The 3000 Years’ War
Milchar
Yes, 3000 years, and it’s even a cautious estimation; it can well be more. For at least 3000 years the priests of many religions have been waging their war on human sexuality. This war is not limited to merely taboos and prohibitions. In its most extreme forms, it practices even castration and other forms of mutilation.
So, we don’t know that exact date when it began. But, even without knowledge of the details that are going to be described later, it’s easy to guess: where it began. Surely, it was in the Middle East. All ideas that hate human body, its beauty and sexuality have originated from there.
So, about 3000 years ago (even 3200-3300 according to other estimations), when Paganism was still a dominant religion everywhere, and when the Jews were just a small obscure tribe and had not written their “Old testament” yet, the first cult practicing mass emasculation appeared in what is now Syria. The priests of Atargatis, a Syrian goddess of fertility, started to cut off their penises to offer them to the goddess. And some of devout worshippers of Atargatis followed suit.
That could be merely a curious fact from the life of one ancient barbaric tribe, if it were only about the cult of Atargatis. But that was just the beginning. Another such cult, which left way more traces in the culture of the Antiquity and even the Middle Ages, appeared soon near the same place; it was probably influenced by those Syrian cults.
The cult of Cybele and Attis
Cybele was worshipped as the goddess of fertility in Phrigia, the region in the south-east of modern Turkey. The Phrigian mythology had a tale of a young man named Attis, who fell in love with the goddess Cybele so deeply that he offered his penis to her. Following this myth, everybody who wanted to be a priest of Cybele should sacrifice his penis as Attis had done.
What pleasures can remain in the life of a man who cut off his genitalia? It’s only one thing: domination over other people. Pessinunt, the city of the main temple of Cybele, was a theocratic polity ruled by emasculated priests of Cybele. For over a thousand years they kept on practicing their abhorrent cult, no matter whom they had to swear their allegiance: Persia, Alexander the Great, or anybody else. It was first the Romans who, after conquering Pessinunt and other cities where the cult of Cybele was practiced, put an end to the rule of the castrated priests.
However, the Romans were respectful to the religions of peoples they conquered and allowed them to build temples of their gods in Rome. The Roman Senate was disputing for long about the permission to build a temple of Cybele. On the one hand, the Roman traditions of religious tolerance dictated to allow to build it; on the other hand, this cult looked disgusting to the Romans, who valued masculinity in all its manifestations. In the end, the Senate adopted a compromise solution: allow to establish a temple of Cybele, but not within the city proper. It had to be built on the designated site outside of the walls of Rome.
This place was considered cursed by the Romans at that time. Once a Roman legion gathered there before going on a campaign. The soldiers spent several days there, and then an epidemic of an unknown disease broke out among them, of which many died. There and only there the cult of Cybele was permitted to build their temple. Now everybody knows the name of that place: Vatican. It was there that the worshippers of Cybele were making their abhorrent sacrifices, which just confirmed the bad reputation of that place among the Romans.
The Valesians
The followers of Cybele weren’t alone. Among the diversity of peoples and beliefs of the Roman Empire there were others too who wanted to cut off somebody’s genitalia for the sake of their god. One of the most well-known sects of this kind was founded by Valesius (it’s the latinization of his name; he was an ethnic Arab). The sect operated mostly in what is now Syria and Jordan. It was already the 2nd century CE, and the idea to cut off that sinful penis of every man was taken by Valesius from the writings of some early Christians.
Unlike the adepts of Cybele, who mutilated only themselves, the Valesians were trying hard to make sinless everybody they could reach. Unacquainted men were lured to visit somebody’s home and suddenly got their genitalia cut off. Caravanners in the Syrian desert were attacked by the Valesians for the same goal.
The sect was actually quite large and continued to exist long after the death of Valesius. It’s still witnessed in texts from the 4th century CE, and even the Medieval lists of condemned heresies mention Valesians among others.
Accidental (or not) coincidences in Christianity and Islam
Although Christianity and Islam are interested in their followers to be fruitful and multiply, they (especially Christianity) cannot hide their sympathy for the Syrian castrating cults. This gets evident in some small details that might be just coincidences if they weren’t so many.
