Some ideas here sent in by Tim, following the 18 December 2004 event:
The mistletoe weekend continues to rumble along in the back of my mind,
through the festive period. The nature of sacrifice is the essence, and
how it can fit with a pagan world view. What is the function of sacrifice.
- Gods need sacrifice to sustain themselves and their power,
without which they are diminished
- Sacrificed goods are used to make a bargain with the god who has promised
some favour in return for the sacrifice
- The lives or blood of sacrificial victims contain some supernatural power
whose offering pleases the god
- The sacrifice is offered as a scapegoat or a target for the wrath of
a god, which otherwise would be visited on the followers
- Sacrifice deprives the followers of food and other useful commodities
and constitutes an ascetic discipline
- Sacrificed goods become part of the religious organisation’s
revenue and supports the temples
- The sacrifice is part of the festival and is ultimately consumed by the
followers themselves.
- As a sign of a covenant between a chosen people and the god.
[i]
These seem to fit with the religions of the
book and their understanding of the pagan religions of their time
[ii]
[iii] [iv],
but also have much in common with the celtic gods, reported second hand
[v] of the Taranis, Teutates and
Esus trinity. The religions of the book have come to terms with their
sacrificial past, but in paganism its been brushed under the carpet.
The mistletoe rite [1] has
the human sacrifice replaced by 2 bulls, but that’s still too brutal.
The idea seems to be to perform an exchange for the mistletoe; we give
something in exchange for the mistletoe. What is it that the gods or
otherworld beings are needing. The supernatural power that the otherworld
lacks is physical sensation; its outside the realm of physical; is this
the power of blood sacrifice that was wanted, a connection with the physicality
of this world? Dancing, sexuality, earth are things I’d miss when
in spirit!
Otherworld journeys, shamanic trances and the travels to the otherworld
as energy exchanges. Rainbow circle and Druid camps haven't done trance
dancing, but I've found this to give a strong otherworld connection.
I've exchanged a trance dance for my totem crow in return for a
flight in the otherworld; misty, half dreamy. That seems to be an exchange
that's meaningful. Ecstatic dance, physical energy are things they
seem to like.
Parallel with this I've been looking at the stars and constellation
of Taurus, and in particular the Pleiades, looking for connections with
the white bull sacrifice. The bull appears
in the Lascaux [vi] caves
as one of the wall paintings, and there seems to be a representation of the
7 stars of the Pleiades above his shoulder [vii].
Curiously, the comet Machholz , discovered
by Don Machholz [viii], is
passing through the ecliptic on Jan
5th 2005, at about 27 deg Taurus, and will be at its closest to earth
(.3 AU [ix]) . A couple of days later
it will be within 2 degrees of the Pleiades.
The use of comets as astrological
predictors is well out of
use, but note that Alcyone, the brightest star of the Pleiades is traditionally
interpreted “In Taurus. Harm to cattle, great winds, destruction
of fruit and corn, death of some great man, and in winter cold, earthquake
and pestilence” [x]. A link with the Indonesian quake?
Footnotes:
[1] It is popularly
accepted that mistletoe was revered by the ancient Druids, although the only known classical
reference describing the ritual gathering of mistletoe was the following account written in the
first century by Pliny the Elder in his Naturalis Historia:
For they believe that whatever grows on these trees is sent from heaven,
and is a sign that the tree has been chosen by the gods themselves. The
mistletoe is very rarely to be met with; but when it is found, they gather
it with solemn ceremony. This they do above all on the sixth day of the
moon, from whence they date the beginnings of their months, of their
years, and of their thirty years cycle, because by the sixth day the
moon has plenty of vigour and has not run half its course.
After due preparations have been made for a sacrifice and a feast under
the tree, they hail it as the universal healer and bring to the spot
two white bulls, whose horns have never been bound before. A priest clad
in a white robe climbs the tree and with a golden sickle cuts the mistletoe,
which is caught in a white cloth. Then they sacrifice the victims, praying
that the gods will make their gifts propitious to those to whom they
have given it.
They believe that a potion prepared from the mistletoe will make barren
animals to bring forth, and that the plant is a remedy against all poisons.
