Christ's Holy Hole & EOTY Lists
You've all heard about the fourth hole, but have you considered that Jesus had five holes? Also my favorite books, movies and albums of 2023...if you even care.
Bussy: Christ’s Holy Hole
The depiction of Christ's side wound, an iconic motif in Christian art and religious symbology, has been the subject of devotion for centuries. Derived from the narrative in the Gospel of John recounting the crucifixion (John 19:34), it is stated that "[...] one of the soldiers pierced Jesus’ side with a spear, bringing a sudden flow of blood and water."
In the early stages of iconography, this wound was symbolized as a representation of Jesus's profound sacrifice for the redemption of humanity and the forgiveness of sins. However, as time progressed, the Middle Ages brought a fusion of Christian mysticism with devotional practices, redirecting attention toward the wound's symbolic function, as outlined in a vision that St. Catherine of Siena had,
“With that, he tenderly placed his right hand on her neck, and drew her towards the wound in his side. ‘Drink, daughter, from my side,’ he said, ‘and by that draught, your soul shall become enraptured with such delight that your very body, which for my sake you have denied, shall be inundated with its overflowing goodness.’ Drawn close in this way, … she fastened her lips upon that sacred wound, … and there she slaked her thirst.”
Through these visions, repressed Catholic women, saints and mystics, whose only mission was to be devout, were essentially creating erotic Jesus fan fiction. They could enact their inner fantasies through worship of the side wound of Christ and his suffering. As their repressed fantasies bubbled on the surface, these holy women were determined to communicate with the lord more directly, believing that degrading themselves until a point of ecstasy was the way to achieve salvation. Similarly degrading themselves to how Jesus suffered through his final days marked the advent of affective piety, a type of highly emotional devotion, focused on the humanity of Jesus that accentuates compassion for Christ's suffering.
During the later phases of the Middle Ages, devotional art centred around Christ's side wound gained widespread prevalence. Prayer books (largely commissioned by dignified rich women) featured depictions of the wound, accompanied by in-depth descriptions of the wound and its dimensions. With these prayer books, the symbolism of the wound transformed, assuming a vertical configuration reminiscent of a vaginal opening. The linguistic connection between "vulnus" meaning “wound” in Latin and "vulva" reinforced this association. This linkage between Christ's side wound and reproductive organs aligns with mystical writings of this time that eroticized Christ's body, emphasizing its nurturing and generative attributes, similar to the archetype of the “Great Mother.” Late-medieval art also portrayed Jesus giving birth from his side wound to what was conceptualized as "the Bride of Christ" which symbolized the union of Jesus and The Church. Saints were also said to have had visions where they drank from Jesus’s breast or licked clean his wet, bloody wound.
Transcending the realm of visual representation, mystics and esoteric traditions invested the side wound with profound significance. Some regarded it as a portal to divine union, symbolizing the alchemical marriage of opposites through the mingling of blood and water. In the Roman Catholic tradition, the body and blood of Christ assume a central role in the Eucharist, with the transformation of bread and wine into the body and blood upon consumption. Contemplation on the act of ingesting Jesus's body and blood also presents an imaginative experience of partaking from his flesh, creating an eroticized encounter where the consumer would touch their lips with the metaphorical wound and drink from the cup, allowing Christ to enter them.
The combination of the erotic and the sacred within the depiction of Christ's side wound has left a lasting impact, shaping various historic and contemporary cultural expressions across various mediums. It influenced subsequent literary works such as Marquis De Sade's, Justine, which played a pivotal role in the coining of the term sadism. This later resonated in the 1970s with the emergence of nunsploitation films. The effects of this can even be found in contemporary expressions of sexuality, manifesting in St. Andrew’s Cross, or X-Cross seen in modern-day sex dungeons, through the incorporation of whips and paddles in kinky foreplay, and even in more tame fashion through everyone’s favourite horror film nano-genre….cannibalistic love stories.
In the name of the Father, the Son and Christ’s Holy Hole. Amen.
2023 Lists
Now that everyone has a letterboxd and an opinion, this doesn’t mean anything but for continuity’s sake, here are my top 5 films, albums and books of 2023.
Films
Stop Making Sense (1984) Remaster, Godzilla: Minus One, Satan Wants You, Past Lives and I Like Movies. Find the rest of my list on Letterboxd.
Albums
Jess Williamson - Time Ain’t Accidental, Slow Pulp - Yard, Blondshell s/t, Slowdive - Everything is Alive, Agriculture s/t. Songs I listened to a lot on this playlist.
Books
My fav reads of 2023. Not all were published in 2023.
Molly - Blake Butler, Unmask Alice: LSD, Satanic Panic, and the Imposter Behind the World's Most Notorious Diaries - Rick Emerson, White Hot Hate: A True Story of Domestic Terrorism in America’s Heartland - Dick Lehr, Slenderman: Online Obsession, Mental Illness and the Violent Crime of Two Midwestern Girls - Kathleen Hale and Sister of Darkness, The Chronicles of a Modern Exorcist - R.H. Stavis
new 2 me
The video game, Outlast
The cult of Twin Flames
More Me
Bad Dad Rad Dad Podcast) presents…The Rad Wrap: Not Your Final Girl 2023 with Nicole Boychuk
Play by Play Podcast with DC presents… A Chat with Nicole Boychuk of I Hate Sex and Not Your Final Girl