Christ and the Magna Mater

[smokingboot]

This week has been a holy one for a very long time.

http://www.geocities.com/essenecx/no_4_attis_cybele.htm

In the rites of Cybele and Attis, today was the day of blood. Tomorrow, however was the Hilaria, the day of feasting, having a laugh, and generally welcoming in the Spring.


It seems strange to compare the crucifixion with the extraordinary rites of Attis. Both are about sacrifice to an omnipotent and seemingly cruel crazy parent,* turning divine wrath away from the hapless earth. Both are about terrible pain; the sacrifice of self followed by eventual return. Crucifixion/debasement for Christ, mutilation/madness for Attis.

For many, this terrible end/beginning to the Christian story shows the way to the most necessary of emotions; pity. Not the pity of embarrassment or sanctimony or of perceived superiority, but the real thing. I remember wandering St Peter's in the Vatican, finding myself comparing it to St Mark's in Venice. The latter was a glorious testimony to the positive power of tea-leafing. St Mark's was about money. St Peter's seemed to be about power, except for Michelangelo's sculpture, La Pieta. This sculpture is so human that everybody wants to touch it (they've got it in a glass case now) and so pure in its compassion that one can only hope it is a true depiction of the Creator in (e)motion. I have seen many beautiful pieces of art, many expressions of the human condition. La Pieta expresses for me what it means to be human, what I hope it means to be divine.

I do not believe they are separate really.

And Cybele? I have never known what to feel regarding the Magna Mater, a triumphant but terrifying goddess. Her festivities may have given a way to express the desire to be a woman; it could be argued that certain ancient civilisations may have been more brutal, more earthy than we are, but were also more socially advanced, with greater tolerance towards transexuality than we dream of. It had its place; not always an easy one, but certainly not as a despised heretic, or breaker of some law through mere existence and desire to be 'other.' The rites of Inanna in Sumer, of the Dea Syria, and of Astarte seem to have also had a strong element of acceptance about them.

Then of course, there is the whole sanctity of pain, the release from...from what? Mourning for Attis was rampant, hysterical and often excruciating. Whether they put themselves through it to share his pain, to exorcise their own demons or to bring tears of pity to the eyes of the Great Goddess, I cannot tell. I am a simple creature. Pain does not help me express or release. It closes me down, it makes me shrink. I can understand the poetry, the reasoning even, behind undergoing physical pain to express emotional pain, and I can accept it as a need, as a method. I cannot feel it in my heart, not for myself. There is a great deal before which I am just a little girl and I know very little.


To pity and release from pain.
To joy, resurrection, sex, and the return of Spring.

For those who want them, I wish you any and all of these.
And to those who don't, have a great weekend.

*For those who doubt Yahweh's ability to behave like a raging psychopath/cosmic bully extraordinaire, the Book of Job makes fascinating reading.