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On Eid al-Adha
The Great Feast of Sacrifice

By Louie Martinie'
 

4.6.02   Too damn cold out for April. Not the weather for travel. I have a jacket in my hand and more than a bit of frost on my heart.  I came into the Temple in Baton Rouge and found the Priestess speaking to a six year old girl. Jon, her assistant, was standing over by the ancestor altar. He had just come back from a tour of Japan with his band.
Priestess pointed to the young girl, "Do you recognize her?"
 I drew a blank.
"You played for her baptism five years ago."
I smiled and my Spirits warmed.
A little later Priestess, the girl, and her large family walked out to the street. They were going to the capital to take in a bit of Huey P. Long and other state history.

"That girls a trip," Jon said. "When she first came in, she asked where Priestess was." She said, "Is she talking to God with food?"

The regular use of edible offerings is a feature that distinguishes New Orleans Voodoo from its Baptist and Catholic counterparts. The offering can be as simple as an apple, a dash of fine perfume, or as complex as an eight course meal. What is important is to realize that we believe the loa require substance just as you and I require substance. This nourishment can take many forms; mineral, vegetable, or animal.
 

Three Questions

In this chapter I want to begin to explore a subject of importance to all who wish to enter the world of New Orleans Voodoo.  What I have to say is also applicable to anyone who follows a set of religious practices that include sacrifice, particularly the sacrifice of animals. New Orleans Voodoo is similar to African Voodoo, Haitian Voodoo, and to Santeria in embracing sacrifice, animal and other, in its ceremonies and initiations.

Most people who are interested in Voodoo have some factual or fictional information on animal sacrifice and want to know more. They often want to ask about sacrifice but do not out of courtesy or from a fear of giving offense. They may be disturbed by the idea or it may hold an attraction for them due to its relatively exotic, forbidden nature. My goal is to begin to create a framework that makes it possible for the practitioner to approach the issue of animal sacrifice on the secure footing of systematic thought coupled with deep feeling; hopefully avoiding the slippery and sensationalistic aversion or attraction too often associated with the subject.

In the matter of animal sacrifice, you will be impelled by circumstance to make decisions at an early point in your road to the loa. There is no tower, ivy or otherwise, in which to sit and consider the issue of animal sacrifices at length once the process of initiation or confirmation has begun. The tide swells and you will be born along by a combination of interest, time spent, love for the loa, money already committed, and a respect for the Temple and its clergy.  Your course may then seem to be inalterably set in the direction of engaging in or abstaining from animal sacrifice. That is the case if choices are not made before your practice takes on such an impelling urgency.

At least three questions are necessary and legitimate to ask from the very beginning of your practice. The first question is best not only put to yourself but also to more experienced and knowledgeable voodoosants in the Temple of your choice. The latter two questions can only be answered by you in the most profound part of your being, the part that will eventually hold communion with the loa.
 
 

1. "Is it necessary to sacrifice animals in order to conduct an initiation or other ceremony to the loa?"

2. "Will I participate in ceremonies in which animals are sacrificed?"

3. "Will I myself sacrifice animals?"
 

Initiations often, though not always, contain the sacrifice of an animal or animals. The costs of the animals are often cited as a part of the cost of the initiation. Initiation literally means "beginning," so the above questions must be asked and answered to your own satisfaction as early as possible. To postpone a choice frequently means that momentum rather than consideration makes the choice for you.

It is best if animal sacrifice is discussed with the clergy of your Temple as soon as it is proper and respectful for you to do so. This would be, as a rule of thumb, around the third meeting. The first of the three questions is a good way to broach this possibly sensitive topic. Initiation, its meaning and method, is a proper subject of inquiry. Your choices are best communicated to and discussed with the clergy of the particular Voodoo Temple with which you are in contact. The sooner this is done without self-righteousness or self-abnegation, the better. Perhaps it is wise to set apart a day of retreat to consider these questions. Remember that there are numerous Voodoo Temples and an abundance of methods to call the loa. Be both patient and persistent. The loa live in a realm very close to ours. They hear and what you need will come.

I believe that these three questions must be addressed equally with both the heart and the head. The head has the ability to weigh views and facts from both sides of a question. The heart, once it is brought into action, gives the answers a depth that provides an unshakable basis for the knowing. What's more, the head contains the mouth and it is by the mouth that we share what we know and gain knowledge. This sharing is the very essence of our Voodoo. Be informed, be sensitive, and choose to the best of your ability. Actions, initial or otherwise, carry great weight but remember also that, with the growth of wisdom, choices and the actions that flow from those choices may be set on another course.

