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There is a difference between blood offerings and blood sacrifices.
A blood offering is a free-will offering of one's own blood, just a drop or two in a celebration or ceremony. We prefer to use the diabetic lancets for this so the prick is relatively painless, the blood is scant, and it's all done in a sterile fashion. Changing the blade between celebrants is quick and easy.
Remember, this is an offering, a gift, not a sacrifice. Pain, payment, and loss are not part of the process.
Why would we make blood offerings?
The most common reason is as a gift to the Numena. For so long as we live, our blood belongs to us. When we give it away, we are giving away an intimate part of our life force, returning it willingly to the Numena.
Not every Celebration calls for a blood offering. Sometimes, a year or more will go by without that need.
The times we most commonly give the gift of blood to our Numena are times when we wish to express our sincerest thanks, our deepest appreciation that the Numen is a part of our lives. When we first agree to the relationship is always a time of blood offering, and some people choose to renew this bonding on the anniversary. When the Numen has gone above and beyond for us, a blood offering is appropriate. Most Numen prefer other offerings, but one's own blood is always an acceptable substitute.
We always use blood in any commitment pledge. You have to really mean it to be willing to prick your finger and give up a drop of your blood.
By the time we invite someone to join our House, they already know we require a commitment in blood, a commingling of all our blood so we are all family. We keep a small jar on our primary altar with salt, earth, and blood in it - one drop from each member. When a member must leave (moves away too far to return easily, grows up and wants to start their own House), we divide up the contents of the jar, and send a portion with them, so every jar contains blood from the members that stretch all the way back to our Founders in 1946.
When members decide to join their lives together (marriage, partnership, union, handfasting, whatever you wish to call it), the commingling of their blood during the ceremony is the most important part of the ceremony. Each partner contributes a drop of blood to a goblet really good whisky, then they drink the whisky to mingle their blood and make them one.
Don't get all squicked - the concept is as old (and perhaps older than) then concept of "blood brotherhood".
Joining together shouldn't be easy. Committing to one another for life should come with tangible symbols, with an offering of the ultimate gift each person has to offer the other - their very life force.
That's why blood offerings are so important in Numenism, and so rare. We have to really mean it when we do it.
A blood offering is a free-will offering of one's own blood, just a drop or two in a celebration or ceremony. We prefer to use the diabetic lancets for this so the prick is relatively painless, the blood is scant, and it's all done in a sterile fashion. Changing the blade between celebrants is quick and easy.
Remember, this is an offering, a gift, not a sacrifice. Pain, payment, and loss are not part of the process.
Why would we make blood offerings?
The most common reason is as a gift to the Numena. For so long as we live, our blood belongs to us. When we give it away, we are giving away an intimate part of our life force, returning it willingly to the Numena.
Not every Celebration calls for a blood offering. Sometimes, a year or more will go by without that need.
The times we most commonly give the gift of blood to our Numena are times when we wish to express our sincerest thanks, our deepest appreciation that the Numen is a part of our lives. When we first agree to the relationship is always a time of blood offering, and some people choose to renew this bonding on the anniversary. When the Numen has gone above and beyond for us, a blood offering is appropriate. Most Numen prefer other offerings, but one's own blood is always an acceptable substitute.
We always use blood in any commitment pledge. You have to really mean it to be willing to prick your finger and give up a drop of your blood.
By the time we invite someone to join our House, they already know we require a commitment in blood, a commingling of all our blood so we are all family. We keep a small jar on our primary altar with salt, earth, and blood in it - one drop from each member. When a member must leave (moves away too far to return easily, grows up and wants to start their own House), we divide up the contents of the jar, and send a portion with them, so every jar contains blood from the members that stretch all the way back to our Founders in 1946.
When members decide to join their lives together (marriage, partnership, union, handfasting, whatever you wish to call it), the commingling of their blood during the ceremony is the most important part of the ceremony. Each partner contributes a drop of blood to a goblet really good whisky, then they drink the whisky to mingle their blood and make them one.
Don't get all squicked - the concept is as old (and perhaps older than) then concept of "blood brotherhood".
Joining together shouldn't be easy. Committing to one another for life should come with tangible symbols, with an offering of the ultimate gift each person has to offer the other - their very life force.
That's why blood offerings are so important in Numenism, and so rare. We have to really mean it when we do it.
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