Does anyone know what the word virgin means?

In many ancient cultures
Across many ancient tongues
It did not simply mean untouched by man it meant un-owned
Whole unto herself sovereign enough to choose to change to lead

Goddess Inanna of Sumer
was a distinct virgin
maiden who felt her place in royalty unjust

She descended into her grief
stripped herself bare of all above luxuries
no more jewels crowns or robes

She willingly descended into the world beneath the throne
Parts of her had to die
so she could return Sovereign Queen

She was not saved by man or god
Rather the ruling class violently disowned her
and yet
she returned on her own terms
Crowned with clarity
only the underclass can teach

Then there’s
the all-knowing all-powerful
Isis of Egypt
before series of colonisations she was
Aset of Kemet

Her virginal waters birthed our sun
Her cosmic womb held the world
Her tides forever interlink
promising to lift the forgotten
binding no chains but breaking them

Mokosh of the Slavs
Great mother of Earth and wells
Protector of women, of the oppressed
Her waters could soothe all wounds
Her voice rises in the rivers

Sedna of the Arctic
Ishtar of Sumer
Seshat of Kemet
Oshun of Yoruba
Dana of the Celts
Durga of India
Freya of the Norse

In their original myths
each sexually free
each sovereign
each divine

Might be hard to imagine
but women were once widely worshiped
as sovereign creators
symbols for the oppressed
extensions of mother nature
justice personified

So what happened?

Well you know what they say
all trade routes lead back to Rome

We know that empire did a lot of conquering!

Basically
they killed the old gods
and anyone who would not submit

See empire knew this trick
if Rome conquered you you’d resist
but if god came you’d submit

It was only in the 4th century
empire absorbed the once radical
and super illegal christianity

Centuries and centuries before 0BC
and centuries and centuries after
thousands of people were nailed to Roman crosses
for daring to defy state doctrine

Long has empire baptised their domination
as salvation

We know empires would invade
but less is known of how they’d rewrite local myths of the people

Canon by canon

Empire inverted and redefined
the concept of virgin — sovereign maiden
into holy purity law

Ohhhh suddenly it means innocent
fresh, ripe for the picking
unspoiled, unruined
worthy of being a wife

Bodies purchased and transferred
from Father to Husband
Pure servant of love
For better
or worse
I shall obey

Now, these were ancient
divide and control tactics

Let’s be clear
the male sex is not to blame
Many men and those in-between
have been fighting the rulers’ decrees
for thousands of years

Oh didn’t the ruling elite love Plato!
He wrote that those who are cowardly and unjust
are reincarnated as
women

And Aristotle declared
women were begotten males
weaker in all pursuits
incapable of political thought
reproduction the main role

What did these guys think about slaves?
The oppressed classes?
Hun, that’s the divine natural order of things
Our god says it’s all okay

Historically the ruling class
has always conspired
for their own gain and dominion

Oh I said the word
conspiracy!

When did it become so taboo
to name the obvious?

Throughout history
the powers that be do conspire
through war
through law
through resource extraction and control
and through words

Like the phrase the “free market”
now that’s a crueler paradox
than “virgin mother”

And isn’t it something
that seeking knowledge
became the original sin?
A woman’s sin?

Oh don’t talk about gender, religion or politics!

Well, you know what I love?
the fall of Eve

Even in their inverted punishing myth she chose truth
She chose to know rather than stay in curated ignorance

And that so-called forbidden fruit?
It was literally knowledge
It will always taste divine