v

Engraving on the Southern wall of the Church of Saint Secundus, Cortazzone, Asti, Italy, dating to the XII century.
Notwithstanding the general tendency to repression of sexuality on the part of the Christian Church, images like this one reveal that in folk religion was still very lively the idea according to which the sexual intercourse had a wider meaning than the simple bodily act and implied a sacred activity. Like in ancient religions, the relationship of a man and a woman was inscribed into a cosmological context, as an instrument soliciting the vital and generative forces of nature and conveying them to the benefit not only of human beings, but also of animals, fields, and crops.

[Image: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cortazzone_ChiesaSan_ Secondo_07c.JPG]




Male Symbols

Back

Engraving on the Southern wall of the Church of Saint Secundus, Cortazzone, Asti, Italy, dating to the XII century. Notwithstanding the general tendency to repression of sexuality on the part of the Christian Church, images like this one reveal that in folk religion was still very lively the idea according to which the sexual intercourse had a wider meaning than the simple bodily act and implied a sacred activity. Like in ancient religions, the relationship of a man and a woman was inscribed into a cosmological context, as an instrument soliciting the vital and generative forces of nature and conveying them to the benefit not only of human beings, but also of animals, fields, and crops. [Image: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cortazzone_ChiesaSan_ Secondo_07c.JPG]