(from Naturalis Historia (XVI, 95) by Pliny the Elder)
http://www.druidnetwork.org/mistletoe/articles/myth.html
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[i] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animal_sacrifice
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[ii] The Eucharist has
always been one of the most important aspects
of Christianity. The Catechism of the Catholic Church strongly asserts
the "Real Presence" of Jesus' body in the Eucharist; this is
to say that the sacrament is not symbolic of the body and blood of Jesus
but rather that it is his body and blood. This doctrine was affirmed
at the Lateran Council of 1215. Additionally the Fourth Lateran Council
confirmed the ancient Catholic teaching, that "no one but the priest
[sacerdos], regularly ordained according to the keys of the Church, has
the power of consecrating this sacrament" (Catholic Encyclopedia
Online). The Catholic Church regards the Mass in which this ritual occurs
as a sacrificial re-enactment of Christ's death on the cross, in which
the priest "stands in" for Christ who is both high priest and
sacrificial victim. Thus, the Mass is a substitute for animal sacrifices
performed in the past. In the Catholic Church only males can become priests
and perform this sacrifice. Therefore, because the Church states that
reception of the Eucharist is necessary for Christian salvation, the
laity's salvation is dependent upon sacrifices enacted by a male priesthood.
http://www2.kenyon.edu/Depts/Religion/Projects/Reln91
/Blood/Eucharistmain.htm
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[iii] In Judaism,
a sacrifice is known as a Korban from the Hebrew root karov meaning to "[come]
Close [to God]". Medieval Jewish rationalists
like Maimonides reinterpreted the need for sacrifice. In this view, God
always held sacrifice inferior to prayer and philosophical meditation.
However, God understood that the Israelites were used to the animal sacrifices
that the surrounding pagan tribes used as the primary way to commune
with their gods. As such, in Maimonides' view, it was only natural that
Israelites would believe that sacrifice were be a necessary part of the
relationship between God and man. Maimonides concludes that God's decision
to allow sacrifices was a concession to human psychological limitations.
It would have been too much to have expected the Israelites to leap from
pagan worship to prayer and meditation in one step
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animal_sacrifice
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[iv] Who should sacrifice and what are
the conditions?
First, one must have the intention (niyyah) of sacrificing before doing
so. The sacrifice has to meet certain conditions, the first of which
is the intention. The person who sacrifices must set his or her intention
before slaughtering. The sacrifice is not accepted without it because
slaughtering is done for different reasons: It could be done for the
meat or to get closer to Allah. If the slaughtering is done to seek closeness
to Allah, then the intention has to precede the act. It is not required
that the person who is actually doing the slaughter mention on whose
behalf he is slaughtering because the intention will suffice.
Second, the person who does the slaughtering should be a Muslim. It
is preferable that a Muslim do the slaughtering because the sacrifice
is an act of worship for the purpose of pleasing Allah Almighty. Therefore
it is better if a Muslim does the slaughtering himself or herself. If
a Muslim delegates a non-Muslim to slaughter on his behalf, it is acceptable
but hated (makruh). This is the opinion of the schools of Ibn Hanbal
and Ash-Shafi`i, Abu Thawr, and Ibn Al-Mundhir.
On the other hand, Imam Ahmad and Imam Malik forbid the non-Muslim to
slaughter the sacrificial animal; Imam `Ali, Ibn Abbas and Ghabir said
it is hated (makruh) for a non-Muslim to slaughter. But Ibn Qudamah argued
that if it is permissible for a non-Muslim to slaughter for Muslims for
the meat, why should he not be permitted to slaughter for the sacrifice?
If a non-believer is permitted to participate in the building of mosques
for Muslims, why should he not also be permitted to slaughter the sacrifice
for them?
Third, it is preferable for the person who sacrifices to slaughter the
sacrificial animal himself or herself. It is preferable for the person
sacrificing-be it a man or a woman-to slaughter the animal with his or
her own hands. The Prophet (peace and blessing be upon him) slaughtered
two rams with his own hands.
