Getting Real:
Looking At The Sheela-na-gig
With Open Eyes ^©
by Tira Brandon-Evans, CH., FS.

Upon viewing Changling's powerful painting of the Sheela-na-gig, a friend commented on the beauty of the stars flowing from the open root chakra and how this spiritually uplifted the archetype for her. I have never had a problem with the frank and bawdy image of the medieval Sheela. The interesting thing about the Sheela-na-gig is we either 'get it' or we don't. Either we laugh or we avert our eyes and pretend we don't see her.

I think it is too simple to say she is holding open her root chakra. The whole chakra concept is Hindu-East Indian -- and what they actually believe about chakras may be quite different from what we believe they believe. In other words, our New Age concepts regarding chakras may only vaguely resemble what Hindus actually believe.

We do, however, know they venerate the lingam and the yoni. The lingam is the penis and the yoni is the vagina. In the west we tend to sublimate these frankly sexual symbols into nothing more than nebulous emblems of some spiritual principle. Veneration of the penis and the vagina is 'not nice'.

Therefore, those who do venerate the penis and vagina must be venerating them only as symbols of the male and female and not really as the organs of generation common to all men and women. We are too dainty.

Is the Sheela-na-gig holding open her root chakra? holding open her physical vagina? her yoni? or all of these? and why?

We don't know. Therefore, we may only speculate. Since she is most often found over doors of ancient churches in the Celtic Isles the general feeling is that she was placed there to remind everyone where we come from, the wombs of our mothers and, by implication, the womb of our Mother the Earth.

Many of these Sheela's have deeply grooved yonis from centuries -- almost two thousand year's worth -- of churchgoers stroking her vulva as they entered their churches. This is still done today. If asked these Christians say they do it because their parents did it and they think it is for 'luck'.

Is the Sheela-na-gig related to the crones we find in old Celtic stories? In these tales a young man willingly lies with a hideous hag and gains the kingship because the hag is the Goddess of the Land, the Goddess of Sovereignty. In some of the stories she turns into a beautiful maiden during the act of intercourse, but in other stories she does not, she remains a crone. Modern Celticists tend to portray the Sheela as the Crone Goddess of Sovereignty.

Regardless of whether or not this is the correct view; the Sheela-na-gig is a jolly, ribald, rude trickster. She makes a joke of the thing we would like to take seriously. She pokes fun at the thing we would view as romantic, elevated and highly spiritual.

The Sheela does not let us do that. She is so obviously engaged in an indecent proposal. Men blush; women delicately look the other way. She says, "Come on, fellas! What's the problem? Come on in! You were all lined up for the ride when I was young and in the bloom of my beauty. What? No takers? Tee-hee-hee-hee."

The Gaelic Sheela-na-gig, the Greek Baubo, and the Japanese Uzume are sisters under the skin.

http://www.honoringyourbelly.com/inspiration/articles/archaic_knowing.html

http://www.goddess.com.au/goddess/baubo.htm

http://www.pantheon.org/articles/u/uzume.html

http://www.lyricalworks.com/stories/amaterasu/amaterasu.htm

http://www.angelfire.com/va/goddesses/uzum.html

Both Baubo and Uzume dance naked, not a nice lady-like dance of nine veils, but bawdy burlesque strip-tease, with a bump and a grind and a -- "Keep your eye on the banana, boys!" Both are goddesses of fertility. In fact, they are both goddesses who restore fertility to the earth in the wake of drought and famine.

We do not know if the Sheela-na-gig danced: but her bare ribs, big belly, and huge staring eyes indicate she is starving. She is famished. Nevertheless, men and women stroke her vulva for luck as they enter their churches. For luck or for protection? Famine is rare in Western Europe and the European Islands today but this has not always been the case. What has been may one day be again. The terrible famines in 19th century Ireland attest to this.

Was the Sheela a Baubo/Uzume type of goddess who danced to bring rain, exposed herself to induce laughter, and healed the earth with her rowdy, raucous comedy?

All these bawdy burli-que Goddesses seem to say, "Lighten up, you are too busy being ladies and not busy enough being women. Women bleed and strain and squeeze out babies. Women fuck and love it. Get real, my daughters! Today you are young, you are beautiful and desirable. Enjoy this time. But know that when you are old and no longer desirable you will still be desirous and you will be as I, every man will know it is there but no man will care."

"And my sons, do I scare you? Do my daughters scare you? Are you afraid you will not be able to satisfy the lusts of your women in their cronage? Good! Be afraid, be very afraid! Learn respect and cherish your maiden throughout her life, for one day she will be a crone and you will need her to cherish you."

The Sheela-na-gig says, "My children, all comes from this hole and all returns to it."

I think we are skating on thin ice when we try to ignore all the aspects of Sheela/Baubo/Uzume and attempt to transform what is plainly and shockingly rude into a symbol of 'higher spiritual consciousness'. The Sheela-na-gig's yoni is her vulva, her vagina, and her chakra. To try to eliminate the one in favour of the others strips the archetype of power and turns us into female eunuchs.

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Getting Real: Looking At The Sheela-na-gig With Open Eyes copyright © 2003 by Tira Brandon-Evans, all rights reserved. Back to Article