Why and How Pagans Sacrifice Rather than Give Prayers
You Get Nothing for Nothing in the Universe
Many people are often taken aback when I tell them not to pray but instead make sacrifices. The reason for this is that within Paganism, prayer is considered a form of spiritual welfare. Asking a god—without doing anything else—is making a demand that a mortal can not make of a higher being. You are ostensibly asking them to do you a favour.
Pagans do not pray, but instead petition a particular god—representing a specific universal force or archetype—through sacrifice. This does not mean sacrificing an animal—although it does happen in Pagan societies the world over—generally, it means giving up something in exchange for a favour petitioned via this god.
For example, you have a problem in your life you need to deal with. So you petition a god for help in solving this matter. You are then required to make a sacrifice to this god. This for me (and most Western Pagans today) usually revolves around something along the lines of say giving 20 euros I was going to spend on a treat for myself to a homeless person. This kind of thing. An exchange of energy to balance out Natural Law where you get nothing for nothing. This is all sacrifice is.
The reason for the sacrifice of animals in agrarian and non-consumerist societies is that livestock is wealth. So sacrificing a goat by giving away its meat and forgoing its milk was considered a major sacrifice. Today, most of us do not have goats and sheep, so we sacrifice money or our free labour instead.
Which brings us to Christian prayers. If you are praying for favours from Jehovah or Christ, and you are not making a sacrifice, then the sacrifice becomes you. Natural Law always seeks a balance. Even Christians are aware of this, and hence all the Christian charities which have been developed in liue of making sacrifical offerings directly.
Sacrifice is an unavoidable consequence of all spiritual exchanges regardless of if people know it or not. Asking favour of a god(s) will not work otherwise, and can even be dangerous to one's soul and well being. To quote the great philosopher Jimmy Durante. “Be careful how you treat people on the way up…because these are the same people you’ll need on the way down.”
Very true Thomas. In the photo there, the person sitting might be passing some funds onto suit man. The element of giving up/sacrificing is big in folk culture too. Even throwing coins into water and making a wish, at a sacred spot is popular enough. Although in busy places Roma Gypsies have been known to scavenge the wishing coins.
I learned that to, say, pray to God to help me pass an exam or win a game was foolish. It was because I had not made the sacrifice of time to do the work of learning and studying, or in the case of games enough working out and training. It is better to pray for understanding, to open my eyes.
It is better to pray to give thanks for this beautiful world and the wonders of nature. To give a prayer before a meal, thanks the animals for the sacrifice their flesh to sustain us and the efforts of the farmers to provide the vegetables and grains that nourish us.
The important prayers to God to save us from wars and disasters becomes a call to action for us to do what we can to help stop the wars, the tyrannies, and to help those people afflicted by the war or disaster. It is a prayer that asks us to sacrifice, at the least, our comfort and daily life style enough to do what we can. Perhaps it is ultimately a call to the spiritual connection we all share, saying to God this is beyond us. We need help.