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Agdistis, Cybele, and Attis

November 15, 2006 at 7:50 am by mahud

The Phrygian myth concerning the goddess Cybele and Attis…

The myth is cosmological, explaining the creation of the present universe. Like other myths it reveals that in the beginning something separated the created order from it’s source, which should of resulted in it’s total destruction, yet miraculously and paradoxically did not.

The Divine Source within the Cosmos

…begins with the god Zeus who manages to impregnate the earth (Cybele was identified with the earth goddess Rhea)…

“It is the divine source of life cut off, yet miraculously and paradoxically still inherent within the created order”

The divine impregnation of the Earth is what upholds the created order. It is the divine source of life cut off, yet miraculously and paradoxically still inherent within the created order. The earth is also to be understood as the womb of the goddess, through which all life, that is divine life, passes.

The Temporal and Eternal Realms

Already we have the two orders of reality represented. The Eternal and Divine Order, and the Temporal created order. And the Eternal upholds the temporal.

…while he slept…

The Threshold God (between death and life)

The sleeping God resides on the threshold of death and life. The threshold is also represented elsewhere as the womb of the goddess. The god is both son and consort. The threshold is also the place where the division of the created order and the divine takes place, and also where both are reunited. This happens simultaneously. The cure and cause are one.

“The sleeping God resides on the threshold of death and life. The threshold is also represented elsewhere as the womb of the goddess.”

The sleeping god is like Dionysos (and Noah) sleepy from to much wine. And again the Babylonian Apsu, the primordial sweet waters of creation, whose sleep was disturbed by his tumultuous children. Also compare Adam who, according to the book of Genesis was put into a deep sleep by the Lord God and Eve brought forth from his body (21–23). Before the cosmogonic separation, the male and female principles dwell as one.

The Union of the Opposites

…resulting in the birth of the Hermaphrodite Cybele (called Agdistis).

Agdistis is this union of the created order (represented as female) and eternal order (represented as male).

The Division of the Opposites

The gods castrate Cybele, and an almond tree grows from her severed genitals.

The castration of Cybele is a representation of the cosmogonic division that gave birth to the order of temporality. The almond tree is synonymous with the tree of life (as well as death), of the male and female, the temporal and the eternal.

“The castration of Cybele is a representation of the cosmogonic division that gave birth to the order of temporality. ”

It is also the source of the divine ambrosia that gives life, comparable to the seed of Zeus. It is elsewhere the weapon of the god which gives life and takes it away, and with which the god strikes himself.

The Miraculous(Virgin) Birth of the Divine Principle

Nana, the daughter of a river god, becomes pregnant with the boy Attis, after she picks an almond from the tree and it enters her womb.

Like the impregnation of the goddess Earth, the impregnation of Nana is also miraculous. A thing impossible, yet made possible by the double-edged nature of the wound.

Death and Recreation

Eventually, Attis reaches manhood and the all-female Cybele falls in love with him. Unfortunately, Attis is betrothed to a daughter of king Pessinus, and so the jealous Cybele sends Attis into an insane frenzy whereby he castrates himself and dies. Full of remorse, Cybele decrees that Attis’ body shall never decay, or according to another tradition, Attis is transformed into the evergreen pine tree.

The castration of Attis is the same as the castration of Agdistis. together they present the same picture as found in Hesiod’s telling of the separation of Ouranos (heaven) and Gaia (earth), caused by the castration of Ouranos, and instigated by his wife and their crooked Titan son Kronos. The self-castration motif also reveals that the god has an active role in his own death, which separates him from his bride, the daughter of the king.

And so, from the wound, the male and female principles are split apart, and so arises the female. like Aphrodite born from Ouranos’ severed genitals upon the foamy ocean and Eve from Adams rib. And through the female, the God is reborn, passing through the womb of death to life, having obtained the divine ambrosia (in the Cybele/Attis cult wine made from pine cones) that gives life.

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