Sirens,
crying beauty to bewitch men coasting by; woe to the innocent who hears
that sound!...The Sirens will sing his mind away on their sweet meadow
lolling. There are bones of dead men rotting in a pile beside them and
flayed skins shrivel around the spot.
In
my skin, she is there; ink and blood paint her into everything I am, while
she gazes from behind me, murmuring curses we would kill to hear. She is
veil of death, womb of blood, mystery of the abyss. At her feet, the dead
and the alive succumb to her song, to her flood of blood and sea and to
her ever open wound.
In
the past, we bled for the vision quest, blood streaming down thighs as,
in groups, we gathered to exchange stories, to collect premonitions. Between
our legs were Chaos, Night, Revenge.
In
other histories, we bled impurity, our cunts had teeth. The word hysteria
rose out of the theory that our wombs moved freely around our internal
organs and caused insanity. The female blood and flesh were meant to be
feared, reduced, denied, and now, synthetically perfumed.
To
some, the woman was associated with water - unconsciousness, mystery, depth,
and sensuality. She held the power to bring drought and flood and to use
her voice to condemn, cast spells and judgment, to make blind or reveal.
Listen!
the swish of the blood,
The
sirens down the bloodpaths of the night,
Bone
tapping on the bone, nerve-nets,
Singing
under the breath of sleep. 1
She
gave the moon, and thereby, gave dreams - in some cultures, she was forbidden
to sleep during menstruation, for her dreams were considered altered by
psychic powers too violent to be allowed to speak through her. Elsewhere,
it was this violence that was sought after in the bleeding woman - dreams
became means of divination.
She
became the moon, the triple-moon goddess, the maiden, mother, and crone.
Her blood entailed descent, as in Persephone and the crossing of the threshold
of womanhood in her descent to Hades. The pomegranate she ate from was
womb, seed, and blood. The Furies, born from the blood of castrated Uranus,
black-clothed avengers of crime, especially crimes of blood. Their names
are Allecto (neverending), Megaera (envious anger), and Tisiphone (retaliation).
The
bleeding cycle was used to gauge time, for the woman's blood is bound to
the moon and the tides of the sea. Said Kali, "I AM Time, ever inclined
to destroy the worlds and annihilate all and anything that is not worthy
of keeping." Here we unveil the Fates, born of night, symbolic of ancient
forms of Justice. Triple-goddesses still, they spin, measure, and cut the
thread of life. Whatsoever they will, be it annihilation or poetry, must
come into being, must be born out of chaos and blood.
The
woman's blood and flesh as life giver and life taker is prevalent in the
paradoxes that so imbue the history of blood. The blood that flowed from
Medusa's decapitated head fell on the desert, and there engendered snakes.
The Gorgon's remaining blood was caught in vials by Athena - it had such
power that a single droplet from the left side could raise the dead, and
the same amount from the right could instantly kill. 2
To
mark themselves with the power of menstrual blood, women have historically
made signs on their bodies to recreate the creative power, bringing warnings,
protection, repellence, attraction, and religious significance. The teaching
of menstrual principles to men and the use of blood as a signal or sign
or status was heightened by the use of slashing - the women could create
blood at will, through cutting. The sight of blood on another woman's thigh
could start a woman bleeding, so slashing, for some people, was a method
of
synchrony.
Women found that they could have menstrual signals visible on their faces
and other parts of their bodies even when they were not in the dangerous
state of menstruation. Among native tribes, chin tattooing was primarily
a mark of the female status achieved at menarche. Among some people, tattooed
lines continued down the neck onto the breasts or stomach. In addition
to using tattoos for ritual purposes, people marked their mouths and bodies
with bits of special carved wood and shell. They were pushed through holes
punctured in the skin, ears, nose, septum, or embedded in the flesh of
the menstruant. All of the openings of the face were, by
extension,
vaginas in need of protection. Protective ornaments have also been embedded
around, and between, the eyes. Scarification was also used to adorn and
protect. Her body was a writing tablet before writing, covered with information.
Her face, breasts, abdomen, and back would be decoratively scarred as well.
3
Invoker
of wound and mystery, the body of the woman is the immaculate witness to
time, vengeance, creation and destruction. The blood that floods down her
skin is the siren song of mystery religions, violence, the impenetrable
thread that binds sex and death. In chaos she invokes shadows - the word
made flesh - the rapture of the curse, the bouquet of the underworld, the
eyes that bleed.
1.
Galway Kinnel, Selected Poems.
2.
http://gorgons.envy.nu
3.
Judy Grahn, Blood, Bread, and Roses - How Menstruation Created The
World
On
the use of the word CUNT:
Considered
to be the most vile, obscene and vulgar 'swear word' in the English language,
the word 'Cunt' in the vernacular means vagina. As if that is not indication
enough why it is considered so vile a term in the vagina-fearing Patriarchy,
the word itself
was
originally a term of respect and reverence for a powerful, spiritually
enlightened woman.
'Cunt'
derives from 'Kunda' or 'Cunti, the Oriental Great Goddess. She was the
Great Cunt of the Universe, where all life came from and to where all life
returned for renewal. From this same name the words country, kin and kind
came from.
It
is not a slang word, but an ancient word with historic etymology. Other
derivates are 'cunabula' - a cradle (and like the mother's womb, protects
and soothes the child), the Roman Goddess 'Cunina' who protected cradled
children, 'cunctipotent' - cunt magick (all-powerful), cunning, kenning,
and ken.
