Contractors and Whoring In Temple
Jan. 13th, 2011 03:02 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
fiat_knoxA strange combination of topics, but they do comprise the main topics of interest in my life today.
In one conversation on Facebook, a friend considered the idea of a town run along Thelemic lines - a somewhat tricky proposition because of the whole leadership issue (how do you stop some scheming adventurer usurping the leadership role and turning the place into Waco?) and the term "legal access to whores" (which, I believe, meant "temple whores" or sacred temple prostitutes - a completely different trade from the usual adult service providers of the modern day).
The other thread, contractors, emerged from an email which outlined the idea of becoming a freelancer / contractor and the UK Inland Revenue's determinations of what a contractor actually does that distinguishes the self-employed from employees (the IR35 test).
Strangely enough, I found myself thinking that both prostitutes and contractors happen to fall under the same kind of financial legislation, with the one difference of the legal status of a contractor and the ludicrous illegality of the prostitute's trade.
I'd like to share my Thelemic Facebook thoughts below.
- Those seeking to join this kibbutz would have to join in full awareness that each will get out of the project exactly as much as they put into it. Put in nothing, and they get nothing because they are doing the thing that they need to do in... order to survive.
Initially, that seems so hard on newcomers: everyone would have to put in some form of backbreaking work, often heartbreaking if the harvest fails or disappoints - but a Thelemic community would cement its identity, and reinforce the individuals' beliefs, through its communal activities - ritual workings, ceremonies, rites of passage, study times, practice sessions, field trips to the nearby towns to sell produce, visit libraries, attend shows, colleges, perform volunteer work, stuff like that.
No proselytising missions - the aim is to bring people to the town through leading by example, and it would pay dividends in time of hardship for the community if the nearby towns, hearing of the community's plight, come to our aid.
Leadership poses the most nagging issue. How does the community lead and police its own? If there is a crime, do we ask the nearest town's police to help apprehend the accused? Where does "my True Will" end? (Usually, where my fist ends and the other person's body begins, to paraphrase Oliver Wendell Holmes).
And no uniform codes, no charismatic leaders and no Waco-style isolation: make locals who enter the village as welcome as family, and keep no Harvest Home-style secrets from the curious outside world.
I have often thought seriously about what a Thelemite kibbutz would be like. You can probably tell. :)
- It is often not enough that a leader lead: the others must acknowledge the leader's direction, even if that direction is to their deficit.
The very worst kind of leader is one who claims to be "closer to Apotheosis than the rest;" such a lea...der tends to be prone to religious visions, and then along comes the mother ship and the barrels of Kool-Aid that nobody comes back to for seconds, or the vast arsenals of guns and the barricades with ATF agents screaming through megaphones outside the compound.
Everyone is special. Everyone brings something to the table. But every community needs the six hats approach, with at least one black hat to stand back and say "Sorry, but that won't work. It might earn us money and newcomers, but that'll also earn us a black mark in the local town. Besides, who's going to take on the role of whore tonight? I didn't come here to be the town whore. Anybody? Hands up? Nope ... didn't think so."
- You know the designated driver in every sensibly - run party? The guy who nurses soft drinks all night so he can taxi all the partygoers home safely afterwards? It seems to me that every Thelemite town would need plenty of designated mundanes, to talk to the world's tax inspectors and bureaucrats and travelling salesmen. Who's up for that job? :)
And then, when the whole "paying for legal whores" thing came up:-
Remember that the role of the saced prostitute (Hierodule / naditu / Qedesha / Qadesh / Vestal virgin / Inara Serra) was to perform the sacred act of sex magic called hieros gamos, or sacred marriage. This raised energies for fertility or w...orkings.
Neopagans know this as the Great Rite, and it's nothing to do with accepting money for sexual favours. The "sacred temple prostitute ritual" might look as tame as the male and female coming together behind a curtain, backlit so the congregation could see the couple in outline with one participant lying on top of the other, before the lights go out and the priest brings the mass to an end.
To a comment about bringing them mangoes as a temple offering:-
- And if you can't bring them mangoes, bring them pomegranates. It must be part of the job description that they must never be allergic to mangoes or pomegranates. It's important.
And again:-
- The point being, "temple prostitutes" had little or nothing to actually do with whoring. They were temples, not knocking shops. Sorry to burst a few bubbles here.