To begin with, the early Christian writer Origen castrated himself.
History is silent about the state of John the Evangelist’s genitalia, but his “Revelation” gives a hint to those who want to be “salvaged” that they have to castrate themselves before the Apocalipse:
“
14:4 These are they which were not defiled with women; for they are virgins. These are they which follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth. These were redeemed from among men, being the firstfruits unto God and to the Lamb...
14:8 And there followed another angel, saying, Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication...
14:18 And another angel came out from the altar, which had power over fire; and cried with a loud cry to him that had the sharp sickle, saying, Thrust in thy sharp sickle, and gather the clusters of the vine of the earth; for her grapes are fully ripe.
14:19 And the angel thrust in his sickle into the earth, and gathered the vine of the earth, and cast it into the great winepress of the wrath of God...
“
One of the main holidays in the cult of Cybele was the day when Attis sacrificed his penis. Chistians celebrate the resurrection of Christ on exactly the same date.
The St.Peters cathedral in Rome is built on the same place where the temple of Cybele was before. (Actuall, the first St.Peters cathedral was just the former temple of Cybele repurposed into church under the rule of Theodosius I.) The popes could well afford to purchase any site in Rome for their residence, but they chose Vatican, the former center of Cybele’s cult, although it was grim outskirts of Rome by that time.
One of the properties of the main temple of Cybele in Pessinunt was the “Black stone”, probably a meteorite. Similar stones of smaller size were also in other temples of Cybele.
Muslims, especially in the first centuries of the history of their religion, were destroying and annihilating any traces of Paganism on the territories they conquered. It was only one Pagan worshipping site that they preserved and even turned into the main sacred place of their religion: the Kaaba and its “Black stone” — the symbol of the cult of Cybele.
Some may think that Islam must have put an end to any “Pagan” traditions in their sacred place. But they are completely wrong: the Kaaba is guarded by eunuchs since the time of Muhammad, and this practice continues even today.
Georg Rapp’s sect
So, the whole Europe is taken over by Christianity, Catholic churches feature choirs of castrati, and priests keep on telling of the sinful Diabolic nature of human genitalia for centuries. It’s no wonder that such a moral climate contibuted to the emergence of new sects preaching to cut off those Satanic organs.
One of them was Georg Rapp, who established his sect in the German city of Iptingen in the principality of Württemberg. First it was yet another Christian sect that revered Rapp as a new prophet. In 1805, when the sect counted 12 thousands people already, Georg Rapp prophesied the end of the world and the second coming of Christ. He called his followers to “purify” (e.g. castrate) themselves to enter the “kindom of heaven” clear of all sins. Quite many, though not all, of his followers carried out that.
But it already seemed a bit too much for common German people, who were just ordinary Christians. This was why the local authorities urged Georg Rapp to leave Württemberg. The sect moved to the USA, where Rapp continued his preaches of the imminent Apocalipse and the necessity to get castrated before it.
Only after the death of Georg Rapp it was discovered that his own genitalia were there and in order... Well, he was not the first and not the last scammer in religion. What is worth noticing is that scammers use to tell such lies that people can believe, not just random nonsence. Georg Rapp was right to think that Christians were ready to believe that they should cut off their genitalia for a proper “salvation”.
The Skoptsy
It’s already been noticed many times that Russians tend to borrow some Western idea and drive it to absurd. Perhaps because of that it was Russia where the faith in cutting the sexual organs rised to a scale unprecedented before.
As it’s well known from history, in the middle of the 17th century the more radical “Old believers” split from the mainstream Orthodox church. Then the even more fanatical Bespopovtsy split from the “Old believers”. Then, out of the Bespopovtsy, the totally mad Khlysty came, who already practiced some painful rites but still did to reach to cutting off their genitalia. But for some even this was not enough, and in the second half of the 18th century the Skoptsy originated from the most radical wing of the Khlysty.
