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From: larryc@teleport.com (Larry Caldwell)
Newsgroups: alt.magick,alt.pagan,alt.satanism
Subject: Re: Sacrificing animals
Date: 8 Jul 1997 15:55:58 -0700
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In article <5pm813$csd$1@nadine.teleport.com>,
duo@teleport.com (Tom Schuler) wrote:

> Also, ritual animal sacrifice is not always about slaughtering animals for 
> food or hides.  It is the offering of something valuable and worthwhile to 
> your gods, in the hopes that they will recognize your generous behavior and 
> consider themselves your welcome and esteemed guests.  If you consider a cat 
> or a dog to be a suitable gift, you might choose to sacrifice one.

That's an interesting point.  In most sacrifices, the whole animal is not
consumed in the sacrifice.  The god's portion is the hair, fat, feathers,
offal, or blood.  The rest of the sacrifice is eaten by the worshippers.
The religious tracts you see with a whole calf on the heathen sacrificial
pyre are far from accurate.

In fact, it would seem insulting to offer your god a sacrifice you wouldn't
eat yourself.  :)
 
> It is the boundaries of your culture that determine what you will choose to 
> eat and what you will define as "civilized" religious behavior.

In the case of human sacrifice, the worshippers ate the sacrifice too, at
least in the cases we have historical records of.  Symbolic sacrificial
cannibalism is still a major part of much modern religious practice.

And of course, there are those of us who dribble the god's libation down
our chins.  :)

-- Larry