Anatoly and Katarina - Epilogue

This is a historical explanation for Anatoly and Katarina

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There is a great deal of reality in this story.

In seventeenth and eighteenth century Russia, a group of Greek 
Orthodox Catholics known as Skoptsi made emasculation a basic 
requirement for membership in their sect. This is historical fact, 
and much has been written about the reasons for this movement, and 
the fanatical multitudes of men and women who were drawn to accept 
this commandment as a natural part of being faithful to their God. 
Rasputin is said to have been a Skoptsi.

The Russian aristocracy included members of the sect, and Count 
Elanski recommended to Tsar Alexander I that all members of his 
government be initiated. Alexander protected the Skoptsi in general, 
but exiled Elanski. Countess Tatarinova had Skoptsi among her 
intimate friends, and Pushkin himself frequented her celebrations. 
See http://www.exile.ru/limonov/limonov5.html.

Malenkov, a politburo menber under Stalin, was a Skoptsi, and Janos 
Kadar, the president of Hungary, castrated himself to gain Russian 
political favor. See http://www.unizar.es/gine/nw3.htm if you speak 
Spanish. 

At http://www.geocities.com/WestHollywood/Village/3025/castrate.html 
we read:

Kondratji Selivanov, the founder of a cult known as the Skoptsi, or 
the "Castrated." Having their roots in the earlier Flagellant 
movement, the Skoptsi took the Flagellant's credo of self-abnegation 
quite a few steps further. Disdainful of the body and of the sexual 
urge, they believed that the voluntary removal of the genitalia 
permitted vast amounts of spiritual energy to break free from the 
shackles of the flesh. This excess energy could then be rechanneled 
to more spiritual purposes, such as meditation and prayer, and 
ultimately be used to achieve unity with the Godhead.


Selivanov was quite an interesting character who impressed von Junzt 
with both his religious zeal and his rather remarkable story. 
According to Selivanov, he was not always a peasant and a cult 
leader: he was none other than Grand Duke Peter Fedorovich, better 
known as Tsar Peter III, whose death history had recorded in 1762!

His explanation was simple, but highly unusual. Never a strong willed 
or particularly honest man, the young Grand Duke was not a popular 
choice to succeed his aunt, the Emperor Elizabeth, and he spent large 
portions of his early life in poor health, drinking to excess and 
playing childish sports. He was also religiously estranged from most 
of Russia, holding German Protestant beliefs that put him at odds 
with the Orthodox Church. At first young Peter was obsessed with 
Lutheranism more out of a love of Prussia than from of any firm 
religious convictions. But as he grew older, and his health and 
sanity became more strained, he began privately flirting with 
religious philosophies far stranger than those of Herr Luther. 
Finally one night in 1745, Peter experienced a mystical revelation 
that changed his life. Suddenly gripped by a sudden convulsion, he 
fell into a seizure, his mind torn asunder by a series of intense 
visions -- one of which was the revelation that castration was the 
only path toward Salvation. That this epiphany occurred shortly after 
Peter's marriage to the princess Catherine was a stroke of bad luck 
for his wife, who desperately attempted to convince her new husband 
that his visions were false. But to no avail; their marriage was 
doomed to many unhappy and loveless years. Although Catherine 
eventually took other lovers -- and it was widely known that her two 
children were not Peter's -- she still tried to convince him to put 
aside his visions and accept his duties as both her husband and as 
the future Tsar. For sixteen years she suffered as his neglected 
wife; and then on Christmas Day in 1761 -- the same day that brought 
the death of Empress Elizabeth and his subsequent coronation as Tsar 
Peter III -- Peter took a knife and castrated himself, throwing his 
penis onto her bed and collapsing into the arms of his loyal 
physician.

...

Divested of his imperial duties and believed to be dead, Peter's 
religious calling now rushed in to flood this vacuum of freedom. 
Changing his name to Kondratji Selivanov, he assumed the role of a 
prophet, and by 1771 he had acquired a sizeable following in St. 
Petersburg. Of course, however, his doctrine was quite alarming to 
both the common Russian and the Church; and orders were issued for 
his arrest. Fleeing to the district of Tambov, he went into hiding 
for a year. It was during this period that he met the man who would 
become his most faithful disciple, Alexander Shilov. Shilov was a 
lawyer, a young man whose intelligence was matched only by his 
zealotry. He quickly fell under Selivanov's spell, and began the task 
of writing down every word his master said, taking his prophetic 
utterances as a new Gospel.