I do not know what your answer will be to the above three questions. I have no right to know outside of the formal relationship we could enter into within the context of a Voodoo Temple. I know the choices I have made and what these choices have brought me. That is enough; undue curiosity on the part of the teacher or student is a sign of deep disrespect.

While the above words on curiosity are true, it must also be acknowledged that there is a slant in all writings. The slant may be large or small and it may influence the reader in ways either subtle or gross. I am afraid that my slant against animal sacrifice is both large and gross. Not the best of combinations but in order to write with both my heart and head I must write from my perceptions and perspective.

My desire is that your choice is based on your own deep deliberations, relatively free from both covert and overt influence. When the slant of a piece of writing is known, the reader can better compensate for its influence. Therefore I will begin by communicating the choices I have made in response to these three questions. I do not offer animal sacrifice and I do not participate in rites in which animals are offered. I use Red Palm Oil with great success in rites both conformational and otherwise when animal sacrifice is traditionally indicated.

My serious practice in Voodoo spans over twenty years. About six years ago my choices in animal sacrifice were greatly influenced by conversations and contact with Tibetan Buddhist elders. The elders of any of the religious traditions are each a global treasure.  During the last few decades, there has been the increased opportunity for contact with Tibetan elders. Their words have caused me to reexamine not so much my love for the loa as the ways in which that love is expressed. Their words have helped me to develop ways that bring more benefit to the loa and to myself. I believe that I now have more wisdom in discerning my position and the loas position relative to the whole of the spiritual universe.

This is my slant and once forewarned I am sure that the reader can better compensate for the rather pervasive influence it exerts in these writings. To echo the sentiments of the Buddha, check all that I write. Think; deeply contemplate alternatives and the fruit that they bear. Choose freely and wisely. Choice stands at the wheel in navigating this river of the soul. There is no condemnation or commendation, only an ever-present responsibility that is built into the very fabric of the universe. We can choose our actions; there is no choose involved in the consequences that they, by their nature, call forth.

What I wish to do in this chapter is to provide a framework that can be used by the new and more experienced practitioner to examine or reexamine the position they choose to take in relation to animal sacrifice. The earlier parts of the chapter detail a larger context in which to place any of the practices of sacrifice and present a listing of offerings that may be made to individual loa. Spiritual cause and effect and scapegoating are examined in the mid sections. The ending section compares western medical practices and voodoo practices as they relate to the use of animals in formulating cures.
 

From Gift to Sacrifice

Gift / "to give"     [OE < gifan "to give"]

Present / "to exhibit"  "to be before"  [< OF  presenter < L praesentare "to exhibit" < praeesse <  prae ­ before" + esse "to be"]

Offering / "to bring before"  [ < OE offrian "to offer, esp. a sacrifice," ult. < L offere "to  present" < ob ­ before + ferre "to bring"]

Sacrifice / " to make sacred" [<. L. sacrificium; sacer sacred + facere to make.]
 

From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.
 
 

It is useful for the sake of this writing to distinguish between gifts, presents, offerings, and sacrifices. These words and the actions they refer to serve to create a cascade of meaning that seizes and places animal sacrifice within a clear and understandable context. I will rely heavily on the roots or origins of these words to clarify their differences and similarities. The roots of words have been described as "languages unconscious." (Bob Contradino; therapy session 1986). It is perhaps in this "unconscious" that the ancient creation of similarity and difference exists in its most primary sense.
 

Gift  / "to give"

Here there is a simple outward flow. There is an expansiveness in the act of giving that defies the logic of reciprocity. Pure giving seeks nothing in return. The self is forgotten in favor of the other. There is no expectation, denotation, or connotation of something coming back to the giver of the gift. Recompense is not in the equation. There is simply an outward flowing from the giver to the receiver.

It is nonsensical, though sometimes socially proper, to speak of paying back a gift. This would not be a gift so much as a "transaction," often in the sense of a business "transaction." Perhaps the false refinement of "gift" is preferred by some to the more realistic coarseness of "transaction."

The function of a gift is very specific. Gifts can create the ability or occasion to respond but in no way the mandate, obligation, or expectation to respond. A gift given to the loa creates a pathway along which relationship can flow.

"Give me," "bring me,"  "heal me," "open for me," or "thank you" all have their place in our communication with the loa. They are honorable contexts in which to conduct this communication but they are not proper in the context of "gift." Gifts are rare, seldom offered in New Orleans Voodoo or in life in general. It is my experience that gifts are most often offered to the Master of your Head. The bond and love between you and the loa who is the Master of your Head is usually so great that the giving of gifts flows naturally. Elegant in their simplicity, "I give to you" are the first and final words of gift giving.
 

