What do you think about sacrifice?

Question

As a Satanist I can tell you that sacrifice comes from within the magician, blood, sweat, emotion, tears. These things are what constitute sacrifice. The pain of an innocent creature is for posers and those that think the christian way. What do you other religions believe makes a sacrafice?
Speaking in ritualistic terms of course.
What do crispies really believe and why?
What about other religions?
Why do Christians believe that satanists would harm an innocent being for their own purposes?
Pagans, islamic religions, hindus, what do you do?

sorry ripose, the poor cat, have you no feelings man?!?!

So there are no religions which sacrifice abn innocent creature anymore,noe goats, or lambs, or anything? Come on, people, out with it!

So mass religion has really mellowed out hasn't it?Why?

Answer 1

I agree with you completely about sacrifice. Speaking from a purely lingual standpoint, "Sacrifice" translates literally to "to make sacred". When I was a witch in my teenage years, I attended a Pagan holiday celebration in which this was revealed to me. In honor of the holiday, we all "made a sacrifice" by going around a circle with joined hands, stating what we choose to sacrifice, and thereby make sacred. There was no killing or even harming involved, only naming. For instance, when it was my turn, I said "I sacrifice my guitar, Demona!".

With that definition in mind, think of this: if you like I believe that Nature is sacred, then a "Virgin Sacrifice" is made whenever someone who hasn't ever had sex decides to embrace who they are (or, their "nature") as a physical, spiritual or intellectual being! (just a little humor there). I guess these days the virgins sacrifice themselves =P

As for why the Xians believe that the Satanists would kill an innocent being for our own purposes, the answer is the same as that of a lot of questions about the misconceptions about Satanism: Thousands of years of LIES. See, ritual slaughter and mutilation is actually a Xian invention, put into practice in the early days of the Aeon of Osiris (when the Jehova-Worshipping Religions started out) as a way to appease the wrath of Jehovah. It's amazing how much I end up using this next Bible Quote, but...

Deuteronomy 12:27 - "And thou shalt offer thy burnt offerings, the flesh and the blood, upon the Altar of The LORD, thy God. And the blood of thy sacrifices shall be spilt upon the Altar of The LORD, and thou shalt eat the flesh".

Don't believe me? Google it! Or, just Google "Human Sacrifice in the Bible", there's all sorts of it in there, and I've read most of it. The reason that many people believe Satanists are all about killing people in ritual is mostly because the Xians go out of their way to convey that message. Why? Because, one could assume, when people started taking offense at the idea of killing in the name of God, the Church started to disavow any experience in that field, and pinned it on us because they knew it was a way they could begin to discredit us. They already had people at that point believing that Satan wanted them to kill each other, and seeing as so many people are sheep who don't do their research for themselves, most people believed them. It's a shame, but it's very much likely the truth. That's my Satanic Two-Cents, do with it what you will.

Oh, and this is completely off topic, but I can't stand ignorance, and I've seen it displayed in this thread. So, "Apostle Jeff", it's kinda my obligation based on my position to inform you that Jesus was NOT, in fact, a sinless being. He was guilty of Wrath (a deadly sin the last time I checked) the day he turned a whip on all those businessmen who were trying to actually get something productive done in sunday sermon, while he screamed "Get out of my father's house!!!" out of pure, undefiled rage. Also If Lust is as sinful as the average Xian Preacher will tell you, then he was guilty of that sin too. See, the true story of the Holy Grail had nothing to do with a golden cup (you may not see the connection now, but bear with me here). The Holy Grail Story as told by the Xian Church is a fabrication, because the truth doesn't do much justice to their argument against Lust. The Holy Grail was said to contain the blood of Christ, and in truth it did, but "The Holy Grail" in all actuality was a reference to the womb of Mary Magdalena, Jesus's prostitute wife (and God DAMN I bet it stings that I bring that detail up). Christ had conceived many children with Magdalena in thier lifetimes, but like many prostitutes do, every time it happened, she gave herself an on the fly abortion, killing her unborn child for whatever selfish reasons. Therefore, seeing as "Blood" is also an old way of saying "Family", old Mary's uterus had much of the "Blood" of Christ in it in her lifetime (even if it WAS a dead fetus or sixty). If she got pregnant with his children, chances are they'd been screwing. I guess that makes him guilty of Lust as well as Wrath, now doesn't it? Why don't you just run along now, and bang your Bible someplace where people are actually foolish enough to take you seriousely.

In any case, it's now four in the morning, and I'm as tired as Hell is glorious (and believe me, that's saying something), so I'M going to sleep. Later, people!

Ave Satanas!

