Christ Conspiracy_ The Greatest Story Ever Sold - Acharya S [172]
Paul hinted that he was one of the "new creatures" in Christ, neither circumcised nor uncircumcised. A man would have to be one or the other, unless he altogether lacked a penis. . . . He scorned the "natural" (unmutilated) man for his lack of spirituality: "The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness unto him" (1 Corinthians 2:14). . . . Paul wrote to the Galatians: "I would they were even cut off which trouble you" (Galatians 5:12). The word rendered "cut off also meant "castrated."22
Indeed, over the millennia, many people have taken such exhortations to heart, believing that their mutilation would gain them special powers and favors in heaven. In Russia has existed for hundreds of years a cult called the Skoptsi, who in frenzied rituals brutally cut off their genitalia, including testes, penises and breasts. This mutilation predates Christianity in Russia but has been found within Christianity for centuries, justified by scriptures, and these Skoptsi are not an aberration, as castration was common among the early Christians, including some of the Christian fathers. As Akerley relates:
Contemporaneous with Origen was a sect which was so enthusiastically addicted to the practice that, in addition to requiring castration of all its members, they also castrated any guest who was rash enough to stay under their roof. The sect, known as Valesians, performed their castrations with a hot piece of metal, referring to the act appropriately as a "baptism of fire." .. . The tonsure of the early priests of Christianity is a recognized symbol of castration and the skirted cassock worn by priests is, at least in part, an imitation of the many religions competing with early Christianity which required that their priests don female attire only after they were castrated.23
So enthusiastically did Origen embrace such concepts that he castrated himself, much to the admiration of several Christian proponents:
Origen was highly praised for having castrated himself. Justin's Apologia said proudly that Roman surgeons were besieged by faithful Christian men requesting the operation. Tertullian declared, "The kingdom of heaven is thrown open to eunuchs." Justin advised that Christian boys be emasculated before puberty, so their virtue was permanently protected. Three Christians who tried to burn Diocletian's palace were described as eunuchs.24
Eusebius, however, called Origen's self-castration a "headstrong act" and said that Origen had taken Christ's comments about "eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven" in "an absurdly literal sense" and that Origen was "eager both to fulfil the Saviour's words and at the same time to rule out any suspicion of vile imputations on the part of unbelievers." Eusebius's comment about the castration serving to "rule out any suspicion of vile imputations" surely refers to sexual activity, possibly homosexual, imputations that over the centuries frequently were slung between competing sects, both Christian and Pagan.
At the same time as they were emulating women through castration, the Christians, like their predecessor Jews, were trying to destroy the Goddess:
. . . Bible revisions tended to erase earlier deities, especially female ones. After the centuries of choosing and revising canonical books, nearly every trace of female divinity had been eliminated from Christian literature.25
As stated, however, temples and churches themselves represented the vulva and womb, and Christianity was not devoid of feminine symbolism, even though it tried to suppress it, except where it benefited the Christian hierarchy occultically. For example, one of the most common feminine symbols