The New Puritanism of “Sacred Sexuality”

There’s a meme that is making the rounds through the modern discourse on women and sexual energies. It borrows the language of empowerment, the aesthetics of spiritual propriety, and the authority of ancient wisdom. But underneath it, a familiar story is being rewritten—one that has existed since time immemorial to keep women in their place.

The premise is seductive in its familiarity: it presents itself as an advanced form of feminine spirituality, but beneath the surface, it is simply a repackaging of biblical ideas about women—ideas that have always functioned to control female power by controlling female sexuality.

The philosophy goes like this: a woman’s true healing and liberation come from reclaiming the sacredness of her body. Her sexuality is a precious vessel, a divine energy that should only be shared with a partner who demonstrates integrity, devotion, and unwavering commitment. By honoring herself and withholding intimacy until she determines that a man has fully earned her trust, she preserves her sacred feminine essence, granting him the privilege of proving his worthiness. Only when he has shown himself ready to hold space for her deepest vulnerabilities can she safely open, surrendering fully into the sacred act of creation—a child.

It’s “sacred sexuality.” It sounds right. It sounds elevated. But just like each other iteration of purity culture, it is designed to control women.

To justify itself, this movement borrows from mythology, Jungian archetypes, and shamanic traditions. It argues that a woman who resists becoming a mother is not only immature but spiritually stagnant—that to age without bearing children is to be a woman out of alignment with her true nature. It further insists that motherhood is the primary method by which a woman learns unconditional love, implying that spiritual realization depends on biology. But biological essentialism carries inherent flaws: it presumes that outcomes are fixed and inevitable, that motherhood alone guarantees spiritual maturity. By that logic, every mother would be spiritually realized, non-mothers inherently incomplete, and gender fluidity impossible—a notion that clearly does not hold true.

This is not ancient wisdom rediscovered—it is puritanism in softer robes. But more insidious than before, it no longer just ties a woman’s worth to physical purity; it now claims her very soul is at stake. Her sexual impulse is cast as a gateway to contamination. If she sleeps with the wrong—or any—man, it’s not just her reputation or body at risk. Now, the danger is far worse: unseen energies, entities, spiritual disease. She must stay energetically safe.

This is one of the most effective forms of misogyny because it is so well-disguised. It tells the woman a familiar ivory tower fairytale that leads her to believe she is being exalted when she is actually being contained. She is told that her sexuality is so precious it must be locked away, that she is so valuable she must be hidden. But this is not protection—it is confinement.

The moment a woman steps into her full sexual sovereignty, the game is over. The moment she recognizes that her power does not come from starvation and the USDA-grade marriage material label it confers, but from her appetite, from freedom, from the full flood of her desire—she stops being something that can be controlled.

A woman is not made weaker by what she takes in; she is made by it. The notion that receiving—energies, experiences, lovers—contaminates her is a lie designed to make her fear her own nature. In truth, every touch, every encounter, every moment of deep erotic exchange contributes to the diversity of the ecosystem of her being. Just as the body cultivates a microbiome through exposure, developing resilience and vitality, so too does a woman’s erotic system. She is not a static thing to be preserved; she is an ever-evolving force, shaped by the currents she allows to move through her. The more she takes in guided by the intelligence of her desire, the more intricate, resilient, and alive her erotic biome becomes.

She is designed to be an absolutely fortified system of power—power to create and dissolve, to ignite and regenerate, to summon beauty from the raw materials of experience. Her body is an ecosystem of vibrant intelligence, endlessly nourishing ti the world around her.

The true power of feminine understanding offers a path out of fear and into freedom. When we anchor ourselves deeply into this consciousness, we no longer need to surrender our autonomy or offer our lives to the fear cartel for protection. Instead, we become magnetic, drawing others toward liberation.

Because when it comes down to it, the choice is not between purity and corruption. The real choice is between fear and freedom.

And we already know which one wins.