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Animal Sacrifice

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Talesofbiro

PostPosted: Fri Feb 22, 2013 7:36 pm


I was reading True Hearth and there was a section about how nowadays people don't know how to kill an animal properly for sacrifice. An animal that was to be offered to the gods was to feel no fear or pain as it was slain. A animal that suffered would transfer the suffering over to the gods. (I think I've also heard that the gods would be insulted by such "tainted" meat. But I'm not entirely sure about that one.) So it's best in our modern day to just go to the grocery store and get our meat. I've heard this several times from different sources.

But I was thinking. I'm sure the meat of the animal you get from a grocery store didn't die without pain or fear. So wouldn't that "taint" still transfer over to the gods anyway? Or does it only count how the animal was killed during the ritual for the sacrifice?
PostPosted: Fri Feb 22, 2013 7:56 pm


Meat from a grocery store isn't a sacrifice, for the vast majority of us. It's no different than a candle, or an incense stick, or a libation. An offering, certainly, but not a sacrifice.

Sacrifice to me implies you will count the cost of what you are giving - it is something you will miss having, or something you do without, in giving it to the Gods. People who raise and slaughter their own animals for food - that's a sacrifice. You feed and nurture and give them love and care, and in the end they live a good happy life: that is the gift to the Gods. They don't live in misery or fear. These animals go to their end trusting the people who feed them, and their deaths are quick and as painless as possible. And we will count the cost of giving their lives to the Gods.

Unless you live in extreme poverty, picking up a shrink-wrapped portion of pork or a few bits of chicken or what have you isn't something we miss. Those things are consumables to us, like the candle or the incense stick. As you said - the supermarket meat is certainly not pain-free, either. Battery poultry who live and die in a 1' cube of wire...feedlot steer crammed with growth hormones standing shoulder to shoulder with its' fellows until it gets herded into the abattoir....factory farming is disgusting.

If you don't personally raise food animals, or slaughter them, that's ok. There are people who do. Find a local farmer, who sells their own product. Farmer's markets, organic markets, places like this usually have people who raise their own, and treat the animals well right to the end. It's still not the same kind of sacrifice like the other, but it is a much better offering for the Gods than the anonymous factory-farmed crap at the supermarket.

Morgandria
Crew

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Talesofbiro

PostPosted: Fri Feb 22, 2013 8:03 pm


Thanks, Morg, that makes sense.
PostPosted: Sat Feb 23, 2013 5:29 am


Gosh I wish I lived nearer to a farmer's market...

iKillCaustic

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CalledTheRaven
Crew

Dapper Lunatic

PostPosted: Sun Feb 24, 2013 2:42 pm


Morgandria
Meat from a grocery store isn't a sacrifice, for the vast majority of us. It's no different than a candle, or an incense stick, or a libation. An offering, certainly, but not a sacrifice.

Sacrifice to me implies you will count the cost of what you are giving - it is something you will miss having, or something you do without, in giving it to the Gods. People who raise and slaughter their own animals for food - that's a sacrifice. You feed and nurture and give them love and care, and in the end they live a good happy life: that is the gift to the Gods. They don't live in misery or fear. These animals go to their end trusting the people who feed them, and their deaths are quick and as painless as possible. And we will count the cost of giving their lives to the Gods.

Unless you live in extreme poverty, picking up a shrink-wrapped portion of pork or a few bits of chicken or what have you isn't something we miss. Those things are consumables to us, like the candle or the incense stick. As you said - the supermarket meat is certainly not pain-free, either. Battery poultry who live and die in a 1' cube of wire...feedlot steer crammed with growth hormones standing shoulder to shoulder with its' fellows until it gets herded into the abattoir....factory farming is disgusting.

If you don't personally raise food animals, or slaughter them, that's ok. There are people who do. Find a local farmer, who sells their own product. Farmer's markets, organic markets, places like this usually have people who raise their own, and treat the animals well right to the end. It's still not the same kind of sacrifice like the other, but it is a much better offering for the Gods than the anonymous factory-farmed crap at the supermarket.
I know an organic farmer who has been known to sell us a live goat or lamb on occasion. He's a good guy and his stock is healthy and happy. It really is a good option.

As I don't have the ability to raise my own stock it works out well for me. The group I work with does the slaughtering and dressing ourselves. The knowledge is there form several of the farm raised and hunter types and they're teaching others as we go. Speaking of hunters, I've seen some folks offer up the fruits of such labors as sacrifice as well.
PostPosted: Sun Mar 03, 2013 5:18 am


CalledTheRaven
Speaking of hunters, I've seen some folks offer up the fruits of such labors as sacrifice as well.

Now that I can do. Born and raised into a family that loves hunting - we're already making plans for duck season in a couple of month's time.

iKillCaustic

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Shearaha

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PostPosted: Sat Mar 09, 2013 10:06 am


Morgandria
Meat from a grocery store isn't a sacrifice, for the vast majority of us. It's no different than a candle, or an incense stick, or a libation. An offering, certainly, but not a sacrifice.

Sacrifice to me implies you will count the cost of what you are giving - it is something you will miss having, or something you do without, in giving it to the Gods. People who raise and slaughter their own animals for food - that's a sacrifice. You feed and nurture and give them love and care, and in the end they live a good happy life: that is the gift to the Gods. They don't live in misery or fear. These animals go to their end trusting the people who feed them, and their deaths are quick and as painless as possible. And we will count the cost of giving their lives to the Gods.

Unless you live in extreme poverty, picking up a shrink-wrapped portion of pork or a few bits of chicken or what have you isn't something we miss. Those things are consumables to us, like the candle or the incense stick. As you said - the supermarket meat is certainly not pain-free, either. Battery poultry who live and die in a 1' cube of wire...feedlot steer crammed with growth hormones standing shoulder to shoulder with its' fellows until it gets herded into the abattoir....factory farming is disgusting.

If you don't personally raise food animals, or slaughter them, that's ok. There are people who do. Find a local farmer, who sells their own product. Farmer's markets, organic markets, places like this usually have people who raise their own, and treat the animals well right to the end. It's still not the same kind of sacrifice like the other, but it is a much better offering for the Gods than the anonymous factory-farmed crap at the supermarket.

Question. On the few occasions I've gone to the grocery store to purchase a meat for an offering I've always gotten the finest cut regardless of the price. I purchase meats or cuts that I would never spend the money on otherwise. Does that make a difference? The cost of the purchase become the sacrifice since for us it means we do without other things. Sometime things we need, not just luxury items.

That said I hope to begin raising my own rabbits soon. I which case I won't be purchasing from a store again.
PostPosted: Sat Mar 09, 2013 10:40 am


Shearaha

Question. On the few occasions I've gone to the grocery store to purchase a meat for an offering I've always gotten the finest cut regardless of the price. I purchase meats or cuts that I would never spend the money on otherwise. Does that make a difference? The cost of the purchase become the sacrifice since for us it means we do without other things. Sometime things we need, not just luxury items.

That said I hope to begin raising my own rabbits soon. I which case I won't be purchasing from a store again.


If you are not eating any of the meat - as in it is entirely for the Gods - then yes, that is a sacrifice. If you are consuming the meat as well, then you are not entirely going without - it is an offering, in my mind. An expensive and precious offering, but not entirely a sacrifice. The money itself might be considered a sacrifice, if your Gods appreciate such things.

Morgandria
Crew

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