Present  / "to exhibit before" / "to be before"

A present is freely given to the loa. As with a gift, a present carries no sense of reciprocity. It is given and nothing is expected in return.  The difference between a gift and a present is that a gift is usually an object and a present, while it can be an object, can also consist of a more subtle type of giving.

To present oneself to the loa fully in the present is perhaps the best present you can offer to them or, for that matter, to any other sentient being. To give what you are doing right now on an ongoing basis is a marvelous "present of the present." These little plays on words communicate a great mysterie in a hopefully more amusing than irritating manner.

In this mysterie is contained an essential quality of spiritual love. Through our attention and its focus everything we do can become a great gift. Our attention and its focusing, the active and willful directing of this attention, is a sacred act. So often we move like sleep-walkers and our attention is not so much focused as leaked out upon the world. Focus is forgotten in this bottomless sleep. We all too often look without seeing, touch without feeling, and know without understanding. This is a tragedy in that so much is available to our focused attention and so little is this attention used.

Our attention, when focused in the present moment, is actually all that we can call our own. It is the only thing that we truly possess. The past, the future, the fleeting firework like displays of our senses that rush into the vastness of space and time lie beyond the boundaries of our reach. They can only be affected indirectly. Our attention and its play in the moment is our sole province.

 To give the present moment in its fullness via our attention to whomever or whatever we are with is very difficult due to the rapidly changing patterns of the mind. It is only through diligent practice that the ability to focus the attention for any amount of time appears. The loa or any other recipient of this full attention receives a nurturing shower of manna. Their very being, exactly as it exists, is affirmed in this focused attention. They are recognized; they have a witness to their being and becoming.

In addition, it is good to consider that any thought of return or benefit pulls us out of the present moment and into a smaller world whose narrow measure is closely taken by gain and loss.
 

Offering / "to bring before"

To make an offering is to "bring something before" a spirit, loa, or deity. The something that is brought falls into two categories.

The practitioner brings an:

(1) action, or an
(2) object.

The practitioner then transfers what is brought to a spirit, loa, or deity with conscious thought of or concern for receiving something in return. Within the context of this book, the offering of a sentient being is known as sacrifice and will be examined in detail in the following section.

Many dictionaries use "sacrifice" and "offering" interchangeably. I believe that there is a subtle and valuable connotative if not denotative difference between the two words. If I tell you that I am going to the Temple to make an offering, perhaps fruit, wheat, or perfume comes to mind. If I say that I am going to make a sacrifice, most would take this to mean that I am going to take the life of or offer flesh from some creature. My experience is that this distinction holds for New Orleans Voodoo. Offerings do not contain the suffering of animals. This section concerns itself with offerings of objects or actions.

An offering is not a gift or a present; giving and receiving both carry weight in an offering. Receiving is now part of our equation. In a sense, an offering is a payment for some benefit we have received or hope to receive. Offerings always carry the implication that something will come back to us in return. The favor of the loa, the fulfillment of a need, the fanning of a desire, a healing of the body or soul are some of the rewards for making offerings. In making offerings to the loa there is always some sense of exchange, the loa are given something that they need or desire in exchange for their help in obtaining something that we need or desire. While offerings are not infused with the nobility that lies in the openhandedness of a gift or a present, the making of offerings is certainly an honorable and respectful way to communicate with the loa.

Offerings are used in most religions, faiths, and systems of spiritual practice. They forge a strong reciprocal link between the person making the offering and the loa, spirit, deity, or God/dess to whom the offering is made. Money is an offering much favored by Christian religions. In the Roman Catholic mass there is a time set aside for the collection of monetary offerings from the congregation. The Christian evangelists who people the landscape of television frequently ask for offerings of money.  Offerings to the Christian Saint Jude often carry the proviso, "I will give you……if you………."

Buddhists make offerings of flowers, money, food, and specially constructed statues to an array of protective deities who act to preserve the teachings of Buddhism. The Buddhas themselves want or need nothing. Their motivation is only to bring us happiness and to help relieve our suffering. In terms of our definitions, the Buddhas are most properly given gifts or presents, not offerings.

Wicca and other neo-pagan religions make offerings to the elemental spirits of the earth, air, fire, and water. Offerings can also be made to a variety of deities. For example, Venus / Aphrodite can be offered flowers or sweet foods in order to bring love to the petitioner.  New Orleans Spiritual Churches make offerings to the spirits, for example to the great Native American spirit Black Hawk, in exchange for help and protection.

