PAGAN AND NEO-PAGAN HUMAN SACRIFICE

PART I Wiccans and Human Sacrifice???

http://usminc.org/humansacrifice.html

“Sorcerers chiefly used the blood sacrifice; and while we hold this to be evil, we cannot deny that this method is very efficient. Power flashes forth from newly shed blood, instead of exuding slowly as by our method. The victim’s terror and anguish add keenness, and even quite a small animal can yield enormous power.The great difficulty is in the human mind controlling the power of the lower animal mind. But sorcerers claim they have methods for effecting this and that the difficulty disappears the higher her the animal used, and when the victim is human disappears entirely. (The practice is an abomination but it is so.)

Priests know this well; and by their auto-da-fé, with the victims’ pain and terror (the fires acting much the same as circles), obtained much power. Of old the Flagellants certainly evoked power, but through not being confined in a circle much was lost. The amount of power raised was so great and continuous that anyone with knowledge could direct and use it; and it is most probable that the classical and heathen sacrifices were used in the same way. There are whispers that when the human victim was a willing sacrifice, with his mind directed on the Great Work and with highly skilled assistants, wonders ensued but of this I would not speak.”

– From the Gardnerian Book of Shadows from the section titled “Power”

Pictured Above: A depiction of an ancient Celtic Pagan Human Sacrifice. We’re assured stuff like this never actually used to happen…by Neo-Pagans who don’t know their own history!

    Undoubtedly the greatest area of controversy will arise when we look at the subject of Neopaganism/Wicca and human sacrifice. On the one hand, Wiccans decry any type of human sacrifice, and accuse such tales as “right wing Christian propaganda” (By the way how come we never hear about “left wing Christian propaganda”? It’s not like it doesn’t exist.). If you mention human sacrifice to the average Wiccan be prepared for the sonic blast that you will get as they call you a “hatemonger”, or if nothing else you’ll get the standard “Wiccans aren’t Satanists” PR speech that they never get tired of repeating. But if we look into the early days of Wicca, we come across this account that seems to contradict the current official Wiccan PR:

Excerpt from At The Heart of Darkness: Witchcraft, Black Magic and Satanism Today by John Parker

“Parker has been an investigative journalist for many years and has done investigative work for Life Magazine. Parker investigated the history of the group that Gerald B Gardner, the Father of Modern Witchcraft (Wicca), was involved with England. “Gerald Gardner was already a practicing witch although he was almost sixty before he was initiated into a coven which operated secretly near the New Forest….The twentieth- century descendant of this New Forest coven was said to have been made up of a mixture of well-to-do middle-class people and poorer country folk. It performed its ritual on the full moons of June, July and August and the latter was the day Hitler scrapped the invasion plans. But then, he, too, was a moon person who relied on the prophecies of his astrologers and fortune-tellers. The group were deadly serious about their secret rituals to keep Hitler at bay and decided beforehand that they could leave nothing to chance.

But to be 100 percent effective there would have to be a human sacrifice. It is said that the oldest and frailest member of the coven volunteered to die during the ritual, set for what proved to be the coldest May night in many years. According to Francis King, …all but the frail old man had covered their bodies with an ointment, which was in reality a heavy grease used among other things to keep the body warm. The coven was also known to use an hallucinogen, the fly agaric mushroom, which could be eaten only in exceedingly small does…The old volunteer duly collapsed and died, and it is not known whether it was from an overdose of mushrooms, over-exhaustion or the cold.

The great sacrifice had been made and the potency of their magic could have been enhanced when two other members of the coven died from pneumonia in the following two weeks, and two others passed to the waiting room for reincarnation not long afterwards.” (pages 45-46 emphasis mine). John Parker. At The Heart of Darkness: Witchcraft, Black Magic and Satanism Today. New York: Citadel Press Books, 1993KK ISBN: 0-8065-1428-0. Paper bound with 334 pages, emphasis mine.

There is also another account of this act from another source by an interview of novelist Louis Wilkinson by Francis King:

” On at least one occasion the Hampshire witches [meaning Gardner’s coven] indulged in human sacrifice-but done in such a way that there could be any legal unpleasantness. This was done in May 1940, when Hitler’s invasion was felt to be imminent. The witches felt it essential that he be deterred from invasion plans by a powerful ritual, the central point of which was to be the death of a (volunteer) sacrificial victim. The oldest and frailest member volunteered for sacrifice and left off his protective grease so that he might die of the effects of exposure. Unfortunately enough it was the coldest May night for many years, and not only the volunteer but two other members of the coven died from pneumonia within the next fortnight” (Crafting the Art of Magic, Page 39, emphasis mine)

Gardner was so afraid to the point that he actually began to sacrifice people to heathen gods to try to stop it! In reality, it wasn’t Gardner’s magic spell or human sacrifices that diverted Hitler, it was a bit of subterfuge by the allies that tricked Hitler into thinking the USA was going to invade Greece. Those people Gardner murdered died in vain.

Since this story didn’t become known until 1953, it’s impossible to know if Wiccans invented this story to try to prove their powers or if old people were needlessly killed, but the purport that Wiccans used human sacrifice is the same. Also the idea that for a spell to be “100 percent effective” their must be a human sacrifice is a chilling thought indeed! Also notice about the part that it was “done in such a way that there could be any legal unpleasantness”. Gardner knew what he was doing was illegal and made sure he didn’t get caught. It makes you wonder how many other Wiccan sacrificed people in such a way they didn’t get into “legal unpleasantness”? There were apparently other people murdered by Gardner as well.

Even though Gardner and his misguided coven believed the people they murdered stopped Hitler, this is not the case. Famed British spymaster “Intrepid”” tricked Hitler into thinking the Allies were going to invade Greece. To counter this the Nazis sent over a dozen Wehrmacht divisions sweeping through the Balkans and into Greece for the allied invasion that would never happen. This not only spared England an invasion but it also paved the way for D-Day. It was the sacrifice of thousands of soldiers…the majority of them of the Judeao-Christian religion…who stopped Hitler. There were also millions of Jews and Christians praying for Hitler to loose. Are we to believe these millions of prayers and thousands of lives lost do nothing to stop the Odinist Adolph Hitler, but a few old murdered Wiccans deemed to be useless to Gardner’s coven did the trick?

Perhaps more shocking still is how Wiccans today upon learning of their founder Gardner’s murder of his fellow Wiccans is how they attempt to justify it, such as the author of Wiccan Roots, who has the audacity to compare it to the brave allied soldiers who died to liberate Europe and Asia.

Isn’t it possible that a misguided Wiccan who knows of Gardner’s WWII sacrifice wouldn’t try a similar act to end, say, the war in Iraq? It wouldn’t be that hard to lure a homeless person into a van with the promise of drugs and alcohol. Let’s hope no renegade Neopagans ever try it!

