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Subscribe to this list via RSS Blog posts tagged in sacrifice

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.

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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
Pagan savings challenge, week forty-one:  sacrifice

Now that I've obtained a bigger basket, let's talk about about sacrifice.  Over forty dollars a week is now going into this work, and I'm definitely feeling the pinch.  I've got to think twice about choosing a slice of pizza over preparing a sandwich at home.   Not only isn't there as much money for little treats like that, I can't make shopping decisions on the fly like I did a few months ago.  If I need kitty litter, I can't just grab a bag when I'm in the neighborhood, because it costs as much as my weekly savings nut (I get the wheat-based litter, because trust me, clay may be cheap but it's far more costly to us all).  Instead, I must plan ahead, budget for cat litter, and watch for sales.

This is the toughest part of intentional spending for me -- planning ahead.  Letting go of the impulse, rather than acting upon it.  Looking to the future, instead of living in the moment.

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Posted by on in Paths Blogs
Possession in the Pillar Crypt

Up to now my blog posts here have been mostly about research I've done - information about Minoan deities and spiritual practices, with a few notes from my own practice thrown in for good measure. Today I'm sharing something very different with you. Something very personal.

I've spent a lot of time meditating and doing shamanic journeywork to piece together what I can of Minoan religious practice. Usually I get a few glimpses of rituals they might have performed in the big temples or at the little shrines and altars in their homes. A few days ago I got something I hadn't bargained for - a full-blown vision of an oracular priestess doing her thing. It has taken me some time to process this experience and reach the point that I can comfortably share it with you.

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Recent Comments - Show all comments
  • Laura Perry
    Laura Perry says #
    Further work with this vision suggests that after I passed out, my clothing was removed and saved for some sort of reverence. It w
  • Steven Posch
    Steven Posch says #
    Powerful stuff, Laura. At very least, one can say that it's consistent with the archaeology and cultural data. Further than that w
  • Laura Perry
    Laura Perry says #
    Hi Steven, I do find it interesting that we often have so much trouble separating from our normal/mundane state that we have to b

Posted by on in Culture Blogs
The Buck Above, the Buck Below

French Inquisitor Pierre de Lancre wrote that at the Basque Sabbats the Devil himself presided at mass. At the moment of Consecration, he would cry out: This is my body! Then he would lift the Host, which was black, round, and stamped with the Devil's image (de Lancre specifies that he lifts it “on his horns”), and those present would fall down in adoration and cry out, twice repeated, a mysterious four-word phrase, which has rung down the history of witchcraft ever since.

In his account of the Basque trials, de Lancre transcribes the Basque words as:

Aquerra Goity, Aquerra Beyty

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Yesterday I got an interesting question from a reader named Wendy, who has allowed me to print part of her e-mail and my response to her so as to accomodate others who might be struggling with this question. It went as follows:

"Hi Elani, I read your blog a lot and saw that you wrote that sometimes sacrifices were burned fully, and sometimes they were only partly sacrificed and partly eaten. I think the difference is in who the sacrifice is to, but I have trouble deciding who should get what type of offering. Is there a list or something I can use? Thanks! Wendy."
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Recent Comments - Show all comments
  • Joseph Eberling
    Joseph Eberling says #
    i think being what i believe in is what i am wiccan and i in joy being what i am i believe in the power that i got in with the gro
  • Joseph Eberling
    Joseph Eberling says #
    I am a green witch and I study herbs and practice crastals and try to help ppl with there problems and ive been doing this for 5
  • Jamie
    Jamie says #
    This is a really great post, and so useful... I recently gathered some standing dead wood for the fire pit, and now we can put i
  • Elani Temperance
    Elani Temperance says #
    Very welcome! This is exactly the reason why I like reader questions so much.

Posted by on in SageWoman Blogs
The Harvest of the Mother

The blade is sharp
Scythe swings in
Flashing arc as
Sheaf of wheat
And apples fall
The Harvest now begun.

Gather the grain
Leave what you must
Fill carefully woven baskets
With the overflowing bounty.

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Posted by on in SageWoman Blogs

Yggdrasil

Huginn and Muninn, the ravens return,

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Recent Comments - Show all comments
  • Amoret BriarRose
    Amoret BriarRose says #
    Thank you! I thought it might be appropriate for Lammas/Lughnasadh.
  • Laurie Novotny
    Laurie Novotny says #
    I love this!

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