THE CASTRATI (“SKOPTSY”) SECT IN RUSSIA - Part Two

[Westfolding (imported)]

Scoptzy Part Two.

IV. THE PRACTICE OF ECSTASY (RADENIYA)

The sectarians themselves believed that the practice of the prayer meetings with ecstatic dances was established by God. At the beginning of nineteenth century a sympathizing priest from the village of Knyaz (district of Kaluga) found for them some relevant texts from the Bible (verses dedicated to King David dancing around the Tabernacles of Testament). In addition, they were probably following the explanations of some person sure that Jesus practiced radenie in the Garden of Gethsemane (Luke, 22:44).

The descriptions of the practice of the ecstatic meetings of radenie left by the Castrati or some sympathizing persons, demonstrated that in the different “ships” this practice had different special features: there were no strict and rigid established rules beyond the necessary minimal set of the elements of the service (prayers, singing, dances, prophesizing).

Some examples.

.1. Recollections of F. P. Lubyanovsky (later he became a Senator) about his visit to Selivanov’s apartments in St. Petersburg when he became a witness of the radenie: “There were in that place a god-mother, an old but still healthy woman, and prophetesses. Four of prophetesses entered the room; they were pale but strong and good-looking girls. They bowed to the Savior, received his blessing and stood in a circle holding the hands of each other. When the Savior gave his permission, they began to whirl – as a whirling wheel. Continuing their whirling they began not to sing but to howl. This time four men who were sitting on a bench with leather gloves on their hands applauded them with great vigor. I could not to understand the words because of the noise though the old man (i.e., Selivanov) as it seemed to me tried to amuse me saying a number of times that he rejected everything giving everything to God” (Lubyanovsky, 1872, p. 475).

2. Information (1846) (Melnikov, 1869, p. 288-291) of a retired feldfebel (low rank in the Old Russian army) Nikolai Ivanov: he became a member of the sect in Kronschtadt, the central base of the Russian Navy near from St. Petersburg). In his circle the “Sufferings” of Selivanov were read, and the readers cried with many tears. He seldom participated in the ecstatic sessions because of health problems prevented him from dancing. He refused to be castrated. In 1813 he left the sect and married.

Ivanov was led to a room covered with a large carpet with the images of angels and archangels. He was afraid to step on the holy images... He saw a bed which was extremely richly decorated with gorgeous covers and golden ornaments. On the bed lay an old man clothed in a thin batiste shirt. The accompanying persons called him “God.”

He was ordered to go to the prophet. He bowed staying on his knees, and the prophet promised him “a golden diadem and deathless clothes”. After this Ivanov was led to the so-called “Cathedral” or “Place of the Gatherings” (Sobor). This was a great room where there were many chairs along the walls and more than a hundred persons. All of them were dressed in long white shirts; they were singing and dancing in two rows (it was called “to go by the ship”). In the small space left by them in the center of the circle a number of people were whirling. Ivanov sat on a chair; his knees were covered with the white cloth (a symbol of purity). He was also told by a Selivanov’s attendant to sing together with the whirling persons applauding with his hands in accordance with the rhythm of the songs. It lasted until the evening. About nine o’clock singing and dancing suddenly stopped for five minutes, and the dead silence changed them. After this, the people began to sing: “Kingdom, Kingdom, Spiritual Kingdom; in you, in this Kingdom the great Grace lies.” And then silence reigned again.

Ivanov continues: “Suddenly, the doors opened, and the god dressed in a short green silk robe quietly entered the room. He was supported by two men called John the Baptist and Peter the Apostle. They were dressed in dark priestly robes with belts. Seeing them everybody fell on their knees, and the god waved by his white batiste cloth speaking thus: “My holy cover is above all of you.” Then he came to the women’s room (the separation of the sexes during the meetings was established by Selivanov himself – see: Menshenin, 1904, p. 40).

“The women’s chapel was located in the neighboring room and there was a broad window on the wall which divided the two rooms: it was opened when the god came there. There was a bed near the window, and the god sat on it. John the Baptist and Peter the Apostle also stayed in the women’s room at the god’s bed. The prophetesses began to prophesize for the god, and after that everybody (men and women) began to whirl. The god stayed there about an hour; then he went away followed by the same persons who followed him before. The window to the women’s room was closed again but the whirling dances did not stop.

