The Venus of Hohle Fels: Exploring an Ancient Ritual Posture

The discovery of the Venus of Hohle Fels pushes back the date of the oldest prehistoric sculpture—and arguably the oldest known figurative art altogether—by several millennia. The 35,000 to 40,000-year-old ivory carving of a woman with ballooning breasts and an elaborately carved vulva was found in a German cave in 2008. The figurine, sculpted from a woolly mammoth tusk, had broken into fragments, of which six have been recovered, with the left arm and shoulder still missing.

In place of the head, the figurine—which probably took “tens if not hundreds of hours” to carve—has a perforated protrusion that may have allowed its owner to wear it as an amulet.

We received ta report last month about this sculpture, with interest in whether it might represent a ritual posture. Cynthia Devlin brought a Smithsonian magazine article, “Truth and Beauty,” which led us to experiment following the Hero’s Journey Workshop conducted at the Institute. Four of us journeyed using variations of the Venus posture on the auspicious day of the Venus transit of the sun.

Some of the experiences reported included:

Physical sensations – Numbing strain on the right shoulder and arm.

Vision 1 – Image of a newly born baby emerging from the womb.

Vision 2 – A woman with a woven grain basket sorting kernels of grain.

Vision 3 – A jet-black-skinned female who had painted herself with an unusually dark dye. She appeared lean, between 15–20 years old, and transformed into a muscular, warrior-like figure standing at the edge of a mountain, looking down at the plains.

Vision 4 – A vivid movie-like scene: my right shoulder and arm were sliced from my body and offered to a grotesque, monster-like creature. Its giant mouth opened and swallowed the arm.

Vision 5 – A screaming female figure was thrown into molten lava, reminiscent of the sun—a sacrificial ceremony.

Vision 6 – Streams of bodies lined up, walking into the crater of an exploding volcano.

Voice – A voice shouted, “Sit! Sit!” I asked how, but there was no answer. I first kneeled, then felt pulled into a squatting position. Heat rose from my upper body to the lower spine.

Vision 7 – A black void. Then a stream of stars and galaxies emerged—as if I had given birth to galaxies and planets.

After the posture, I noticed physical effects. Later that afternoon, I began my period unexpectedly. It was unusually heavy for the next three days—something I had not experienced before. This posture appeared to have a cleansing and purifying effect on my physical body.