I'd love the idea of a Thelemic town, where all residents could Do As They Wil...l. An Artist could practice his art, whether writing, painting or sculpture, without people demanding that he get a "proper job" working behind the counter of a hardware store. A Scientist could study the universe, go to work in another town and publish his papers from the comfort of his porch.
A place for Warriors could be set up, a field cleared just for kata practice of martial arts and self-defence classes for all, for those occasions when one has to pit one's True Will against some boor's fists or fend off someone who thinks that the job title "sacred prostutite" gives them the right to take from the woman that which she is sworn not to give.
Everyone would know their way to doing their True Will, whatever form that takes, and part of the price they must pay for belonging would be to participate in some of those group activities held in the town square that would assert the town's identity and raison d'etre as well as affirm their Will to belong to that group.
And yes, those sacred rites would probably involve some sort of hieros gamos ritual in the middle of the town square. Two minutes of just lying there, then he rolls over and falls asleep or she gets up to go for a pizza and he never sees her again.
And when the theme got pulled back to the whoring, despite my attempts to raise their eyes out of the gutter:-
- I mentioned Inara Serra above, as well, quite clearly in jest but also to hint at the possibility of the role of Companions. They would fill in the role posited, but with the elegance of geisha and falling under the remit of the hospitality... / leisure industry, with all of the rights and responsibilities therein.
They would need a lot of non-sexual hospitality and personal defence training, possibly require some form of accreditation (a "liecnse to Companion") and mandatory medical checkups for STIs and pregnancy in the women, just STIs in the men.
You didn't think there'd be just women working in the industry, did you? :)
And now, on being told by friend XYZ something like "You want to hem it in with moral codes that rival Christianity, replacing one slavery for another. Best wishes on your efforts but it's nothing I would participate in." (does he seriously want to be a prostitute or something?):-
- No, XYZ, I think it's about the working people whose job involves lying on their back deciding where their True Will comes into that particular job.
If it involves ritualising their sexual trade, making their lives mysterious and splendid... and part of their magic rather than making it just a job, giving them the choice to lay or not to lay and by doing so keeping it firmly out of the hands of the clients through black lists and other measures, then that has to become enshrined in the Law of Do What Thou Wilt.
Otherwise, if all a person needs is illegal blowjobs in back alleys or Nevada Chicken Ranches, he ought to get out of town.
Edit: The last part comes as a response to the question "What if someone wants to be a regular prostitute?"
- "What if someone wants to be a regular prostitute?" Hard to imagine someone wants to live a painful, hardscrabble life walking the streets, risking getting cut by pimps or sicko johns, being forced to give corrupt cops freebies and having ...to feed the heroin habit your boyfriend put you on. None of that comes remotely under the category of "Doing What Thou Wilt." That's "Doing What Is Expected Of You By Others," or "Being A Slave To Your Habits."
If you're going to Do What Thou Wilt, you won't do it half - arsed. If you want to join a profession which sleeps with people for money, you make it your lifestyle like some real life Lady Heather, for as long as your body can manage it. In order to keep doing your True Will, you would have to maximise the efficiency of the exercise of your True Will, which at its core is to supply entertainment to others.
Compare it to my True Will, which is to write. I cannot NOT be a writer. Even if I don't make one penny out of writing, I still write. My workings are all written. In order to exercise my True Will to its best extent, I study everything I can on being a Great Communicator, thus giving as much gravitas to my writings as possible.
Same goes for the adult entertainer: his or her True Will is transmuted by Thelema to an activity which has far more profundity than profanity to it. The prostitute performing her True Will becomes a combination of geisha, entertainer, hostess, business advisor, mistress for hire, shoulder to cry on ... Companion.
And she could charge whatever the going rate was, because with that much training, knowledge and expertise in seduction she would be worth every penny.
And the difference between this kind of pro and the ones Joseph is thinking of is that the Thelemic whore chooses her clients, and not the other way around. It's The Law.
You might expect a Thelemic town to be some rough spot, all skulking criminals and vandals shooting the place up and destroying everything. But since by definition Thelema is The Law in town, we would all be literally law abiding citizens - making the Thelemic town one of the most moral places in human history.
