Occasionally, the way I indulge my urges – mainly rambling diatribes here, or acts of violence in sessions and fetish clubs – provoke interesting responses by email. With permission, I will post some of the best on the blog.

Here’s the gentleman Lujan’s reply to last month’s “Extra Virgin” post:

“You are making a special point I know. But wondering if you have heard of the meaning ‘virgin’ may have had in the ancient world? Some people argue it meant “Not owned by a man” or `free’. As `dominant’ might be an extreme of `free’, I think its not surprising that you dream of our most sacred virgin. Also explains perhaps all those virgin Goddesses like Athena etc. I think it meant that they were powerful, free figures, not owned by patriarchy, or pre-patriarchal. That makes Mary even more special to us, a clue where she came from.  So perhaps she is more inspiring than some think, in her unassuming yet subversive way. Mary Mother of God. Our greatest monarch Elizabeth I, no stranger to sex we’re sure, most defiantly a Virgin Queen in the true sense of the word.

Winston Churchill described Joan of Arc as the most impressive person to have lived in the last 1000 years. Pretty hard to think of anyone, ever, to match her courage, leadership and compassion. In France she is the `Virgin of Orleans’. She may have been a sexual virgin, but certainly was the virgin of pre-history, the independent goddess like woman, owned by no one. She remains the youngest person to have commanded a nations armed forces. A 17 year old daughter of a farmer, commanding France’s nobility & patriarchy’s elite . Dealing the decisive blow at Patay that destroyed the English chances of conquering France, ending 100 years of pointless patriarchal warring. Sorry to go on, but certainly makes me think about the ancient, and probably sub-conscious power of the title Virgin, and of its ongoing meaning. If we can overlook patriarchy’s corruption of the word, it stands for greatness, and its true root meaning is probably `free’, and subconsciously we may well be remembering that.

Interesting also in the context of one of your other blogs, about how we love to diminish the sacred feminine . Still today men strive to dismiss The Maiden’s achievements, to dismiss her as mad. History must not recall that a 17 year old woman beat men at their favourite game, and crushed the ambitions of England in France.

Such a shame Virgin lost its underlying meaning today. But thrilling to think of its subconscious power and meaning, and what it might mean in our dreams, or your dreams.”

Read the original “Extra Virgin” article here.