girl with a cute bunny / on animal sacrifice

as i prepare for the growing season and the idea of opening my home to a random stranger or two who might be excited to help, i face the question of How to Present my lifestyle in a way that makes it Very Clear to people who might come here what they can expect. so far, it feels hard not to run into about a dozen cultural taboos. i Am out to destroy civilization, so i guess i shouldn't be surprised. anyway, here's one of the things that's come up during this process.

animal sacrifice = barbaric, right? it means twisted witches, or dangerous worshipers of evil, or people you can't relate to because how could they spill an animal's blood?

no.

Every Death is a sacrifice. the question is not animal sacrifice or not - the question is, sacrificed to which gods?

everything you eat was sacrificed. to the gods of efficiency, of production, of capital, of shareholder value, of profit and progress. or perhaps to the gods of the ever-renewing. to the gods of grass and sunshine, the goddess of rebirth.

when a factory-raised animal is slaughtered, how is that not a sacrifice to the ends of the business? to the god of the corporation?

when a well-loved, humanely cared for animal is slaughtered, how is that not a sacrifice to the gods of respect for all that sustains us?

when you eat a salad, how was the harvest of those leaves not a sacrifice to our bodies, to our lungs that provide the breath of future green?

civilization is barbaric. the primitive and the savage are the nobility, steeping each death in ritual so that our intent is clear. so that the consequences of our actions are in line with our intent.

i love my land, and i love the nourishment that i gather from the land and creatures of my home. we kill animals here, we harvest plants for sustenance, we gather nuts that could have become trees. and with every death and sacrifice, that creature or plant or seed is held in loving hands, and respected, and thanked, and worshiped. Ritual Sacrifice is the way that i hold myself responsible to the communities that feed me.

it is not acceptable to me to support the sacrifice of animals who are not loved, not held gently. it is not acceptable to me to support the sacrifice of animals to the gods of civilization. i sacrifice to the gods of the wild - the goddess of chaos, of rebirth. the death crone and the dark soil. i sacrifice to my cats, who will eat a carcass clean. to my chickens, who let nothing go to waste. i honor my animals, my land, far above anyone who throws the remains of life into a landfill without a care or thought.

animal sacrifice is my 'normal'. what's yours?

Comments

Liz said…
What an interesting way to put it. I looked up the word "sacrifice" and urban dictionary had a pretty good definition: giving up or forfeiting something valuable for the sake of another value. I like this definition because there isn't necessarily a deity involved. If there is a "deity" involved these days it would have to be MONEY. Living a purposeful simple life is the kind of honesty I can believe in. Everyone should have an intimate connection with the food they eat. There is so much wrong, I'm glad to see someone doing right.
hennalion said…
that's a great definition. and no, deity in the sense of more typical religious gods is not a necessity - but there is definitely an inherent statement of value involved.

thanks for your comments.