hard to prove or disprove. I think, that PMS has a biological foundation. And I think - it is fairly universal – but – it is a very, very, difficult thing to gauge in any empirical way. It’s a psycho-social phenomenon based on biology.

One time in these forums we got to talking about schizophrenia and its relationship to creativity and spirituality. What I learned is that schizophrenia cannot be assessed biologically. They are still trying to come up with a measurable physical test. This makes cross-cultural studies difficult because there is a social aspect to the disease. In fact, primary cultures may not think of such behavior we call schizophrenic as an illness as such. They more likely might say that a person is consorting with spirits - which may or may not be a good thing. But the general rule is to leave them alone. What we might call a psychological breakdown they might call a shamanic journey. So they send the person somewhere, perhaps with the help of a shaman. The shaman treats the person with his or her magic and helps him or her though the crisis.

It isn’t quite that simple. Schizophrenia is a terrible affliction that affects one percent of the population across cultures, and is best treated with drugs and therapy. But there is a social aspect to schizophrenia. The disease, or whatever it might be called, is much tougher when a person lives in a culture, like ours, where they are constantly expected to conform.

Anthropologists say that women in primary cultures don’t menstruate as much as women in modern industrialized cultures - and that PMS is rarely recorded in primary cultures. My guess is that it is a very, very, difficult thing to measure, based on a great deal of subjectivity. But I have a sneaking suspicion, that it exists, and that the ritual of isolation, and the taboo associated with menstruation has something to do with it. What we consider psychological, primary cultures consider spiritual. And they take spiritual matters very seriously. Is the menstrual blood the physical manifestation of a dying spirit? Whatever they might be thinking and feeling, I imagine from their point of view the experience of PMS would indicate some very powerful magic is happening - something worthy of reverence and awe.

But the idea that became fashionable in the 60s is that there is some kind of cross-cultural male conspiracy involved and that isolation and taboo is a way to punish and oppress women for doing what women do naturally. Here is a sample:
With respect to restrictions imposed upon women during menstruation, Stephens (1961) marshals considerable cross-cultural evidence linking the prevalence and intensity of menstrual taboos to various child-rearing practices. His conclusion is that those practices that tend to produce male castration anxiety are associated with placing more severe restrictions on women during menstruation. In a parallel cross-cultural study, Young and Bacadayan (sic) (1965) present evidence in support of a different hypothesis, namely that menstrual taboos are institutionalized ways for men to discriminate against women and that they are most severe in societies where male are dominant and tightly organized. Whatever the reason may be for differential treatment of menstruating women, it appears that where modern hygiene has been introduced the tendency is for the restrictions to become minimal. Menstrual taboos disappear accept for the restriction on sexual activity, and the period of confinement after childbirth is abbreviated.

The Double Standard
Utterly ridiculous. If primary cultures wanted to oppress the menstruating woman they could do it in many ways. They might bring her out and beat her with sticks or publicly humiliate her in some way instead of telling her she can’t cook or have sex. What kind of oppression is that? I can think of many, many ways to dishonor the woman for her menstruation – instead of a ubiquitous practice of isolation and taboo. This is a serious projection.

Isolation and taboo could be looked at as being to the woman’s benefit. It could be for her physical and psychological health. She’s not feeling completely well. Having a few cramps perhaps. She needs alone time. She doesn’t feel like cooking. A sacred discharge needs to take place to protect the tribe’s important reproductive asset. These people are dealing with it to the best of their ability and I can’t see even an inkling of malicious or oppressive intent.

What makes the whole ‘castration complex conspiracy theory’ laughable to me is to look at what young men go through in many of these primary cultures. In the aborigine cultures Campbell describes the manhood rights in detail. They go through a hell the likes of which we moderns can hardly even imagine. But I’ve yet to hear any corresponding conspiracy theories of male abuse and oppression. Men imitate menstruation by penis mutilation as described above. Many cultures practice corvade: a ritual in which the husband lays in bed imitating the wife’s labor. Joseph Campbell once quoted a primary culture male, “We must suffer because our women suffer.”

You asked a very straightforward question Alwin. But it’s a very enticing question because it addresses what must be a very important universal experience of procreation. How different cultures dealt with and deal with ‘blood magic’ must say something profound about the human condition.
Moyers: What about the female? Most of the figures in the temple caves are male. Was this a kind of secret society for males?

Campbell: I wasn’t a secret society, it was that the boys had to go through it. Now of course we don’t know exactly what happened to the female in this period because there is very little evidence to tell us. But in primary cultures today the girl becomes a woman with her first menstruation. It happens to her. Nature does it to her. And so she has undergone the transformation, and what is her initiation? Typically it is to sit in a little hut for a certain number of days and realize what she is.

