5) Key
I think you've grokked which VoiD and aBySS I’m referring to. Yes, the uTeRuS, the CaVe that man enters through a NaRRoW PaSSageWaY, the VaGiNa, thanks to his PeNis, his SPiKe, and from which the BaBy emerges into the WoRLD, miShBaR in Hebrew (yes Polisson, also Purple 🟣).
The vagina features prominently in Palaeolithic art. There are many engraved examples, for instance in the Blanchard shelter dating from over 30,000 years ago, or on the well-known Venus statuettes, such as the one from Shelkingen dating from 35,000 years ago, featured in the excellent Préhistoires d'Europe P32. This MySTeRious SLiT will then feature in Neolithic PoTTeRy and sculptures, such as the SeaTed GoDDeSS of Pzardzik with her VuLVa and slit extending between her legs (Préhistoires d'Europe P132).
As Serge Dunis explains in L'ours la vague et la lionne, in Sumerian, « WoMaN », munus, is represented by an iSoSCeLeS TRiaNGLe SPLiT by a short BiSeCTor, « an instant evocation of the vulva ». The SymBoL of the vagina is the CheVRon, the V. With or without the little line representing the mysterious slit. It literally oBSeSSed our ancestors (especially women, in my opinion, but of course men too) as soon as the Paleolithic period, as proven by the wonderful PhaLLic objects covered in chevrons found in Ukraine almost 20,000 years ago (Langage de la déesse P37). The chevron is the ultimate pattern, and we'll be seeing it again and again.
Now you can see why I put a PiNK label to this video, and why my little polysemous chameleon is called PoLiSSoN (NauGhTy). I don't think I need to SPeLL it out for you. As Lao Tzu writes at the beginning of Chant 28:
He who knows the MaLe and keeps to the FeMaLe Becomes the RaViNe of the WoRLD. Being the ravine of the world, He will never depart from eternal virtue, But ReTuRNs to a state of iNFanCy.
The letter S is therefore the STaKe, and above all the FeMiNine. That's why we say a goddeSS, a huntreSS, a shepherdeSS. Of course, the S also looks like a SNaKe, and now you can begin to understand why the snake, the NaḤaSh, speaks to eVe, ḤaVah in Hebrew or ḤaWah in Arabic, why SaRah is called SaRah, and why God used to be called El-ShaDay, the god of BReaSTs. For women were the first to perceive the ambivalence at the heart of « Sha », which archetype is both the Feminine and the Masculine. Indeed, women started language, but I’m going to need many videos to convince you of this.
This is why the vagina, the ravine of the world, is at the hearts of human myths, especially in Asia and America, where it is combined with aRRoWs and TeeTh, as Serge Dunis reports. This is the well-known representation of the Vagina Dentata, or of a woman letting arrows into her vagina, which is frequently compared to a QuiVeR. Many goddesses are associated with aRCheRy, such as aRTeMiS or aṬèNa, and this figure is also found in the Judeo-Christian tradition, in chapter 26 of Sirach: « As a ThiRSTy traveler opens his MouTh and DRiNKs from any WaTeR nearby, So She SiTs DoWN before every tent PeG and oPeNs her quiver for every arrow. »
This is interesting because TeeTh and aRRoWs (FLèChes in French) are also associated with the sound « Sha ». In fact, « Sha » is the MaLe SeX RiSing, ThRuSTing and SiNKing all at once into the FeMaLe sex, the CaVeRNous SLiT. Yes, my giggling Freudian friends, here we are. Inside the HoLy of HoLe-ies. Sex, yes, sex. Sex is everywhere, that's why « Sha » is such a polysemic sound.
The Pharisian lot, please don't act all goody-goody: the world is being destroyed, the forests are being burnt, millions of men and women and billions of animals are being killed, but the first mention of sex and suddenly it’s all about SiN (PéChé in French). Clearly, Pharisians have no ShaMe (« BuwShaH » in Hebrew). But we'll come back to shame later.
For the sake of clarity, my reference to men and women only aims at putting things straight. For my generation, gender was quite normative, and there was no talk of cisgenderism or transgenderism yet. It goes without saying that for the Paraklet, there is « no ComPuLSion in sex », to paraphrase a great Prophet.
