The Orthodox Jewish practice of tapping the recipient of the "lashes" with a soft leather strap comes in mind, when dealing with the question of the sadistic aspects of the Lupercalia observance. In strictly observing the form of the observance, one might say, one finds no requirement that the women be struck violently. A soft tap with a soft strap fulfills the requirements of the form.

As before, this satisfies the form, but not the spirit of the observance. Here, one might say, is as one turn from the Orthodox rabbi to the Reconstructionist rabbi, and asks "Rebbe, what do you think we should do?" To which he might respond, "Why were lashes used ? To cause anguish, in the one who had transgressed, so that he might think about his action. Might not criticism of his actions, and a period of self-inspection achieve the same objectives, given our perspective today, that would have called for physical punishment, for our stiffer necked ancestors?". Thus, by adding his recommendation to that of the Orthodox rabbi, we would be able to return the spirit to the form from which it had been lost.

Likewise, here we might ask, in what spirit were the blows delivered harshly? In fact, later on, apparently, the women were as nude as the young men, guaranteeing that the blows would be falling on unprotected skin. That is to say, that the observance grew harsher in time, not gentler, during late antiquity. We would be kidding ourselves, I think, if we denied that misogyny and fear played a role here. Women were not in a position to speak up, even among each other. There was no freedom of association, in those times, and certainly little freedom of speech. There was a shortage of available young women in those days (much like in much of the third world today), an abundance of frustrated young men, and, one may expect, more than a little sexual hostility. However, I'm not about to suggest that we would need to revive these things, even if our own time wasn't already providing them in abundance. Is there something positive in the spirit to recapture?

Let us say that you are female, and you have grown up in a time when sexual desire in women, is frowned upon. So demanding is the culture, of the "virtue" of its ladies, that one of the greatest heroines of the period is a Roman matron (Lucretia) who committed suicide out of shame, when she was raped by the son of the King (Tarquin). (The attitude actually was, that the victim of such an act bore guilt, not just the perpetrator, as we now realize, or should, at any rate). Yet, sexual desire is a very good thing if one is to conceive - the process tends to be severely painful otherwise, for mechanical reasons at the very least, especially in a time and place in which effective lubricants aren't availiable. Especially, if one is married, in what is then a severely patriarchal society, to somebody who thinks that one exists for his convenience, and might be inclined to rush one to do things before one is ready, because of the heightened pleasure that will result, regardless of the discomfort it causes his mate.

Lust leads to guilt, which leads to a desire to be punished. Once one has been punished, one then has license to enjoy that pleasure that one has already paid the price for, and thus need no longer feel guilt over. In fact, to this very day, one can still find an occasional woman, from an unusually puritanical background, who upon becoming sexually "liberated", reportedly does so in just that way.

From this point of view, a profoundly sick situation leads to a logical choice. Would one rather be slightly sore in an insensitive location (the back), or severely sore and maybe bleeding in a far more sensitive one, in the course of an experience one is conditioned to feel degraded by? What the woman receives here, is a release from an unjustified sense of shame. (Any discussion of the sadistic, and masochistic aspects of this ritual, as it is, and how it was, practiced, should be conducted with this thought in mind). In a modern context, the question would arise, how much of the same sort of sickness do we bear that would inspire such unwarranted shame? How do we help ourselves, and each other, feel at ease with what is perfectly natural and right, especially in a marital relationship ?

In a modern Lupercalia celebration, that which we would do to put such demons to rest, if they are present at all, and make us feel at ease with the thought of proper sexual relations, would be very much part of the ritual. The presence of this would be part of the restoration of the lost spirit, to the toned down form of the observance.

Aside from this, what has been broken has been inhibition, and restraint. What would it take to get people to do likewise, today? "Oh, fine", somebody is probably saying as he reads it, "I knew this was where he was headed". No, not at all. I'm not talking about reducing the reluctance to engage in spontaneous sexual activity. As the form of the ritual should make clear, widespread sex was not only not part of the ritual, IT COULD NOT HAVE BEEN. The young men who are striking the women, run away having done so, having many more to meet in the course of their duties. How does one have sex with a woman 100 feet away?

No, here it is more a question of, how does one break free of a rut? How does one become less shy, or restrained? How does one work on getting into the spirit of the moment?

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