Sacrifice

Sacrifice 

I am writing this blog in response (and agreement with another blog here) because I wrote an intelligent and rather eloquent response in the comments section that was eaten by the site/internet/computer beasties. I in no way shook my laptop in rage, I am a grown up! 

I will now try and remember the clever and beautifully smart things I said....

Firstly if you asked me if I made sacrifices, I would probably say I don't. Offerings sure, but sacrifice sound either like a dodgy business arrangement (scratch my back and I''ll scratch yours) or some biblical test of faith by destroying a person, animal or thing that is very important; I don't have any need to prove my faith to my Gods.

Yet sacrifice also means to offer. THAT I do all the time.

I feed my family, friends, fae and Gods (and Goddesses) on a regular basis. Sometimes in a ritual context but just as often just when I am cooking (baking in particular).

So animal sacrifice sounds like something I don't do (kill an animal to pleased, placate or bargain with those beyond the Veil) except that when I give offerings, make a dumb supper plate, put the fatty bits in a tree, in a way I am.

There is no blood on my hands per say. I wouldn't hurt or harm a pet, mine or anyone else's. Yet if I needed to take a life to feed my family, friends, fae and Gods, then I would take an animals life. I would take it as swiftly and painlessly as I could. I would honour their passing. Respect all it gave me. Growing up on a farm I saw the souls of animals up close and personal. While I wasn't allowed to hunt (not woman's work apparently) my step-brothers sometimes did, and their friends did far more often. It was not uncommon to find "payment" for hunting being hung up outside the door when we went out in the morning, be it a goose, rabbit, or in one case a bag of eels, (not bad eating though they did stink out the microwave for a while). I learned to pluck, gut and clean (women's work apparently) and eat all sorts of food.

Sacrifice (in the context of offerings) for me is a conversation, a connectedness. What I have I freely and lovingly shared with all those I love and care for in my life. It is not a burden. I always pay close attention to the food I eat. I never forget that I am eating something that had a soul or spirit and I engage with that.

There is a snobbish bitchcraft, holier than thou bunch of people on the pro and anti sides of this argument. Much of it stems different class systems in different countries (either the very rich or the very poor tend to hunt in the UK) and the generally snobbery of who is more witch endlessly irritates me. Witch is something you do. Not what you eat. 

If someone I knew was sacrificing animals (especially if was for ritual food) in a safe, humane and legal way (like rabbits or wood pigeons) I would totally get it and support that right.

This is not the same as animal abuse to use their body parts in spell work (I knew a guy in Crewe who neglected his pets to death and did just this, but because he did't snap a neck he felt he was and I quote "clean of the death". This is disgusting on every level.

Then we have the folks who respect any animal, except of course the human animal. They grant beingness to grasshoppers and fleas but can not find compassion or acceptance for the human spirit if they do not agree with their particular branch. 

For me the consuming of a meal in ritual context, the offering of what I have with others is a significant and spiritual thing. When I did the Hunter Journeying at the Hunter's full moon, eating venison was a very sacred and special part of that. It was not an abstract idea of "Stag" it was the meat in my bowl, in my mouth, in my body. 

The acknowledgement of the death in my life, from the yeast in my bread, to the meat and vegetables I harvest from the garden (many slugs died in the making of those beans) it connects me to the cycles of life and death. It roots me in the real, in the past and present. It teaches me, and my daughter who will always remember, that death is not some distant frightening specture we must avoid at all cost. It is a part life. It gives context and meaning. It is a sacrifice we will all one day make.

Bright Blessings xxx

(no this wasn't as good as the original but ho hum!)