![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
causticusIn the other thread I ended up penning a rather lengthily comment reply to boccaderlupo on the topic of Neopagan blood sacrifice, and it just occurred to me that this should be its own topic. And thus, a post!
From all the occult reading and rumination I've done on this topic, I've come to the conclusion that ritualistic blood sacrifice is something to be explicitly AVOIDED unless the practice is part of a well-established lineage that goes back to practitioners who actually understood the occult mechanics of what they were doing. (How many Neopagans today can substantiate this type of teaching lineage?)
Otherwise, when done today simply for the sake of pageantry aesthetics (which I suspect is the case with almost all Neopagans who attempt this), this practice will run a huge risk of inviting in unwanted spirits. Basically, spilt animal blood is etheric jet fuel to discarnate entities. Blood is the most etheric-rich physical substance and a spirit absorbing the released energy from bloodletting allows them to manifest and project into the physical world. We can use the term "ectoplasm" for the etheric appendages spirits can manifest when sufficiently-fed with this type of energy; these appendages allow them to interface with physical phenomena in a limited manner; for example, how a ghost or house spirit is able to rap on hard surfaces or knock dishes off a shelf.
With these types of serious practice, an established orthopraxy is crucial. Of course historical polytheists usually weren't giving away free blood snacks to cruddy spirits. On the contrary, their rites were specifically designed to attract the kinds of entities that could bring benefit to their community. As an example, a sacrifice could be made to a Sylvan or Faun spirit that participates in the energy of a major god from the culture's pantheon (the major deity name would be invoked during the rite). The spirit would show up at the site of the ritual and consume the energetic food released during the sacrifice. In exchange, the spirit would repay the priest(s) by helping their village's crops grow grander and more vibrant than they would unaided; the spirits would do this by infusing extra life force (etheric energy) into the crop plants. We can see here how sacrifices were a quid-pro-quo sort of arrangement. The spirits get fed and in exchange they do whatever they can to help out the humans calling upon them. Of course, even the proper sacrificial practices can end up going septic. Priests claiming to serve their culture's proper deities can end up feeding cruddy spirits in exchange for "gifts" that help them augment their own personal power. The absolute worst example of this sort of priestly degradation is the Aztec human sacrifice mass-hysteria that led to the downfall of their civilization.
Today, humans living in affluent, high-tech countries use industrial technology to do the things (like increase crop yields) we had to make deals with spirits in the past to do. So when some group of aesthetic reenactors sacrifice a pig, they are doing so entirely removed from any cultural context where such a practice may have been useful and just. I would ask the simple question: Just how many of these neopagan reenactors grow all their own food and do so without the aid of industrial technology? I would guess most of them procure 99%+ of their food from the local big-box supermarket like everyone else around them does.
Indeed, these practices are not to be taken lightly! There are countless other substances besides animal blood than can and should be sacrificed to Gods, spirits, saints, angels, heroes, ancestors ect.
boccaderlupo on the topic of Neopagan blood sacrifice, and it just occurred to me that this should be its own topic. And thus, a post! From all the occult reading and rumination I've done on this topic, I've come to the conclusion that ritualistic blood sacrifice is something to be explicitly AVOIDED unless the practice is part of a well-established lineage that goes back to practitioners who actually understood the occult mechanics of what they were doing. (How many Neopagans today can substantiate this type of teaching lineage?)
Otherwise, when done today simply for the sake of pageantry aesthetics (which I suspect is the case with almost all Neopagans who attempt this), this practice will run a huge risk of inviting in unwanted spirits. Basically, spilt animal blood is etheric jet fuel to discarnate entities. Blood is the most etheric-rich physical substance and a spirit absorbing the released energy from bloodletting allows them to manifest and project into the physical world. We can use the term "ectoplasm" for the etheric appendages spirits can manifest when sufficiently-fed with this type of energy; these appendages allow them to interface with physical phenomena in a limited manner; for example, how a ghost or house spirit is able to rap on hard surfaces or knock dishes off a shelf.
With these types of serious practice, an established orthopraxy is crucial. Of course historical polytheists usually weren't giving away free blood snacks to cruddy spirits. On the contrary, their rites were specifically designed to attract the kinds of entities that could bring benefit to their community. As an example, a sacrifice could be made to a Sylvan or Faun spirit that participates in the energy of a major god from the culture's pantheon (the major deity name would be invoked during the rite). The spirit would show up at the site of the ritual and consume the energetic food released during the sacrifice. In exchange, the spirit would repay the priest(s) by helping their village's crops grow grander and more vibrant than they would unaided; the spirits would do this by infusing extra life force (etheric energy) into the crop plants. We can see here how sacrifices were a quid-pro-quo sort of arrangement. The spirits get fed and in exchange they do whatever they can to help out the humans calling upon them. Of course, even the proper sacrificial practices can end up going septic. Priests claiming to serve their culture's proper deities can end up feeding cruddy spirits in exchange for "gifts" that help them augment their own personal power. The absolute worst example of this sort of priestly degradation is the Aztec human sacrifice mass-hysteria that led to the downfall of their civilization.
Today, humans living in affluent, high-tech countries use industrial technology to do the things (like increase crop yields) we had to make deals with spirits in the past to do. So when some group of aesthetic reenactors sacrifice a pig, they are doing so entirely removed from any cultural context where such a practice may have been useful and just. I would ask the simple question: Just how many of these neopagan reenactors grow all their own food and do so without the aid of industrial technology? I would guess most of them procure 99%+ of their food from the local big-box supermarket like everyone else around them does.
Indeed, these practices are not to be taken lightly! There are countless other substances besides animal blood than can and should be sacrificed to Gods, spirits, saints, angels, heroes, ancestors ect.