About midnight, all the whirling people began to jump together, and the walls were trembling. The people cried: “Ai, Spirit!” I was frightened greatly and was going to escape them through the window but was stopped. Suddenly the cries were changed into the quiet singing: “King God, King God.” Then everybody began to whirl again.

Soon the session finished, and all the participants came home, but I stayed to sleep in the same building, in a special apartment with a man who led me there. The second day was like the first one, and I left them only on the third day.”

3. The following description is taken from information collected by P.I. Melnikov about the Castrati “ship” in the town of Alatyr (district of Simbirsk) in the family of Milyutin who was a well known merchant (Melnikov, 1873, p. 55-124):

The Melyutin’s sister Natalya Mihailovna was called “The Vital Book” because she knew New Testament and parts of the Old Testament by heart; she interpreted the Bible according to the teaching of the sect. The Castrati joined the tradition of the oral commentaries on the Bible not because of inner motives but because of the need to speak with the “profane world” in its own language. Natalya Mihailovna taught (and it was also the doctrinal position of the Castrati from Nizhny Novgorod as well) that Adam and Eve were immaterial creatures without flesh, they had no genitalia but seduced by the Devil they ate the forbidden fruit, and their bodies obtained imitations of the apples: breasts for women and testicles for men. When she was asked how procreation was possible without genitalia (as the Lord God ordered it), she answered that God was an omnipotent being, and He could make children for Abraham from stones (Matt. 3:9).

The ecstatic sessions took their place in Milyutin’s house, the people from other towns often participated in them; the total number of the participants was more than a hundred. They took place at night; men wore special long shirts, the women were clothed in simple dresses. The sectarians bowed in front of the portraits of the Castrati Masters: Selivanov, Shilov, and Milyutin. Men and women sat separately.

The sessions began by singing the ritual song “Give us, oh Lord, Jesus,” then another song was sung: “Oh, Jesus Christ, our Light, be merciful to us. Oh, God’s Son, Oh, you, Holy Ghost, our Light, be merciful to us! Oh, you, Mother, who bore God, our Light, be merciful to us! And save us, God’s People, who pray hard on the earth!”

Milyutin proclaimed: “Bless us, oh the Highest Creator, Merciful our Father to sing your song to see everybody in the glory!” The people replied with the song about Father Redemptor coming in glory from the city of Irkutsk: “... You are with us, King as the King and God as the God! He is with us, our falcon, our Lord Holy Ghost! He passed through fire, fire and flame, fire and flame. He is going; he is coming to the royal towns. To the royal towns, places of the paradise to the house of David, to the mystery of God. The mystery of God is completing now. And reside there in the house of David, God’s grace and all the blessed, and all angels and all archangels with the cherubs and seraphim and all the powers of Heaven...” “This song stimulated euphoria in the sectarians. They stood in a circle, beginning the dances singing other songs. Then different kinds of individual and joint ecstatic dances took place and whirling more and more rapid... Sometimes the whirling was so strong that its wind blew out the fire of the candles. Everybody danced, jumped and whirled until complete exhaustion and delirium which was thought to be the revelation of the Holy Ghost. And even the floor became wet from sweat, and the clothes remained wet for some hours.” After Milyutin’s, sign the individual radenie finished and the sectarians began radenie by “ship”: everybody danced in a circle or were jumping. Other kinds of dances, whirling and jumping also were in use. Then there were prophesizing followed by the convulsive movements of the prophets. Other witnesses also described the same elements of the sessions: singing, joint and individual dances, exhausting whirling to obtain the ecstasy of the presence of the Holy Ghost within the bodies of the sectarians, prophesies, and so on. It is interesting that one of the witnesses (peasant Ivan Andreanov, a member of Aleksey Gromov’s “ship”) said that radenie (or “spiritual bathing”) demanded silence and complete mindfulness without thinking: otherwise the Holy Ghost would not be able to enter the body of the sectarian. The same witness also related that a neophyte entering the “ship” must accept some commandments: he/she must refuse to drink wine or beer, and must live without “passions”. They were also forbidden to participate in all secular holidays and festivals. It was said that if they would follow these commandments they could become cherubs, angels, prophets, or spiritual teachers. The sectarians had to keep their teachings and practice in complete secrecy. One woman-sectarian (Avdotya Ivanovna by name) reported: “It is so nice. And the bliss is great, and when you entered this state there was no more memory of yourself, no memory of other people – only inner light existed and there was nothing around you” (Kelsiev, 1869, p. 4). The sectarians also said that the power of the Holy Ghost during the prophecies embraced all the personality of the prophet, and all his/her humanness became “dead” during the prophesying. And this state was accompanied by the feeling of great and powerful joy and bliss.