Unlike all previously existed castrating cults, the Skoptsy practiced cutting off not just male genitalia, but also female breasts and clitoris. Their “kindom of heaven” had such harsh laws that only a creature without any sexual characteristics was allowed to enter it. Of course, everything was justified with suitable quotes from the Bible.
The official history claims that the Skoptsy were persecuted by the Tsarist government. However, as a result of these “persecution”, their numbers grew to about 60 thousands by 1917, and some of the Skoptsy accumulated considerable wealth. Seemingly they were “persecuted” not more than the Catholics and other non-Orthodox Christian denominations.
It was first the Soviet regime under Stalin that started to really persecute the Skoptsy. In 1929 all the leaders of the sect were executed and ordinary members were exiled to Northern Siberia, where the last of the Skoptsy died in 1952.
The Heaven’s Gate
If someone hoped that the spread of sexual education and the Sexual Revolution would persuade those too devout believers to leave other people’s genitalia alone — it was overly optimistic. The things came to be quite the opposite: it was just on the wave of sexual liberation that a new castrating cult, the “Heaven’s Gate”, originated in the USA.
It was founded by Marshall Applewhite, a Christian pastor’s son, and Bonnie Nettles, a medical nurse. They claimed to have seen a UFO and angels coming from it and saying that Marshall and Bonnie should be those two witnesses mentioned in the “Revelation”. Of course, those alien angels also prophesied the Apocalipse coming soon.
Also, the teachings of the “Heaven’s Gate” stated the existence of some “Next level”, which you can reach in your life to be garanteed a place in heaven after death. And, as you have already guessed right, in order to get to this “Next level”, one shoud get rid of one’s genitalia, which the teachings of the “Heaven’s Gate” considered to be Lucifer’s creation. In the first years of the sect’s activity it was Bonnie Nettles who personally performed this operation.
In addition, the “Heaven’s Gate” ignited a number of other scandals. They were accused of car theft and bank card fraud. Finally, in 1997 the leaders of the sect and a group of their followers committed a mass suicide with a lethal dose of barbiturates.
Castrating cults today
Some can think that such barbaric cruelties should be impossible in the age of Internet. However, it’s human nature to trust those who are viewed as authority. If a temple priest says: “For the harvest in this year to be good, you have to offer your penis to Cybele”, — and the father of a poor family thinks: “I’ll be lucky if my kids don’t starve this year, it’s no good to make even more of them”, and sighingly obeys. If a sectarian preacher says: “The second coming is about to happen, and only the ones without those sinful organs will enter the kingdom of heaven”, — and his followers lay themselves under knife. If respected modern media say: “The British scientists have proven that human can have 100 genders, and many people need to change their gender”, — and…
I’m not going to deny the existence of transsexuals, for whom it feels absolutely unbearable to live with the body of their birth sex. But their number is way less than it’s believed now; according to studies from early 2000s (when the issue was already researched well, but the gender cult did not appear yet) they are 1 per 6000-7000 population. So, every case of “transgender identity” above these numbers is a new castrating cult. This is how they arise: in just a few years, right before our eyes.
Unlike previous such cults, which preached only to adults, the gender cult is addressed primarily to children. Some authors wrote textbooks falsely claiming that to change the “gender” is as easy as making a tattoo or dental crowns. Some state officials introduced these textbooks in schools. No need to say that they both are Christians (contrary to all stupid consevative claims alledging that “Satanists promote LGBT!”).
Seeing the rapid shrinking of its flock, Christianity in the West started to play the “good and bad cop” game. Don’t like kids being dragged into the operating room just as a girl says that it would be better to be a boy (or vice versa)? Okay, come to our church that rejects those Diabolic LGBT and strictly obeys the commandment “Thou shalt not commit adultery”. Don’t like that church? Okay, be ready that your kids will want to change their “gender” some day.
People of average intelligence don’t realize that both the righist preacher and the leftist gender activist are their enemies. They both equally hate the human body and the pleasures it can bring.
The war against human body, against beauty and sexuality keeps going on for 3000 years at least. And it does not seem to end anytime soon.