PaganSquare


PaganSquare is a community blog space where Pagans can discuss topics relevant to the life and spiritual practice of all Pagans.

  • Home
    Home This is where you can find all the blog posts throughout the site.
  • Tags
    Tags Displays a list of tags that have been used in the blog.
  • Bloggers
    Bloggers Search for your favorite blogger from this site.
  • Login
    Login Login form
Subscribe to this list via RSS Blog posts tagged in Animal Sacrifice
Pagan News Beagle: Fiery Tuesday, August 25

A Hindu festival in Nepal turns down animal sacrifice. Racists gather in Germany to attack refugee asylums. And debates continue about the complex intersection of laws protecting same-sex couples from discrimination and religious liberty laws. That's right, it's Fiery Tuesday, our weekly take on political issues that affect the Pagan community. All this and more for the Pagan News Beagle!

Last modified on

Posted by on in Culture Blogs
Blood Month

Blót-monað, the ancestors called it: Sacrifice-Month.* Or one could say (as the ancestors did, in their pragmatic way) Blood-month. It still goes on.

Deer-hunting begins this weekend here in Minnesota. Hunting opener is generally the first full weekend of November. (Just coincidence, I'm sure. Yeah, right.) Blood on the leaves.

It's the season of the Dead, yes, but let us not forget what the witches in their wisdom have always remembered: it's also the time of the Rut.** The fawns that Old Green Eyes sires right now will be born about Bealtaine, sure. Blood and spooge: Old Craft in the nutshell.

Last modified on
Recent Comments - Show all comments
  • Steven Posch
    Steven Posch says #
    I am entirely convinced that there is nothing, absolutely nothing, more central to our paganism than what and how we eat. Do we li
  • Jim
    Jim says #
    Like most people in the U.S. I have absolutely no need or intention of eating wild animals. Even those who are so abysmally mundan

Posted by on in Paths Blogs

b2ap3_thumbnail_boar.jpgBefore I sat down to write this, I had to wash the blood off my hands.

Seriously. I did.

...
Last modified on
Recent Comments - Show all comments
  • Karen Wheeler
    Karen Wheeler says #
    This is a good and honest article. You did a good job of looking into the heart of things. I agree with Jim's relation of how it w
  • Courtney Weber
    Courtney Weber says #
    Thanks so much, Karen! I appreciate your thoughts!
  • Jim
    Jim says #
    I like the way the Iroquois (translation - the Humans) approached having to kill other living beings whether plant, or animal (inc
  • Courtney Weber
    Courtney Weber says #
    Thank you, Jim! I didn't know that about fruit--very interesting. I appreciate your kind comment!
  • Anne Newkirk Niven
    Anne Newkirk Niven says #
    Thanks Courtney, for a well-written, compassionate, and even-handed post on a subject that often sends people off the deep end one
PaganNewsBeagle Watery Wednesday Community News Nov 5

In today's Watery Wednesday post, we concentrate on news about our Pagan communities and their allies. Big changes at the Wild Hunt; Pagan scholarship prizes; crowdfunding a Pagan funeral; SilverRavenwolf vs. Facebook; and animal sacrifice in Paganism, pro- and -con.

Big news on the Pagan Media front: The Wild Hunt founder and frontman Jason Pitzl-Waters steps down and leaves the keys to TWH media kingdom with new editor Heather Greene.

...
Last modified on
Recent Comments - Show all comments
  • Anne Newkirk Niven
    Anne Newkirk Niven says #
    Thanks for the note, I stand corrected.
  • Terence P Ward
    Terence P Ward says #
    Heather Greene has been the managing editor of The Wild Hunt for a year now, taking the operational reins when Jason Pitzl-Waters
The Vegan Pagan: The Case Against Animal Sacrifice

In light of recent Pagan conversations around the blogosphere on the topic of animal sacrifice, I thought I'd skip ahead in the Vegan Pagan series to offer the animal-centric perspective I had scheduled for January. I'll be back on track next month.

Good Samhain to all!

- Ceallaigh


Modern Paganism has more than a few bloody roots. The early Celts practiced both animal sacrifice and human ritual killing1 and might well have engaged in ritual cannibalism under extreme circumstances, as historical and archaeological evidence attests.2 3 Elaborate human sacrifices were performed at the temple in Uppsala and elsewhere in Northern Europe as late as the 10th century AD, and there are well-documented accounts of animal sacrifice as well.4 5 The early Greeks may have engaged in human sacrifice or human ritual killing and certainly engaged in animal sacrifice.6 These are only a few among many examples, as students of pre-Christian religion well know, and they collectively represent a disquieting piece of theological history. However, while most Pagans will agree that cannibalism, human ritual killing and human sacrifice are better abandoned to history, the practice of animal sacrifice has been reconstructed by a few sects of the Pagan community.

...
Last modified on
Recent Comments - Show all comments
  • Sage LeFaye
    Sage LeFaye says #
    I'd like to echo James' sentiment with thanks, as well. Your Vegan Pagan posts are so vitally important. Please continue writing a
  • C.S. MacCath
    C.S. MacCath says #
    Thank you so much, Sage! I took the month of December off to meet a couple of writing deadlines, but I'll be back in a few days wi
  • James Taylor
    James Taylor says #
    Thank you so much for writing these Vegan Pagan blog posts Ceallaigh, they are so amazing and well written. I'm very much looking
  • C.S. MacCath
    C.S. MacCath says #
    Thank you so much for your kind words. They mean a great deal to me, and I'm glad the series is resonating with you. As for the b
PaganNewsBeagle Faithful Friday Sept 12

Today is Faithful Friday here at the Pagan News Beagle, the day we share interesting stories about religious communities around the world. Our stories today include the launch of the new Polytheist community website; a call for papers on Pagan and Goddess studies; animal sacrifice outlawed (in part of India); Chinese Buddhist brand building; American Muslims meet (and integrate better than Muslims in Europe.)

The new website Polytheist.com launched recently and hopes to offer a variety of columnists (the site eschews the term "blog") from across this diverse movement.

...
Last modified on
Nepal: A Country of Holy Cows, Monuments and Spiritual Mountains

Nepal: A Country of Holy Cows, Monuments and Spiritual Mountains

 Bangkok, Thailand. I stood viewing the sunset’s stream of pastel colors from the deck of my hotel after sitting in an airplane all day. I had departed from Vancouver, B.C. and my bottom was sore. My energy field was depleted because of tight seating arrangements and stifling conditions on the aircraft. I fell into a soft bed and asleep straight away thereupon though and when I awakened rubbing my sleepy eyes the next morning it was still dark out. I dressed, repacked my bags and grabbed a coffee at the hotel kiosk on my way to the waiting cab. I got in and in a few minutes I was at the airport once more and aboard Asian Airlines flight 399 to Kathmandu, Nepal, a place that my neighbour loved to visit and often talked about. I was going to Nepal to find my spiritual connection in an exotic place. The questing torch that I have held high for many decades burned brightly and I was excited to explore another powerful place on planet Earth. It was 1996 and I had just healed my ovarian cancer with the potato, Reiki and other dietary measures and was feeling robust. My husband was with me, he liked to tag along with his globetrotting wife. It was mid January, and our return tickets were for the end of March.

...
Last modified on

Additional information