Moyers: How does she do that?

Campbell: She sits there. She is now a woman. And what is a woman? A woman is the vehicle of life. Life has overtaken her. Woman is what it is all about – the giving of birth and the giving of nourishment. She is identical with the earth goddess in her powers. And she has got to realize that about herself. The boy does not have a happening of this kind, so he has to be turned into a man and voluntarily become a servant of something greater than himself.

POM (small book) p104
Great topic.

- NoMan

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Post by Cindy B. »

Very interesting post, noman.

Later, when I'm not so tired and can string together more than a few coherent sentences, I'll chat with you more, but for now I'll just mention this. I do agree with you, of course, that conceptualizations of the feminine and women's sexuality include both the positive and the negative. Yet when considering the archetypal feminine in relation to virgin births, I think that this virgin as a variation of the archetypal mother incorporates a denial of woman as a mother figure who is also a sexual being. Typically the archetypal mother image includes both nurturance and active sexuality and fertility yet not so for this virginal mother. So as a woman, it's natural to consider the underlying reasons that gave rise to the need to deny this particular mother the fullness of her being as a spiritual image...and it's doubtful that such a need was originally an expression of the feminine psyche.


***

And should any gals be reading, I'd be interested in hearing your thoughts, too. Thanks.


Cindy
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Neoplato
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Post by Neoplato »

Yet when considering the archetypal feminine in relation to virgin births, I think that this virgin as a variation of the archetypal mother incorporates a denial of woman as a mother figure who is also a sexual being. Typically the archetypal mother image includes both nurturance and active sexuality and fertility yet not so for this virginal mother. So as a woman, it's natural to consider the underlying reasons that gave rise to the need to deny this particular mother the fullness of her being as a spiritual image...and it's doubtful that such a need was originally an expression of the feminine psyche.
I see the virgin birth as "Mother Earth" giving birth to life. No sex involved. The Earth brought forth life from itself. Hence, a virgin could represent the sacredness of the Earth. This is why I think the ability to give birth should be celebrated. Why a man taints this purity I have no clue. I can't comprehend where the idea of shame came from.

Unless this is just the male will wanting to dominate the power of life itself. Kind of like the human race dominatiing its will upon the Earth?
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Post by Cindy B. »

Moving up a level, so to speak, to the image of the Great Mother Goddess, it's not unusual to find various blends of the archetypal feminine in this image across mythologies and cultures, one example, of course, being the spiritual purity of the virgin combined with the nurturance and fertility of the mother. Now, for argument's sake, move back down to the level of society and the patriarchal culture that originally gave outer expression to the Christian Madonna image, a particular sort of archetypal image of a virgin mother. What emerged was a one-sided focus on the positive, nurturing mother-as-virgin image while any hints of its natural opposites were suppressed, e.g., the terrible mother, the sacred prostitute, etc. In my opinion, anyway, this archetypally charged scenario that arose from the collective unconscious of that masculine psyche was tethered specifically to female sexuality and assertion/aggression, and to a mentality that could not, for whatever reason, accommodate a divine savior's mother (and by extension all mothers and those who would become mothers) as a multifaceted image, that is, as inherently sexual and spiritual, assertive and passive, positive and negative. The result has been a history of overt sexism and prejudice in the Christian Church and Christian-based cultures that women and men alike are addressing still, both from a religious standpoint and from the secular. In all fairness, however, with the Catholic Church's 1950 declaration of The Dogma of the Assumption of Mary, this move somewhat helps to restore the Christian Madonna image to the status of a spiritual Great Mother Goddess worthy of respect equal to the divine male savior's she bore, what I perceive as a healthy and desirable change in the evolution of this specific Madonna image.

Cindy
Last edited by Cindy B. on Fri Jun 19, 2009 10:35 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Post by Neoplato »

Mmmm...I'll go out on a limb here. For me, the three incarnations of a woman, that of Earth (virgin), that of mother and wife (nurture) and that of harlot (freedom) are all divine aspects. I truly think there was only one "Mary" in the life of Jesus, but over the years she became mother, wife, and harlot.

For me, the divine feminine version of "Christ" has been denied over the years.
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Post by Cindy B. »

For any interested, this web site highlights the various expressions of the feminine archetype as discussed in Erich Neumann's The Great Mother: An Analysis of the Archetype : http://www2.cnr.edu/home/bmcmanus/femarchstructure.html Do keep in mind, though, that the point of view pertains mainly to the masculine psyche, i.e., ego as hero figure.

Cindy
If the path before you is clear, you’re probably on someone else’s. --Jung

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