Re: Bloodletting (Nahua) By: Brysing Moderator / Adept
Post # 9 Oct 09, 2014
Humans are the only animals on Earth to deliberately injure their bodies by blood-letting. No other animal would be so stupid!
There are young people for whom life is so unbearable that the pain of "cutting" eases the greater pain of their existence.These need sympathy and/or counselling to help them.
But, anybody who would deliberately injure that sacred body because of some religious belief is in need of psychiatric treatment in my opinion!
Aztecs, Incas, and many other ancient religions believed in the shedding of human blood to the extent of actually killing people to "please God". Even Christianity believes that Jesus had to die, with great loss of blood, to "save humanity"!
Have we learnt nothing? To cut yourself, I believe, is a sin against nature. To cut somebody else is a crime!
I am sorry, Brysing, but I disagree with you completely and find that what you said was rude .
I do not condone human sacrifice or most animal sacrifice, and neither did the original user who posted this (as I knew her). The post was not meant to be about that- rather the willing sacrifice of ones own blood in their practice. Just because your beliefs on the matter differ does not give you the authority to call a person stupid or in need of mental help just because their practice involves such a thing. It's cultural and a long standing part of their religious practice. It is also their body and if they choose to use their own blood for their own religion- you have no part in that.
Many different practices and paths incorporate the use of blood into their workings. Ranging from self-inflicted cuts to the collection of menstrual blood, or the collection of animal blood, or the drinking of blood, etc. This is because many beliefs find that the body is considered a sacred vessel or at least one of personal importance: to give an offering from ones own body, then, means quite a bit and makes the working more personal and (in some beliefs) powerful.
Within my practice, it was traditional and cultural to use animal sacrifices in our workings. Horses were often used for many things. An example of one practice would be the creation of the nidstang, which is a runic cursing pole. A horses head would be placed at the top of a spike which was engraved with runes and often smeared with your own blood (to make it personal). In modern practice, we do not do most animal sacrifice- as we are a bit more ethical with the animals, and I personally do not believe in taking from another thing without cause. There are many deities within the Norse pantheon for which blood is considered an acceptable offering as well: Odin, for instance, stabbed himself with a spear and hung himself for nine days to learn the runes. While most Heathens do not follow the same route as he did, giving blood and working with blood in your rune work is considered normal. One of our main rituals, known as a blot, roughly translates to "sacrifice" (blod=blood). However, because of this, we use more of our own blood to achieve the same thing- trying to be as close to the original practice as possible. It's cultural. A part of what made my religion, my people. Therefore, to me, it means quite a bit.
(you'll have to copy and paste the two sections of the link)
Those who choose to use blood for some purpose, such as thing, take precautions about it. We don't just slit our wrists or otherwise harm ourselves in a bad way. It could be as simple as a prick of the finger. If more blood is needed, we often first go to a doctor to ensure that we are medically fine. We take precautions with the equipment to ensure that it is sterile and free of infection. We do not take more from ourselves than what we need for our purpose. And we give ourselves time to heal afterwards. W e are all very safe about it and aware of what we are doing.
It is wrong of you to call members who decide to do this stupid. Just because it is not what you believe, it is not wrong for them and their path and they do not need to see a doctor because of it.
This is an awesome thread, it is not to be taken lightly indeed. do not give blood to any deity, spirit or anything in between if you cannot fully trust them! I have learned quite a bit I did not know in the past, thanks for posting!
But didn't the Aztecs, etc., give the blood, not of themselves, but of unwilling people who they went around capturing for this purpose? They did not sacrifice of themselves, but that of others. How can this be honorable to gods? I think Brysing is right to point out those who "cut" needing help, as he was talking of those who cut to rid themselves of pain they cannot deal with, a depression of a sort, a release. He was not talking of giving to gods. But this could be misunderstood by the young ones as reason to continue the hurting of themselves, when what they really need is professional help.
Incorrect , the aztecs primarily sacrificed their own. Sacrifices of prisoners of war were a minority in comparison , and held no high devotional value. Nor did they capture random people , hollywood makes such things up. The aztec and mayan need for shedding blood for their deities was born from the harsh environments and conditions they lived in. It was seen as either the only way to sway a wrathful deity or to give another deity enought strenght to balance the fragile equilibrium of their world. Prime example of a highly devotional sacrifice would be Toxcatl (which is the only ceremony in which the heart of the sacrifice is cut out with an obsidian blade) which occured once a year , and a volunteer or "perfect male specimen" would be chosen and treated as a god (in particular the god Tezcatlipoca) for an entire year , given anything he desired and treated as he wished , at the end of the cycle on the Toxcatl he would be sacrificed to the God he was representing (Tezcatlipoca).
The sacrifice of prisoners of war was mainly as a fear tactic or an actual devoting of blood itself to their deities. Teyollia the essence found in Eztli (Blood) was seen as the epitomy of that which is physical , and the essence used to exert change in the physical world. Hence large amounts of blood were often sacrificed to a deity who needed the strenght to "defeat" the deity that currently resided as dominant in the equilibrium. People who cut themselves for emotional pain need help , people who use blood in their practices do not.
I know in this society the human sacrifice practiced by the aztecs can seem shocking, technically it is murder. However, the people to be sacrificed must have been willing.
Perhaps that is hard for us to understand, but I would imagine being chosen to e sacrificed was a great honour and there would be spiritual rewards promised in the afterlife- which they would thouroughly believe in.
Personally I go by Crowley's advice in Liber ABA-
"But the bloody sacrifice, though more dangerous, is more efficacious; and for nearly all purposes human sacrifice is the best. The truly great Magician will be able to use his own blood, or possibly that of a disciple, and that without sacrificing the physical life irrevocably."
Of course, Crowley's 'blood' was not always blood, but a symbol for another possible substance one can use.
Personally, I have only used actual blood very little in my workings, I believe it gives me more of a psychological shock rather than raise anything powerful; then again perhaps I am not using enough!
I think sacrificing a horse would be far too messy and would attract the attention of neighbours!
I know the old pagans/phonecians around 2000 BC were practicing this. Its an old outdated practice but it works and it can be the most amazing experiece or extremely frighening both of which I enjoyed but when things started to actually happen I had to stop. However, like with most habits and rituals they become hard to stop so I did relapse once this year.
