Animal slaughter - blot

Hello

Have you ever attended a blot at which an animal was slaughtered and eaten?

If so, is a particular slaughter method used by Heathens?

Personally, if the animal is well cared for and dispatched quickly and humanely, I see no problem with incorporating this element into a blot.

Thanks

I've never been to any kind of blót at all, much less an animal sacrifice. I'm iffy about it (not from morality, but how I'd feel watching it) because I've only once seen and animal slaughtered. It was a show about ranching and raising beef where the steer was shot in the forehead and died virtually instantaneously. I've seen re-enactments on historical dramas of animals slaughtered and I had to look away. I would think that the Heathen way would be to make it as swift, humane and painless as possible.

Good question, I've been once with a boar...it's pretty rare!

Quick dispatch is basically universal for animal slaughter and ethical-minded hunters - most pagans, including Recons of any and all flavors, have a preference to not use animals in rituals. All a good thing in my opinion.

Since it is all about the sacred feast aspect where food and drink is shared with people and their Gods, ancestors, land spirits, etc. which they have connection and relationship to, it only makes sense if the animal is going to be used for a communal/family meal either way.

Especially as animals are seen as having dignity, importance, and relationship with the Divine as do humans, just on their unique levels. They have always been vital to us.

I just stumbled upon this reference to slaughter method while reading the Germanic paganism Wiki Page:

Among the Alemanni of the 6th century, animal sacrifice by means of decapitation seems to have played an important role; according to the testimony of Agathias of Myrina, writing in the context of the Gothic War (535–554),

Ancient Greek: δένδρα τε γάρ τινα ἱλάσκονται καὶ ῥεῖθρα ποταμῶν καὶ λόφους καὶ φάραγγας, καὶ τούτοις, ὥσπερ ὅσια δρῶντες, ἵππους τε καὶ βόας καὶ ἄλλα ἄττα μυρία καρατομοῦντες ἐπιθειάζουσιν. English: They worship certain trees, the waters of rivers, hills and mountain valleys, in whose honour they sacrifice horses, cattle and countless other animals by beheading them, and imagine that they are performing an act of piety thereby.
—Agathiae Myrinaei historiarum libri quinque. Corpus Fontium Historiae Byzantinae, Series Berolinensis 2. Walter de Gruyter. p. 18f.

Click to expand...

I've held a few Blots, and in two or three of them I've sacrificed a goat. I'm lucky in that I know a farmer with goats, and he always has a few that he's looking to get rid of. So my group chips in and pays him for it nine days prior to the Blot, where we take care of it. We feed him or her their favorite foods(the last one loved graham crackers with peanutbutter or grapes & strawberries), and just generally making its last days as pleasant as possible. Then on the day of the Blot we give the little buggers Mead & other alcohol, to get it good & drunk. To kill it, I use an obsidian seax*. I cut the jugular and through into the nerves of the neck. It's dead in one second, tops.

Then we cook it.


*Obsidian is ludicrously sharp. It's sharper than any manner of metal blade. And this particular seax is made from obsidian from one of Iceland's own volcanoes.

I've never been to such a ritual, but I feel any (preferably learned in humane animal slaughter) has the right to humanely slaughter non endangered animals for consumption or (if not consumed) by required religious reverence.

I feel that the heathen community, where animal sacrifice is practiced, should take animals after treating it like a sacred king for a considerably long time, at least like a month (but preferrably from infancy) and slaughter with the same said humane practices and use it in a feast afterwards. I'm of the opinion that killing a sacrificial animal cruelly compromises the offering, is offensive to the ancestors that animal and you share which includes a LOT of animals' spirits and the gods themselves for creating them (let's not be dumb and accept evolution, meaning that animal is technically distant kin, even though it's a different species), the animal's spirit, which our ancestors said could come back to haunt the offenders and their descendants and not eating it would do the same. Killing an animal inhumanely and/or wasting the meat is dishonorable. Sacrificing an animal in the least possibly painful way gives the gods a very powerful opening to work in our lives and to engage in a sometimes groundbreaking conversation (not known by experience, it's what I hear from trained sacrificial clergy).

I've also heard the argument that since we have been a dormant community for years, and offerings seem to satisfy western adherents, it's a bad idea to revive the practice because it's dangerous to the community's growth in the euro-american culture.

I see the above argument and I agree to it to an extant, except with the part about the effectiveness of offerings. From what I hear, there's something very powerful about taking a life and giving the flesh and blood on the altar, but idk this from experience.

Depends if slitting the throat of a free range chicken in the name of Tyr is considered ritual slaughter. Lmao I almost puked doing it. I can't kill at all! Good thing I wasn't born a Viking raider!

I came across a reddit post about the theological foundation for animal sacrifice. I don't know enough myself to be able to comment much on it (and haven't participated in a ritual like this) but the post seems to be well thought out. Feel free to add your own response to it. Also let me know if I'm completely off base here.

Why Animal Sacrifice? : asatru

For me what stands out is the permanence and repetition. Generations have done this long before we have, and will continue long after we are gone. It's like a language that has been spoken with little change for thousands of years.

Sacrifice is also permanent. I think that is what gives it some of its value, in addition to the effort and thought that go into it.

Extending from that concept is the idea that more permanent the action, the harder it is to undo, then the the more meaning that action has, the more real it is. It is for this reason, I believe our ancestors destroyed the votive offerings of material possessions. This of course, creates a heirarchy of offerings, from the easily recovered - that of items made of precious materials, such as silver, gold, or jewels - to the irrevocable, that of animal sacrifice.

Of course, a broken ring can be reforged, but it will never be quite the same - that's why we break the offering. But the libation can never be unpoured, and blood can never be unspilt. Furthermore, the effects of the action carry a reality to it. Votive offerings retain their natures, a libation remains, at the end of the day, an offering of alcohol. But in the act of sacrificing an animal, we turn a living creature into food. Nothing can change that act, nothing ever will. It remains the highest form of offering because it can never be taken back. You will have always given that animal, you will always have given of yourself in that moment, and you will never get that action back.

Click to expand...

That's an interesting take on it, the permanence. Pouring the libation or spilled blood is the ultimate and perfect oath: it can never be broken. But this might be said of any offering to the gods if the intention is to bind ourselves in troth. Oaths are sacred and serious and should never be entered into lightly. Yes, I think a sacrifice is an oath.

I think it is majorly misunderstood as some sacramental ritual over being nothing more than 'sacrificed' for a feast, not some quasi Satanic or pagan mess ritual.

I've cleaned animals and quartered them before as well as BBQ's. Mans favorite pastime.

Common means of pacifying a beast like a piggy, shoot it behind the ear with a rifle, or just rend it's neck, messy.

I also keep in mind the hospitality aspect. Here we have Odin, not only an elder ancestor, the Allfather, a god (keeping in mind I'm a human of Midgard), and I get the clear sign that he wants a pig as sacrifice, well I had better find myself a good and fat hog! I should be more than flattered that a deity would choose my home to wander into and request hospitality. That means I show my flattery and gratitude, because I truly am flattered if a god or goddess comes into my life.

I'm not flattered because I think that tooting a god's horn is in Heathen doctrine, but I just am. My reaction is to thank Odin, Thor, Frigg, Hermes, whichever god or goddess, for thinking highly enough that of all followers and worshippers, my temple is most suitable, and of all followers, I'm the one who has the privilege of receiving gifts such as wisdom, luck, frith or protection.

If I want the ancestral relationship and the gift exchange, I need to be a good host. "What would you like?" "Well some chicken would be nice." "Oh, elder, I don't feel like making chicken. Have a carrot instead. Now be happy with me." No.