cult of the Lady

The cult of the Lady (dīn-i Bānū) is the religious tradition of the Sabaean people.[1]

Theology

The theology of the dīn-i Bānū is, in broad strokes, panentheistic, believing in a God that is both transcendent and immanent. To Her devotees, the Lady is the Bride of the World (ʿArūs-i Ǧahān) and the Presence of God (Sakīna-yi Ḥaqq), the chief manifestation of God’s immanence.[2]

Practice

Worship of the Lady is individual or familiar, rather than congregational. Most believers practice a weekly qurbān or “offering”, in which the celebrant anoints and bathes an image of the Bride[3], inviting Her to partake in food, flowers and lamplight.[4]

Twice-daily qarābīn are celebrated at shrines (hayākil). These are administered by the Daughters of the Presence (duxtarān-i Sakīna), an informal hierarchy of priestesses (kāhināt) and their attendants, the shrine maidens (dōšīzagān-i haykal); many among them are beautiful youths.[5]

  1. On second thought, I think that the vibe of the Sabaeans is more Aramaic than Persian; I’ll provide those translations shortly. ↩︎

  2. A mild exaggeration of the Kabbalistic idea of the šəḵīnāh.↩︎

  3. The sensorial impact here is important: I imagine something like a white marble Aphrodite, perhaps with traces of long-gone polychromy and stains of turmeric or henna. ↩︎

  4. While the vocabulary is mostly Hebraic, practice here takes from both Hindu pūjā and folk Catholicism.↩︎

  5. Cf. the Shintō miko.↩︎