Priests of the Goddess

A brief description of some eunuch priests of the Goddess:
The phenomenon of men voluntarily castrating themselves to become priests of the ancient Great Mother Goddess is so old that no one knows its origins. The most well-known of these Goddesses served by eunuch priests is probably Cybele ("cave-dweller," She of the Initiations. In Latin, Her name is Sybil. The Sibylline oracles were named for Her.) From Her birthplace in antiquity in Phrygia, Her holy stone was brought to Rome in 204 B.C.E. at the order of the Cumaean Sybil. Upon consulting the Sibylline Books (reported to hold the entire history of the Roman Empire, both past and future) the Cumaean oracular priestess prophesied that if the worship of Cybele were brought to Rome, and if Her iconic stone was installed in a temple there and made an official state religion, the forces of Hannibal, which had been attacking Rome for years to their great distress) would be defeated. Her statue was brought, Her worship was installed, and Her mysteries became an official state religion. For over 500 years, Her worship remained an official and important Roman state religion. Hannibal retreated, and legend says Rome did not fall while Cybele's worship remained.
Got that? Cybele and Her son/consort, Attis were worshipped in Rome for 500 years, beginning in 204 B.C.E. This means that Cybele's faith was honored as an official religion of Rome when the man Christians call "saint" Paul wrote his homophobic rant to the Romans. He was specifically targeting Cybele's clergy and Her followers.
What about Cybele and Her clergy caused this man Paul to denounce them? Her eunuch priests, who engaged in sacred sex with Cybele's worshippers. Not only was Cybele served by priestesses, but also eunuch priests, called galli (masculine) or gallae (feminine, which version of the title used depended on the author's viewpoint. There seems to have been much confusion over which gender the eunuch priests belonged to.) Cybele's eunuch priests castrated themselves of their own free will in order to join Her service. Sources conflict as to whether they did this in order to become more like Her or to become assimilated to Attis, Her castrated, dying and resurrected son/consort. According to the myth, Attis castrates himself in anguish due to his infidelity to either Cybele Herself or the person (Agdistis, sometimes equated with Cybele) whose relationship with him had been sanctioned by Cybele. From the blood that spills from Attis' wounds, violets grow.



Both priestesses and priests of Cybele wore female attire, painted their faces, wore bright colors, and wore their hair long (normally elaborately styled, but during the Megalensia, a major festival of the Goddess,  it was worn free.) They were nicknamed "the long-haired ones." (In Rome during this time, most men wore their hair very short, so this was considered scandalous.) They normally dyed their hair blond if it wasn't already, they believed that their Goddess preferred blond hair as an offering. They engaged in sex as a sacred rite, usually with male worshippers who followed what was considered for them a "normal" male societal role, and also often with each other. They were considered to bring "good luck." They blessed marriages and the births of children.
The galli of Cybele as an institution most likely traces itself back to the city of Catal Huyuk in Anatolia and at least 3000 B.C.E., although the shamanistic and magical arts they practiced are much, much older and date to prehistory. The galli were especially known for their divinatory skills, healing abilities and magical arts. They used many methods of divination, including astrology and ornithology, and were adept at achieving altered states in order to prophesy the future. They were believed to have been given the power to tame wild animals by the Goddess. They created spells and potions for their clients, and were believed to be able to make rain. They took the "sins" of others upon themselves in order to transform the negative energies into positive ones for their clients.
What does this all have to do with Loki? The worship of the Great Mother Goddess was very widespread, and existed for thousands of years before being forcibly crushed by the monotheistic, misogynistic and homophobic cultures that later arose to power. Laeviss believes that Loki was a priest of the Goddess, and that he had sacrificed his testicles to Her in Her aspect of Skadi. This, too, is in the Lore, though a bit garbled. It is said in the Lore that Skadi came to Asgard to claim compensation for her father Thiazi's death, and part of the compensation was that the Aesir were to make her laugh. Therefore, Loki tied one end of a rope to his testicles, and the other to a goat. They then played tug of war. Although the Lore merely says that Loki fell into her lap at this point, and made her laugh, Laeviss says (and this viewpoint is held by at least one scholar, John Lindow) what actually fell into her lap was the blood which poured out upon his castration. Skadi held sway over the winter, and the sacrifice entailed Loki to not only gain spiritual insights, and shamanic gifts, but as an offering to the Goddess encouraged the coming of spring.