What Sacrifice means to me
by Mobius
Email: mobius@wiccacraft.com
Sacrifice can mean so many different things in different situations. I think that are lives are so wrought with it that sometimes it looses it’s meanings.
The first sacrifice I want to take on is animal sacrifice. Recently I was reading a book on general Wicca (I like to keep informed on what new people entering the craft are reading), and it talked about how Wiccans and Neopagans don’t practice animal sacrifice and how the general concept was wrong. Personally I disagree with this. I think animal sacrifice in the correct concept is a wonderful idea, however not normally practical. When early Pagans sacrificed animals they normally didn’t just slice their throat and kill them and leave them to rot, they said a prayer for the animal offered them up to their gods, slaughtered the animal and cooked it for the group in a religious ceremony. The Native Americans thanked the spirit of the animals they hunted for food for sacrificing their lives for the lives of the tribes that hunted them. They used every aspect of the animal that they could for the good of the people. They ate the meat they could, used the hides to make clothing and sometimes dwellings, and at times used the bones for tools or weapons. In today’s society we go to the market to pick up stakes, pork chops, bacon, and other meat products, and we normally don’t think twice about it. We may say prayers before we eat, but do we often stop to think about how many animals had to die just to provide us with the selection of meat we have at our local stores, or even begin to imagine how many animals had to die to provide that selection all over the country let alone the world. Some may say that’s why they don’t eat meat only fruits and vegetables. But don’t plants have the same right to “life” as the animals. What is the difference between killing that innocent cow for your cheeseburger, and killing all the vegetables for your salad, or preventing nature from taking its course and eating the fruit of the tree instead of letting the tree grow naturally and reproduce naturally? In reality there is no difference, humans just tend to think of animals as more like “us” so some have a harder time killing them for food then the plants that we eat. But plants are life too. Humans, to survive, must live off the death of “lower” forms of life like plants and animals.
We also sacrifice a lot of things for our religions. We sacrifice time, money, energy, and our life to things we believe in. Many times this isn’t thought of in terms of sacrifice, because we enjoy doing it, we just think of it as time well spent. We spend time learning about Wicca or whatever religion you practice, buy books on the subject, spend money on the holidays you practice. We spend time on the ceremonies, and the teaching others, spend time learning and listening to what others think and feel. Wicca for instance is a nature religion, and a lot of Pagans and Wiccans devote their time to helping make the world a better place. We spend time on trying to stop the wasting of resources, or the poor treatment of animals, or the exploitation of either of those. But spending time on these is a sacrifice. We also spend a lot of time on trying to educate those that don’t understand our religion or try to paint it as something it is not.
I think that the biggest sacrifice that Wiccans make is they sacrifice their, and their children’s social well being, social status, and friendships. Even though we live in a “free country”, and able to worship in whatever manner we choose, how many of us are there really that are completely “out of the closet”? Do all your friends, relatives, co-workers, children’s teachers, and acquaintances all know that you are Wiccan/ Pagan or whatever? We loose some of the camaraderie that some small towns have because they are all Christian and all go the same Church. Our children’s friends may think of our children differently because they don’t go to Sunday school with their friends. When we do “come out of the closet”, how many friends have we lost, or people we know treat us differently or act even a little differently around us. How many of us are afraid that our children will get taken away, or that we will have constant “children’s services” activity. Or that we are afraid that we may loose our job, or our friends if we were completely out of the closet. We sacrifice our integrity and in a way our faith in our religion and our country, just to maintain the status quo on how we are treated and perceived.
I think that the biggest way that we sacrifice our religious integrity is through spells. I think that as Pagans and Wiccans that we in general feel that the Lord and Lady are out there watching out for us. That they have some sort of “grand plan” for all life. And that if we weren’t meant to have something then our spells wouldn’t work. When I was younger I cast quite a few spells, and to the best of my knowledge they all seemed to work. I think that the one spell that actually changed my life the most was a love spell. I was quite young, and there was a really cute girl in school that I would have done almost anything to go out with, but she really didn’t even know that I existed (you know the story). Anyway I found a spell in a book that said that it would only last for a week, just needed some of her hair, my hair, and some virgin beeswax. I actually gathered up all the materials and was setting things up to cast the spell when I started second guessing myself. I kept thinking that I just really wanted to get to know her so given a week she would at least know that I existed and if she really liked me then we could continue to date. I also thought that I wasn’t really changing her will just giving it a nudge in my direction. Lastly I thought that if whatever Gods there were out there didn’t want this to happen that they just wouldn’t allow my spell to work. Then I really started to think about the religious aspects of the spell, and where my faith really lay. I thought: didn’t the Lord and Lady always give me what I need when I needed it most? Weren’t they always there for me? If it were truly Their plan for me to be with this person then wouldn’t that person already be leaning toward getting to know me. In the end, I talked myself out of doing the spell, eventually I found a wonderful partner that loves me for who and what I am. Would I have truly found that by casting the spell to get the person that I at least thought I wanted at the time?
The same is true for health and money. If I was supposed to be richer wouldn’t I be? A better example is that my mother recently died of cancer. I so wanted to do a spell to make her all better. But would this really be the right course of action. My mother died at a relatively young age, but she led a full life and she battled cancer for about ten years. Her fight was over, and I truly think that in the end she was ready to die. If I knew 100% that by doing a spell I could put her cancer in remission and prolong her life for another 5 or 10 years, would it really be worth it. Her death was hard on my siblings and me, but through her death it may make my siblings more self sufficient and overall better people. Her death may have caused a chain reaction that may help more people now than prolonging her life for another few years may have. Or, should I have tried the spell and allow her to live? Did my inaction cause my mother’s death? Did I just sacrifice my mother’s life for my own dilemmas in my faith or did I just allow the plan of the Lord and Lady to work as they should have. This is something that I will be battling for many years to come.
Right now I think I did the right thing, by trusting my faith and allowing the Lord and the Lady to do what They think is best. Needless to say I really don’t do too much spell casting anymore, because I have faith in the “grand plan”. So I sacrifice my life by going through all the trials and tribulations that fate has in store for me because I have faith that there is a reason for the things in my life happening the way that they do.
To sum things up and truly answer the questions, sacrifice can be painful and can be enjoyable, depending on the circumstances of each “sacrifice”. I don’t think that it should be avoided if possible, I think that at times they are lessons in disguise, though not always pleasant ones. I don’t think that sacrifice should be “sought out”, however I think that people should live the lives the way that they want to and to fight for things that they believe in. The sacrifice, pain, and joy will find you. I don’t think that you need to do things differently in your life to pay homage to the Divine. After all, the Divine made you the way that They wanted. If They wanted you to be different, They would have made you that way. You don’t have to change for the Lord and Lady, only live your life in the plan that They have made for you, in the best of your ability each and every day of your life. Live your life to the fullest, teach and learn when possible and try to do what is right, not just what you think is right.
Bio: I am 30 years old, serving in the US armed forces. I am married and have a three year old girl and a set of twins (boy and girl) of 9 months. We are a Wiccan family who try to serve the Goddess and our God the best way possible. I also help run a Pagan study group that caters to military personal and run a website (www.wiccacraft.com), where you can normally find most of my essays.
Home