The most common initiation rite was the taurobolium. The person being initiated into the cult climbed down into a pit and a wooden grating was placed across the top. Those above the pit then sacrificed a bull over the grating, cutting off the animal’s genitals and placing them in a special vessel. The bull’s blood poured down through the grating over the person in the pit, who turned his face upwards so that he could open his mouth and drink the blood, as it came streaming down over his head, shoulders and body. He had to make sure that the bull’s blood soaked every part
