Does the alchemical tradition really include ritual crossdressing?

[Anonymous]

It isn't just a rumour when there are these paintings for the alchemical androgyne:

And it makes sense how archaeologists keep discovering that some ancient pharaohs were secret crossdressers. It's interesting that even the people wearing the crown today look androgynous but I can't be sure about them unless I find out whether true alchemists have this tradition.

Yes

No

I don't know

[AngryCarl]

You mean like turning base metals into gold? That's only been possible since the 20th century. I don't think crossdressing is required. Interesting question though.

[AngryCarl]

In case you're wondering (and I know you are) the process of turning base metals into gold is more expensive than just buying the damn gold. But remember, if you haven't seen your gold you don't really own it.

[jshm2]

You're confused about symbolism and art, kiddo.

[Asker]

Can you elaborate?

[jshm2]

Those pictures, are not literal, but symbolic representations pertinent to that era.

[Asker]

No shit. I never thought there were people with two heads. Although there are a few that live this way, they are both the same gender and one doesn't grow a beard if the other does not.
I think clearly there were androgyne cults like even those who were NOT open about it, archaeologists discover that they were secretly crossdressing and lying about their sex such as the pharaohs.

[Anonymous]

I think it’s intended to symbolize spiritual transformation.

[Agape93]

Nope. It's about duality and conceptual hermaphroditism

[Asker]

But I was reading professors explain that ancient cults would crossdress for this reason.

[Agape93]

Which professors? I'll check it out myself.

Also alchemy was a part of science back then, not cukt practice nor was it tied to rituals.

[Agape93]

Still waiting

[Asker]

Ye I totally dismissed it remember how previously you kept deleting my replies when I tried proving you wrong.

And come in, it is not hard to find AT ALL if you cared to be unbiased and search the truth you'd have done it already.

[Agape93]

I haven't deleted any of your replies, and I've waited nearly a week for a response. So if you make a claim, back it up or don't bring it up to begin with.

[Asker]

There is a crap ton of it. First on the list:
Religious historian Rivkah Harris, former Associate Professor of Religion at Northwestern University, states in her book, Gender and Aging in Mesopotamia: The Gilgamesh Epic and Other Ancient Literature, that the goddess Ishtar was also known as Inanna, and her worship was specifically designed to break down all gender distinction and well as socioeconomic distinctions. She writes: “She [Ishtar] shattered all gender and socioeconomic distinctions -- being both a royal queen and simultaneously “the harlot of heaven... And in all this she was the role model for her followers. Among her powers was this from a Sumerian poem: “To turn a man into a woman and a woman into a man are yours, Inanna.” Professor Harris further writes: “In the Descent of Ishtar we are told of some participants in her religious cult: ‘The male prostitutes comb their hair before her…They decorate the napes of their necks with colored bands…They gird themselves with the sword belt…Their right side they adorn with women’s clothing…Their left side they cover with men’s clothing…Their transvestitism simulated the androgyny of Inanna- Ishtar. It was perhaps the inversion of the male/female binary opposition that thereby neutralized this opposition. By emulating their goddess who was both female and male, they shattered the boundary between the sexes. This was seen as a way of rising above the prison of the flesh.” Finally, Harris concludes: “Ishtar is androgynous, marginal, ambiguous…She is betwixt and between… Central to the goddess as paradox is her well-attested psychological and physiological androgyny. Inanna-Ishtar is both female and male … [in one place stating] ‘Though I am a woman I am a noble young man’”

[Agape93]

That literally was my whole point, dualism and conceptual hermaphroditism, not ritual cross dressing

[Asker]

Did you even read it?

[Asker]

The male prostitutes comb their hair before her…They decorate the napes of their necks with colored bands…They gird themselves with the sword belt…Their right side they adorn with women’s clothing…Their left side they cover with men’s clothing…Their transvestitism simulated the androgyny of Inanna- Ishtar.

[Agape93]

Yeap which is part of dualism and conceptual hermaphroditism. That is not the same thing as ritual crossdressing.

[strateguy632]

not,