Hieros gamos: Difference between revisions

'''''Hieros gamos''''', hieros (ἱερός) meaning "holy" or "sacred" and gamos (γάμος) meaning "marriage," or '''Hierogamy''' ([[Ancient Greek|Greek]]: {{lang|grc|ἱερὸς γάμος}}, {{lang|grc|ἱερογαμία}} "holy marriage"), is a [[sexualsacred ritual]]marriage that plays out a [[marriage]] between a [[god (male deity)|god]] and a [[goddess]]gods, especially when enacted in a symbolic [[ritual]] where human participants represent the deities.

The notion of ''hieros gamos'' does not always presuppose literal sexual intercourse in ritual, but is also used in purely symbolic or [[mythology|mythological]] context, notably in [[alchemy]] and hence in [[Jungian psychology]]. ''Hieros gamos'' is described as the prototype of [[Fertility rite|fertility rituals]].<ref>{{cite journal| title= Hierogamy versus Wedlock: Types of Marriage Plots and Their Relationship to Genres of Prose Fiction. |journal = PMLA| first= Evelyn J.| last= Hinz| publisher= Modern Language Association | volume= 91| number=5| page= 909|jstor = 461564|year = 1976|doi = 10.2307/461564| s2cid=163770380 }}</ref>

Sacred sexual intercourse is thought to have been common in the [[Ancient Near East]]<ref>[[James Frazer]] (1922), ''[[The Golden Bough]]'', 3e, [[s:The Golden Bough/Adonis in Cyprus|Chapter 31: Adonis in Cyprus]]</ref> as a form of "Sacred Marriage" or hieros gamos between the kings of a [[Sumer]]ian city-statesstate and the [[High Priestess]]es of [[Inanna]], the [[Mesopotamian mythology|Sumerian goddess]] of love, fertility and warfare. Along the [[Tigris]] and [[Euphrates]] rivers there were many shrines and temples dedicated to Inanna. The temple of [[Eanna]], meaning "house of heaven"<ref>é-an-na = sanctuary ('house' + 'Heaven'[='An'] + genitive) [John Halloran's Sumerian Lexicon v. 3.0 -- see link below]</ref> in [[Uruk]]<ref>modern-day [[Warka]]Warkāʼ (arabic), Biblical [[Erech]]</ref> was the greatest of these. The temple housed [[Nadītu]], priestesses of the goddess. The high priestess would choose for her bed a young man who represented the shepherd [[Dumuzid the Shepherd|Dumuzid]], consort of Inanna, in a hieros gamos celebrated during the annual Duku ceremony, just before [[New moon|Invisible Moon]], with the [[September equinox|autumn Equinox]]<ref>{{cite book|last1=Wolkstein|first1=D.|last2=Kramer|first2=S. Noah|title=Inanna, Queen of Heaven and Earth|year=1983|url=https://archive.org/details/inannaqueenofhea00wolk|url-access=registration}}</ref> (Autumnal Zag-mu Festival).

In [[Greek mythology]], the classic instance is the wedding of [[Zeus]] and [[Hera]] celebrated at the [[Heraion of Samos]],<ref>[[Walter Burkert]] warns that "the Hera festival is much too complicated to be understood simply as Hera's wedding" (Burkert, ''Greek Religion'', J. Raffan, tr. (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1985) §II.7.7 "Sacred Marriage" 108.</ref> andalong doubtlesswith its architectural and cultural predecessors. Some scholars<ref>For example 'H. Sauer, in ''Der Kleine Pauly'', ''s.v.''</ref> would restrict the term to reenactments, but most accept its extension to real or simulated union in the promotion of fertility: such an ancient union of [[Demeter]] with [[Iasion]], enacted in a thrice-ploughed furrow, a primitive aspect of a sexually-active Demeter reported by [[Hesiod]],<ref>Hesiod, ''[[Theogony]]'' 969f.</ref> is sitedoccurred in [[Crete]], origin of much early Greek myth. In actual ''[[Cult (religion)|cultus]]'', [[Walter Burkert]] found the Greek evidence "scanty and unclear": "To what extent such a sacred marriage was not just a way of viewing nature, but an act expressed or hinted at in ritual is difficult to say".<ref>Burkert 1985:108.</ref> theThe best-known [[ritual]] example surviving in classical Greece is the ''hieros gamos'' enacted at the [[Anthesteria]] by the wife of the ''[[Archon basileus]]'', the "Archon King" in Athens, originally therefore the queen of Athens, with [[Dionysus]], presumably represented by his priest or the ''[[basileus]]'' himself, in the Boukoleion in the [[Agora]].<ref>S.M. Kramer, ''The Sacred Marriage Rite'' (Bloomington:Indiana University Press, 1969); [[Karl Kerenyi]], ''Zeus und Hera. Urbild des Vaters des Gatten und der Frau'' (Leiden:Brill 1972) 83-90.</ref>

The brief fertilizing mystical union engenders [[Dionysus]], and doubled unions, of a god and of a mortal man on one night, result, through [[Telegony (pregnancy)|telegony]], in the semi-divine nature of [[Greek hero]]es such as [[Theseus]] and [[Heracles]].{{Clarify|date=October 2020}}

In [[Tantric Buddhism]] of [[Nepal]], [[Bhutan]], [[India]] and [[Tibet]], [[yab-yum]] is a ritual of the male [[deity]] in union with a female [[deity]] as his consort. The symbolism is associated with [[Anuttarayoga tantra]] where the male figure is usually linked to compassion (''{{IAST|karuṇā}}'') and skillful means (''[[upaya|upāya-kauśalya]]''), and the female partner to 'insight' or 'wisdom' (''prajñā'').<ref>Keown, Damien. (2003). ''A Dictionary of Buddhism'', p. 338. Oxford University Press. {{ISBN|0-19-860560-9}}.</ref><ref>"Yab Yum Iconography and the Role of Women in Tibetan Tantric Buddhism." ''The Tibet Journal''. Vol. XXII, No. 1. Spring 1997, pp. 12-34.</ref> Yab-yum is generally understood to represent the primordial (or mystical) union of wisdom and compassion.<ref>[http://www.seriousseekers.com/News%20and%20Articles/pallis_marriagewisdommethod.pdf The Marriage of Wisdom and Method] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110617051023/http://www.seriousseekers.com/News%20and%20Articles/pallis_marriagewisdommethod.pdf |date=2011-06-17 }} By Marco Pallis</ref>

[[Maithuna]] is a [[Sanskrit]] term used in [[Tantra]] most often translated as [[tantric sexuality|sexual union]] in a ritual context. It is the most important of the five makara[[Panchamakara]] and constitutes the main part of the Grand Ritual of Tantra variously known as [[Panchamakara]], [[Panchatattva]], and [[Tattva]] [[Chakra]].

[[File:Rosarium 11 fermentatio.jpg|thumb|Depiction of the ''fermentatio'' stage{{clarify|date=August 2022}} as hieros gamos, woodcut from the 16th century ''[[Rosary of the Philosophers]]''.]]

In [[Wicca]], the [[Great Rite]] is a ritual based on the Hieros Gamos. It is generally enacted symbolically by a dagger (known as an [[athame]]) being placed point first into a [[chalice (cup)|chalice]], the action symbolizing the union of the male and female divine. In [[British Traditional Wicca]], the Great Rite is sometimes carried out in actuality by the High Priest and High Priestess.

*[https://web.archive.org/web/20140201141558/http://paulijungunusmundus.eu/hknw/holy_wedding_alchemy_modern_man_contents.htm The Archetype of the Holy Wedding in Alchemy and in the Unconscious of Modern Man], Remo F. Roth, Ph.D.