Blood sacrifice

[Pure Ahimsa]

I think if I were to share some of my lifeblood, then it would be a symbol of a union of love and trust between the divine and you, but only your own can be a connection.

[Gailara]

Not a new pagan but replying anyway. Very interesting thread. I am a Roman Recon and I see nothing wrong with animal sacrifice at all and would have no qualms participating in such a ritual for my gods. I eat meat and share my food with Them everytime I sit down to a meal. *shrug*. What can I say? It's ok to contribute to the killing of animals for my taste buds but not for my gods? This is my take on the matter.

[merlo]

My idea of sacrifice as I understand it, is as I learned from Dion Fortune, the turning of form back into force to equate a change in the higher realms. My 2 cents.

[Pentangling_57]

If I'm not strong (mentally) enough to offer some of my own lifeblood, I have NO business trying to take someone else's, be they human or animal.

Of course, if s/he was a god/dess that I didn't worship, I might possibly possibly refuse... Depends on which god/dess, though.
~Pent

[blackroseivy]

Wow! I have to admit, the only kind of blood I ever used in a ritual was my own blood from an abortion... & the spell was only effecacious for about 2 years afterwards. It's actually a magical act of which I am not proud (though the blood portion of it is not the reason). Suffice it to say, had I to do it over again, I WOULDN'T.

[Morag Elasaid Ni Dhomhnaill]

Out of curiosity, how do Recons feel about this? It was rather imporant in many ancient pagan religions. Animal sacrifice has turned up in almost all cultures, from the Hebrews to the Greeks and Romans and from the Aztecs to the Yoruba. Additionally, human sacrifice was practiced by various Pre-Columbian civilizations of Mesoamerica and the practice is also found in the old Scandinavian religion as well as Pre-Hellenic Minoan cultures. I know no one is doing it today (hopefully, anyway), but would you, if you could?

Several recons have actually already posted. My experience is that the willingness to offer an animal sacrifice varies from the individual. I'm a Scottish Recon and myself have no problem with animal sacrifices. Others that I've spoken with have huge issues with it. Just depends on the person and not the relgion.

[whisper54]

A blood sacrifice? that sounds a little like the Abraham and his son story, or the Cain and Able parable. It is said that the old Gods liked the smell of roasting meat, and the sacrifice of beaten enemies.
The Azetecs would make a small cut on their body, use the blood to write a little prayer or request on a piece of paper then burn it in a small sacred flame. Pagans in old Europe would sacrifice a bull then divide the meat amongst the people. A cat was a favorite sacrifice well into the middle ages as wittnessed by the discovery of a cat built into the walls of Westminster cathedral.

I don't think there is enough energy put into sacrifices these days, it's a measure of our devotion you know. We can sacrifice with our energy and work, we can sacrifice with vows of silence or make something and give it away. We can gather old clothes from our friends and give them to a thrift store. There's a lot of things we can do outside the normal view of altars and red meat.

[CryssieWillow]

Good point! Sacrifices do not limit theirselves to the altar.
In my opinion a sacrifice is something only you can GIVE and none can take. Lifeblood from any other than one-self is not a possibility, for me, because that is something you took from the Earth, rather than given.
Time is also a sacrifice, personal objects, energy put into a project, vows to do something or to leave something for a period of time.
All the possibilities ^_^

[MagickalHack]

I don't worship and god or goddess perse, I revere a few, but I do not worship any. I also save my blood for my own magickal workings that I want to have a stronger connection to.

[Fireheathen]

My life blood is all I have right to give and all they have the right to ask of me (if they don't like it they can kiss my butt).