Divine Magic: Sacrifice and Prayer

[Jeff Richard]

Some continuing notes as I explore Gloranthan magic and religion for several projects. Today’s notes are on sacrifice and prayer, and are heavily cribbed from M.L. West’s magisterial “The East Face of Helicon: West Asiatic Elements in Greek Poetry and Myth” (1999).

Sacrifice and prayer are the defining features of rune magic in Glorantha. Through these rites, the god is worshiped by its cult, enabling its initiates to wield some part of the god’s power. The following are notes that could apply to most cults among the Orlanthi and Pelorians, and certain cults in Prax and Pent.
<h3>Sacrifice</h3>
Sacrifice may be made at regular fixed times, as part of a daily, weekly, seasonal, or annual routine, or occasionally in response to a special event or need. The basic types of sacrificial offerings are:

Bloodless food offerings: wine, milk, honey, oil, bread, cakes, fruit, vegetables, etc.

Hair: a personal offering of locks shorn for sacrifice.

Burning of incense to produce aromatic smoke.

Gifts: these are typical tools intended for the god’s (or cult’s) use or from the giver’s personal life: weapons from warriors, spindles from women, etc.

Killing without eating (this typical includes human sacrifice). The corpse is disposed of by burning or being thrown into a special pit or being eaten by animals, monsters, or even trolls.

Killing and eating. This is the most central and social of cultic activity. The sacrifice becomes a public feast  – in fact, it is the only occasion for a public feast, as any killing of stock animals is a sacrifice. Besides the meat there is bread and wine, singing and dancing, for once the solemn moment of slaughter is past, the mood is festive.

Oxen and sheep are preferred animals by many cults. A typical requirement is that the animal be perfect, and never been brought under the yoke (or otherwise work).

Sacrificers prepare by bathing and wear clean or special clothes.

The sacrificial ceremony begins with a procession of the victim to the altar, accompanied by music and singing.

<li>The sacrificial meat must be consumed at the feast or destroyed. No takeaway!</li>

Many cults permit and even encourage symbolic representations of sacrifice such as terra-cotta representations of food, animals, worshipers, and even the divinities themselves. These can be replacements for the sacrifices or even the worshiper, or they might be a record reminding the god that sacrifice or devotion had already been made by the worshiper.  It is common for pilgrims to distant shrines to leave votive images of themselves to remind the god of their journey or for leaders to commission visual reminders of sacrifices made by their community.

A prayer is a recital of specially crafted words with the appropriate rhetorical gestures as one undertakes a ritual.The words are marked linguistically as special and formal, either by archaic diction and syntax or by metrical and rhetorical form, and are performed in a special manner and place, often with musical accompaniment or dance. Many prayers are sung as hymns.

When praying to a deity, one typically raises one’s arms to the deity with the hands apart and palms open. The deity is addressed and praised by means of epithets and whole sentences. A prayer often provides a laudatory description of the deity, first in terms of its place within the divine community and then in terms of its relationship to the mundane and human world. This descriptive praise, particularly the description of the deity’s relationship to humanity, provides the backdrop and jumping-off point for the supplication to the god to listen to and help the petitioner. Prayers are often ended with a promise of praise should the petition be granted.

[Joerg Baumgartner]

Those are the technicalities. One thing I missed: more mutilative sacrifices than letting hair, like donating blood by flagellation, piercing or shallow cuts. Also in this category would be an extension of one’s holy marks on the body, whether as tattoo, scarification, or temporarily drawn in sanctified substances.

Where and how do the myths come in?

Christian church-goers will be familiar with the readings from the sacred texts that usually get chosen according to the current liturgical season, and hymns selected likewise, and upon rarer occasions there will be more or less elaborate re-enactments like the nativities.

I don’t expect any of the cults practicing sacrifice to have fixed sacred texts to be read out. There will be poetry recitals, and the use of religious masks is documented, presumably for re-enactments (whether as static recitals as in the Greek plays or as action-brimmed dances or fights).

Processions probably figure importantly in the festivals, too. In a polytheistic setting, you’ll likely wander from shrine/holy spot to shrine/holy spot, paying homage to all deities concerned.

Athletic, crafting, poetry contests may accompany the rites. Ritual testing of candidates for some sort of office may be done as part of the festivals, too.

Finally, there may be sacred sex, or sacred sexual license, where the normal rules and marriage vows are set aside as one has approached an Other Side state through previous rituals.

Speaking of the Other Side, some rituals transport the actively participating worshippers to the realm of the worshipped entity, and possibly beyond. Some of these activities will include leaving the festival site to go into the wilderness, or even raid a traditional enemy. Sometimes these may be mock fights with people of the congregation mumming up as opponents, at other times the real foes may be sought out (possibly as captives, as in the Biturian story at Sun County) or summoned.

[David Cake]

I hadn’t remembered any references to incense among the Orlanthi, and sure enough, the few references I could find are mostly to Pelorian worship, but it is mentioned in Kingdom of Sartar as a type of small everyday sacrifice. I suspect it might be something that has crept into Sartarite Earth worship from other regions, but isn’t really part of the Orlanth tradition (why would you mix the smoke that results from fire and ‘earth’ in with perfectly good air?)

[Jeff Richard]

Fwiw, burning of incense as sacrifice was pretty ubiquitous throughout the Near East and Mediterranean, and I am pretty sure it is done as part of many Orlanthi cults. Besides, everyone knows that Ernalda first showed how to make sacrifices to the gods. And of course Nochet and Ezel smell of incense. How could it not?