A contribution is a type of offering. This is true for political parties as well as for churches and temples. Special consideration by politicians as they decide economic issues as well as special seating in a church or temple can both be dependent on the size of contributions.  This serves to introduce an important consideration in the making of offerings. There is usually a correspondence between the amount offered and the amount of benefit received in return for the offering. Large offerings bring large benefit. It is important for us to remember that the loa appreciate that what is large for one individual may be small for another. In my experience, the loa are not so much bookkeepers, comparing neat columns of figures, as keepers of the heart’s much less exact reckonings.
 

General Offerings

The kind of offering made is also important. As a general rule, there is often a similarity between "what" is offered and "why" it is offered. One would not offer gunpowder to a loa in order to receive the benefits of peace. Florida Water is not offered to strike down an enemy. Iron is not offered to receive the virtue of gentleness. Fire is not offered to gain a cool head.

Rum, tobacco, and food are some of the general offerings used in New Orleans Voodoo when rites are conducted to offer honor and respect to all of the loa during a single ritual. The more time and attention put into the preparation of an offering, the more pleasing the offering will be to the loa. The time and attention are in themselves powerful offerings. In general, it is not so much crucial what is offered as the spirit in which it is offered. If the offering is not to the loas liking but was offered with respect, it is common for the loa to come in dreams and declare their desires.
 
 
 

Sacrifice / "to make sacred"

January 5th 2001. Offering to Mama Waters; Gulf of Mar Assai on the Island of Saint Rose.

Honor and Respect to Mama Waters. Offered Sweet wheat to the salt winds, the sand, and to the Great Waters.  I now have a deep sense of being welcomed to this sea.

At first I was going to give Mama Waters some of the meat from a sandwich I had with me, but then I thought of Mama as the mother of all life. You don’t offer a mother the flesh of one of her dead children. Decided on an offering instead of a sacrifice.
 

A sacrifice is not the same as an offering. All sacrifices are based in some way upon the death of a sentient being. Offerings consist of objects or actions as such are not sacrifices. The essential quality of a sacrifice is that the life form sacrificed is a sentient being. Sentient beings are beings with senses. They have some type of hearing, sight, touch, taste, or sense of movement; they use one or all of these senses to know their world, to seek happiness and to avoid suffering. Sentience points to the presence of consciousness, which can be defined as the ability to interpret the information received from those senses and to move toward happiness and away from suffering.

The  making of a sacrifice involves the death of a sentient being. This sentence is a bit jarring in its stark simplicity. Some being that was living will be dead after the completion of a sacrifice. The beings life is sacrificed to a spirit, deity, God/dess or, in the context of New Orleans Voodoo, to a loa . The loa take nourishment from the life-force contained in the flesh, blood and fluids of the sacrificed creature. For this nourishment to be available, the being that is sacrificed must die.

To offer a sacrifice is to "make sacred."  The life form is "made sacred" in being sacrificed to a higher power. The belief is that the beings small life is made larger, through that life being offered to a greater, more powerful being. According to this line of thought, all involved benefit when a sacrifice is offered.

Sacrifice is not an idea or practice that is foreign to western culture.  It is good to remember that the derivation of "blessed" is "blooded" or "originally probably to consecrate by sprinkling with blood (Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.)." Blood sacrifice is a concept based upon a practice firmly entrenched in the language of western culture. It is certainly not a practice imported from Asia, Africa or from anywhere else. It is a part of every westerner's heritage.

"A holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices."  (1 Pet. ii. 5)
"Offering an oblation, dedicated to God. Thus Cain consecrated to God of the first-fruits of the earth, and Abel of the firstlings of the flock" (Gen. 4:3, 4).

Source: Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary

Blood sacrifice is no foreign or exotic encroachment on the Western cultural terrain.  The story of Cain and Able enjoys a high level of popular recognition and it is Able, the good brother, who offers blood sacrifice.

In the offering of a sacrifice, as with all offerings, there is a responsibility created on the part of the spirit, loa, or deity that receives the sacrifice. Reciprocity is affirmed and the practitioner can effectively ask for something. Money, less harassment at work, a better job, luck in love, and the return of an unfaithful loved one are all desires that can be brought to fruition through sacrifice.

This raises two important questions. The first being, "Is there another less drastic way to get these desires?" Sacrifice involves the death of a sentient being. Such a death is an extreme means to gain the end desire. Is there a less extreme means available?  I remember being with Priest Oswan when a client asked him to work a spell possibly involving sacrifice so that he could win the love of a woman. Oswan looked him in the eye and said, "Did you ever try courting her? You have spent a lot of time in here. If you had spent that time with her, she might love you now."

