Christianity abolished maternal magic by lodging life and death in God alone.

Evidence

With Christianity, life and death now depended on God alone, so man, born of the maternal breast, escaped it forever, and the earth gets only his bones; his soul’s destiny is played out in regions where the mother’s powers are abolished; the sacrament of baptism makes ceremonies that burned or drowned the placenta insignificant. There is no longer any place on earth for magic: God alone is king. — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 368

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the displacement of chthonic mother-cults by sky-god religions — Eliade’s and Jung’s hierogamy work, and to the baptism-vs-placenta-rituals contrast. — connects to: Catholic abortion doctrine sacrifices the mother’s life because she alone has a soul — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 274; Christianity’s spiritual turn ceded worldly life to profane authority
• DEFINE: Defines the mechanism by which Christianity strips motherhood of its numinous natural power.

Broader Connections

• Catholic abortion doctrine sacrifices the mother’s life because she alone has a soul #complicates (0.80) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 274
• Christianity’s spiritual turn ceded worldly life to profane authority #expands (0.75)