Sacred body

Pudenda: the external genital organs.

This is the anatomical medical definition of both the man’s penis/scrotum and the woman’s outer vaginal area. Any doctor will know this.

What the good doctor might not be aware of is the etymological Latin root of pudenda which is to me, a reflection of the cause of a lot of our society’s pornographic perversions and environmental destructiveness. Instead of translating as a “place of creation” or “wonder” or “birth”, it is translated as a “place of shame”.

The source of all human life on earth, both male and female, is known to originate from A Place of Shame.

Today, I stand before you naked, publicly declaring that there is no part of my body of which I am ashamed. It might be battered, wrinkled, flabby and weathering, but it is not a place of shame.

Especially, my penis is not a place of shame.

Nor, is a woman’s vagina a place of shame. Neither are her breasts.

Fundamentalist religions the world over want us to cover up. They want to remove our animal nature from this earthly garden of paradise. They want to shame the wild nature within us, out of us.

If out of public apathy or fear they are allowed to do so, they will wreck further havoc upon the earth and sow the seeds of further sexual perversions.

I refuse to be cowered into submission. I will not stand by and let anyone shame me into believing that nudity is an act of ungodliness; that my body is not sacred.

For every reader out there who looks upon the above photo with either repulsion or discuss, I can only feel pity because you have lost touch with your inner wild nature with its rooted connection to the sensuous wildness that is this earth, this bountiful, delicious earth.

For every reader that looks at the above photo and sees a scene completely natural, with nothing and no one “out of place”; who only sees a beautiful tree glistening in moistness towering above a human man prayerfully standing on the lush green foliage that carpets his temple, then I applaud you.

You are one of the defenders of God’s earth. Upon seeing a naked body, you see beauty because nature is beautiful. You have discarded the notion of “original sin” and, instead, speak lovingly of “original blessing”.

Upon viewing my pudenda, you see nothing obscene or shameful, rather something tremendously important in the evolution of humankind. All of us began our life’s journey as a seed within someone’s scrotum. Here is half of the sacred nature of creation; half of the source of all being.

When we view each other’s nakedness, may we see the wonderment of the divine. When others attempt to shame us into believing that the naked body is not part of the divine creation, may we act with courage to allow for the presentation of public images of the body. Images that portray its fascinating beauty throughout all its ages from tender new born through to tender decay. May we never be afraid to present a healthier reality to the world.

Without fear, may we allow others to bear witness to our vision for a resacralization of this world. The future well being of our children and our forests depends upon this.