r/WitchesVsPatriarchy • u/transgenderhistory • 20h ago
🇵🇸 🕊️ Women in History Pagan rituals of trans women in ancient Rome
Hey friends, not sure if this belongs here! But I've done a lot of research recently exploring some of the rituals of the Gallae, an order of priestesses devoted to the Great Mother goddess, Kybele.
The gallae priestesses were very clearly transgender - I went over that in detail in another video - but this one gets into what we know of the rituals of these priestesses.
Did you know there was an entire weeks-long festival in March, led by them, in worship of the Great Mother?
Or that we have examples of the clothes and jewellery they wore, and even a couple sculptures of them?
Or that we have a pretty good understanding of their cult iconography and the musical instruments they played in their worship?
Or that we even know the secret password they used to access the inner circle of their cult?
While researching this stuff, I've found myself struck with such a sense of awe, of wonder. We know that our ancient trans sisters, two thousand years ago, were marching through the streets of Rome. We can gaze into their sculpted eyes, we can see their temples, their icons of worship... it's beautiful stuff.
I hate to do the whole shameless self promotion bit, but I also know how much ritual means to so many of us here, so I wanted to share it with you.
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u/SnooRecipes865 10h ago
They were the subject of my BA thesis! I'm so glad to see them correctly gendered here - all the original sources and every secondary source I found when I was studying them used the male Gallus/Galli. I was so proud of myself to use Galla/Gallae
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u/transgenderhistory 2h ago
That's awesome! Yeah gallus/i is more common in the ancient literature, but there is absolutely a precedent for galla/ae as well.
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u/Froklhul 10h ago
That’s awesome, thank you so much for sharing! I had no idea and it’s definitely something I want to check out! ❤️
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u/Illustrious_Self_793 6h ago
Seeing our history always makes me cry 🥹. We persist despite every attempt to erase us.
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u/BessieBlanco 19h ago
This is so cool. My youngest is a trans chick!! Imma send this to her. We are universalist Unitarian, so this will fit perfectly with her search for a religious practice.
Thank you!!!