Blood Magic of Modern Neopaganism

While Neopagans certainly do not indulge in ritual human sacrifice as the Pagans of the past, they still have blood rituals in some branches of Wicca.  Oh yes, blood magic occurs in some Wiccan traditions (and while not all Wiccans practice it, some do). Gavin Frost claims he was initiated into the highest order of Wicca in a ceremony that involved cutting the wrist, which he still claims to have the scar from. This is just one example. The Magic Power of Witchcraft also describes a spell which involves the use of the Wiccans own blood, albeit a small amount. A spell for protection includes “three drops of your own blood, a teaspoon of your saliva, and one ounce of burnt umber”(The Magic Power of Witchcraft by Gavin and Yvonne Frost, page 20)  as part of the ingredients for painting the magic circles on the floor. There is also a section titled “Sex and Blood Magic” which mentions this bizarre spell:

“When a little child is writing a note to Santa Claus and really wants his letter to be paid serious attention, he may use a drop of his own blood, carefully pricked from his forearm with a lot of wincing and giggling, to seal the message…When you want to call on invisible magic forces you can use exactly the same procedure. This is basic, simple blood magic” (Ibid , page 21-22)

I’ve never known any child to seal a letter to Santa Claus with their own blood. I’ve asked several people and no one else has heard of this either. If it really was a custom , it seems to have not been widely practiced.  Perhaps the Frosts are just trying to make their blood magic sound less psychotic, but comparing spells to letter to Santa Claus at the North Pole doesn’t really help! Another ritual from the Good Witch’s Bible by the same authors reads:

“The woman cuts the man’s forearm so that she draws blood. (The easiest way to produce the necessary cut is to pinch the flesh with one hand and cut with the other.) … Man and woman each cut themselves; the man allows his blood to fall on hers.” Page 73 (this is part of a description of a Wiccan wedding ritual!) As if all the swinging and sex rituals the Frosts encourage their readers to participate in didn’t give their followers AIDS, this “spell” would probably do it.

While some Wiccans will dismiss the Frosts as part of the fringe, let us not forget that Gerald Gardner was a disciple of Aleister Crowley, and that Crowley mentioned the use of menstrual blood in magic in Liber Al Vel Legis. Crowley did indeed sacrifice animals, and this is well documented. Crowley admitted to once killing a cat as a teenager to see if it actually had nine lives. One of his favorites was to baptize toads and crucify them during his “Gnostic Mass”. He was also known to kill cats and goats as well. At best, he was no better than the teenage “Emo” Satanist who kills hamsters.

Throughout his career, the rumors of human sacrifice followed Crowley. Crowley owned a box of blood soaked dress ties that were once owned by a Dr. Saxon, a man who is the best suspect for Jack the Ripper. The reason he fled to Italy was thought to be because of these rumors of ritual murder that followed him. If Crowley did not practice child molestation and sacrifice he certainly did little to discourage this image. In the Banned Lecture Crowley defends the notorious child killer “Bluebeard” (Giles De Rais) and even likes to draw comparisons to himself and said killer. It’s not hard to see why the lecture was banned. Crowley and human sacrifice? I think it very well could have happened. It’s not impossible to believe Crowley, a psychotic who believed he was a “demigod” and the anti-Christ, could have advanced from sacrificing animals to sacrificing people.

Much of early Wicca is taken from Medieval grimories. The ancient Grimories like the Greater Key of Solomon contain animal sacrifices like this one:

“Of The Blood Of The Bat, Pigeon, And Other Animals.”
[First, after an “exorcism” is pronounced over the poor animal (which I won’t quote the words here lest someone be naive enough to try it), the instructions of sacrificing are given:]

“After this, take the Needle or other convenient Instrument of Art, as will be said later on, and pierce the bat in the vein which is in the right wing; and collect the blood in a small vessel..”

Then more Hebrew words are given for the sorcerer to say, which I won’t repeat here. Then the book says:

“Perfume it and keep it for use. The blood of other winged animals may be taken in the same manner, with the proper solemnities.” (The Greater Key of Solomon, trans. By MacGreggor Mathers, Chapter XVI, Page 112)

“Concerning Sacrifices To The Spirits, And How They Should Be Made. In many operations it is necessary to make some sort of sacrifice unto the Demons, and in various ways. Sometimes white animals are sacrificed to the good Spirits and black to the evil. Such sacrifices consist of the blood and sometimes of the flesh. They who sacrifice animals, of whatsoever kind they be, should select those which are virgin, as being more agreeable unto the Spirits, and rendering them more obedient. When blood is to be sacrificed it should be drawn also from virgin quadrupeds or birds,” (The Greater Key of Solomon Book Two Page 121 Chapter XXII.)

Certainly, the Greater Key of Solomon is not officially a Wiccan book. But as noted by Adian Kelly and others, The Greater Key of Solomon is a book where Gerald Gardner lifted many ideas for Wicca from! Gavin and Yvonne Frost used to give away necklaces of a seal from the Greater Key of Solomon with the purchase of one of their books or mail order course. It was a favorite of Alex Sanders as well. Almost any mail order occult supply catalog will list the book for sale. It’s hard to find a serious student of Wicca or the occult who doesn’t own a copy. Since Gardner was obviously familiar with the Greater Key of Solomon, it’s not hard to imagine he could have practiced animal sacrifices.

Since Crowley’s writings  plays a big part in Wicca, I think this would give many Neopagans the green light for animal sacrifice. I knew a man who rented a house out to a family of deadbeat Wiccans who didn’t pay him rent practically the whole 6 months they were there. He was scared to evict them because they were “witches”, but even though I was at the time still into the occult, by then I was over Wicca, and I clued him into the fact that if they really had magic powers they would be able to conjure up enough money to pay the rent. When he realized I was right, he got eviction papers and even Diana and Cernunnos  couldn’t help them. When the landlord went to inspect the house after they left, the man found a cat skull on a tree stump in the back yard. No doubt the original owner of the cat skull (i.e. the cat) was an unfortunate victim of animal sacrifice at the hands of these “witches”.

While most Wiccans don’t “officially” not to endorse the sacrifice of animals or people, but their writings seem to indicate this is not the case. In the Gardnerian Book of Shadows there is a section about human and animal sacrifice being used to raise “power” for casting spells. It reads:

“Sorcerers chiefly used the blood sacrifice; and while we hold this to be evil, we cannot deny that this method is very efficient. Power flashes forth from newly shed blood, instead of exuding slowly as by our method. The victim’s terror and anguish add keenness, and even quite a small animal can yield enormous power. The great difficulty is in the human mind controlling the power of the lower animal mind. But sorcerers claim they have methods for effecting this and that the difficulty disappears the higher her the animal used, and when the victim is human disappears entirely…There are whispers that when the human victim was a willing sacrifice, with his mind directed on the Great Work and with highly skilled assistants, wonders ensued but of this I would not speak.”

So from this passage we read that sorcerers of old used both animal and even human sacrifices to raise power. Now, if we were to take the whole “burning times” PR at face value, it would be small wonder witches were put to death, if that were the case!  But since Wicca is a disorganized movement with no set rules, scripture, or central authority, anything goes. There is really no way anyone can say that absolutely no solitary Wiccan or Wiccan group anywhere is committing animal or even human sacrifices.

    Alex Sander’s Wicca covens were said to have used animal sacrifices. Gavin Frost’s covens were also reported to have made animal sacrifices by rival Wiccans. There is no way to confirm this, and it could simply be another case of slander resulting from Wiccan rivalry, but the Frost’s writings certainly do mention using their own blood in rituals.   Ray T. Malbrough is  a graduate of Raymond Buckland’s most prestigious mail order Wicca school and operates a both “hoodoo church” and a Wicca coven. This Wiccan not only admits he  uses animal sacrifices but even encourages his readers to do likewise in his book!

