| The Dies Sanguis became the Hilaria, or Festival of Joy, celebrated in Rome as “…a carnival with feasting, merriment, wanton masquerades and universal license, Saturnalian in its absence of all restraint and respect for authority, which nearly cost one emperor his life.” (32) The Temple of Kybele was burned down in 3 AD, but was later restored under the reign of Augustus and later, under the reign of Emperor Claudius (A.D 41-54) the Phrygian worship was incorporated in the State religion of Rome and the spring festival of Kybele and Attis was inaugurated in several celebrations in March. (33) The Galli were high priests of the Syrian goddess Astarte at Hieropolis where they celebrated spring rites (Easter) by cutting themselves on the arms and chest as well as emasculating themselves. Drumming and chanting accompanied crying and moaning while the men ran through the streets while stripping off their clothes and would even throw their organs into the houses, where they would in turn receive female attire and ornaments. These practices occurred all throughout Phrygia, Syria, Lydia, Cappadocia, Pontus and Galatia. (34) The purpose of which was likely threefold. Castration was considered a noble endeavor because sexual urges can be considered to infringe on spirituality. At least that’s what the priests told the followers, as far as we know. Likewise, the ability to transcend pain is an essential part of becoming a warrior in most tribes. The endorphin rush it can bring about in the people who practice things like hanging from hooks, they will happily confess, brings about a state of mind akin to drugs. And likely as important was the willingness and desire to unite with what they considered to be the goddess, while in human form. (35) One more important consideration on this subject is the idea of masculine magic. The priesthood was bent on being magic performers, in their original inception, as Magi in Persia. This would include the resistance to masturbate and “waste” precious life force energy and even, for the more devoted, to abstain from sex completely. Why would men indulge in such madness one might ask? Men should pay attention to these words. The way the female body was created, it was designed for unlimited orgasms, but the male body was not. After a few rounds, most men are exhausted sexually for the evening when a women is just getting warmed up. Men actually lose vital life force when they ejaculate, therefore sex magic utilizes the process of conservation of life force for accomplishing extraordinary achievements. In my own life, I have been a hermit for the last couple years while this book was being written. I had to severely limit my exposure to relationships and commitments to get this book written. To accomplish anything truly “magical” men need to be aware and focused on the conservation of their life force energy. Magick requires focus and will, with sexual energy as the fuel for momentum to manifestation. A religionist mindset always takes things to an unhealthy extreme, however. |
Eunuch priests who castrated themselves prior to the Roman era existed in Sumer, Babylon, and Canaan and were a major feature of the priesthood of Anatolia, where Merlin Stone has mentioned there were as many as five thousand eunuchs in certain cities. (36) These must not have just been priests then, but large portions of the general population. The reason that so many people voluntarily underwent castration appears to be a simple self-sustaining design employed by early matriarchal cultures for the preservation of their people. Only in later patriarchal times was there a need for a large family for the man, because each child would become an income source for him in his old age. In a natural culture without exploitation and capitalism, there are no other people to sell the products to, therefore, it becomes a genuine determination to conserve resources instead of exploiting them. This would inevitably help the family unit and therefore the tribe as a whole. Slowly growing the population according to the needs of the entire society, would be far more important than bringing more and more children into a culture that cannot sustain or maintain them or would do so at the expense of everyone else. The modern way of thinking has developed due to patriarchal control and capitalism and has only led to exploitation of natural resources rather than conservation. The entire idea of castration revolved around conservation of energy. The priesthood of Rome had better plans for the energy of men rather than snuffing it out, it would be controlling them completely via fascism and the focus on war and conflict abroad, nationalism and patriotism through subjugation of their sexual freedom and will including the limitation upon women to control their own bodies and perform abortions. In Rome, castration and all forms of bodily mutilation were prohibited to the Roman citizenry but were allowed in the case of foreign cults on Roman occupied territory. The foreigners, or “aliens” to Rome were able to keep their cult identities and practices in many cases. There were, after all, dozens of mystery cults and schools of spiritual practice in Rome during its long conquest and occupation. Eunuch priesthoods were also prohibited by Hellenic, Babylonian and Judaic law, the belief being that those who served god should be free from blemish. (37) It was not only prohibited for a Roman citizen to become a gallus, he was also forbidden to hold any office in service to the Goddess, or to take part in any processions. (38) (32) Cult of the Mother Goddess, p. 173; Macrobius, Saturnalia, i, xxi, 10 (33) ibid, p. 172; That the Emperor was Claudius Gothicus in A.D. 258; cf. Domaszewski, Journal of Roman Studies, i, 1913, p. 56 (34) Lucian, De Dea Syria, 49, 52 (35) Cult of the Mother Goddess, p. 167 (36) When God was a Woman, p. 149 (37) Cult of the Mother Goddess, p. 167-68; Farnell, Cult of the Greek States., vol. iii, pp. 306f., Greece and Babylon, 1911, pp. 256f (38) ibid, p. 172; Dionysius, Hal., Ant. Rom., ii, 19, 5 |