The cut has been put in place for one person on my f'list who is a family man, and whom I respect far more than he may imagine.
In one conversation on Facebook, a friend considered the idea of a town run along Thelemic lines - a somewhat tricky proposition because of the whole leadership issue (how do you stop some scheming adventurer usurping the leadership role and turning the place into Waco?) and the term "legal access to whores" (which, I believe, meant "temple whores" or sacred temple prostitutes - a completely different trade from the usual adult service providers of the modern day).
The other thread, contractors, emerged from an email which outlined the idea of becoming a freelancer / contractor and the UK Inland Revenue's determinations of what a contractor actually does that distinguishes the self-employed from employees (the IR35 test).
Strangely enough, I found myself thinking that both prostitutes and contractors happen to fall under the same kind of financial legislation, with the one difference of the legal status of a contractor and the ludicrous illegality of the prostitute's trade.
I'd like to share my Thelemic Facebook thoughts below.
- Those seeking to join this kibbutz would have to join in full awareness that each will get out of the project exactly as much as they put into it. Put in nothing, and they get nothing because they are doing the thing that they need to do in... order to survive.
Initially, that seems so hard on newcomers: everyone would have to put in some form of backbreaking work, often heartbreaking if the harvest fails or disappoints - but a Thelemic community would cement its identity, and reinforce the individuals' beliefs, through its communal activities - ritual workings, ceremonies, rites of passage, study times, practice sessions, field trips to the nearby towns to sell produce, visit libraries, attend shows, colleges, perform volunteer work, stuff like that.
No proselytising missions - the aim is to bring people to the town through leading by example, and it would pay dividends in time of hardship for the community if the nearby towns, hearing of the community's plight, come to our aid.
Leadership poses the most nagging issue. How does the community lead and police its own? If there is a crime, do we ask the nearest town's police to help apprehend the accused? Where does "my True Will" end? (Usually, where my fist ends and the other person's body begins, to paraphrase Oliver Wendell Holmes).
And no uniform codes, no charismatic leaders and no Waco-style isolation: make locals who enter the village as welcome as family, and keep no Harvest Home-style secrets from the curious outside world.
I have often thought seriously about what a Thelemite kibbutz would be like. You can probably tell. :)
- It is often not enough that a leader lead: the others must acknowledge the leader's direction, even if that direction is to their deficit.
The very worst kind of leader is one who claims to be "closer to Apotheosis than the rest;" such a lea...der tends to be prone to religious visions, and then along comes the mother ship and the barrels of Kool-Aid that nobody comes back to for seconds, or the vast arsenals of guns and the barricades with ATF agents screaming through megaphones outside the compound.
Everyone is special. Everyone brings something to the table. But every community needs the six hats approach, with at least one black hat to stand back and say "Sorry, but that won't work. It might earn us money and newcomers, but that'll also earn us a black mark in the local town. Besides, who's going to take on the role of whore tonight? I didn't come here to be the town whore. Anybody? Hands up? Nope ... didn't think so."
- You know the designated driver in every sensibly - run party? The guy who nurses soft drinks all night so he can taxi all the partygoers home safely afterwards? It seems to me that every Thelemite town would need plenty of designated mundanes, to talk to the world's tax inspectors and bureaucrats and travelling salesmen. Who's up for that job? :)
And then, when the whole "paying for legal whores" thing came up:-
Remember that the role of the saced prostitute (Hierodule / naditu / Qedesha / Qadesh / Vestal virgin / Inara Serra) was to perform the sacred act of sex magic called hieros gamos, or sacred marriage. This raised energies for fertility or w...orkings.
Neopagans know this as the Great Rite, and it's nothing to do with accepting money for sexual favours. The "sacred temple prostitute ritual" might look as tame as the male and female coming together behind a curtain, backlit so the congregation could see the couple in outline with one participant lying on top of the other, before the lights go out and the priest brings the mass to an end.
To a comment about bringing them mangoes as a temple offering:-
- And if you can't bring them mangoes, bring them pomegranates. It must be part of the job description that they must never be allergic to mangoes or pomegranates. It's important.
And again:-
- The point being, "temple prostitutes" had little or nothing to actually do with whoring. They were temples, not knocking shops. Sorry to burst a few bubbles here.