In 1775, Selivanov and Shilov traveled to Moscow in order to 
establish a new circle of followers. This time he could not avoid 
arrest, and in 1780 Selivanov was sentenced to exile in Siberia. With 
the help of a Tsarist minister whom Selivanov spent several years 
converting, he escaped and returned to Moscow in 1797. There he 
rejoined Shilov and retook possession of the Aqedah dagger. Shilov 
had proved to be a worthy disciple, and had kept the Skoptsi loyal, 
quiet, and committed, all the while developing underground networks 
and organizing his master's teachings into a series of sacred texts.



Fortunately the political winds were shifting, and after countless 
petitions Selivanov was granted an audience with the new Tsar in 
1801. Finding himself strangely fascinated by the prophet, Tsar 
Alexander granted him his freedom and permitted the cult to grow. But 
as his fame spread and his preaching took on an anti-government bent, 
the Tsar's advisors quickly convinced Alexander that Selivanov indeed 
posed a real threat, and so Alexander humanely ordered him confined 
to a monastery. Tired of his ordeals and wishing to make his peace 
with God, he accepted and turned the leadership of the Skoptsi over 
to Shilov, who was allowed to visit him three times a year for 
instructions and guidance -- and to renew himself with the power of 
the holy relic. . . .



A similar sect in Bukoyina were the Lippovanians. According to some 
sources, the Skoptsi are alive and well in the United States today, 
but keep a very low profile. Certainly anyone serious enough about 
their religion to make such a sacrifice would be able to keep it a 
secret.



Undoubtedly they quoted Matthew 19:11-12, which says, "All men cannot 
receive this saying, save they to whom it is given. For there are 
some eunuchs, which were so born from their mother's womb: and there 
are some eunuchs, which were made eunuchs of men: and there be 
eunuchs, which have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of 
heaven's sake. He that is able to receive it, let him receive it."



History records that in the early Christian church many devout men 
had the operation done on themselves and their sons when they were 
converted to Christianity to ensure their safe entrance into heaven. 
Probably this consisted only of the removal of the testicles. Down to 
the present day the Catholic priesthood maintains a gentler form of 
this devotion, "perpetual chastity" and one apparently much harder to 
maintain since we read so much about the perversion of the priests.



Among the Skoptsi, the commandment of Christ was taken a little more 
literally. There were two "seals" of faith for the men. The "small" 
seal, the malaya pechat, was the sacrifice of the testicles, and the 
"white" seal, the belaya pechat was the removal of the penis. The 
lesser seal usually preceded the greater by at least enough time for 
the first wound to heal completely. In this story I've put the two 
together because my fantasy is to have the penis and testicles 
removed together, and not in several pieces. To me the suffering is a 
beautiful part of this sacrifice, but not just for the sake of being 
tortured, so the performance of the act is not unnecessarily 
prolonged by a series of piercings, flayings, burnings, cuttings, and 
crushings as seems to be the case in many of the other archive 
stories.



For me the real excitement of this fantasy comes from the actual 
moment of surrender, when the blade is pressed against erect 
throbbing flesh, the hips are thrust willingly forward, and then 
exquisite pleasure becomes horrible agony as steel slices suddenly 
through yielding tissues and warm blood spurts. That supreme moment 
is what motivates me to write these stories. All the rest is just 
preparation and fluff.



If you are Catholic, please do not be offended by this story, since 
it undoubtedly was repeated hundreds or thousands of times during 
those years of incredible religious devotion. At first, the removal 
of the testicles was accomplished by something called the "baptism of 
fire." Live coals were held one at a time to the parts being 
surrendered, until they were burned away. Apparently this was so 
horribly painful that less demanding methods of removing the sexual 
organs were adopted.



For the women the initiation was circumcision. My New Lexicon 
Websters Dictionary, 1988 edition, defines circumcise as "to cut off 
the foreskin of (males) or the clitoris of (females) as a religious 
rite or on medical grounds." So even in 1988, circumcision still had 
a much darker meaning for girls than for boys. Clitoridectomies were 
routinely practiced here in the United States well into the 20th 
century on baby girls whose clitorises were deemed too large. In many 
parts of the world even today, particularly in Moslem countries, 
clitoridectomies are performed on many or most little girls. This is 
done in a variety of ways, and usually before puberty, andt often 
includes removal of the labia minora as well as excision of the 
clitoris. This is done mainly by the mothers and aunts of the girls. 
It is done to ensure their chastity before and during marriage. 