It is rather interesting to discuss a question of the relations between the ecstatic kind of the Castrati cult and the phenomenon of the ritual castration as such. Certainly, from the strictly historical point of view, the Castrati inherited their ecstatic sessions, whirling, dances, jumping, and so on, from the maternal sect of the Christ-believers. But this connection is too simple to explain this phenomenon. The Castrati did not reject the Christ-believers’ practice; it can be even said that they made it more expressive and accentuated.

Besides the Castrati sect we know at least one more religious cult where castration and the extreme forms of the religious ecstatic worship were mixed together: it is the ancient Hellenistic (of Phrygian origin) cult of Attis and Great Mother Cybele. The priests of this cult were the castrated galli, who served this divine couple by ecstatic dances and trances. One point here is of especial importance: Russian sectarians as well as believers in the Phrygian god had a cult of an extremely ecstatic (“Dionysian”) character, which at first glance may seem rather strange for the religion of the castrates. And here we will take the liberty to repeat a rather long passage from an article published by us some years ago (Tortchinov, 1998):

“The ecstatic character of such cults (the extreme form of which is orgiastic trance) is rather widespread in different mystery cults, e.g., in the mysteries of Dionysus, which included the excessive worship of maenads, the female votaries of this god, who in their wild ecstasy tore apart the bodies of animals and even human beings.

Here I must mention the transpersonal phenomenon, which Grof called the “Volcanic” or “Dionysian” ecstasy. It is distinctly opposite to the “Apollonic” or “Oceanic” ecstasy corresponding with BPM I and its feelings of quietude, serenity, and unity with all forms of existence.

The Volcanic ecstasy has been characterized by Grof by its extreme physical and emotional expression, high degree of aggression, destructive impulses of inner and outer orientation, mighty impulses of a sexual nature, and rhythmical orgiastic movements. It is a unique mixture of emotional and physical suffering together with wild sensual passion and desire. Here love is the same as hate, the agony of death is the joy of rebirth, apocalyptic horror is the excitement of the creation, and so on.

A person feels the coming of the great event–of spiritual liberation or unio mystica. But even if this feeling is of the great force, it cannot attain its realization and the completion of the dramatical sequence of death and rebirth: Volcanic ecstasy corresponds to BPM III, the states of which need for their realization the transition to the experience of BPM I or BPM IV (Grof, 1993, p. 337).

The feelings and images of religious nature which correspond to the Volcanic ecstasy are bloody sacrifices, Black Sabbath of the witches, Dionysian orgies, and so on.

To me, the rites of the suffering gods (especially as explicitly given in the mysteries of Attis with their flagellations, bloody wounds and self castrations) represent this type of ecstasy with the passage to the illuminating ecstasy of BPM IV. But why is this kind of ecstasy especially related to masochism and self castration?

It has been noted by the transpersonal psychologist Grof, that the recollections about pain in the perinatal experience during psychedelic sessions (the most painful impressions are related with BPM III) express themselves in the patient’s striving to be saved from pain through the taking pain to the source of pain (i.e., to the place of suffering in the body or the painful organ). I think this feeling is partially known to anyone suffered from the toothache.

Note here another important detail. The experience of BPM III is rooted in that stage of the birth process when synergism of the mother-and-child take on the character of struggling and even hostility. The associations with the feelings of the victims of rape are rather wide spread in this case (the feeling of fear, hypoxia, the attempts to obtain freedom, the enforced sexual excitement, etc.). This painful experience has some common features with the experience of BPM III (this circumstance increases the psychic trauma of the victim of a real rape–Grof, 1993, p. 237) ... In addition, subjects, experienced BPM III in psychedelic sessions often compare the birth process with the process of the sexual (especially, enforced) act. But what in such cases does the self castration mean?

