In this powerful opening episode of our Wrath series, we begin unpacking the long, twisted history of how women’s anger, sexuality and emotional expression have been pathologised, feared, and demonised throughout the ages.

We trace the roots of "hysteria" and "melancholy" from ancient Egyptian beliefs about the wandering womb, through Hippocrates' dubious sex-based prescriptions, to medieval Europe’s descent into superstition and sin. We trace how diagnoses like hysteria and melancholy were used to explain—and control—women’s bodies and behaviour. Along the way, we explore how very real medical conditions — like endometriosis — were misunderstood, misdiagnosed, and transformed from bodily afflictions to signs of madness, evil, and even witchcraft.

We also touch on the early roots of the European witch hunts and how the seeds of fear, misogyny, and moral panic began to grow. This episode digs into the early myths that still echo in modern medicine and lays the foundation for Part 2, where we dive deeper into the witch trials, including the brutal history of the Scottish hunts and the infamous Scold’s Bridle.

🧠🔥 Check out our blog post for references and further reading — and stay tuned for Part 2.

Support the show

🔥 Thanks for joining us in The Sanctuary of Sin! 🔥
If you loved what you heard, show your support by subscribing, sharing, and leaving us a review—it helps more sinners find their way to the sanctuary.

💋 Want to go deeper? Support us and join our Church of Sin on Patreon!
Become a Priest of Sin or above and you’ll get a special shout-out on the next episode:
👉 patreon.com/TheSanctuaryofSinPodcast

🔗 Find all our links, socials, and events right here:
👉 linktr.ee/thesanctuaryofsinpodcast

📧 Got a burning confession, juicy question, or a topic you’re dying to hear us cover? Slide into our inbox at thesanctuaryofsin@yahoo.com – we’d love to hear from you.

Until next time,
Stay curious. Stay kinky. Stay sinful.

Long before Christianity, colonialism, and the gender binary, queer and trans people didn’t just exist — we held power, ritual, and spiritual authority.

In this Pride Month special, we uncover the erased histories of gender-diverse priesthoods, sacred sex workers, and queer spiritual traditions from Mesopotamia to India, Rome to the South Pacific. From Inanna’s gender-nonconforming clergy to the Gallae of Cybele, from the Hijra priestesses of South Asia to the queer shamans and Two-Spirit leaders across Indigenous cultures — we explore how queerness was once central to worship, ecstasy, healing, and community.

We also dig into how colonial powers, Christian empires, and modern censorship worked overtime to bury these traditions under shame — rewriting “holy” into “sinful,” and “priest” into “pervert.”

Spoiler: we’re not the new thing. We are ancient.

Check out our blog post for a written overview and references: https://thesanctuaryofsin.com/blogs/the-sanctuary-of-sin-podcast/e8-before-the-binary-genderqueer-priests-sacred-sex-workers-the-erased-queer-past

Support the show

🔥 Thanks for joining us in The Sanctuary of Sin! 🔥
If you loved what you heard, show your support by subscribing, sharing, and leaving us a review—it helps more sinners find their way to the sanctuary.

💋 Want to go deeper? Support us and join our Church of Sin on Patreon!
Become a Priest of Sin or above and you’ll get a special shout-out on the next episode:
👉 patreon.com/TheSanctuaryofSinPodcast

🔗 Find all our links, socials, and events right here:
👉 linktr.ee/thesanctuaryofsinpodcast

📧 Got a burning confession, juicy question, or a topic you’re dying to hear us cover? Slide into our inbox at thesanctuaryofsin@yahoo.com – we’d love to hear from you.

Until next time,
Stay curious. Stay kinky. Stay sinful.

Pride. A deadly sin… or a powerful act of survival?

In this fiery Pride Month episode, we dive into the tension between religious morality and queer self-love—asking why pride is demonized in doctrine, but essential for the marginalized. From the saints to the sinners, we unpick the church's long history of policing queer joy, confidence, and autonomy.

Expect heresy:
🕯️ We trace the church’s fear of queerness back to the Manicheans, whose openness to same-sex love made them an early enemy of Christian orthodoxy.
⚔️ We uncloak the Knights Templar, whose secretive brotherhood and intimate initiation rites were recast as "sodomy" in order to justify their violent destruction.
🔥 And yes, we explore how queer bodies were literally made burnable—because if the church couldn’t convert us, it would silence us by fire.
💥 Ever wondered why “bugger” is such a charged word? Let’s talk etymology, heresy, and the Balkan roots of this British slur.

From Stonewall riots to the modern queer liberation movement, we connect the past to the present: how Pride became not just a protest, but a reclamation of the very thing we were told would damn us—ourselves.

Featuring radical theology, queer history, flaming hot rage, and a whole lot of righteous glitter ✨

Check out our blog article for an overview and our references: https://thesanctuaryofsin.com/blogs/the-sanctuary-of-sin-podcast/e7-pride-queerness-confidence-why-the-church-fears-it

Support the show

🔥 Thanks for joining us in The Sanctuary of Sin! 🔥
If you loved what you heard, show your support by subscribing, sharing, and leaving us a review—it helps more sinners find their way to the sanctuary.

💋 Want to go deeper? Support us and join our Church of Sin on Patreon!
Become a Priest of Sin or above and you’ll get a special shout-out on the next episode:
👉 patreon.com/TheSanctuaryofSinPodcast

🔗 Find all our links, socials, and events right here:
👉 linktr.ee/thesanctuaryofsinpodcast

📧 Got a burning confession, juicy question, or a topic you’re dying to hear us cover? Slide into our inbox at thesanctuaryofsin@yahoo.com – we’d love to hear from you.

Until next time,
Stay curious. Stay kinky. Stay sinful.