“It has been my personal experience that no matter how opposed an individual may be to animal sacrifice, he or she will not hesitate for one moment to avail themselves of its power when all other approaches have failed…Though it is possible to perform acts of magick without animal sacrifice or sex practices it is hard work. Witches know this from firsthand experience.”[ From  The Magical Power of the Saints: Evocation and Candle Rituals by Ray T. Malbrough ISBN: 1567184561 Llewellyn Publications; (August 1998)]

Wiccans will indeed sacrifice animals if need be, if we accept the writings of Sybil Leek. She gives an account of animal sacrifice conducted on her behalf in her “autobiography”, Diary of a Witch:

“I remember going to a little school for a few weeks but I caught diphtheria and was brought home to die…One night my grandmother came to my bedside. I could not talk. She had my favorite pet owl in her hand. ‘You love this best of all she said’, I nodded weakly. ‘You are very sick you know that don’t you?’ Again I tried to say yes. ‘If you had to choose between your pet owl and yourself which would you choose?’ I could not answer. I loved that owl…’The owl will die.’ said Grandmother very gently, ‘It is part of the price you pay for living.’ The next morning I [felt better]…I never saw the owl again.” (Diary of a Witch by Sybil Leek, Prentice-Hall, Inc. Engelwood Clifs, NJ, Copyright 1968 pgs 14-15)

Yes, at least some Wiccans WILL sacrifice animals if they feel the ends justify the means…such as sacrificing an animal believing it can cure a child of a disease. I know many Wiccans will say “But they were trying to save a little girl’s life!” If the story actually even happened (Leek wasn’t known for her truth telling abilities, so chances are it didn’t), that would be true. There’s been this great breakthrough in medicine called “the Reinasance”…there’s no such thing as magic, so don’t kill any owls. Take your kid to the Doctor.  Kay?

A WICCAN “MAGICKAL” ABORTION

Still another instance of Wiccan human sacrifice is described by Alex Sanders, the founder of Alexandrian Wicca. Sanders claimed he could perform abortions by casting spells on pregnant women, killing the unborn child. Sanders related one such instance in the book What Witches Do:

“There was a girl who recently tried everything and had no money..she really believed I could stop it. I pointed to her womb, without touching her or giving her anything to take and said, ‘Yes, it’s stopped. It won’t grow anymore. You will have a heavy period, and by the end of September, you will be clear of it…Another girl, three months pregnant–I got the clinic fee reduced by more than half for her but she still couldn’t afford it and she was desperate. So I told her,’I don’t care if you believe me or not–it’s stopped!’ Michael [Sander’s “spirit guide”] was shouting in my mind, ‘Three, three, three!’ I told her, ‘Within three days you’ll be perfectly alright. ”

If the idea of using Witchcraft to kill unborn children doesn’t sound bad enough, Sanders further tells something even more disturbing. Sander goes on to describe the spell he uses to perform this abortion spell (which I will not repeat here so no one reading this will try it), and then says:

“I realize I am taking a life-I have to absorb that spirit into my being and become responsible for it. That’s where magic and wisdom come in.” (What Witches Do, by Janet and Stewart Farrar, 2nd ed., pgs.126-127 emphasis mine, Pheonix Publishing Inc. isbn 0-919345-17-4)

So rather than dismiss an unborn fetus as not being human as many pro-choicers do, Sanders was fully aware he was taking a human life in the killing an unborn child! He then believed he could absorb the baby’s soul into himself like some sort of spirit vampire! If Wiccans believe in doing anything they want bar “harming none”, what would we call what was done to the unborn child? OK, sure the story is bullcrap, since there’s no such thing as magic, and like Leek, Sanders was a hoaxer.

Sanders certainly lied about many things! There is probably no way to know if he actually performed any abortions, magical or otherwise, but still the claim seems to fly in the face of everything Wiccans claim about themselves. The next paragraph after this in the book cited quickly goes on to talk about the awesome responsibility of being a white magicians and how Black magicians literally get away with murder. It seems strange how using witchcraft to perform an abortion could be anything but black magic, even if the baby’s soul wasn’t absorbed by the magician.

And I can also see how many occultists would try such a thing hoping they could absorb the fetuses soul to give themselves more power. Abortion was practiced in Pagan times, many times resulting in both the death of the mother and the unborn baby. This barbaric practice was made illegal in the lands where Christians placed the Gospel in people’s hearts. It wasn’t until the 20th Century during the Nazi Regiem that Odinist Adolph Hitler made abortion legal once again. The supreme Court in 1973, following in Hitler’s footsteps, legalized baby murder on demand.

While the “constructionist movement” known as Wicca doesn’t advocate human sacrifice per se, the early writers of Wicca seem to indicate that in the ancient times, a leader of a coven was elected for 7 or 9 years depending on the source, and then killed. Sybil Leek and Gerald Gardner and the Frosts mention it in their writings. For instance, they say when William Rufus, son of William the Conqueror was killed on a hunting trip, this was really a Wiccan sacrifice. Of course, William Rufus really was killed in an accident, and Wicca did not exist then (so it it wasn’t a Wiccan sacrifice, duh), but that is what they say happened. But this would still mean Wiccans, if they believe their own (ridiculous) revised history, have to admit at one time they offered human sacrifices!

Some Wiccans have said that John F. Kennedy was really a Wiccan High Priest, and that his assassination was a really a sacrifice to Diana…more Witchful thinking. In reality he was a Roman Catholic president murdered by a communist. However, even though the deaths of people like William of Orange were not Wiccan related sacrifices, there have been leaders sacrificed as part of an erroneous belief that they were part of an ancient religion.

A WICCAN TRADIIONHEAD SACRIFCED!

“In The Rebirth Of Witchcraft, Doreen elaborates upon the circumstances surrounding the death of Cochrane: the bald facts are that he died at the Summer Solstice of 1966 of an overdose. Craft tradition believes that he became in fact, and of his own choice, the male ritual sacrifice which is sometimes symbolically enacted at the height of Summer. ” (SOURCE:Lecture on Wicca given by Julia Philips in 1991)

Robert Cochrane ate belladonna leaves to commit ritual suicide and sacrifice himself to appease the gods and goddess of Wicca.  It’s unlikely there are many human sacrifices going on in Wicca. If there were, no one outside of serial killers would want to join! I’m not trying to say that human sacrifice is a regular part of Wiccan practice, because it’s not. It is certainly a rarity.

…However, it has happened.

Of course, it is impossible to know how many men and women have taken their own lives or been murdered outright in the name of human sacrifice. I knew a girl named Gina who was a Wiccan to the extreme. She was never seen without her big giant pentagram necklace around her neck. Her prosperity magic was so powerful it got her a job as cleaning help in a gay bar. She could ramble off things about the occult off the top of her head that would have dumbfounded Dr. Bombay from Bewitched.

She was very much into Aleister Crowley, which is no doubt why she was addicted to drugs. I mentioned her on the page about Crowley. She left her job, and I later heard through the grapevine that she went into rehab several times, had a nervous breakdown somewhere along the way, and eventually died of a drug overdose. She was only 26. She left behind a husband and two young children. I cannot help but wonder if her overdose was really an accident, or something much more sinister, like the death of Robert Cochran.

PART II ANCIENT (AND NOT SO ANCIENT) PAGANS AND HUMAN SACRIFICE

Neopagans call themselves such to avoid being linked with the dark actions of Pagans in ancient times. Yet at the same time, any Christian alive today is as guilty of the Inquisititon or the Salem Witch Trials as someone who lives centuires ago.

What evidence do we have that such sacrifices actually took place and isn’t alleged “xtian” propaganda to slander Wicca? For one thing, the ancient mummified corpses of men, carefully preserved in the English peat known as the “bog men” of England, were the victims of ritual pagan sacrifice! This conclusion doesn’t come from Fundamentalist Christian ministers, it comes from scientists. So, if Wiccans want to believe they are an ancient English cult, they would have to admit pagans made sacrifices.

At Stonehenge the skeletons of human sacrifice victims were found buried there in the 20th Century, although this fact is seldom mentioned. Before the time of Christ, every ancient culture had a cult of Ba’al. Ba’al demanded human sacrifice. Scholars even today are baffled that a culture as advanced as Greece had a cult of Ba’al. Writing from the time note that during the ceremonies, a loud drum was beaten, to drown the cries and screams of the poor mothers who lost their infants.

