That question you just knew was coming up

Is human sacrifice part of the Bacchic Orphic tradition?

Yup. That’s the one.

Well, if you’ve read your Euripides, Pausanias, Plutarch, Apollodoros, Livy and Dionysios of Panopolis then you already know the answer to it.

In fact you know that more than just one type of human sacrifice was performed.

For instance, it’s a central component in the identity of the Neos Dionysos, the mortal surrogate of the god who wields tremendous power and charisma and radically transforms the society into which he (and it is always a he) is born and who is stricken down just when he is about to reach the pinnacle of his achievement, usually as a consequence of some inner fatal flaw. He lives out the myth of the god in luxurious excess (the more spectacular and tragic, the better) and from the moment he puts on that mask he is marked for death. His power and the blessings that he freely dispenses are dependent upon it – indeed, only by embracing his impending death is he able to prolong it. The second that he values life or anything else more than being the living image of his god on earth and fulfilling that role with everything he has, he’s done for. Even if the man had another twenty years in him, it’s over – the power of the god withdraws from him and he suffers a terrible and humiliating demise. Death comes for him even if he embraces it, but then it is a good death, the kind that men are still talking about centuries later. It is his death that brings renewal to the land and the people, that starts the cycle over once more.

But that is not the only form of human sacrifice that we know. There is also the sorrowful maiden who atones for the negligence and sins of her people. She (and it is always a she) offers up her life when things have gotten so bad that there’s no way out. Because she has no share in the guilt she takes upon herself, her death is so shocking and horrific that it wakes her people up and forces them to abandon the path of destruction they were blindly rushing down. Sometimes her death is not enough. Sometimes it goes unnoticed by the people who need to witness it most – and so the gods draw their attention to it. Through disease. Through madness. Through monsters. And through death that will not end until they change their ways or are obliterated from the earth. This ceases only when the death of the maiden is recognized and rites of appeasement are instituted for her. And with each performance of those rites her story is told and the people recall what they did to provoke such a terrible fate, and in remembering ensure that they will never do such things again.

And some humans are made sacred not by being killed but driven out of the land, either to set up a new colony somewhere far away or to spend their days in heroic adventures. They can never look back, never return home.

And then there are the spoils of war, a demonstration of might and right. This is a risky gambit, however – as often as it has impressed the gods it has brought down their wrath.

Then there are circumstantial human sacrifices – not recurring patterns but isolated incidents. The crops fail. The wine goes bad. Dicks remain limp. The city is polluted. The children are insane. War is on the horizon. Each of these situations may call for the shedding of human blood to forestall greater calamity.

But only if the gods demand it.

If the signs are not confirmed and all the right procedures observed, this presumptuous act may bring down the wrath of the gods not just on the one who did it, their family and all who are close to them – no, sometimes even whole cities suffer for the deeds of one unrighteous and presumptuous man. Just ask Zoilus.

And there is a human sacrifice that is not desired by the gods, that brings nothing but ills to the land and yet sometimes must happen. That is the murder of an infant and the consumption of its flesh by its mother. This is punishment, and the worst sort of punishment for it wipes a whole line out of existence.

And so on.

This is not a tradition for the squeamish. Our myths, our history are written in blood – and from the beginning violence and tragedy have shaped our world.

But that’s in the past! We’re more evolved!

Open your fucking eyes, man.

Back in the day all you had to worry about was getting run through with a sword while you watched your wife get raped and the walls of your city burn down around you. And disease and famine and wild beasts. So many more wild beasts back then. But that was pretty much it.

These days there’s drones and meth and fracking and genocide and an island of plastic in the sea and the threat of total nuclear annihilation and a million other signs of progress all around us.

You think we’ve abolished slavery? Tell that to the single mother of three who’s working fifty hours a week, with no benefits, and never quite able to make ends meet. Tell that to the brown children, choking on toxic fumes, whose broken and tear-stained fingers make your cheap t-shirts and electronic devices.

Yeah, we’re so much better off than our ancestors. That’s why people numb themselves with prescription pills and television and binge eating and therapeutic shopping and loveless affairs and drug their kids the second they show an uncomfortable emotion. Everything’s alright. Everything’s normal. Everything’s happy and fun.

Remember that the next time they ship your children off to die in a land you’ve never heard of so the oil companies can grow even richer.

Remember that the next time a grandmother gets clubbed in the face by a riot cop.

Remember that the next time a species goes extinct because of a toxic spill or deforestation.

Remember that the next time they find e. coli in your McNuggets or worse yet the spinach at your supermarket.

Every one of us who lives in this society has got blood on our hands. This shit is carried out in our name and for our benefit and unless you are actively fighting against it (actually in the streets trying to dismantle the machine, not just filling out some bullshit online petition and then posting it to Facebook so your friends can “like” it) you are just as guilty as the perpetrators. More so, since they wouldn’t be doing what they are if you weren’t creating a demand for it.

At least the ancients were more upfront about their savagery, and more direct with it.

But back to the topic at hand.

Yes, human sacrifice is part of our tradition – but it’s an exceptional part which only takes place under the most dire of circumstances.

And if tomorrow the gods should demand such a victim I wouldn’t automatically give it to them. First I would verify 1) that this is actually our gods who are requesting this and not some random malign spirit and 2) that this was indeed something that they wanted and that they would not accept any other offering in substitute.

I would have this confirmed by other outside and uninvolved diviners with no prior knowledge of what’s going on and nothing explained to them. If they got back the same answer I would then try to persuade, bargain and outright plead with the gods to accept something different.

Should that approach fail I’d offer my own life to them.

After all it is customary to give to the gods the very best that you have and what’s better than a Sannion?

Nothing.

Nothing is better than a Sannion.

But if the gods want something different or more then I’d break out the knives and start sharpening them because at the end of the day I serve the gods and not humanity.

Which is probably going to piss off a bunch of people even though it’s strictly a theoretical mental exercise with a statistical probability of 99.5% of never happening. I mean, you might as well ask me what I’d do if I was stranded in the Andes with a team of soccer players and only a bag of mint chocolates to share among us. Or if I’d shoot a certain young, mustachioed art student were I transported back to a Vienna beer hall in 1912. Or if I’d push the button on a mysterious box for a million dollars knowing that it would somehow result in the death of someone somewhere in the world. (Answers: grab the bag of chocolates and run off so I can die after gorging on them and not suffer the indignity of being eaten by people who play a sport I detest; yes, bad art deserves to be punished; I’d probably be pushing that button before the person even finished their spiel and afterwards I would offer to trade in the money for extra tries.)

Yeah, I’m being flip but I’m kind of sick of this question coming up every time people discuss the topic of animal sacrifice. It’s either a rhetorical trick to shut down or derail the conversation or it proves exactly what I was saying in the last post – if you reject sacrifice you can’t help but think horrible and insulting things about the people who practice it. And frankly, I’m okay with that. It’s a cheap way to get thrills and excitement. Merely by saying I don’t object to human sacrifice (even though I’ve never done it and in all likelihood never will) I get to watch you freak out and say amusing things.

Let’s see if I can push other buttons.

I’m a Fascist!

I do drugs!

I watch clown pornography!

I think most of what Trent Reznor has done since Downward Spiral and Fragile is shit!

I disapprove of social media!

Oh fuck, I went too far with that one, didn’t I?