The oPPoSition between the masculine and the FeMiNine, as embodied in SeX is therefore at the origin of the archetypal aMBiVaLence of the sound « Sha » evoking both the SPiKe and the VuLVa. As Serge Dunis quotes from Alain Testart’s « Art et religion de Chauvet à Lascaux »: « Schematic drawings of the arrowhead and the vulva are uncannily similar: both are represented with three converging strokes ». The ThRee STRoKes of the Hebrew letter Shin (שׁ).
This ambivalence even appears in an amazing 25,000-year-old Moravian sculpture featuring a STaKe combined with what looks like a pair of BReaSTs or BaLLs separated by a GRooVe (Langage de la déesse P62), or in a 17,000-year-old statuette depicting a SPLiT vulva topped by a SPiKe engraved with CheVRons discovered in the Charente region of France (Langage de la déesse P254). The earliest sexual representation combining groove and PhaLLus dates back 42,000 years, on a pendant very recently found in Mongolia by Solange Rigaud's team. This fusion of groove and phallus appears again in the Neolithic period as statuettes combining phallic and VaGiNal ShaPes. And even today, the universal SymBoL of LoVe, the ReD or PiNK HeaRT, is made up of a spike and two breasts, or two BuTToCks.
This ambivalence is found in every language from Egypt to Iran, from Western Europe to Mesopotamia because it's extremely ancient. It certainly predates the migration of Homo Sapiens from Africa and may even date back from before the emergence of this species, our species, around 300,000 years ago. This ambivalence will feature in each of my 10 Stories about the « Sha » sound.
After this long preamble on sex, you now understand why in Hebrew ʔiySh is the man, ʔiShah the woman (but one does not derive from the other, Yod here, Hé there ...) and ʔeSheK the TeSTiCLes (Lev 21. 20), and why also a woman (or a man) is SCReWed (SauTé or BaiSé in French), and why a PuSSy (ChaTTe in French) is ShaGGed (Yes Polisson, « ShaG » it is also Brown 🟤).
Of course, the Qur’an is not devoid of sexual allusions, see the fundamental sura 81 At taKwyR, already quoted, which begins with « when SouLs are PaiRed », or in another essential Sura 92 Al LayL, which invokes what the Eternal has created, MaLe and FeMaLe.
Sex is indeed FaSCiNating, and can be found in all myths, more or less explicitly, starting with Hesiod's Theogony or among the Hittites, with their CaSTRated creator gods. And our ancestors always pondered the emergence of this basic attraction between male and female, between the spike and the groove.
They were perfectly aware that things were different when life began, like Hesiod who recounts that gods used to reproduce through parthenogenesis before doing so through FiLoTèS, i.e. through sex.
Even today, sex remains a MySTeRy for evolution experts. It's the famous ChiCken-and-eGG problem I mentioned in my introduction to marketplaces: how does oNe ends up TWo ? One thing is for certain: sex enabled the emergence, around 650 million years ago, of more complex multicellular organisms, as well as the development of CooPeRative relationships in an increasingly unstable environment. Complexity, cooperative relationships, adaptation to the environment… all themes familiar to corporation managers.
SeX is reflected even in the ShaPe of letters. Particularly in Hebrew, where Shin (שׁ) is shaped like a SPiKe or VuLVa, while Ṣamekh (ס) is RouND like the BReaST or the WoMB. But I'll come back to the circle and the tree in my next video. In Latin languages, sex is HiDDen in the SiNuous S🐍, which aLTeRNates between SLiT and SuMMiT, and which is also found in Yin-Yang (☯️), the ultimate SymBoL of this aMBiVaLent DuaLity.
The sinuous S can also be found on 6,000-year-old PoTTeRy found in Cucuteni, Romania (Language de la Déesse P316). It even appears in the logo of Coopérons, my now 10-year-old technology designed to facilitate business eXChaNGes, with its TWo ReD and BLue HaNDs FaCing eaCh other.
And regarding the Yin-Yang symbol, it does not simply represent a STaTic oPPoSition. It is also DyNaMic; expressing that LiGhT emerges from DaRKness and Darkness from Light, or, as Saint Augustine says, speaking about time, (Confessions chapter XXII):
« We speak of this time and that time, and these times and those times: “How long ago since he said this?” “How long ago since he did this?” “How long ago since I saw that?” “This syllable is twice as long as that single short syllable.” These words we say and hear, and we are understood and we understand. They are quite commonplace and ordinary, and still the MeaNing of these very SaMe Things lies deeply HiD and its DiSCoVeRy is still to come. »
We'll come back to time and ChaNGe soon. For now, let's just say that they too are a consequence of the fundamental ambiguity of « Sha ».