Yet another human sacrifice cult was the cult of Moloch. Moloch was an iron statue who was heated until he was red hot. Then a live baby was placed into the statue’s arms. Small wonder Jehovah of the Bible warned the nation of Israel not to let their children be sacrificed to him! By the way, the wife of Ba’al was Astarte, a goddess worshiped by Wiccans and other Neopagans. And for that matter, Ba’al and Moloch are worshiped in some pagan groups as well (but without the sacrifices). When we consider the bloodthirsty rituals of Pagans in ancient times, is it really hard to see why they abandoned this murderous evil for the light of Christ?

HINDU SACRIFICES

Desperate to trace their roots back to an authentic pagan culture, some Wiccans are now beginning to claim their lineage through Hinduism (which is completely ridiculous). So, if we accept the latest claim of Wiccan heritage (i.e., history revision), it still has roots in human sacrifice! I think it’s extremely unlikely that Wiccans will start practicing human sacrifice, but Wiccans and other Neopagans should acknowledge that the ancient Pagans they idolize did these practices when they are constantly demonizing Christians.

While the “reconstructionist movement” known as Wicca doesn’t advocate human sacrifice per se, the early writers of Wicca seem to indicate that in the ancient times, a leader of a coven was elected for 7 years, and then killed. Both Sybil Leek and Gerald Gardner mention it in their writings. For instance, they say when William of Orange, son of William the Conqueror, (BTW) was killed on a hunting trip, this was really a Wiccan sacrifice. Of course, it never really happened, but that is what they say happened. So Wiccans, if they believe their own revised history, have to admit at one time they offered human sacrifices! I remember reading where some Wiccans have said that John F. Kennedy was really a Wiccan High Priest, and that his assassination was a really a sacrifice to Diana…more witch-ful thinking

The Pagan religions of the Past which Neoapagnism draws it’s inspiration from has a blood soaked history. All across the world, Pagans engaged in the most deplorable of practices. While Christians are falsely accused of having wiped out a village of 400 people for witchcraft, Pagans often killed this many or ten times more just for sport! If the sole reason for a would be witch or warlock to abstain from the Christian faith is the Crusades or the “Burning Times”, then they will need a new reason.

Yes, it was wrong for people to be executed for sorcery or heresy by the civil authorities in ancient times, but this clearly is not like the insane superstitious beliefs of ancient Pagans that thought murdering humans as a gift “to the gods”. Even modern Neopaganism is not free from the blood of innocents. There are still survivors of the Judeo-Christian holocaust around, and even Wicca’s very founder killed people in a futile attempt for magic power.

PAGAN INDIA

Human sacrifices were common place in India , like they were in many Pagan cultures. The practice was finally outlawed after the British colonization of India 250 years ago. Worshipers of Shiva and Kali, and other lifeless idols used to offer human sacrifices until the British officially banned this barbaric and evil practice. But the Hindus found a way to get around this by offering a corpse of someone recently deceased instead.  Some say it never really stopped, and was still pacticed remote parts of India. On the 6th of September of 2001, Indian Newspapers reported that a couple was arrested in Bharna, Ghaziabad India, for sacrificing a baby because, ironically, they wanted to conceive.

They were told by a Tantric Hindu priest that by doing this barbaric act, they would be blessed with a male child. The couple kidnaped an eighteen month old baby, and as per the Pagan Priest’s instruction, then bludgeoned the baby “to appease the goddess Kali”.. The woman undressed and bathed her body with the blood of the poor baby. Many Wiccans also worship this “goddess”, and likewise engage in the sex rituals of Tantric Yoga. The couple was arrested and charged with murder. (BMB) The Priest apparently went scot free.

Later in October of that year, a similar child sacrifice was reported in October. A seven year old boy was beheaded by his uncle and aunt at the Baba Hardev temple located about 50 miles from the provincial capital Lucknow, India. The boy had been reported missing earlier by his father, Krishna-Murari. This couple too, had sacrificed their nephew per instructions from a Tantric Hindu priest, either to conceive a child, or because they thought it would cure a local disease outbreak. The poor boy taken to the temple, forced to have a ritual bath to “purify” him (not unlike the purifying baths Wiccans, Santerios, and other occultists do), and was then beheaded before the temple deity…a goddess idol.

The couple then offered their nephew’s blood and head to the lifeless idol. The beheaded body was later thrown into the nearby pond. The murder weapon, a spade that was used to chop off the boy’s head, was recovered later from the pond, but the head was never found.(H) In January of 2002 it was reported a Hindu priest sacrificed an 8-year-old girl in India as part of a ritual. These stories got practically zero coverage in the Western press, which is another example of how the media goes out of its way to not be anti-any religion, except anti-Christian.

In 2005 several parents were arrested for a mock human sacrifice involving infants. In the ritual, the parents briefly allow their children to buried in a pit covered with leaves, a Hindu priest says some words, and then the children are removed before they suffocate. No doubt in ancient times, the children were actually allowed to die. Even though no children died in this recent incident, Indian authorities were not amused. Even though the practice is illegal in India, it still continues. According to an interview with Biswajit Giri, a 45-year-old Hindu mystic, there is a sect of Hinduism, although small, “…still believes that to achieve supernatural magical powers one needs to sacrifice a child at the altar.

The practice of human sacrifice … has not died down completely and is being carried out in many select temples secretly.” This cult, known as Tantra, worships goddesses like Kamakhya and Kali. Like Wicca and other Neopagan religions, followers of Tantra Hinduism believe that they can have magical powers to accomplish things like finding buried treasure , placing curses on their enemies, and getting someone to fall in love with them (sound familiar?).

A lot of Wiccans like to think they practice “Tantric” sex rituals. Tantrick Hindus believe that to really get the goddesses to notice you, you have to offer a human sacrifice, preferably a child. According to a newspaper interview with Pradeep Sharma, (a researcher on tantricism), “There was a temple called Kasai Kathi [which literally means “slaughter house”] in eastern Assam’s Sadia area where it was said human sacrifices were performed..” Fortunately the temple was completely destroyed in 1950 by an earthquake and a flood (“acts of God”, if you will). Some Tantrics have started making six foot tall effigies out of flour to be sacrificed to the idols. But obviously some Hindus have to have the real thing(AFP).

In 2003 two children were sacrificed Tripura, India after a Hindu had a dream that offering human sacrifices would lead him to buried treasures. So much for fear of “Karmic retibution” we’re always hearing about. Hindu Priest Amritlal Mazumdar tried to offer his 18 month old baby daughter as a sacrifice to his idol. He was slicing his daughter’s neck with a razor when the poor baby’s screams were heard and rescued from being sacrificed. That night, the goddess idol went hungry.

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GREEK HUMAN SACRIFICES!

The Elysian mystery cults had strict penalties for anyone who they perceived as trying to steal their secrets. Once two Argive teenagers (who were also Pagans) were caught trying to sneak a peak at the secret initiation ceremony of the cult. Rather than receiving a pat on the  head and told to go home and given a “Blessed Be”, they were both immediately put to death to appease the “gods” (idols) by the members of the cult.

    The ancient Pagan Greek historian Pausanias visited a temple of Zeus on Mount Lykaion in Arcadia. Pausanias was investigating rumors of ghastly rituals being performed at the peak supposedly by a people whom the Greeks described as “older than the moon”. Pausanias discovered the rituals involved a yearly murder, dismemberment, and communal eating of a child at the top of the mountain. “I could see no pleasure in delving into this sacrifice,” Pausanias wrote. Some of the more enlightened Pagans were repulsed by these doings, which is why Christianity would flourish in these lands that wanted an end to these barbaric practices! This is why Luke wrote his Gospel with the Greeks in mind. Jesus was the perfect man that had been sought by the Grecian philosophers like Aristotle, Socrates, and Plato. Such a man could never be the product of a Pagan society.

