The same spark, which ignites to conceive children, also kindles culture. It is the mother of invention. Around 9000 years ago, Mediterranean cultures venerated a supreme goddess of seduction and fruition. The intensity of Her desire, potent enough to produce generations, agriculture, poetry. She guided all growth, and especially loved lovers and art. Beauty and Heart. Ishtar, Isis, Cybele, Inanna, Aphrodite. She was not shy.

My vulva, the horn.

The Boat of Heaven

Is full of eagerness like the moon

My untilled land lies fallow

As for me, Inanna,

Who will plow my vulva?

Who will plow my high field?

Who will plow my wet ground?

As for me, the young woman,

Who will plow my vulva?

Who will station the ox there?

Who will plow my vulva?

- Text on Sumerian tablet, 2000 BC

Sex invoked in myth and ritual is symbolic of the primary life force. Sex as energy. Sex as creation. Sex as abundance. Sex as unification. Sex as divine spirit. Sex as celebration. Sex as sympathetic magic.

During the Iroquois Naked Dance, a woman and a man coupled in the fields to fertilize the crops. Until the end of the last century, European peasants did the same. The Christians called the fertility song-prayers of pagan Norsemen, "female gyrations." Sexual licentiousness was central in the harvest celebrations of the African Bantu and Badago.

Hunters also had intercourse with nature. The married women of the Cheyenne and Mandan of the Great Plains performed a rite called "Intercourse with the Buffalo." They shared sexual relations with the elder men of the tribe who impersonated the bison, thereby channeling the Great Spirit. Celtic kings would copulate with a mare, which was then killed, butchered and cooked in a soup. This, the king consumed in order to partake of the power of Epona, the Equine Goddess.

Hindus maintain that sex with any woman is the same as sex with the Goddess Shakti, Herself, whose vibratory energy charges all life. In Tantra, as well as Taoism, the male taps into the infinite energy of the female - fuses with her like a space capsule refueling in orbit. He then recycles, as it were, his sperm, directing its flow to the top of his head to elevate his spirit.

At last love has come. I would be more ashamed

to hide it in cloth than leave it naked.

I prayed to the Muse and won. Venus dropped him

in my arms, doing for me what she

had promised. Let my joy be told, let those

who have none tell it in a story.

Personally, I would never send off words

in sealed tablets for none to read.

I delight in sinning and hate to compose a mask

for gossip. We met. We are both worthy.

Lupercalia was the original Valentine's Day. Unable to stop this popular orgiastic festival, early church fathers created a sainted martyr, a patron of lovers whose feast day would be February 14th, thus, sanctioning a celebration they could not suppress.

All the symbols of Lupercalia are still intact, if sanitized and insipid. Cupid, child of Aphrodite and Hermes was an Herm-Aphrodite, the embodiment of sexual union. S/he is now depicted as a cutsie chubby angel baby with a bow and arrow. Cupid's arrows are symbolic of phallic projectiles of passion, penetrating a red heart. And the heart, which has no resemblance to an anatomical heart, is a simplistic illustration of an aroused and engorged vulva, a holy yoni.

                       

Those who are easily shocked should be shocked more often.

When I'm good, I'm very good, but when I'm bad, I'm better.

I believe in censorship. I made a fortune out of it.

You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough.

I never loved another person the way I loved myself.

For some women, the noticeable reduction in vaginal fluid during menopause is a sexual deterrent as it may take longer to become aroused and penetration may become irritating. But a little dryness down there doesn't stop the lusty Queen. That's why the Goddess invented cocoa butter.

               

Unguent and lotions and moisturizing potions are really quite sexy. Experiment with commercial lubricants or try rubbing yourself with some honey, fragrant coconut cream, almond, walnut, avocado, or olive oil, sweet Danish butter, molasses, chocolate syrup, or whatever tickles your fancy. Think of it as a way of blessing yourself with the power of your own pleasure.                     

The Queen's Court is a gathering of sovereign women of a certain age - our dear peers - who graciously offer information, guidance, inspiration and encouragement to each other.

We Queens know what we know. And we know a great deal. Our experience has made us wise. So, feel free to consult with our cyber council/counsel when you are need of sage advice or wish to explore a particular topic of interest.  

Q. SEXY QUEENS: I am wondering: What is your sex life about as a Queen? How has your attitude about and/or your practice of sexuality changed with age? Are you less interested? More interested? More or less satisfied? Freer? More or less adventurous? These are pertinent questions for our Queen's Court. Please reply here or, if you choose, you can email me at: thequeenofmyself@aol.com.  

Merci.

Please send your responses or questions to: thequeenofmyself@aol.com

Your letters will be printed in the next Queen's Chronicles.