I'd love the idea of a Thelemic town, where all residents could Do As They Wil...l. An Artist could practice his art, whether writing, painting or sculpture, without people demanding that he get a "proper job" working behind the counter of a hardware store. A Scientist could study the universe, go to work in another town and publish his papers from the comfort of his porch.
A place for Warriors could be set up, a field cleared just for kata practice of martial arts and self-defence classes for all, for those occasions when one has to pit one's True Will against some boor's fists or fend off someone who thinks that the job title "sacred prostutite" gives them the right to take from the woman that which she is sworn not to give.
Everyone would know their way to doing their True Will, whatever form that takes, and part of the price they must pay for belonging would be to participate in some of those group activities held in the town square that would assert the town's identity and raison d'etre as well as affirm their Will to belong to that group.
And yes, those sacred rites would probably involve some sort of hieros gamos ritual in the middle of the town square. Two minutes of just lying there, then he rolls over and falls asleep or she gets up to go for a pizza and he never sees her again.
And when the theme got pulled back to the whoring, despite my attempts to raise their eyes out of the gutter:-
- I mentioned Inara Serra above, as well, quite clearly in jest but also to hint at the possibility of the role of Companions. They would fill in the role posited, but with the elegance of geisha and falling under the remit of the hospitality... / leisure industry, with all of the rights and responsibilities therein.
They would need a lot of non-sexual hospitality and personal defence training, possibly require some form of accreditation (a "liecnse to Companion") and mandatory medical checkups for STIs and pregnancy in the women, just STIs in the men.
You didn't think there'd be just women working in the industry, did you? :)
And now, on being told by friend XYZ something like "You want to hem it in with moral codes that rival Christianity, replacing one slavery for another. Best wishes on your efforts but it's nothing I would participate in." (does he seriously want to be a prostitute or something?):-
- No, XYZ, I think it's about the working people whose job involves lying on their back deciding where their True Will comes into that particular job.
If it involves ritualising their sexual trade, making their lives mysterious and splendid... and part of their magic rather than making it just a job, giving them the choice to lay or not to lay and by doing so keeping it firmly out of the hands of the clients through black lists and other measures, then that has to become enshrined in the Law of Do What Thou Wilt.
Otherwise, if all a person needs is illegal blowjobs in back alleys or Nevada Chicken Ranches, he ought to get out of town.
Edit: The last part comes as a response to the question "What if someone wants to be a regular prostitute?"
- "What if someone wants to be a regular prostitute?" Hard to imagine someone wants to live a painful, hardscrabble life walking the streets, risking getting cut by pimps or sicko johns, being forced to give corrupt cops freebies and having ...to feed the heroin habit your boyfriend put you on. None of that comes remotely under the category of "Doing What Thou Wilt." That's "Doing What Is Expected Of You By Others," or "Being A Slave To Your Habits."
If you're going to Do What Thou Wilt, you won't do it half - arsed. If you want to join a profession which sleeps with people for money, you make it your lifestyle like some real life Lady Heather, for as long as your body can manage it. In order to keep doing your True Will, you would have to maximise the efficiency of the exercise of your True Will, which at its core is to supply entertainment to others.
Compare it to my True Will, which is to write. I cannot NOT be a writer. Even if I don't make one penny out of writing, I still write. My workings are all written. In order to exercise my True Will to its best extent, I study everything I can on being a Great Communicator, thus giving as much gravitas to my writings as possible.
Same goes for the adult entertainer: his or her True Will is transmuted by Thelema to an activity which has far more profundity than profanity to it. The prostitute performing her True Will becomes a combination of geisha, entertainer, hostess, business advisor, mistress for hire, shoulder to cry on ... Companion.
And she could charge whatever the going rate was, because with that much training, knowledge and expertise in seduction she would be worth every penny.
And the difference between this kind of pro and the ones Joseph is thinking of is that the Thelemic whore chooses her clients, and not the other way around. It's The Law.
You might expect a Thelemic town to be some rough spot, all skulking criminals and vandals shooting the place up and destroying everything. But since by definition Thelema is The Law in town, we would all be literally law abiding citizens - making the Thelemic town one of the most moral places in human history.
The cut has been put in place for one person on my f'list who is a family man, and whom I respect far more than he may imagine.