This Acadian cult was not the only cult to practice human sacrifices, but there also existed a cult of Ba’al in Greece.  Ba’al was an idol (Pagan god) that demanded infant sacrifice. One such mass ritual murder of children took place in 310 BC. Shockingly, 300 upper class children were killed in order to appease Ba’al for a proposed expedition. The parents of the poor children were reputed to have placed the infants in the outstretched arms of the idol (god) after the child had been sacrificed by a Pagan priest. The poor child’s corpse was then allowed to fall into a pit of fire.

While Pagan apologists are now trying to say the graveyard was merely a child graveyard, the evidence doesn’t support this, for one reason because the graves are of infants and toddlers, not older children. Many of the inscriptions can be found on the grave markers to Baal that say ‘for having granted his prayer’, which is proof that the children were offerings for specific goals (spells). Roman historian Diodorus Siculus describes how the ancient Carthaginians sacrificed their children in times of crisis to gain favor from Pagan god Ba’al and the Pagan goddess Tanit, his “wife”. According to Siculus,  a loud drum was beaten to drown out the cries of the mothers as their babies were killed….killed in a  pointless and superstitious Pagan sacrifice! What a wonderful day it must have been in Greece when Christian rulers outlawed such barbaric practices!

PAGAN ROMAN SACRIFICES AND DIANA’S “DUE SACRIFICE”

Rome, supposedly the most advanced of the ancient Pagan nations, was far from non-violent. We’ve mentioned in chapter 5 how the heathen Romans were fascinated by the gladiator games, and how it took the death of a Christian monk to finally put an end to this horrible practice. Before then, the Pagans feasted their eyes and ears on the sights and sounds of murder. The Coluseum stands today as a testament to the barbarism that was Pagan Rome.

According to author Peter Berresford Ellis, to mark the gand opening of this death factory in circa 80 A.D., a total of 9,000 animals were killed in fights with men and women. The number of men and women slaughtered that day is not known, but no doubt it was in the thousands as well.  In the early days of the Pagan Roman Empire 300 prisoners had to fight to the death to the entertainment of Pagan onlookers, and 1200 women and men were killed by wild animals in a single day at the Circus Maximus. As a special feature during this Pagan event, 20 girls were forced to have sex with wild animals, while the Pagan crowds cheered. Trajan is recorded to have put as many as 5,000 pairs of gladiators who were then forced to fight to the death. During the “intermission” of these Pagan proceedings, sometimes as many as 10,000 criminals were put to death. And this was at the time when Pagan Rome was considered at it’s “greatest”!

Romans also practiced the ritual killing of humans for religious purposes , not only for entertainment. During the era of the late Republic and into the early years of the Roman Empire, children were sacrificed so that spirits could be conjured for fortune telling.  In 480 B.C. in what is considered the best known account of ritual human sacrifice accord before Salamis. Pagan Roman deities of war had to be placated with blood, and references to this occuring in the Second Punic wars and 216 B.C. have survived.

One account mentions the victims being buried alive under the Forum Boarium. Sacrifiecs were still being made during Plutarch’s lifetime, from 46 A.D. to 120 A.D. Prisoners of war were offered to the gods many Neopagans claim to worship nowadays. Jugartha, King of the Numidians, Celtic chief Vercingetotrix, and their families, were sacrificed to Mars…but not after being held prisoner for 6 horrible years in an underground prison below the Capitol. [The Druids pgs. 155-156]

The Book of Shadows has a reference in the Charge of the goddess about ancient  times when her worshipers gave her “due sacrifice”. But what was this “due sacrifice”? In Pre-Christian times, young men who wanted to be priests of Diana were castrated at the foot of the hill on which Diana’s temple lay. The youths then ran up the hill with their severed genitalia in hand to the top. If they made it without passing out and bleeding to death, they tossed their genitalia onto a fire as a sacrifice to the lifeless, man-made idol Diana, and had their wound sealed with burning pitch. This is a far cry from Wiccans who think they can become Priests of Diana after a few mail order lessons! Folks, Paganism was not warm and cuddly like many of you had been led to believe!  The worship of Diana involved castrated Eunuchs, not swinging bisexual Wiccans!

Asian Blood Rituals And Sacrifices

    In China, human sacrifices took place in ancient times, often for the dedication of a building, bridge, or even a temple! The idea was the sacrifice would appease spirits who would in turn make the building structurally sound. In practically every ancient Pagan culture, both eastern and western, this superstitious practice occurred. Legend has it that the Great wall of China, built around 300 B.C. and about 1500 miles long, is entombed with the bodies of thousands of people offered in sacrifice. The superstitious Chinese of today claim it is the most haunted structure in the world! Chinese Kings, upon their death, were offered human sacrifices of their slaves to “aid them in the afterlife”. (10) The idea of having to spend eternity serving a King as a slave must have indeed seemed like Hell to the Emperor’s servants!

The Pagan Wa tribe,who live near the Burma-China border were once known for their “savage” behavior and were ferocious headhunters right up until the 1970’s!

Asia has less evidence of sacrifices taking place than other parts of the world, but they did happen. In 1596 in Japan, the followers of the goddess worshiping Pagan religion known as Shinto,  as well as Buddhists,  began the persecution of Christians known as the “Kirishtan Holocaust”. The first victims were executed by crucifixion. The youngest martyr was just 12 years old. An estimated 1 million followers were killed over a period of 260 years which did not end until Japan was defeated by the Allies during World War II! Unlike Wiccans, the Christians of Japan really were part of a religion that went underground because of persecution.

In Malyasia a ritual with daggers is performed every year by Hindus. Although the ritual is symbolic, it is believed in ancient times the combatants actually killed one another, like in Rome’s gladiator games.

On the Pacific Islands sacrifices of men and women to volcanoes were made in attempts to appease gods and goddess. In Hawaii, the Pagan goddess “Pele” was sometimes offered human sacrifices until Christians put an end to the barbaric practice.  Christian missionaries educated the islanders so these barbaric superstitions came to an end after thousands of years. Head hunting occurred on many of these islands as well. Headhunting was practiced in historic times in parts of China, India, Nigeria, Nuristan, Myanmar, Borneo, Indonesia, the Philippines, Taiwan, Japan, Micronesia, Melanesia, New Zealand, and the Amazon Basin, as well as among certain tribes of the Celts and Scythians of ancient Europe.  In Borneo during WWII  many American G.I.’s were shocked to see Dayak tribesmen display the shrunken heads of Japanese soldiers. Even as recently as 1972, a Christian Nun was killed and decapitated on a remote Philippine Island.

Aboriginal Australia

While we think of the aborigines as the people of Australia who hunted kangaroos with boomerangs, like all primitive Pagan people they too indulged in the barbaric practice of infant sacrifice. An Aboriginal mother would kill and eat her first born child, which was means for obtaining more. It makes about as much sense as cutting of your own hand and eating it, but this is the kind of backward, superstitious reasoning Pagans of ancient times used.

“In hard summers, the new-born children were all eaten by the Kaura tribe in the neighborhood of Adelaide, according to Dr McKinley. In 1933 I was able to talk to old men who had eaten human flesh. The chief of Yam Island described to me how he had eaten finely-chopped man-meat mixed with crocodile-meat, at his initiation. He added that it had made him sick. The purpose, as he put it, was ‘to make heart come strong inside.’… In the Wotjobaluk tribe, a couple who already had a child might kill their new-born and feed its muscle-flesh to the other one to make it strong.