I think that its basis consists of a complex of experiences grounded in the ecstatic states of BPM III: the attempt to counteract the pain caused by the situation of the synergetic conflict with the maternal body and the attitude about the negation of the birth process associating with the sexual intercourse. It is a physical expression of the negation of the birth process (which is the process of the extrusion of the foetus from the maternal body) or through the coming back to the blissful synergism of BPM I ... or through the completion of this process in the birth/rebirth which leads to establishing of a principally new unity with the mother ... The same idea lies in the meaning of the theme of incest, which is especially clear in the mystery myths of the Dionysian cycle ... Archetypically, incest rejects the birth process as some progressive act: in incest this process turns to its source signalizing the attitude of coming back to the womb to restore the basic synergetic unity with the maternal body to attain the perfect union with the female/maternal principle archetypically represented in the image of Cybele as Magna Mater, as Mother par excellence.

Here, we can recollect some ideas of the Russian religious thinker V. V. Rozanov (1856-1919), who wrote about extremely feminine character of the founder of the Russian sect of eunuchs (skoptsy), Kondraty Selivanov, for whom self castration was like cutting off an unuseful and alien detail so as to realize the perfectly feminine type of personality (Rozanov, 1914)” (pp. 157-158).”

Therefore, we can find the transpersonal roots of the Castrati sectarians in the perinatal impressions as well as in the psychological attitude towards imitations of feminine patterns of behavior.

RFERENCES.

One of the most influential trends of the Christ-believers was the group of the “fasting” founded by a serf peasant from the district of Tambov, Abbakum Kopylov. He taught that Christ was a Holy Spirit dwelling in the flesh chosen, that was in himself, then in his son Philip, then – in his son’s wife. The long fasts, lasting for 7-10 days, played an important role in their practice, there existed strict food limitations among them. The prize for their asceticism was a “spiritual joy” obtained during the ecstatic joint prayer sessions.

After A. Kopylov’s death a schism occurred among their followers (30s of nineteenth century). Its initiator was Kopylov’s worker Perfil Katasonov who founded a new group called “Israel”, or “Old Israel.” He considered himself and his followers to be “the chosen people” which would establish God’s Kingdom on the earth. In fifty years in different districts of Russia there existed more than 20, 000 of his followers. But after the death of this charismatic leader, “Israel” lost its unity. From the remnants of this group appeared “New Israel” headed by the new Christ – Mokshin. After Mokshin, a peasant from the district of Voronezh, Vasily Lubkov became their Christ; he was a protégée of Mokshin himself. Lubkov paid enormous attention to the strengthening of the hierarchy of the sect. At the end of nineteenth century “New Israel” became a religious denomination with the leaders who had unlimited authority and with the strictly ordered praying sessions. There appeared theatralized mysteries which presented different Biblical events: during the mystery, “The Last Supper,” Lubkov chose his “evangelists,” “apostles” and “prophets”; during the play of “The Mountain Sermon” he declared his teaching; he was also a central figure of the mystery “Transfiguration.”

About the profundity and sympathetic energy of these feelings of the believers see Melnikov’s information: a certain “hlyst” (Christ-believer) told him: “I feel that throughout myself, inside of myself, there is a heavenly light and there is nobody but myself in the hole Universe; it means that God dwells in me, and without God there is nothing to be what began to be (the last words are a citation from the Russian translation of Jn 1:3 – E.T.). The entire universe with God, I mean, entered my belly, and there was nothing but myself.” Another story: when “hlyst” “god mother” Avdotya Stchennikova was arrested (Nizhny Novgorod district, 1851) she entered the trance; leaving it she began to speak very rapidly in two voices as she herself speaking to Our Lady and as Our Lady answering to her (Melnikov, 1869, pp. 377, 379).

A popular peasant dessert dish.

In the texts ascribed to Selivanov there is no mention of his “royalty” but the Castrati tradition thought about him as about “lord-father” Petr (Peter) Fedorovich, spiritually born from a righteous lady empress Elizaveta (Elizabeth) Petrovna who left her throne (according to some legendary versions – never ruled at all) to a court lady whose appearance was like that of the empress, changed her name for Akulina Ivanovna and dwelled in the district of Oryel. They believed that the new emperor Peter III castrated himself while he still lived in Germany; after a brief reign he knew that his wife Catherine (the future empress Catherine II) was going to murder him, so he then left his palace in secrecy to preach among the common people “the fire baptizing,” that is, castration.

