What sacrifices have you made in life?
One of the most damaging stereotypes within paganism is the idea that all of our spells and rituals are centered around slaughtering animals (or sometimes even people). This flat out is not true.
There may have been times in our ancient roots in which practitioners made sacrifices either to earn the favor of their patron or to otherwise channel the life force of the sacrificed into their spell work. If this did happen, it was a long time ago. I\’m sure there are still mentally ill people that take lives under the belief that it is for their craft, but crazies come in all religions. And I can tell you another religion, or trio of religions, that featured tons of sacrifice and flat out murder in their origins. Looking at you Christianity, Judaism, and Islam.
The point is as humanity progressed, we stopped thinking we had to kill things to make God happy.
That being said, there is something intriguing about the concept of sacrifice. In essence, you deprive yourself of something that you hold valuable in order to gain something more important in exchange. It\’s bartering on a mystical level.
The idea of sacrificing seems like it would be especially useful in magickal practice and, in fact, it is. Please don\’t light your torches just yet.
Sacrifice is a large part of modern paganism but it is a beautiful, refined form of sacrifice. We don\’t slaughter goats or drain the blood of virgins. Instead we offer baked goods to the Fey. We burn Yew wood and Apples for the dead. We make wreaths of carefully chosen herbs to place on shrines for Freyja.
Sacrifice in modern Magick is all about offering up our time, energy, emotions, and materials to honor various entities.
It is also important to think of sacrifice in a less tangible way.
Life is full of hard choices. You can\’t have your cake and eat it too. There must be balance in all things and sometimes you have let something go to hold on to something else.
If we remember to live with our eyes and ears open, if we pay attention to the signs and listen to our hearts, we can usually see the road ahead. Sometimes, we can see the choices that lie ahead and we get the freedom to decide which path we will sacrifice in order to take the other.
I remember when I was 26 years old, my wife and I had just gotten married. I was surrounded by friends and a close-knit family. I had a decent job that I enjoyed. Things were decent. No complaints.
My wife and I had the opportunity to leave it all behind and start our adventure. It was scary to think about being away from everything I knew and giving up a job I liked. But the opportunity to go to the ocean, to see the coast, get out of my Midwest comfort zone… It was an opportunity that was tempting.
We made the decision to go. We said our teary goodbyes and we set out on the road. It was the furthest I had ever been from home. We had no safety net. I didn\’t have a definite job lined up. But we had each other and we had opportunity.
The coast was incredible. The air was different. The sky was different. The animals and trees were different. The people were different. The food was different. EVERYTHING was different.
We stayed there for 5 years. We did end up returning to the Midwest but if I had the chance to do it over, I\’d do it exactly the same. I sacrificed 5 years in the only area I had ever known and I sacrificed my safety net. What I gained was an invaluable change in my paradigm, a wealth of experiences, a whole new group of friends, and memories I will cherish forever.
Sacrifice is a part of life and you shouldn\’t fear it. Appreciate it. It\’s the closest thing we have in life to swapping cards out of our hand for new ones.
Just don\’t go killing goats. That\’s messed up… Seriously…