The baby was killed ritually, by striking its head against the shoulder of its elder brother or sister.    Human flesh-eating among many tribes was a sign of respect for the dead. At a Dieri burial, relatives received, in strict order of precedence, small portions of the body-fat to eat. ‘We eat him,’ a tribesman said, ‘because we knew him and were fond of him.’ But revenge cannibalism is typified in the custom of the Ngarigo tribe, who ate the flesh of the hands and feet of slain enemies, and accompanied the eating with loud expressions of contempt for the people killed.” (Adam in Ochre, by Colin Simpson Angus & Robertson)

It’s hard to imagine anyone would kill their baby and eat it, but there you have it! Hopefully by now Christian missionaries have educated these people and converted them from these barbaric Pagan practices!

Celtic Sacrifices
Even though Wiccans and Neopagans have a sanitized view of Celtic history, Celts did indeed performed human sacrifice as part of their religious rituals. And, since the Druids were the religious/scholar/priestly social class, they almost certainly would have participated in human sacrifices and officiated at them. While the Druids left no writings behind concerning these practices, we do have a description of Celtic human sacrifices from classical Greek and Roman writers, such as Strabo (64/63 B.C – 21 A.D.) as recorded in his Geography (4.1.13):

The Romans put a stop both to these customs and to the ones connected with sacrifice and divination, as they were in conflict with our own ways. The Druids would, for example, they would strike a man who had been consecrated for sacrifice in the back with a sword, and make prophecies based on his death-spasms; and they would not sacrifice without the presence of the Druids. Other kinds of human sacrifices have been reported as well: some men they would shoot dead with arrows and impale in the temples; or they would construct a huge figure of straw and wood, and having thrown cattle and all manner of wild animals and humans into it, they would make a burnt offering of the whole thing (trans. by Benjamin Fortson, in Koch and Carey 1995, 18).

There are also the writings of Julius Cesar that describe this barbaric Pagan practice. Julius Caesar (writing c. 15 March, 44 B. C. E.) De Bello Gallico 6.16):
“All the people of Gaul are completely devoted to religion [meaning the ancient Pagan Druidism], and for this reason those who are greatly affected by diseases and in the dangers of battle either sacrifice human victims or vow to do so using the Druids as administrators to these sacrifices, since it is judged that unless for a man’s life a man’s life is given back, the will of the immortal gods cannot be placated. In public affairs they have instituted the same kind of sacrifice. Others have effigies of great size interwoven with twigs, the limbs of which are filled up with living people which are set on fire from below, and the people are deprived of life surrounded by flames. It is judged that the punishment of those who participated in theft or brigandage or other crimes are more pleasing to the immortal gods; but when the supplies of this kind fail, they even go so low as to inflict punishment on the innocent” (trans. By Anne Lea, in Koch and Carey 1995. Page 22).

A few modern scholars try to brand the writings of Cesar as “political propaganda”, and claim the Celts and Druids never engaged in ritual sacrifice, some even go so far to make the ludicrous claim Celts didn’t even practice capital punishment…not even for murder! This is ridiculous, and the evidence speaks to the contrary. Cesar didn’t have to justify the conquest of Britain to anybody, the Romans were always eager to conquer new lands, and so he did not need to cook up tales about human sacrifice. The “bog men” of Britain mentioned…corpses preserved in peat bogs for thousands of years…attest to the fact that they were the victims of Celtic human sacrifice.

The victims were killed in a ritualistic manner: given a last meal, then stabbed, bludgeoned, and strangled, killed three times over, probably to the Celt’s triune god. We also need to keep in mind that during this same period in history the Mayans, Aztecs, and their cousins were sacrificing humans to beat the band, Hinduswere sacrificing people to Shiva and Kali (and occasionally still do today!), and Ba’al and Molech were thirsty for the blood of infants. People in Scandinavia were sacrificing animals and people to the gods now worshiped by modern day Odinists. Polynesians were throwing humans into volcanoes thinking it would appease the “volcano gods” like the goddess Pele’. Why should it be so unbelievable that Celts in Britain were also involved in this practice, considering all Pagans worldwide were doing it? It’s yet another case of Neopagan history revision.

One of the most famous of these bog men is the “Lindow Man” found in 1984. Leading Celtic scholars Dr. Anne Ross and Dr. Don Robbins concluded that it was a Druid Prince killed as part of a ritualist human sacrifice, although it was later concluded he was not a Prince or King, but a commoner. Scotland provides some of the best evidence of ritual human sacrifice, mostly occurring at Beltane.

The less than spectacular Stonehenge is a favorite image in the minds of Wiccans, Druids, and Neopagans. Occultists of all kinds love to fantasize that it is a temple to the Earth Mother, and perhaps even built by the survivors of Atlantis. But Stonehenge was neither of these, and was actually the site of human sacrifices…hardly a thing to be proud of. Excavations in the 20th century have uncovered several skeletons at the site; the victims of human sacrifice.

Even though modern day Neopagans/Wicans paint their gods as peace loving and friendly, Celtic gods were actually blood thirsty and demanded human sacrifices. The Celtic god Teutates (also called Albiorix and Toutorix) was regarded as the Celtic equivalent to Mars and Mercury, and the superstitious Celts thought he could only be appeased by a blood sacrifice. Taranis, Celt god of lightning, was also appeased with human sacrifices of human beings being burnt alive.

Esus was a usually pictured as a bull with three canes flying over him and is sometimes identified as Cernunnos. He was the god of the underworld and also of wealth. He too demanded human sacrifice like Teutates and Tarnis, but his victims were hung to death on trees instead. [The Celts by Gerhard Herm, pg 156-157] How ironic indeed Wiccans somehow think their Celtic gods and goddesses were “peace loving” and the God of the Christians was brutal!

HUMAN SACRIFICES AT STONEHENGE!
Stonehenge was already ancient when the Druids came along. Stonehenge…was it just a primitive temple for rituals at the Equinoxes and Solstices…or something much worse?

More “Stonehenge Skeletons Found” “May 23 2003
© Wessex Archaeology.”

“The grave with the skeletons remains inside, piled on top of each other. Workers digging a trench for a water pipe close to Stonehenge have made an amazing discovery. They have found the skeletons of six Bronze Age people who died about 4,500 years ago. The skeletons were all buried together, in a single grave, close to the famous ancient stone circle. They were four adults and two children. Four clay pots, a flint arrowhead and a toggle made from bone were found in the grave with the skeletons.”

“A view from above of the Amesbury Archer skeleton, still in the ground, with other objects just visible around the bones. The latest find comes soon after another exciting discovery in the area – a skeleton known as ‘The Amesbury Archer’ or ‘The King of Stonehenge’ was found this time last year, in May 2002.  He was found with close to a hundred other items buried with him, including arrowheads and gold hair decorations, the oldest gold found in the UK so far. Who knows what other secrets are waiting to be discovered around these incredible rocks? We’ll let you know if anything else is found. Why not visit Stonehenge to see the giant stones for yourself? The museums listed below also have objects found in the area from the Bronze Age on show.”  by Anra Kennedy

Nordic and Viking Sacrifices

Sacrifice could comprise of inanimate objects, animals or humans. Amongst the Norse, there were two types of human sacrifice; that performed for the “gods” (idols) at religious festivals, and retainer sacrifice that was performed at a funeral. An eye-witness account of retainer sacrifice survives in Ibn Fadlan’s account of a Rus ship burial, where a slave-girl had volunteered to accompany her lord to the next world. One can’t help but feel sorry for that poor girl.  Reports of religious sacrifice are given by Tacitus, Saxo Grammaticus and Adam of Bremen.

According to Adam of Bremen, the Swedish kings sacrificed males every ninth year during the Yule sacrifices at the Temple at Uppsala. The Swedes had the right not only to elect kings but also to depose them, and both king Domalde and king Olof Trätälja are said to have been sacrificed after years of famine.”

