From: Manny Olds
Date: 28 May 1999
Subject: Human and Animal Sacrifice

 ) You can see why, from a historian's point of view, such neo-pagan
 ) systems look a lot like squeaky-clean, sanitised versions which pick
 ) and choose elements from the fragments of evidence available.

A lot of things that people do now are "squeaky clean" compared to older
practices. You are just not used to looking at them that way.

 ) I take your point about how religions do change over time, but I can't
 ) see how Odin could be happy to have people strangled and stabbed in his
 ) honour in the eighth century but be unhappy about it in the twentieth.
 ) How do you account for this? Why was sacrificing people in this way
 ) good Odinist practice then, but not okay now? I'm not trying to take
 ) issue with you here BTW Manny, I'm genuinely interested in how you
 ) reconcile this difference between documented historical practice and
 ) its modern version.

I really have very little insight into the general run of neo-sui-generic
pagan, and practically none at all into new age hobbyists. I can tell you
that the idea of crypto-famtrad continuous practices is not taken
seriously by the Asatru community, generally. We know we are making a new
religion inspired by the old one. We *do* try to keep our current
practices in tune with the old ones, but we try to live in the late 20th
century, as well.

Specifically regarding human sacrifices dedicated to Odin, I'd say that
there are three significant changes. First, Asatru is not intertwined with
the judicial system or the military any more, so there is no pool of
condemned criminals or POWs to draw on for sacrifices. Second, the world
climate has shifted away from human sacrifice generally, and we are no
different than everyone else. And third, we don't live in small groups
mostly dedicated to the worship of one god anymore. The adherents of the
various gods are intermingled. The practical result is that dedication to
a particular god is more regarded as a personal relationship--and human
sacrifice is a community activity.

Modern Odinists (I am told) do consider that part of being dedicated to
Odin is being ready to be "taken" whenever he wants them. They stand ready
to sacrifice themselves, personally. This does not seem to come up much in
every day life in the USA, however. And I have read of Odinists in the
military "throwing the spear" over their opponents in battle, but I don't
know much about that.

 ) Any resources you can point me to would be most appreciated, though I
 ) have read quite a bit of neo-pagan material, including stuff associated
 ) with Asatru.  Most of it was well researched, well balanced and
 ) reasonable. Some of it seemed like speculation taken to some pretty
 ) strained extremes. And parts of it can only be described as pure
 ) fantasy.

Sounds like a reasonable cross-section of the writings on any religion, to
me. Most of the Asatruers I know center their attention on authors like
HRE Davidson. I am reading Bauschatz's _The Well and the Tree_ now, for
example. As far as guides to modern practice, there is not much in print
on paper at the moment. I have a book list at
http://www.clark.net/~oldsma/groabook.htm that you may find helpful.

There are some good online resources to modern practices available. I have
links out of my web page, http://www.clark.net/~oldsma/asabooks.htm, to
some that I find useful. Unfortunately, I don't know of any that meet the
complete "peer refereed" standards for historical documentation. But
(please remember), part of the standards we use for evaluating our
practices are whether or not they "work" and whether or not our insights
tell us the gods and wights are okay with them. Not satisfactory standards
for historical research, but good for a religion.

 ) I am genuinely interested in why you don't sacrifice the odd horse and
 ) eat it.

Well, we do. But not often.

The more general question of animal sacrifice is complicated in modern
society, particularly when your religious tradition specifies large
animals instead of chickens and rabbits. There are a lot of things that
all generally draw us away from frequent, explicit animal sacrifices.

First of all, many readers might not be aware of how an Asatru animal
sacrifice would go. Two or three times a year, a meat animal would be
chosen from the herd. After some kind of dedicatory ceremony (there is no
hint of anything like torture in the historic record), the animal would be
slaughtered and the blood drained off. While the blood was being used for
various ritual purposes (such as marking the boundaries of the ve), the
meat was stewed and served in a ritual feast. We believe that a portion of
the feast was set aside for the god that we being honored.  Practically,
now we don't have access to large animals and slaughtering expertise. Or
suitable locations for the slaughter. Asatruers who live on or near farms
do still (sometimes) carry out their own ritual slaughter of a cow, goat,
or pig before a big seasonal feast. Horse meat is a big cultural problem
in the USA, as the recent initiative in California shows. But we do
occasionally manage to get some.

Anyway, meat does not now have the same place in our diets and economy as
it once did. Offering meat is simply not as much of a sacrifice as it was
a thousand years ago.

Asatruers extract from the original notion of a "hlaut" the ideas of
offering something significant or valuable and of offering hospitality.
Generally, a person will make a personal sacrifice of something expensive
like an oath ring or amber neclace or something they have made themselves.

Community observances are centered on public feasts.  We invite the gods
and wights as honored guests and often set aside a portion of the bounty
for them. In the blot ceremony proper, we use the "bowl" referred to in
the lore (mead, wine, cider, or ale). Usually, any sprinkling is done with
the dedicated liquid from the bowl, rather than with blood. (This is
inspired by the fact that the ve is a most likely a corner of the living
room, rather than a dedicated outdoor area.)

Why don't we just buy animals or hire a butcher? We believe that part of
what makes a sacrifice or offering "work" is that you have a personal
connection to the hlaut. If you raise a herd of animals, and if someone
from your community does the slaughter, then you are giving something of
yourself. Buying and hiring are not the same. Most people will offer
something that they have made themselves (or that was made by someone that
they have close community ties to). We have a lot of mead-makers and
zymurgists in Asatru.

And also, since the Asatru community is embedded in the larger non-Asatru
community, we find new ways to offer something of ourself through our
labor. Many modern Asatruers are trying to incorporate community or public
service in their observances, sacrificing time instead of oxen. This is a
new direction, and completely different from the practices of the past.