Some sources suggest that women's breasts were also mutilated, in 
becoming Skoptsi, since the female nipple is a source of great 
sensual pleasure. Since I've practiced continence I've noticed that 
my own nipples have become very sensitive to touch and pinching. So I 
included this in my story.



One website article I read suggested that circumcision in males 
removes the female analog - the labia minora - and in females removes 
the male analog - the tiny penis - making the boys completely male 
and the girls completely female.



There have been LOTS of strange customs in the world. And people 
always find a reason for what they do.



The goal of these rituals was not to inflict pain, but to ensure 
chastity. But in an age without anaesthetics, one shudders to think 
of the awful suffering so many people endured willingly, or 
unwillingly, in order to purify themselves.



Certainly many of the adult men who became Skoptsi bled to death from 
the surgery, but history does not record it. In this story Anatoly is 
sexually aroused when the priest emasculates him. In Anatoly's case, 
death from hemmorage would probably have been the unavoidable outcome.



One book I read suggested that the Catholic church's requirement that 
the priests be celibate took the very best genetic stock out of the 
race down through those centuries when all the scholars in Europe 
were required to take the triple vows of chastity, poverty, and 
obedience. This book said that the length of the dark ages was 
undoubtedly increased as the result of the finest, noblest, and most 
intelligent men and women failing to pass on their genes. The result 
today is a society that watches TV. (my one little attempt at humor)



Among the ancient Phrygians, the goddess Cybele stands out with 
regards to the emasculation of the most faithful men. 



One version of the myth says that Cybele was in love with a young man 
named Attis. Attis became attracted to a mortal girl and was 
unfaithful to the Goddess, who expected him to remain celibate for 
her his entire life. Catullus wrote in his famous poem that the 
Goddess drove Attis mad so that he would castrate himself. This is 
just a small part of Catullus' poem.



     Carried in a fast ship over profound seas 

     Attis, eager and hurried, reached the Phrygian grove,

     The goddess's dark places, crowned with woodland.

     And there, exalted by amorous rage, his mind gone,

     He cut off his penis and testicles with a sharp flint.

     While the ground was still spotted with fresh blood 

     Quickly took in her snowy hands a tambourine 

     Such as serves your initiates, Cybele, instead of a trumpet, 

     And shaking the hollow calf-hide with delicate fingers, 

     Quivering, she began to sing to the troop this: 

     "Go together, novices, to the high groves of Cybele. 

     Go together, wandering herd of the lady of Dindymus. 

     Quick into exile, you looked for foreign places 

     And, following me and the rule I had adopted, 

     You bore with the salt tide and the violence of the high sea 

     And emasculated your bodies 

     to ensure your faithfulness to Cybele: 

     Delight the lady's mind with your eager haste. 

     Overcome your reluctance: together 

     Go to the Phrygian shrine of Cybele, to her groves 

     Where the voice of cymbals sounds, the tambourines rattle, 

     Where the Phrygian piper sings with the deep curved pipe, 

     Where Maenads wearing ivy throw back their heads, 

     Where they practice the sacred rites with sharp yells. 

     Where they flutter around the goddess's cohort: 

     It is there we must go with our rapid dances."

 

Other versions of the story say that he was filled with remorse for 
being unfaithful to the Goddess and chose to emasculate himself as a 
punishment and to ensure his permanent faithfulness from then on. In 
any case he bled to death on the spot. The myth says that violets 
sprang up from the drops of his blood, and since he did this amid the 
pines, pine trees figured in the Attis myth.



Men who wished to serve Cybele became novices and took a vow of 
chastity to test their desire to belong to Her. Then on the day of 
blood, probably close to or on March 24, they danced and worked 
themselves up into a mad frenzy, slashing themselves with knives 
until their bodies were covered with streaming blood. At the height 
of their excitement, these postulants emasculated themselves, dashed 
the bloody pieces against the statue of the Goddess, and then ran 
through the streets of the city until, exhausted, they fell in a 
swoon. The Golden Bough, by Frazier, tells of this festival, and 
records that many of those who merely came to watch were overcome by 
the sight of the spurting blood and, rushing forward, did that which 
had never before entered their minds; seizing one of the swords 
placed there for the purpose and severing their own genitals in 
ecstatic surrender. The Golden Bough records that these, when they 
came to their senses, probably lived lives of terrible regret. 



