To adore Qudshu, the Holy One

Qudshu, that exotic goddess of sacred ecstacy and sexual pleasures. Her Semitic name (QDSH) means ‘the holy one’ and despite some speculations regarding her Near Eastern origins, the goddess was adored with fervour within the Egyptian pantheon of the New Kingdom. Some even whisper that she was indigenous to the land of Khem.

So powerful was this goddess that she was worshipped as part of the divine triad along with the fertility god Min and the Syrian storm god Reshep. She was often associated with the goddess Hathor, whom she resembled in some ways and with the inherently sensual Near Eastern goddess Astarte and the goddess of war Anat, both of whom were known in Egypt.

In the Egyptian pantheon Qudshu was experienced and adored as an aspect of both ba and the ka. In the sense of the ba she represented the microcosmic aspects of fertility, such as eros for sensuality and beauty. For the macrocosm she represented eros for gnosis in the form of the ka.

In Egyptian iconography her vision was that of a beautiful naked woman holding lotus blossoms in her right hand and snakes or papyrus in her left hand, all of which are symbols of her sacred sexuality and fertility. Her hairstyle and headdress sometimes approximate that of other Egyptian goddesses. She is often depicted as standing upon a lion, which represents Canaan and she is flanked by Min on her right and Reshep on her left, the two gods being depicted standing on shrines that elevate them closer to the same height of the leonine-borne goddess.

Truly a goddess to be adored in an ecstatic state of sacred sexuality and beauty amidst violent sandstorms, scorching heat and the starlit heavens above...