-Valkyri

Answer 2

Personally I do not like the term "sacrifice" because as you explained in your question it means "to make sacred". The closest thing I can think of from a pre christian standpoint that would be anything similar to a sacrifice would be a blooding. An animal is killed (usually by cutting it's throat) and it's blood collected in a bowl. Then using a sprig from an evergreen tree the blood is sprinkled on the gathered people and the object (most often a newly constructed building) being blessed. The animal is then eaten by all in attendance. Although not technically illegal you wont find many modern Ásatrúar doing this as to be perfectly honest it's not very pleasant and very few of us actually have custom built premises for our gatherings that would lend themselves to doing this. The next issue with sacrifice that I have is that we're generally not giving up things but rather sharing them with each other and the gods which isn't really a sacrifice in the way the word is understood. A sacrifice would be pouring out ALL the mead, but of course we all drink some first. All that being said I do agree that everything we do is a sacrifice or at least the balance of sacrificing one thing to achieve another, but this is a feature of all human life rather than something specific to any religion or spiritual path for example, you sacrifice some of your childhood in order to learn things beneficial to adulthood, you sacrifice some of your freedoms in order to get married, you sacrifice your time and your money to have kids, you sacrifice your time in a job to earn money, you may have to sacrifice your own life to save your children and so-on and so-on. I hope that makes sense because while I typed it I could feel the rant lol

Answer 3

Heathenism

Sacrifice is usually some good mead going into the blessing bowl or poured out over the stone stalli (altar). If you've tasted good mead (which our brewmaster makes), you'd call that a sacrifice. LOL

Our ancestors did sacrifice human beings - criminals and prisoners of war. Mummified remains have been found in peat bogs in Europe with the noose still around the neck. That apparently died out even before contact with Christianity.

In the myths, All Father Odin "sacrificed" himself on the World Tree, wounding himself with his own spear and hanging 9 days and nights until he reached a shamanistic state where he gained the knowledge of the runes.

Personally, giving up some blood (a small cut can be very symbolic), staining our tools or runes with that blood is a form of sacrifice, I suppose.

NEVER the sacrifice of another person or animal.

As for Satanists and the myths - it's been propaganda. I remember in the 80s and 90s when law enforcement had "experts" traveling the country teaching police departments about "satanic" crimes. None of their findings proved to be true Satanists and no sacrifice of animal or human was ever proven. What few "Satanic" crimes they always point to were disgruntled teenagers playacting and forming their own small cults with no legitimite foundation in religion.

Answer 4

Another Heathen here.

I too sacrifice mead, ale or food. At special occasions, I sacrifice my own blood. I know Heathens who still sacrifice animals nowadays, but I'm against it and I could never bring myself to do it.
Sacrificing animals had a sense when an animal was actually a basic unit of a family's economy - it meant giving up something precious, for example a cow that was giving you milk every day. Then the meat would be either sacrificed to, or eaten by the family, the skin used for leather, the horns used for tools and so on.
Nowadays when we can get all that in supermarkets, sacrificing alive animals is nothing but cruelty.

In my opinion, the biggest gift you can give the Gods on the daily basis is your belief and respect - yourself.

Answer 5

Any religion or person that would sacrifice a living breathing creature is inherently EVIL with no exceptions and any that would do so even symbolically is suspect and should be therefore challenged giving something you like up or working towards it as sacrifice , doing good without expectation of reward is creditable and worthy . this is the opinion of myself and I feel to my credit as these are rules I set for myself as well .

Answer 6

In Hinduism (Sanatana Dharma) Sacrifice is known as Yajya. Sacrifice means working for Whole without any expectations. Sacrifice is the base of this Universe. Parents do sacrifice for their kids, which creates a ripple effect. Plants sacrifice O2 for us and we sacrifice CO2 for plants. A flower sacrifices it's fragrance for us...

Answer 7

I used to be Catholic. Sacrifices were considered giving up something for God that you really wanted. Such as food (fasting), I was even told once by my Sunday school teacher that if I had an itch I shouldn't scratch it and instead give that up as a sacrifice to God. Also, if you deprive yourself of things you want then that is a sacrifice. Oh and doing good deeds for people without telling them you've done it and letting them think someone else did or it just happened. That is also one.

Answer 8

hmm as far as sacrificing animals, I do it for the life sustaining meat it gives. But I've only sacrificed fish. I don't know if I could actually sacrifice a cow. Does that count? Maybe slaughtering animals for food isn't considered sacrifice.

Answer 9

I think that sacrifice means doing something for someone else even if it is an inconvience for you personally. Sacrifice is a word connected to the word love and those who sacrifice their time, money, strength, sweat, lives, etc. do it for someone else. They do it because they care for someone other than themselves.

I hope you have someone like that in your life...I would hope that for all of us! ... Blessings!

Answer 10

a sacrifice can be a powerful magical tool, if it is truly giving up something meaningful. it doesn't have to be the blood of a living thing. it can be a favorite article of clothing, or a favorite food. i lean more toward the practice of libation; sharing with the gods.