Nordic Paganism of ancient times was known for it’s human sacrifice as well. Prisoners captured from England were taken back to Norway. There they were tied to trees to die, as a sacrifice to their god Odin.  The Heimskringla tells of Swedish King Aun or Ani who sacrificed nine of his sons in an effort to prolong his life until his subjects stopped him from killing his last son Egil (in some accounts he simply ran out of sons to sacririce).  But in exchange for the 10 years each son brought him, he was said to have grown weak, and eventually couldn’t leave his bed. When a man dies of old age with no apparent illness, this is called “Ana sott” (Ani’s ailment) by the Swedes. The legend probably has some basis in fact, and harkened back to a king who sacrificed his own children to Odin in the unsuccessful attempt to add years to his own life.

Odinism was the religion favored by Hitler and the Nazis, and  indoctrination began with the youth of Germany. Hitler wanted to shape the minds of the young and mold them into Nazi Neopagans. Reinhold Kerstan was one such Hitler Youth, and relates the persecution and humiliation he had to endure as a Christian in his autobiography, Blood and Honor. In it, he tells of his first encounter of Nazi state run Odinism. The Nazis invented the term “Gottglaubige” to describe it. “Gottglaubige” literally means “believers in god”, but it is not a reference to the Judea-Christian God, but rather the ancient Pagan gods of Germany. The Gottglaubige believed in the state and the mystical religion of an Aryan super race. [ Blood and Honor pg 99]

“When I began third grade our religion teacher announced that he would not tell us those stories about the cruel Jewish God or that meek and mild Jesus. Instead he would teach us about our original gods – – Thor and Zeus and others, the gods of the old Germanic tribes from which our nation sprang. I was appalled. Even in my youthful understanding, this was going too far.”[ Blood and Honor, pg 129]

In a way, the 6 million Jews and 10 million Christians burned in the ovens of concentrations camps like Dachau and Auschwitz might be thought of as human sacrifices to Hitler’s version of the Neopagan religion of Odinism and his quest to rebuild the Aryan race of Atlantis prophesied by Blavatsky.

Native American Shamanism and Sacrifice

Human sacrifice was certainly not exclusive to the Old World.“Shamanism” is another popular new age activity, as well as being a source for Wiccans to borrow from. A “shaman” is a word used to denote a Native American “medicine man”. Shamanism is a collective term for the various magical and religious practices of the Native American Indians. What many new-agers and Wiccans don’t realize is many ancient Native Americans were practitioners of human sacrifice and cannibals as well! The Incans and Mayans offered human sacrifices as did the Aztecs, who were perhaps the most bloodthirsty.

Yet another testament to this was announced in December of 2004, when a tomb filled with decapitated bodies was discovered in Mexico’s 2,000 year-old “Pyramid of the Moon” located 35 miles from present day Mexico City. Archeologists say the site was a place of “horrifically gory sacrifices”. Saburo Sugiyama, one of the archeologists leading the dig said, “It is hard to believe that the ritual consisted of clean, symbolic performances — it is most likely that the ceremony created a horrible scene of bloodshed with sacrificed people and animals.” Also found were the bound bodies of animals like eagles, dogs and other animals. The reason for the sacrifices was not to raise consciousness of the Earth Mother, or to protect the environment, they were for celebrating state power! The ritualistic murders were performed during the expansion of one of the city’s major monuments. Archeologists say this suggests the government wanted to symbolize a growing “sacred political power”. The excavation team said in a statement., “Contrary to some past interpretation, militarism was apparently central to the city’s culture.” (ASU Magazine Online – Spring 2005 Vol. 8 No. 4)

So rather than being a bunch of stoned spirit talkers the way most occultniks envision Native American tribes, the Aztecs were actually ruthless, bloodthirsty conquerors! I hope Wiccans and New Agers keep this in mind when they try to imitate the religious practices of these cultures from a glossy covered book from Lewellyn. When they decry “American Christo-facism”  just because some politician somewhere dared to attend a prayer breakfast, let them remember the rituals of the Aztecs! [ By the way, “American Christo-facism” is a favorite term of P.E.I. Bonewitz ,who uses it to describe the Christians he so hates. Bonewitz helped write the Declaration of Beliefs for Wiccans back in 1974. Blessed Be!]

Such practices were not isolated to the South and Central Americas, there is also ample evidence that Indians of North America practiced human sacrifices and even cannibalism as well. Sadly, even to this very day in remote parts of Peru, people are still sacrificed to the “mountain gods”. An incident was recorded as recently as the 1980’s and still goes on even today. Mt. Santa Barbra near Pueno is a site where several such sacrifices have taken place. In 1982 the body of a female victim with her face painted black and her body mutilated was found there. In Yunguyo the practice is so frequent the Mayor circulated a petition to try to force the provincial prosecutor’s office to investigate the occurrences.  In Chile human sacrifices occur so often that the courts recognize “compulsion by irresistible psychic forces” as  legitimate grounds for acquittal for murder!

In 1960 after an earthquake a woman named Clara Huenchilan sacrificed her two young children to try to “appease the gods”. The courts did not press charges! Where Chilean authorities discourage child sacrifice the superstitious Mapuche Indians complain of earthquakes and droughts as retribution from their gods and goddesses. Central and South American Shamanism is replete with stories of blood sucking demons. In the 1980’s and 1990’s, kills of farm animals in Puerto Rico which were probably the result of foxes or pumas were said to be the work of “Chupacabra”. In August of 1986 a 9 year old boy was murdered by a Shaman cult by having a wooden stake driven through his heart. This was done because the boy’s grand uncle was said to be suffering from a chronic illness caused by a “vampire”. (Raising Hell by Michael Newton pages 194-195 ) This is what Shamanism is really about, superstition and sacrifice. The idea of blaming every natural disaster, illness, and crop failure on sorcery is partly what fueled the witch hysteria of the so-called “Burning Times”, by the way. The belief in sorcery is fueled by superstition, no matter how you look at it.

INCAN CHILDREN WERE “FATTENED UP” BEFORE BEING SACRIFICED

LONDON 2006(Reuters) By Michael Kahn – Hair samples taken from child mummies suggest the ancient Incas “fattened” up children chosen for ritual sacrifice months before actually killing them, British researchers said. A chemical analysis of four mummies found high in the Andes mountains also indicates the Incans took the children on a lengthy pilgrimage prior to the killings, the team said. In the case of the 15-year-old “Llullaillaco Maiden” the road to death started at least 12 months before.

“We are looking at a process that began a considerable amount of time before their death,” said Andrew Wilson, an archaeologist at the University of Bradford, who led the study. “The maiden was essentially being fattened up or prepared for her final fate at least 12 months before her killing.”

The frozen mummies, some of them extremely well preserved, come from the world’s highest archaeological site and offer insight into the victims’ backgrounds and how they were elevated in social status and prepared for the rituals.The vast Inca empire, with its advanced culture and powerful armies, spanned most of the Andes along South America’s western coast at the time of the Spanish conquest in the early 16th century.

“This is the very first time we are hearing the account from the individuals themselves — what they were eating and when they were separated from their normal existence and set on this path,” Wilson said.The researchers, who published their findings in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, analyzed hair samples up to 25 cm (nearly 10 inches) long in the children aged 6 to 15.

This length represented about two-and-a-half years of hair growth, which gave researchers a picture of the doomed children’s’ lives over a fairly long period of time.Changes in isotopes, or chemical signatures, in the earliest samples showed the children were fed a steady diet of vegetables typical of a peasant background, Wilson said.

But in the 12 months prior to sacrifice, the diet suddenly changed to food reserved for the elite such as maize and meat, likely representing the children’s elevated status as offerings to the gods, the researchers said.Other isotopic changes indicate that in their final three or four months, the children began a pilgrimage to the mountains, likely from the Incan capital Cuzco after receiving ritual haircuts, Wilson said.