"Is what I want worth the death of a sentient being?" is the second, very personal question. To answer this question you must decide if sentient life has a value to you in and of itself. If you believe that life is special or sacred in itself, then the reason to stop a life must be more special or more sacred than the life to be taken. Perhaps a better job is not worth the death of a sentient being; perhaps it is.

Sentience and intelligence are two related but very different characteristics of organisms. General western culture has voiced some concern about the taking of intelligent life but not the taking of sentient life. The relative concern for the welfare of dolphins is an example of this. The more intelligence dolphins are shown to have, the more concern there is about their killing. Intellect is valued over and above all other means of knowing the world. Fish are fair game while dolphins are not. Both are sentient creatures of the ocean. Both suffer when killed. I have seen fear in the eyes of a fish as it suffocated. I have seen suffering in its movements. But the suffering of the dolphin is somehow more meaningful, more important because of its higher intelligence.

I believe that this is the attitude of the conquistadors, and of all other imperialists and colonialists; "To be respected, you must be as I see myself."  We see ourselves as possessing an intelligence that serves to differentiate us from the rest of the natural world, therefore any other life form thought to possess such intelligence is deserving of special respect and treatment. The elder Tibetans teach that it is not intelligence so much as sentience that matters. The Tibetan view greatly expands the context in which life is valued. I have found this respect for all sentient beings rather than just intelligent beings to be instrumental in working with the insect loa. These loa are certainly sentient though not what we would call intelligent. If I took the lives of their brothers and sisters in the Visible World, the great insect loa would certainly not have ridden (possessed) and taught me.

The following list examines a number of affirmations and objections to sacrifice in a point by point manner. In general, pro positions are followed by con positions. Again, as I explained at the beginning of this chapter, I now have a bias away from the offering of sentient beings in sacrifice. This bias may give an added weight to the con side. For this I apologize.

Pro: Sacrifice makes sacred the life of the being that is sacrificed.
Con: All life is sacred in and of itself. Sacrifice is not necessary to make it sacred.

Pro: Sacrifice makes the being that is sacrificed spiritually larger.
Con: A small fish does not become greater by eaten by a bigger fish. We grow spiritually through our own efforts.

Pro: The being that is sacrificed is absorbed and made a part of the larger spirit, loa, or deity to which it is sacrificed. It offers a quick means to spiritual growth.
Con: This assumes that one life form can absorb another life form. We may remain individuals forever or until the universe goes away. Also, there is no way to assure that the being wants to become a part of a larger entity.

Pro: The being will be better treated if raised and sacrificed in a Temple than if raised and killed in a factory for use in the food industry.
Con: True; but neither the Temple nor the factory is acceptable. One does not justify the other. You were physically better treated as a house slave than a field slave. The existence of field slaves does not justify the existence of house slaves.

Pro: The offering of bloody sacrifice is an important part of both the Western and the African heritage.
Con: While this is true it is also irrelevant and it justifies nothing. The taking of human beings as slaves is also a part of these heritages. Massacres of innocents and the rules or cruel tyrants are important parts of these heritages. Few would want to follow these practices now.

Pro: We all die at some time; this is the best way to die.
Con: Perhaps it is simply an unnecessary way to die if life is sacred to begin with and life is individual forever or until the end of the universe.

Pro: It saves the lives of human beings (this is examined in a following section MEDICINE & HEALING).
Con: The taking of an innocent life may be too high a price to pay for the saving of your own life or the life of another.

Pro: When the sacrifice is performed the priest or priestess may be possessed by one of the loa. It is not his or her hand that wields the knife. (The Oguns, in that they are iron are the usual loa for this).
Con: There is a chain of cause and effect that is initiated by the priest or priestess. They began the series of actions and therefore carry the responsibility for the sacrifice that is its outcome.

Pro: The loa need the sacrifice to survive.
Con: The loa grow and evolve as we grow and evolve. As they have not kept the same form in the millennia since their inception in Africa, so they do not have the same needs and appetites.
 

What is and what is not a sacrifice is not as simple a question as it appears. Much depends on our beliefs about the abilities of other life forms. The presence or absence of life is fairly easy to discern but whether that life has some kind of sensory derived knowledge of the world is another matter. In the end, it may be a matter of belief.  If you believe that plants such as sage or sweetgrass have consciousness, that they are in some manner sentient, have some sort of senses, react with pain or pleasure; then if you offer them in a ritual it is a sacrifice. If you believe that a fish is sentient, then the offering of a fish is a sacrifice.  It may be useful to list life forms ranging from microbes to plants to trees to insects to reptiles and so forth, and then to consider if their being offered in a rite would be a sacrifice and if it is your will to be a part of such a rite.
 

(Part 2 will appear in Silver Star 2)