The magical ones,
nature’s gay sons,
gentle feminine men
had a role back then,
in the ancient days
of the Goddess Mother
the first priesthood on the planet
was this band of brothers.
Known as Gala
they sang, like the women,
for the dead
and tended the temples
wherein lived
the Godhead,
serving as priests for all time
as Goddess Inanna had said:
hated and rejected by most,
but special to Her heart:
She predicted a time to come
when the world would recognise
and honour
the queer sacred arts.
In the ancient lands of Mesopotamia,
genderbending priests were created,
so the legend says,
to rescue the Goddess
from prison imposed by her sister
in the dark Underworld,
wherein no male nor female could enter
but the queerkind could.
They succeeded in their task
brought Inanna back to the earth,
but the sister required a replacement –
the Goddess sent her greedy husband Tammuz,
who had simply revelled while She suffered below,
to the dark depths for half of the year:
legends of dying and resurrecting Gods –
reflecting the cycle of nature’s seasons –
began here.
The centuries rolled by and the Christ took the throne
that had once been the Great Mother’s alone,
the Goddess became the Virgin, meek and mild
then her power all together denied
under Protestant religions and secular society:
the Goddess is chained up once more in the dark
and her holy queer people have forgotten who they are.
The Goddess is again trapped in the darkness
and needs her priests to rescue Her once more…
The Gallae of Cybele, Demeter, Atargatis,
the Qedesha of Ashtoreth,
the Megabyzoi of Artemis,
the Kelebim of Astarte:
feminine men wore the robes
sang the chants, led the prayers, laments and rituals
beat the drums, led the dancing, offerings and ecstasies
they were known as the Holy Ones
they embodied DIVINITY,
some self-castrated to ‘limit their infinity’
ie their ability to procreate, so that they might
serve and embody the infinite mother divine:
so that the heavens and the earth might always be aligned
the world is changing, and once more the time is here
for the Goddess’s return,
BUT THIS NEEDS HER PRIESTS, THE QUEERS,
TO REMEMBER WHO WE ARE, RECLAIM OUR QUEER SACRED ARTS
and recognise that in human consciousness
we play an integral, essential, sacred part.
rainbow messenger 