[Martin Helsdon]

Quote:

Some continuing notes as I explore Gloranthan magic and religion for several projects. Today’s notes are on sacrifice and prayer, and are heavily cribbed from M.L. West’s magisterial “The East Face of Helicon: West Asiatic Elements in Greek Poetry and Myth” (1999).

Greek Myths and Mesopotamia: Parallels and Influence in the Homeric Hymns and Hesiod by Charles Penglase is less magisterial, but an interesting assessment of how myths potentially traveled.

[Martin Helsdon]

Quote:

Quote from Jeff Richard on April 16, 2014, 12:51
Fwiw, burning of incense as sacrifice was pretty ubiquitous throughout the Near East and Mediterranean, and I am pretty sure it is done as part of many Orlanthi cults. Besides, everyone knows that Ernalda first showed how to make sacrifices to the gods. And of course Nochet and Ezel smell of incense. How could it not?

The Guide includes incense among herbs, and lists several regions as exporting herbs, but specifically lists incense (and other herbs) as an export of Teleos (page 468).

Terrestrial incense isn’t one substance but derived from a variety of plants of east Africa, southern Arabia, India, Sumatra and South America. I imagine that Teleo incense is a particularly favored (and expensive) variety, and that some of the other ‘herb’ producing regions have their own varieties, perhaps developed during the Closing?

[Jeff Richard]

I figure the incense from Teleos is a plant famed for its ability to bring the Gods World closer to our own when burnt.

[Martin Helsdon]

Quote:

I figure the incense from Teleos is a plant famed for its ability to bring the Gods World closer to our own when burnt.

Hmm, scenario seeds… 😎

[Bohemond]

I’ve always assumed that the Praxians used something equivalent to tobacco in their rituals, both as incense and as something smoked.

[Martin Helsdon]

One aspect to consider is the cultural view on ‘spiritual pollution’ and how it is removed prior to worship and sacrifice. Different cultures have had different views on what constitutes such contamination (examples would include murder, killing, sexual contact, contact with the dead, contact with blood, animals considered unclean, breaking of taboos – eating unsacrificed meat – or geases, contact with Chaos), and how it is removed (fasting, washing etc.) by purification rituals. Of course some evil or chaotic cults might require the worshiper to be polluted.

The attitudes and requirements would vary considerably between cults and cultures and add an extra dimension to the religion. A Humakti who has killed in combat would not pollute a shrine to Humakt, but one who has committed a murder certainly would, but neither would be permitted within the precincts of a temple to Ernalda without purification?

[jonathan quaife]

As an addendum I would heartily recommend Fritz Staal’s book, “Rules without meaning”. This moves the discussion well beyond functionalist views of ritual and proposes ritual, and ritual language, as forms innate to human behaviour which also transcend a need for understanding or explanation (as an example, although Staal doesn’t cite it, for much of western Christian history the vast majority of Christians had no understanding at all with respect to the oral forms of Christian ritual, which were in Latin).

[jonathan quaife]

As an addendum I would heartily recommend Fritz Staal’s book, “Rules without meaning”. This moves the discussion well beyond functionalist views of ritual and proposes ritual, and ritual language, as forms innate to human behaviour which also transcend a need for understanding or explanation (as an example, although Staal doesn’t cite it, for much of western Christian history the vast majority of Christians had no understanding at all with respect to the oral forms of Christian ritual, which were in Latin).

[David Summers]

In the British Museum I saw a small (~1 foot tall) statue that people would put into the temples to pray for them. I loved that! “Want you god to get maximum prayer, but have to go to work, have these statues pray for you!”

[Martin Helsdon]

Quote:

“Want you god to get maximum prayer, but have to go to work, have these statues pray for you!”

Worried your god might forget your prayers and sacrifices?

See your local Issaries merchant for the latest range of votive statues!

Never miss a ceremony at the temple again!

Carved of the highest quality soft gypsum and inlaid with shell and black limestone by our skilled artisans in our manufactories in the Holy Country, these statuettes range in size from well under a foot to about 30 inches tall representing a variety of occupations. Most striking are the inlaid over-sized eyes symbolizing eternal wakefulness and devotion. Available with their hands stretched out, or for our Pelorian customers, folded in front of their chests in a gesture of prayer.

[Jeff Richard]

Quote:

Quote from Jonathan-Quaife on April 20, 2014, 21:48
As an addendum I would heartily recommend Fritz Staal’s book, “Rules without meaning”. This moves the discussion well beyond functionalist views of ritual and proposes ritual, and ritual language, as forms innate to human behaviour which also transcend a need for understanding or explanation (as an example, although Staal doesn’t cite it, for much of western Christian history the vast majority of Christians had no understanding at all with respect to the oral forms of Christian ritual, which were in Latin).

Well under Latin Christiandom, the vast majority of Christians were mere lay members, without initiation into the secrets.

Some ritual acts involve the performance of myths, where the initiates will see the gods and ancestors, and the non-initiated may see often inexplicable actions by the performers. But some ritual acts have nothing to do with myth – they prepare the sacred space or the worshipers or the leaders for joining with the sacred, or they feed the gods or otherwise please them (you aren’t re-enacting a myth when you sacrifice a sheep to Orlanth and then eat it – you are feeding the gods). Some parts of the ceremony might involve attuning oneself to various Runes, or to other magical energies.

Jeff

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