Selivanov’s identity as Peter III was confirmed by an emperor’s court servant, Semyen Kobelev, (he was born about 1740, during the reign of Elizaveta Petrovna he was a servant at the court of Great Prince Petr Fedorovich, in the future – emperor Peter III). Kobelev was castrated at the end of eighteenth century; in 1819 he was exiled to the Solovetsky monastery. A. P. Stchapov noted on this case: “In eighteenth century when the slavery of serfs attained its climax, and the power of crude force caused all human relations to be forgotten, there were spontaneous uprisings of a great number of serfs in this place or another, and the serfs eagerly hoped for redemption. And just this time emperor Peter III gave the right of freedom [from the governmental service] to nobility. That time rumors began to spread among the common people that Peter III was going to liberate the peasants from the slavery. Those rumors stimulated Pugachyev [a leader of the great peasant rebellion] to declare himself to be Peter III [who was in reality murdered during coup d’Etat by the supporters of his wife, Empress Catherine II]. And Kondraty Selivanov also proclaimed himself as Emperor Peter III. The great number of people followed both of them waiting for redemption from those two men” (Stchapov, 1867, pp. 187-188).

In 1820 the director of the Ministry of Inner Affairs, Count Kochubey, sent his resolution to the abbot of Spaso-Efimyevsky monastery Parfeny in which he insisted on the following points: (1.) Kondraty Selivanov (“head of the Castrati”) was forbidden to communicate with any person with the exception of those monks who may be appointed by the abbot for the religious conversations and missionary preaching to Selivanov; (2.) He was forbidden as well to receive posts or any other messages from outside (including money or parcels); Selivanov had to be completely isolated from outside communications; (3.) His residing in the monastery had to be kept in secrecy. The monastery received from the state 600 rubles per a year to pay for Selivanov’s expenses (later on it was reduced to 550 rubles) (Mainov, 1880, pp. 763; 766).

There is a spiritual song about the coming of Selivanov: “Heaven and Earth were quaking, all peoples and kings came to Russia, emperor Alexander I and all his officials fell at Selivanov’s feet. But an evil spirit confused the minds, everybody forgot who was the savior of Russia; Selivanov was exiled to Suzdal. But God punished Russia: Petersburg suffered from a great flood (1824). Alexander I prayed God and God mercifully pardoned him; the storm finished. Then emperor Nicolas I ordered to bury an empty coffin as if Selivanov died so that the pilgrims would not go to Suzdal” (Menshenin G., 1904, pp. 69-70).

One of the witnesses of the way the Castrati behave themselves on the eve of their transportation to Siberia from the prison in Petergoff (one of the suburbs of St. Petersburg) reported: “Our consolations, our information, our recommendation for their way which could be helpful for them in their first steps on the alien side – nothing of these could be of interest to them or could touch them. They behave themselves as if they were in a kind of ecstasy, being ready to fight against exile; it could be seen that exile will neither break their character nor weaken their resolution. It seemed to us that they were people who were going to fight with a great amount of strength, that this most harsh punishment (i.e., exile) will reveal its completely ineffective nature and absolute emptiness, as if they were sure: we lived here, and we will be able to live there...” (Maksimov S., 1869, pp. 334-335).

In the “Sufferings” Selivanov said: “...my soul hates lepost: it is like the most furious serpent is eating the whole universe, takes humans from God and preventing them to from being in union with God” (Menshenin, 1904, pp. 41).

The notes of a Castrate Aleksey Elensky contained the following discourse: “After that we do not rely on the prayers of the living people or on the priestly paraphernalia and ritual food. Everybody must by his faith and even by all his/her life create the image of Christ inside of himself /herself so that to be transfigured into Christ. If we pray Christ we will be pardoned by Christ, and if we are pardoned by Christ we will be glorified in the image of the Son of God” (Elensky, 1867).

BIBLIOGRAPHY.

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This article has been published in:

THE INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL FOR TRANSPERSONAL STUDIES, 2000, Vol. 19. Pp. 77-87 (? 2000 by Panigada Press).