I’m reading every word like it’s a secret map — “When the Divine Feminine was hiding in plain sight...” you caught it so sharply. The way Christ’s side wound becomes a symbol, the mandorla, the Vulva Pilgrim — it’s brilliant and sly. You weave ancient reverence and sly rebellion so artfully, it’s impossible not to think twice after every line. Great read Toni!
hii fascinating piece! do you happen to have any good articles/books about the symbolism of Christ’s side wound and its connection to feminity that you wrote about? would love to write about it in my master’s thesis about teresa starzec’s art!!🫶
‘Your body is full of wounds’: references, social contexts and uses of the wounds of Christ in Late Medieval Europe (Johanna Polick, Emily Poore, Sophie Sexon and Sara Stradal)
hi! i also came here for sources! as a lesbian ex-catholic who went on to study orthodox iconography, i absolutely ate this piece up. sapphic pun fully intended. i’m especially interested in the ones you shared about gender-queering jesus, so thank you for sharing those with another reader!!
One thing that is also shaped like a vulva are the human vocal cords. So even as men speak the “Word of God,” it all flows through the divine feminine.
This is so well-researched and fascinating to read. I had no idea that there was such vivid and often explicit imagery of the vulva in the medieval period. The idea of Mary’s genitalia as the holy portal for the birth of the Christian God’s human incarnation is so interesting. The fact that women could be held in the cultural mind as at once physically holy and intrinsically sinful.
This was so awesome!! I took a college art history class a year ago where we talked briefly about the mandorla and I was fascinated, but i didn’t know this iconography went back so far! Very neat!!
so many fascinating points that have darted around at my periphery for a while that you’ve brought into sharp focus and woven together so compellingly — many many notes going into my commonplace book + I cannot wait to research more :))
Hell yeah! Thank you for writing, I’m obsessed. Reminds me of Bernini’s sculpture, Saint Theresa in Ecstasy. She is having an orgasm, toes curled, everything. And she lives in a Roman Catholic Church. Learning about her was one of those moments that completely destroyed the validity of the patriarchy for me. This essay is another. Thanks for writing!!
Thanks for contributing to humanities legacy which is a gorgeous cultural cathedral… In my humble opinion.
You presented a plethora of thoughtful incite’s dealing with religious iconography, inspired by one of the most beautiful things related to human sexuality and the female form.
Nevertheless for me, it may take awhile to fully digest.
Coincidentally, I’m in the middle of rereading “Memnoch the devil” by Anne Rice. Which is written in a rather alluring manner and I recommend whole heartedly.
Once again, thank you for an interesting and enlightening read.
1. The Kamakya Temple in Guwahati, Assam, India is dedicated to yoni worship. Legend has it that the pelvic girdle of Sati fell here after Shiva's tandav/fiery dance.
2. Worship of femininity in any form denotes 'fertility' - bountifullness.
It’s worth mentioning the vesica piscis, of the same shape. It is symbolic for the divine feminine, union of opposites, or merge of spirit and matter. It’s also related to the golden ratio, seed of life, etc
I’m reading every word like it’s a secret map — “When the Divine Feminine was hiding in plain sight...” you caught it so sharply. The way Christ’s side wound becomes a symbol, the mandorla, the Vulva Pilgrim — it’s brilliant and sly. You weave ancient reverence and sly rebellion so artfully, it’s impossible not to think twice after every line. Great read Toni!
Thank you so much!!!
hii fascinating piece! do you happen to have any good articles/books about the symbolism of Christ’s side wound and its connection to feminity that you wrote about? would love to write about it in my master’s thesis about teresa starzec’s art!!🫶
Hiiii - apologies for taking a few days to get back to you! Here’s a list of some articles I think will be useful for you:
Christa, Christus: Christ’s Transgressive, Gendered Flesh in Late Medieval European Literature (Kathryn Loveridge)
“That Glorious Slit” Irigaray and the Medieval Devotion to Christ’s Side Wound, in Acute Melancholia and Other Essays (Amy Hollywood)
This online article - https://artuk.org/discover/stories/our-true-mother-interpreting-a-genderqueer-jesus
‘Your body is full of wounds’: references, social contexts and uses of the wounds of Christ in Late Medieval Europe (Johanna Polick, Emily Poore, Sophie Sexon and Sara Stradal)
Gender-Querying Christ's Wounds (Alicia Spencer-Hall)
I hope you find these useful!
yess I’ll get back to you on this!!
omg thank you sm!!!!!!
hi! i also came here for sources! as a lesbian ex-catholic who went on to study orthodox iconography, i absolutely ate this piece up. sapphic pun fully intended. i’m especially interested in the ones you shared about gender-queering jesus, so thank you for sharing those with another reader!!
Posting a reply so I can come back to this—I have an article I printed out 20 years ago and if I can find it in my files I’ll send it
Hii thank you so much, they will definitely be helpful!!🫶
One thing that is also shaped like a vulva are the human vocal cords. So even as men speak the “Word of God,” it all flows through the divine feminine.
This is so well-researched and fascinating to read. I had no idea that there was such vivid and often explicit imagery of the vulva in the medieval period. The idea of Mary’s genitalia as the holy portal for the birth of the Christian God’s human incarnation is so interesting. The fact that women could be held in the cultural mind as at once physically holy and intrinsically sinful.
This was so awesome!! I took a college art history class a year ago where we talked briefly about the mandorla and I was fascinated, but i didn’t know this iconography went back so far! Very neat!!
so many fascinating points that have darted around at my periphery for a while that you’ve brought into sharp focus and woven together so compellingly — many many notes going into my commonplace book + I cannot wait to research more :))
I 🫶 the sidewound
This is weird
Ugh no one loves this like I love this!!!
Hell yeah! Thank you for writing, I’m obsessed. Reminds me of Bernini’s sculpture, Saint Theresa in Ecstasy. She is having an orgasm, toes curled, everything. And she lives in a Roman Catholic Church. Learning about her was one of those moments that completely destroyed the validity of the patriarchy for me. This essay is another. Thanks for writing!!
Thank you so much!!!
Thanks for contributing to humanities legacy which is a gorgeous cultural cathedral… In my humble opinion.
You presented a plethora of thoughtful incite’s dealing with religious iconography, inspired by one of the most beautiful things related to human sexuality and the female form.
Nevertheless for me, it may take awhile to fully digest.
Coincidentally, I’m in the middle of rereading “Memnoch the devil” by Anne Rice. Which is written in a rather alluring manner and I recommend whole heartedly.
Once again, thank you for an interesting and enlightening read.
thank you so much!!
Too good an article.
1. The Kamakya Temple in Guwahati, Assam, India is dedicated to yoni worship. Legend has it that the pelvic girdle of Sati fell here after Shiva's tandav/fiery dance.
2. Worship of femininity in any form denotes 'fertility' - bountifullness.
This is the most interesting thing I’ll read all day, for sure!
It’s worth mentioning the vesica piscis, of the same shape. It is symbolic for the divine feminine, union of opposites, or merge of spirit and matter. It’s also related to the golden ratio, seed of life, etc
this sounds so interesting, will definitely look into it!!
I love it thank you!
https://substack.com/@collapseofthewavefunction/note/p-167021101?r=5tpv59&utm_medium=ios&utm_source=notes-share-action