The researchers do not know exactly how all the children died, though at least one was killed by a blow to the head.”It looks to us as though the children were led up to the summit shrine in the culmination of a year-long rite, drugged and then left to succumb to exposure,” said Timothy Taylor, a researcher at the University of Bradford.

African Continent and New World African Sorcery

    Obviously, African countries have a problem with child sacrifice if the governments have to make posters like the one below. The rituals of African tribal religions many times involve the use of the blood of animals,  and even human sacrifice, and there have even been documented instances of cannibalism. These instance have been documented enough times that it cannot simply be dismssed as “propaganda”. Isaiah Oke, a former Ju Ju priest from Nigeria, documented one such human sacrifice he attended, and blames Africa’s current AIDS cirisis on Ju Ju’s use of human and animal blood in it’s rituals. Ju Ju is the parent religion of New World Santeria, Macumba, Quimbanda, and Palo Mayombe, and had things in common with Voodoo.

These practices carried over into the New World as “Meseopagan” (meaning Paganism combined with Christian symbolism) practices. Hatian Voodoo and it’s southern U.S. counterpart involve the sacrifice of animals. Santeria in Puerto Rico and Cuba, Macumba and Quimbanada of Brazil. The chicken is a favorite animal of sacrifice by these practitoners, because Chickens can be easily killed, and produce lots of blood.

Brujaria of Mexico have rituals involving animal sacrifices, but seems to be limited to wild birds, such as hummingbirds and woodpeckers. Santeria’s darkest form called Abqa practices human sacrifice. The Abaqa cult is the most feared in all of Cuba. In 1975 a play was produced in Havana detailing the rituals of the Abqa cult. One by one each one of the cast members turned up murdered. Some believe the Metamoros murderers of the late 1980’s was an Abaqa cult, and not Santeria as previously thought.

New Orleans, Louisiana is Voodoo capital of the United States. According to The Voodoo in New Orleans by Robert Talant, in the 19th century and even into the 20th century, the most revered sacrifice that could be made was none as a “goat without horns”. This is Voodoo lingo for an unwanted infant. In Haiti, where people don’t have to be politically correct, no one tries to deny the sacrifices of animals in Voodoo rituals. Once a year a bull is scarified in a horrible ritual, where the poor animal is cut, and his blood is drunk as the animal slowly dies (refer to the documentary Divine Horsemen: The  Living Gods if Haiti by Mayan Deren before you dismiss this). Human sacrifice takes place as well at times.

Voodoo followers really believe that if you kill a Voodoo priest and drink his blood, you will gain his power, as depicted in the movie Serpent and the Rainbow.  In some parts of Africa a similar practice takes place, where family members eat the brains of their dead relatives, thinking their souls will enter their bodies. This revolting superstitious practice causes disease, and Western doctors are desperately trying to convince the natives not to do this. If a place could ever benefit from Christianity, the continent of Africa is the place!

But to some Wiccans on the other hand, this new twist on “brain food” sounds like a perfectly rational idea! Gavin and Yvonne Frost of The Church of Wicca, America’s 2nd  oldest Wiccan group, have written:

“When the soul becomes a spirit, the body literally becomes a shell. It can be burnt or used to the best advantage of those left on earth. Pieces may be given away to hospital”; blood can be drained; or if food is scarce and the need is urgent, it can be eaten. We must not waste the provisions of our God. In the days before libraries existed, for survival it was necessary to pass knowledge or training on by any means possible. Selective cannibalism, in which the brains of the brainy and other appropriate parts were eaten, is a simple belief in which if is assumed that characteristics are passed on. Modern science has recently shown that extracts from dead animals transmit trained habits when injected into untrained animals. “(8)

Yes, you read that right; when food is scarce, just break out the Soilent Green! Hey kids! No need to study! [munch, slurp] Just eat the teacher’s brain! “I’m not getting this algebra problem.  Hey Jimmy, give me another slice of Mrs. Crabapple’s cerebellum!”.

This is another example of Wiccan psudeo science, gobbledy gook, and history revision. There was never a time in human history “before libraries existed” that people ate someone’s brain to gain knowledge, and of course the Frost’s give no reference to how they came to this conclusion. While some studies suggest insects may gain information when injected with extracts from other insects, it does not work on higher species of animals, and certainly doesn’t work on humans!

Practices like the ones mentioned are simply cannibalism, and is one reason AIDS ravages Africa like no-where else. Haitians practice Voodoo, which often uses parts of corpses in its rituals, which is thought by some Medical authorities to be a reason Haiti has a disproportionate number of AIDS cases in the Western Hemisphere. Eating someone’s brain will not give you their intelligence, and one wonders if the Frosts were ever sick enough to try this. This passage from the GWB is not only unscientific, it’s just plain creepy.  What exactly are the Frost’s doing…promoting cannibalism??? So much for trying to dispel the belief witches did things like eating babies and practice cannibalism!

In New Orleans, the Voodoo of today has been watered down with New Age beliefs and practices for tourists. Shops see white Voodoo dolls used for healing spells along with crystals and Enya CDs. The clerks in the Voodoo shops would probably laugh if you ask them about Voodoo and Human Sacrifice. They may not know the whole truth because they are too young to know about the Voodoo of a generation ago of New Orleans, and said to still practiced out in the rural areas of Louisiana and Mississippi not to mention Haiti and the African continent. But even ritual murder in New Orleans is not unheard of today. In 2007 a couple who owned a Voodoo supply store and occult book shop were arrested after it was discovered they were attempting to dry a human corpse (apparently a victim of the couple’s human sacrifice) in their oven for use in voodoo rituals.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0tnrCxveuc8&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&fs=1]
The Judeo-Christian Religion Ended This Barbaric Practice In The Lands It Went Into.

In the Bible, God tests Abraham to see if he is willing to sacrifice his only son. For some, this is one of the harder verses of the Bible. Some have even speculated there must have been an “older version” of the story in which Abraham actually sacrifices Issac!

In reality, no such “older version” exists, and there doesn’t “have to be”, just because someone wants it to be. Why did God ask Abraham to sacrifice Issac? For several reasons.

One reason is stated at the very beginning of the story, it was meant to be a test for Abraham.The test wasn’t to show God if Abraham would or would not do it, it was to show Abraham himself the depth of his own faith. The idea of God being “omniscient” (meaning he knows everything) didn’t occur until the Christian era centuries later.

Another reason…it is a testament to the Pagan people alive then that they didn’t have to sacrifice their sons and daughters to some lifeless idol! There is a reason Christianity  spread far and wide in the formerly Pagan world, and its ban on child sacrifice was one reason! Let’s go forwards and not backwards. The Pagan religions were abandoned by the ancient peoples because they were cruel and barbaric. They were far from “enlightened”!

Conclusions

The Pagan religions of the Past which Neoapagnism draws it’s inspiration from has a blood soaked history. All across the world, Pagans engaged in the most deplorable of practices. While Christians are falsely accused of having wiped out a village of 400 people for witchcraft, Pagans often killed this many or ten times more just for sport! If the sole reason for a would-be witch or warlock to abstain from the Christian faith is the Crusades or the “Burning Times”, then they will need a new reason. Yes, it was wrong for people to be executed for sorcery or heresy by the civil authorities in ancient times, but this clearly is not like the insane superstitious beliefs of ancient Pagans that thought murdering humans as a gift “to the gods”. Even modern Neopaganism is not free from the blood of innocents. There are still survivors of the Judeo-Christian holocaust around, and even Wicca’s very founder, Gerlad Gardner, killed people in a futile attempt for magic power.
It’s scary to see how far the world has come. It’s even scarier to think how far it will go.