An obscure post on the nature of sacrifice...

[johnny9fingers]

I think it was in either 'The Marriage of Cadmus and Harmony'



or 'Ka'


That Roberto_Calasso discussed the nature of what to do with the remainder after the sacrifice. In fact I remember it being 'Cadmus' mainly because I recall the answer to the question came from the Pythia (Gr. Πυθία), the Oracle at Delphi: which went something along the lines of "Waste not the flesh that remains: eat of it". In this I think Calasso to be essentially correct.

What is interesting is the concept of the sacrifice in various cultures. This binding of the Godhead through ritualised discarding.
The rituals to 'involve' the God, or I suppose more properly to invoke* it or appeal to it, have always struck the rational part of my brain as ludicrous: however my non-rational bits grasp this idea/relationship/etc easily, and if non-rational bits can be said to comprehend....

So in order to appeal to God/The God in Particular sacrifice is acceptable.
In our nice new neat late-capitalist society there are few sacrifices that make any sense. Just out of Lent (having been informed in our catechisms that all sacrifices previous and subsequent have been superseded by the sacrifice of Christ, rendering all else irrelevant) we may start smoking again, or putting sugar in our tea, or smoking crack, as is our wont.

How do we get the God involved again?

The sacrifice has to hurt. If you are giving to charity it has to come from your pleasure money and you should be denying yourself something that you wanted or you yearned for. And still you should be more generous than you'd like.

If you don't want God/The God in Particular involved and prefer a secular society, kill God and still give to charity, but not so you actually feel it. There is no point in further sacrifice if the thing struggling beneath the ropes on the altar and awaiting the High Priest's blade is God.

Me, I live poor: sometimes I get God/The God involved.

*odd etymology invoke, I reckon.

Comments

[winterlion.livejournal.com]

Sacrifice is an interesting thing. In some ways, those of us who follow Forn Sedr/Asatru/... - could be considered 'lax' as we sacrifice a nominal of that which the Gods find sacred (pour a spot of mead on the ground)...
... but seperately, the Seiðmanner (Shamans) almost exist as a sacrifice as to be a Shaman means one is effectively exiled from the conventional world.

As I'm studying to be a Seiðmann, this is an important thing to consider...

[thegreenson.livejournal.com]

Interesting, redslime was studieng to be a shaman also. Have you ever read his blog?
http://redslime.livejournal.com/

[winterlion.livejournal.com]

I hadn't before. What kind of Shaman? (it's not obvious from public entries and we haven't been properly introduced)

The kind I'm studying is an "almost forgotten" one having to do with traditional Teutonic/Nordic culture and one that's cousin to the northern Russian Shaman tradition (the one from which we get the word "Shaman" *grin*)

[thegreenson.livejournal.com]

hmmm, not sure but I will forward it to him and see if he'll add you as a friend.