I've always found the image of Jesus bleeding, broken and dying on the cross to be disgusting. This central figure of the Catholic Church was just distasteful. How could you worship a being and focus on it's worst moment...never calling to mind the grace, beauty and wonder of the life of Jesus?
He taught so many wonderful things...why focus on this darkest moment? Well, with Catholics it's mostly to amplify the feelings of fear and guilt so that you continue to show up on Sunday and they make money. Yet, there is more to the practice of human and animal sacrifice then the fact that humans can act like beasts in the field in attempt to purify themselves of their spiritual short comings. To quote the movie Dogma, "You do not celebrate your religion, you mourn it." Where did this idea come from? Surely, it was not a natural thing to sacrifice other humans and animals. Now, if you look at most religions you will see that sacrifice- either animal or human- was practiced at some point in the past. In Egypt and in the Jewish religion animals were sacrificed at the temples. Each animal was symbolic of a specific shortcoming of the person sacrificing the animal or to gain a favor or blessing. Both Mayans and Aztecs sacrificed humans and in particular their hearts. In Christianity Jesus is seen as a human sacrifice to his father, God, in order to wipe away the sins of his followers. Only through the fact that his blood was split, they say, are his followers forgiven without having to do anything other then to believe he was the Son of God. Thankfully, today, there are very few groups who follow the practice of human or animal sacrifices. Yet, it begs the question, how did this practice start? Why would anyone believe that the God they believe in requires a living being to die in exchange for being purified or receive a blessing? The Temple Beautiful The Edgar Cacye material provides a really good answer as to how human sacrifice might have started. In most cases it was probably a misinterpretation of a practice that was meant to purify the body that did not involve a physical component of sacrifice. In a prior incarnation Edgar Cacye had been a high priest named Ra Ta in Egypt. This is said to have happened right after the flood. He also traveled the world and taught his purifying techniques to other cultures. According to the Cacye material when human souls first began pushing into matter they took on animal characteristics. The bodies they built for themselves back then were mostly Astral...not as dense as our bodies are now. These beings were stuck in the process of reincarnation already but they retained the qualities of the animals or plants that they were attached to through heir experiences. Instead of having a human body in the image that we have now...they would manifest with hooves, beaks or leaves coming out of their face. These bodies were considered impure or corrupted. Ra Ta set out to make a 'pure' human body. To do this he created two Temples- One was the Temple Beautiful and the other was the Temple of Sacrifice. Here's how John Van Auken describes the sacrifices in his book Ancient Egyptian Mysticism (1999): "The Altars were prepared according to inner guidance. They included sacrificial altars and beautification altars. They did not sacrifice animals, birds, beasts, reptiles or humans on these altars, as some today may think. Upon these altars individuals put their faults and blotted them out with he fires of the Unseen Forces that were set in motion by attunement to the powers of Spirit. When these cleansings were combined with inner guidance to commit oneself to a specific career or service, one could make great leaps forward in freedom from earthiness and limited consciousness. This was only done after the seekers had chosen to give themselves to their services....The program was not reclusive or elitist. Whether one was channeled to work in the sacred services of the altars or in the daily labors of the granary, both were seen equally as divinely manifesting their ultimate potential to Magnify God in life." pg 28 So, you see it was metaphysical sort of sacrifice...not all that different from the concept of Baptisim...that was the start of these sacrifices and it was to cleanse both body and mind. What Happened? We can only guess that as knowledge of these principals fell away that the people who came afterward started associating the actual animals and body parts with the sacrifices. At that time, no doubt, the perfected dense physical body had been created. So, the idea of these astral bodies with animal and plant like appendages just didn't make sense. To make sense of it from the Earthy point of view, then, the ancient oral or written tradition was modified. Whereas, perhaps, Ra Ta would instruct that in order to get rid of the impression of calf hooves a person would have to right the imbalance of greed......it transformed into that in order to atone for that particular failure or 'sin' an actual calf had to be sacrificed. Perhaps, there were written or oral instructions handed down from that time but because the body had become more dense and less astral there were no longer physical echoes of the souls having been in animal like bodies when they first pushed into matter and no memory of that time... and so the most likely interpretation was that a physical sacrifice would bring about both a physical and spiritual purification. Jesus As A Sacrifice Perhaps it seems normal that after a long bloody history of both human and animal sacrifice in human history that a God would descend and his body would be sacrificed as payment for his followers. I can only think that the reason that this explanation for why Jesus died on the cross was born from the same people who believed that sacrificing a goat would cleanse them of sins. The book of Leviticus, after all, in the bible tells in detail how to sacrifice different animals- in particular birds. However, aside from the potential sacrifice of Isaac in the Torah where an Angel stopped it from happening...human sacrifice was never a part of Hebrew tradition. Yet, thanks to the Edgar Cacye material and my own intuition I don't believe that was Jesus intent or the reason for his death on the cross. There is plenty of evidence that this idea, that Jesus physically sacrificed his body so his physical blood would cleanse his followers, is just plain wrong...and disgusting. In the Edgar Cacye material where they explain Jesus' past lives they explain that he was the patriarch Joshua who cleared out the holy land. At one point Joshua brutally executed all of the former kings of the land where Israel would be created by having them hung from trees. