The Castrators of Russia

I just got a book at the thrift store that looks interesting, "Secret Societies -- A History," by Arkon Daraul. Wow, even the name of the guy sounds secret. The blurb says, "The classic, sensational study, with an analysis of their forms, rituals, and beliefs." It looks pretty classic, although I can't figure out why I haven't heard of it before.

I turned immediately to one interesting looking group, The Castrators of Russia. I haven't read it yet but my eye landed on a few lines, including this one: "Each member is allowed to have two children, after which he must be castrated and can fulfil himself in the way which, the sect insists, was his destiny." I got to say, you wouldn't be a part of the group if you didn't want to be, I assume, but if I ever saw my wife with a pregnancy test, I think I'd be having second thoughts.

It says in another place that they had a real whoop-de-doo of a ceremony, with lots of singing and lots of prophetic outbursts. They're in trances and it says, "These ejaculations were carefully written down..." By that they mean what they had to say. Sounds a little weird, with the subject matter and all.

And one last snippet (pardon the expression), castration is called the Baptism of Fire by the sect, because it was originally carried out with a red-hot iron. Later they changed it to a sharp knife, "because of human weakness." It seems, though, that they used numerous other tools to get the job done. And there's a citation of statistics that lists those: Knife, 164; Razor, 108; Hatchet, 30; Scythe, 23; Iron, Glass, Tin, etc., 17.

A scythe? 23 guys were castrated with a scythe? You have to be careful. They might cut off your leg, too.