Here is a quote from Sir James George Frazer, The Golden Bough 
(Macmillan Publishing Co., New York, 1922) p. 403-406:



Another of those gods whose death and resurrection struck such deep 
roots into the faith and ritual of Western Asia is Attis. He was to 
Phrygia what Adonis was to Syria. Like Adonis, he appears to have 
been a god of vegetation, and his death and resurrection were 
annually mourned and rejoiced over at a festival in spring. The 
legends and rites of the two gods were so much alike that the 
ancients themselves sometimes identified them.



 Attis was said to have been a fair young shepherd or herdsman 
beloved by Cybele, the Mother of the Gods, a great Asiatic goddess of 
fertility, who had her chief home in Phyrgia.



 According to one version Attis unmanned himself under a pinetree, 
and bled to death on the spot. Attis' priests regularly castrated 
themselves on entering the service of the goddess. 



 On the twenty-fourth of March, The Day of Blood, the Archigallus or 
high-priest drew blood from his arms and presented it as an offering. 
Nor was he alone in making this bloody sacrifice. Stirred by the wild 
barbaric music of clashing cymbals, rumbling drums, droning horns, 
and screaming flutes, the inferior clergy whirled about in the dance 
with waggling heads and streaming hair, until, rapt into a frenzy of 
excitement and insensible to pain, they gashed their bodies with 
potsherds or slashed them with knives in order to bespatter the altar 
and the sacred tree with their flowing blood. 



 On the same Day of Blood the novices sacrificed their virility. 
Wrought up to the highest pitch of religious excitement they dashed 
the severed portions of themselves against the image of the cruel 
goddess.



 These broken instruments of fertility were afterwards reverently 
wrapt up and buried in the earth or in subterranean chambers sacred 
to Cybele, where, like the offering of blood, they may have been 
deemed instrumental in recalling Attis to life and hastening the 
general resurrection of nature, which was then bursting into leaf and 
blossom in the vernal sunshine. These broken instruments of fertility 
were afterwards reverently wrapt up and buried in the earth or in 
subterranean chambers sacred to Cybele, where, like the offering of 
blood, they may have been deemed instrumental in recalling Attis to 
life and hastening the general resurrection of nature, which was then 
bursting into leaf and blossom in the vernal sunshine. 



Self-emasculation is not something that appears in many of the 
stories in the Eunuch Archive. I wonder why not? And I've also 
wondered why Anne Rice's novels never seem to deal with the subject?



I've wondered if being made to walk around after being emasculated 
(described in some books about the making of eunuchs for the harem) 
or the running (mentioned in the Attis myth), might have caused the 
arteries that feed the penis and testicles to seal themselves as 
blood was diverted to the legs, thus minimizing the hemorrage and 
helping most of the new eunuchs and Galli to survive the ordeal.



After the severing of penis and testicles, in the case of eunuchs 
intended for the harem, a pewter spigot was thrust into the opening 
of the urethra so the new eunuch could urinate while his wounds 
healed. The whole idea of a catheter takes away from the experience 
in my mind. And if the genitals are properly cleansed before the 
operation, and if the various instruments are properly sterilized, 
the risk of infection can be virtually eliminated. Today, one would 
begin a course of antibiotic two or three days before performing the 
act.



Several things were written in the forum about my story Always 
Faithful that suggested people took it too seriously. It was just a 
story. Even though many of the things in Anatoly and Katarina 
actually took place in Russia uncountable times during those strange 
years, this is still just a story. 



I wrote Always Faithful in half an hour when I was struggling with my 
own chastity. I've been living in a separate bedroom for fifteen 
years and have struggled to remain continent the entire time. My wife 
is sick and takes medication that has completely eradicated her 
libido, but I love her too much to consider leaving her or going out 
with someone else. And even masturbation is not something I will do. 
So I've fantasized about castration as an end to all my own personal 
turmoil for many years.



I've been touched by the forum discussions by David and Roxanne and 
Rowan and Carol. My own wife was completely horrified when I broached 
the subject with her once, early in our separation, and she treated 
me like a pervert for a very long time afterwards. So this is written 
for them.



I hope all of you enjoy it, and I'll look forward to comments in the 
forum. But please don't take it too seriously.