Fourth, one should say “Bismillah” (In the name of Allah)
before slaughtering. It was reported that the Prophet (peace and blessings
be upon him) used to say when slaughtering, “Bismillah, Allahu
Akbar” (In the name of Allah, Allah is the Greatest). Ibn `Umar
and Qutadah said they don’t know anyone who disagrees with the
foregoing. If one has forgotten to utter these words, the sacrifice will
be acceptable; and if one adds to it the following supplication it would
be even better according to many scholars: “O Allah, This is from
You and unto You, so please accept it from me or from the person on whose
behalf I am slaughtering.”
http://www.islamonline.net/English/introducingislam/
Worship/Pilgrimage/article05.shtml
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[v] "Lucan was writing
in the mid-first century AD about deities
allegedly encountered by Caesar's army in Gaul in the mid-first century
BCE (P. 23). Lucan refers to human sacrifice in general terms, but a
commentator on his poem, writing in Switzerland in the ninth century
AD, clearly had access to early documents that have since been lost,
for he elaborates on Lucan's comments in his description of the most
appropriate human sacrifice for each of the three gods. Taranis, the
thunder-god, was appeased by fire; the victims of Esus (the 'Lord') were
stabbed and hanged from a tree until they bled to death; and those assigned
to Teutates were drowned. The link between Taranis and fire has led to
the assumption that the construction and burning of the Wicker Man (p.
75), described by Caesar and Strabo, were associated with the Thunderer.
We cannot be sure about this, but the immolation of human victims by
fire was a fitting rite for a god who was responsible for lightning." Miranda
Green, quoted in http://www.ravenquest.net/WyldeWoods/Taranis.html
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[vi]
http://members.optusnet.com.au/~gtosiris/page11-1a.html
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[vii] In ancient times,
several gods took on the form of a bull rising
from the sea, including the Dionysos. However, Taurus the bull commemorates
the abduction of Europa by Zeus, goaded on by the gadfly, who took her
from her home in Phoenicia over to the waters to Crete. It is the beginning
of the long struggle between Asia and Europe. That is one story.
Others maintain that the bull is Zeus, yes, but that it is his relationship
with Io that is recalled by its major stars, the Hyades (the sisters
of Hyas) and the Pleiades, the seven weeping sisters. For while Europa
is important, she is only a duplicate of an earlier hierogamy, that of
her great-great-grandmother Io.
The story of Zeus and Io is spoken of very discreetly. Io was Hera’s
own priestess at Argos when Zeus conceived his desire for her. Io’s
dreams were full of loving whispers from Zeus. They told her to go to
the fields of Lerna, where later in its swamps Heracles would fight the
Hydra. As they intertwined together, Hera intruded, and Zeus quickly
turned her into a heifer to protect her. Hera, however, set the monster
Argus, whose hundred eyes see everything, to watch over her. Not to be
put off, Zeus sent Hermes to kill Argus, and Zeus finally enjoyed Io
fully as he wanted.
Hera and Zeus, brother and sister, husband and wife, discovered each
other as children. Homer tells of their secret love:
And Zeus who gathers the clouds saw her, and when he saw her desire
was a mist about his close heart as much as on that time they first went
to bed together and lay in love, and their dear parents knew nothing
of it.
Zeus petted Hera for three-hundred years, on an amazing bed. Hera, of
course, is the goddess of the bed, the playpen erotic devotion. At the
temple of Hera in Argos, it is said that the worshipper could see an
image of Hera’s mouth closing over the phallus of Zeus. No other
goddess, not even Aphrodite, was allowed to be seen in such an image
at her shrine.
So what does Io have to do with all this? It was Zeus’s first
adultery, and the betrayal was perpetrated on a woman who was closest
to Hera herself, a woman very close to her, a copy, a duplicate.
Hera punished this woman who was most like herself. Io, in the form
of a heifer, became a beast consecrated to the divine. She was forced
to wander from Hera’s sanctuary throughout the world. Hera used
the gadfly as the instrument of her vengence. This little insect goaded
her on and on, forcing Io to ford every stream, wandering from place
to place. She even meets Prometheus, also suffering, and tells him that
she wants to die. This obsession ends at the banks of the Nile in Egypt.
She prays to Zeus, and Zeus transforms her back into a woman by skimming
his hand lightly over her. United with the god again, Io would have a
son named Epaphus, meaning the hand’s light touch. The boy would
become king of Egypt one day and he would have a great ox himself, Apis.
