The concept of burning things as a spiritual act is very old. In the Argonautica, Jason makes an offering to the Goddess Hekate, which consists of a black female sheep. As instructed by the priestess of Hekate, Medea, he digs a round pit shortly after midnight and builds a fire. He then cuts the throat of a black female sheep and throws it on the fire, immolating it. He is instructed to sweeten the sacrifice with honey and then leave the site. For individuals who have a lot of apprehension about ritual sacrifice, this mindset usually stems from two factors. One is that they have no intimate connection with spiritual forces at all and so view giving something an animal as a terrifying act, because they are perfectly brainwashed by Christianity and so they think of everything, including their own true selves, as a terrifying "demonic" stranger. The other is that they are estranged from "country life" where raising animals, slaughtering them, carving them, and cooking them is a normal part of life. Non-westerners are not so estranged due to being less brainwashed, less handicapped by Christian handlers, and understand the importance of ritual slaughter for both food and religious purposes. If you consider Jhatka, Halal, and Kosher slaughter done by Hindus, Muslims, and Jews, as well as the Afrocuban practice of sacrificing animals to different spiritual entities, it can be understood that not having some type of spiritual aspect around the slaughter of animals (as Western Culture does not), is more abnormal than having some type of sanctification and spiritual aspect to the process. Hindus that eat meat are no stranger to this idea either and all of these traditions have special knives used for the practice such as the Ram Dao or Sakin/Chalaf knife (pictured below). Certain "aspects of God" like and prefer different animals, which can be learned from communicating with God and learning about the different aspects. Giving the blood to that aspect of God and taking and eating the flesh of the animal has spiritual benefits that further connects you to that particular spiritual power. The animal can also be totally burned as an offering as well, which has other benefits.
In reality, the practice of animal sacrifice is nothing more than a sanctification and spiritualization of the common process of butchering and slaughtering animals for consumption. The process of sacrificing an animal for spiritual purposes is as simple as the example I gave above from the Argonautica. You can also add perfume to the animal that the entity likes, along with the honey when you offer the animal. The idea of sacrificing anything, whether it is an animal, incense, or even an activity or vice that you restrain yourself from, as an offering, is the idea that what you "give" you get back in a new way spiritually. This is the reason why certain offerings are required to fix particular issues in your life due to the qualities that the things you offer have. To give a list of what particular plants and animals give you when they are sacrificed is too big an effort for this simple blog post, although I will probably be publishing an ebook soon with examples. Some practitioners will have a familiar such as a cat, dog, or owl that lives in their home that will supply them with small game like squirrels, chipmunks, rabbits, etc. which can be immediately immolated as offerings. If you do regular offerings to different entities, the idea of a permanent fixed Shrine or "altar" in which the blood and perfume is "anointed" onto the vessel or object is used as the communication point. This can be as simple as a small tin filled with some objects relating to the entity or something more complex such as a pot which the blood is offered into, along with a simple candle alongside the severed head of the animal, which is often placed along side the shrine temporarily.
Disclaimer: abide by the butchering and animal rights laws of your country.
コメント