A pine tree [the Christmas tree of Semiramis; once censored by Jeremiah] is felled representing the death of the god. The acolytes and initiates proceed to the Temple of Cybele with the sacred pine bearing the effigy of the god in its branches (the god is hung on the tree). The tree is laid to rest at the Temple of Cybele. The following day was a “day or mourning” and lamentation. The Salli (who were priest dancers of Mars) went in procession sounding their trumpets and beating their shields.
The sacred pine tree and an effigy of Attis is buried in a tomb and a day of mourning, fasting, sexual abstinence, self-flagellation and self-mutilation commemorating the Mother’s grief follows. People would beat their breasts with pine cones and cut their arms and shoulders with knives.[1] The High Priest playing the part of Attis draws blood from his arm and offers it as a substitute for a human sacrifice. [2]
That night the tomb is brightly illuminated but empty, the god having risen on the third day.
Initiates undertake the Mysteries and are baptized in bull’s blood at the Taurobolium to wash away their sins whereupon they are “born again” after being washed in the blood. [The Gnostic Christian ruse!] They then become ecstatic and frenzied and recruits to the priesthood castrate themselves in imitation of the god. This was performed with broken pottery, sharp flint, and glass (in later times only the testicles were removed)
After that the initiates were left in the temple during the night. In many cases they saw visions sent by the Goddess, affirming their initiation [as did Ignatius Loyola and many Catholics before and since. This experience is a cardinal mark of the blasphemy as also is the demonic manifestation called the “Stigmata”— there are many others].
At the close of 24 March, the priests reverently removed the sacred effigy from the tree, and laid it in the tomb. The older as well as the newly de-sexed initiates watched and fasted all through the long night, until the Dawn of March 25.
The tomb was then opened; and a great shout of joy went up from the assembled worshipers: for the tomb was empty, the god was not there. He had been resurrected from the grave into eternal life.
The resurrection of Attis and the onset of spring is celebrated with a sacramental meal and a day of joy and feasting. With the resurrection, the people gave themselves over to an unrestricted Saturnalia (Satan et alia.) of joy, gaiety, and sexual license.
Processions of overwrought mourners, bearing images upon their breasts, following the statue of the goddess through the streets; driven to the highest pitch of frenzy by the wild and discordant music of fifes, cymbals, tambourines and kettledrums, they screamed and whirled and leaped about like dervishes, and slashed themselves with knives and swords.
The festival ended with a procession bearing the sacred black stone [meterorite] to the river Almo, where it was washed and purified; after which it was returned amidst singing and rejoicing to its sacred place within the temple. Those who castrated themselves become Galli—i.e. cocks—and there afterwards dressed in women’s clothes and wore perfumed oils.
26 March – A quiet day of rest and recovery;
27 March: The Goddess was asked if she would return to Rome. A procession was made with Cybele’s Idol along the Appian Way until the Almo river was reached. Then the idol would be dipped into the river, rubbed with ash and then washed. The conclusion of the festival with a procession in which the statue of the goddess, with a meteorite embedded in her brow [Cyclops effigy and/or pineal third eye of Horus indicating ‘enlightenment’], is majestically carried to her temple and a series of religious dramas and entertainments follow. Clay statues of the gods were made in ancient times just as statues of saints are sold today at Catholic shrines.
The Precedent for Gay Easter Parades:
A further irritating factor was that the gallus indulged in an extravagant personal appearance. On the day of blood (dies sanguinis) he forever discarded his male attire as mentioned previously; henceforth he wore a long garment (stola), mostly yellow or many colored with long sleeves and a belt. On their heads these priests wore a mitra, a sort of turban, or a tiara, the cap with long ear flaps which could be tied under the chin (Phrygian Cap of the French White Terror). The chest was adorned with ornaments, and sometimes they wore ornamental reliefs, pendants, ear-rings and finger-rings. They also wore their hair long as did the Merovingians and Danite cum Benjamites, which earned for them the epithet of “long-haired,” they sometimes dedicated a lock of hair to the goddess.
By preference they had their hair bleached [like Madonna or Lady Gaga]. On the day of mourning for Attis they ran around wildly with disheveled hair, but otherwise they had their hair dressed and waved like women. Sometimes they were heavily made up, their faces resembling white washed walls [e.g. like the heavy metal band: Kiss]. The galli were also very conspicuous [eccentric] when they showed themselves in the city outside the temple precincts. With a procession of enthusiastic followers they wandered about begging; in exchange for alms they were prepared to tell people’s fortunes (vaticinari); they performed their dances to shrill music of the pipes and the dull beat of the tambourine. When the deity entered into them [possession] and they were possessed by divine power they flogged themselves until the blood came [exactly what happens to Shi’ites on Ashura; or certain sub-groups of the Jesuit Opus Dei cultus]”
From: Vermaseren’s Cybele and Attis, p. 97-99
[1] The pine cone remains a major symbol in Masonic and Illuminati icons.
[2] According to Aleister Crowley, this is the highest form of Hermetic Magick along with completion of sexual rites; the high priest offers his own blood, as purportedly did Jesus, in seeking demonic favor and dispensation of power. – oz.