Connected with this constellation are two other tragedies:
The Hyades were five daughters of Atlas. They loved their brother Hyas
immensely, that when he was killed by a wild boar, in their grief, they
pined away and died. Their names are Phaoia, Ambrosia, Eudora, Coronis,
and Polyxo. Others add Pedile, Phyto, and Thyone, as well. Some say that
they were former Dodoanian nymphs. (Dodona was the home of the oracle
of Zeus, a very special oracle completely unlike the one at Delphi. At
Dodona, one speaks to the Oak of Zeus to ask to which god one must sacrifice.
There is no point in making a sacrifice if it is to the wrong god.) According
to Hyginus who paraphrases Pherecydes, they brought Liber, another name
for Dionysos or Bacchus, to Io. As a reward, Zeus placed them in the
heavens.
The rising of the Hyades in the sky as well as their setting is attended
with much rain, hence their name.
Now there were other daughters of Atlas and Aethra, the daughter of
the great Oceanus, the great image of necessity who girdles the globe.
The sisters of the Hyades are the Pleiades. These seven sisters some
say discussed what had happened to their sisters, and decided to kill
themselves in their honor.
However, there are other considerations. Alcyone, Merope, Maia, Electra,
Taygete, Steope, and Celaeno are their names, but only six are easily
discernable. Mortal Merope is said to have married Sisyphus and bore
Glaucus, who may be the father of Bellephron, and she was placed on in
the heavens with her immortal sisters. Because she was mortal, her star
is very faint.
The other sisters are credited with different divine husbands: Zeus
is said to be the father of Dardanus by Electra; father of Hermes by
Maia; and of Lacedamon by Taygete. Poseidon is the father of Hyreus by
Alcyone, Lycus and Nycteus by Celaeno. Ares is the father of Oenomaus
by Sterope.
Others claim that the faintest star is not Merope, but Electra who,
after the fall of Troy and her descendents through Dardanus were driven
in exile, removed herself out of the Pleiades out of grief. She is believed
to lead the Pleiades in their circular motion around the polar regions,
where, with her hair loosed, she is observed mourning. She is called
Cometes ("long-haired").
In ancient times, the Pleiades were outside of Taurus, and in connection
with the story that they were the daughters of Pleione and Atlas. Pleione
is said to have been traveling through Boetia with her daughters when
Orion the Hunter was aroused by her and tried to possess her. She fled,
and Orion pursued her for seven years, but was not able to find her.
Pitying their condition, Zeus placed the daughters in the sky as the
bull’s tail. Orion, of course, appears to follow them as they set
in their flight.
Another variant of the story is that Orion, a very handsome man, fell
in love with Merope, who was the daughter of Dionysos’s son Oenopion
who had promised Merope to him. However, Orion had to rid his island
of its dangerous wild beasts. Of course, he did, and brought all the
pelts to Merope. Needless to say, her father said that there had been
rumors of beasts still about and refused to let Orion have Merope. Finally,
after drinking a great deal of wine, Orion raped Merope in her bedroom.
Calling on Dionysos for help, Oenopion, helped by the satyrs, made Orion
so drunk he fell asleep and they blinded him when he was helpless. They
threw on the seashore and left him there for further adventures. Of the
four or five different myths that are combined in Orion, none truly matter
when we look up in the night sky and see his presence. Of all the constellations,
Orion continues to be one of the most prominent and recognizable of all.
The Pleiades are called Vergiliae, the spring stars, by the Romans,
because they rise after the spring equinox. To the Romans, they were
considered sweet and wonderful indications of spring.
class="justify"But even today, many astrologers consider that any planet in conjunction
with the Pleiades, at about twenty-nine degrees of Taurus, entails a
fate worth weeping about.
http://www.winshop.com.au/annew/MythsZodiac.html
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[viii] Aug 27 20004, 4.12AM Colfax
California,
http://www.shopplaza.nl/astro/04Q2DISC.HTM
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[ix]
http://www.yp-connect.net/~mmatti/_private/2004_q2_machholz.htm
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[x]
http://www.winshop.com.au/annew/mundane.htm
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