Penises for Peace!

[robinturner]

People do the most extraordinary things for world peace, not least because the most obvious things to do to attain this goal—like getting rid of national governments—are rather too difficult for the average well-intentioned citizen. In my time, I have marched, chanted slogans and mantras, attended music festivals ("Yeah, but when we did it we actually stood for something. I mean, remember Woodstock, Sharon?"), marched, stood up, sat down, got down, marched some more, chained a friend to a gate (Oh hang on, that was a BDSM convention an environmental protest), marched across the Pennines ... I think I might even, so help me God, have been in a drum circle. The latest unusual act for peace, and my favourite so far, took place in Pune in India, where Yogiraj Siddhanath has constructed a thirty-inch shivalingam out of solidified mercury. However much conservative Hindus try to gloss over the fact, a shivalingam (or shivling, for short) is basically a stylised penis, and mercury is well known in alchemical literature as a symbol of semen. But according to Siddhanath, the shivalingam is also a symbol of "earth peace".

Now I like this symbolic reversal. Penises, over the ages, have acquired a rather bad reputation, not least because of some men's habit of trying to stick them where they aren't welcome. Specifically, they have been associated with weapons, with whimsical epithets like "gun" or "pork sword"; in Tantrik literature the penis is even referred to as a "missile", which evokes a rather strange mental image ("Sorry dear, crashed on lift-off"). So it's nice to see this organ being symbolically rehabilitated.




[Thanks to Shivanath and Lal for putting me on to this one.]

Comments

[sjcarpediem.livejournal.com]

I wanted to see a picture!

I wonder how he made it... Isn't mercury poisonous to peoples?

[solri.livejournal.com]

Your wish is my command - picture added.

Mercury itself is not poisonous; it's the mercury salts that it tends to form which are, and presumably solidification avoids this. In fact Siddhanath claims it has revitalising powers.

[sjcarpediem.livejournal.com]

Hmmm... thnx for the image by the way (!)--looks like an easter egg to me, I had hoped for something a little more... phallic. And he looks very Greek to me. And the architecture behind him reminds me of traditional Greek Orthodox Churches. Are you sure this is the right picture? I looks like a shiny easter egg being Christened.

But surely he didn't just find a huge rock of solid mercury and whittle/polish it down to it's current form... it must have been liquid at some point in the manufacturing process... And what did he do with the byproduct?

Really, the technical aspects of this story simply present more questions than they answer.... \:-J

But I agree that it's nice to see a positive but not overbearing portrayal of Man's Differential Anatomy... Not all penii and not all men are evil. I think its good to have examples of pointing that out in non-macho ways. And perhaps its also good its not quite so recognizable--after all, that makes it less confrontational (and it's not like I'd be too intrigued by a giant mercuroid vulva, just annoyed). Maybe this will encourage more people in general (but men especially) to think about the topic seriously rather than off-handedly or mockingly.

[sjcarpediem.livejournal.com]

Nothing, really. I have my own. I see enough of it.

[sjcarpediem.livejournal.com]

Thnx. I've been feeling particularly butch, lately. ;-)

Re: furthermore...

[oblomova.livejournal.com]

I didn't know that Judy Chicago had gone into upholstering.

[sjcarpediem.livejournal.com]

You aren't a man, then?

[sjcarpediem.livejournal.com]

Fascinating...

[solri.livejournal.com]

That's odd, I got the opposite impression.

[vret.livejournal.com]

I suppose it's suitable that the science in that article you linked to is complete wank.

[solri.livejournal.com]

That's not science; that's respectable alchemy!

Re: furthermore...

[eve-prime.livejournal.com]

Ha, good one. That's just what it looks like.

[eve-prime.livejournal.com]

I was just thinking it had been ages since you'd posted, and voila, you came through beautifully. Hope you'll have more time and/or material for posting soon.

[solri.livejournal.com]

It's nice to be appreciated! I'll try to oblige.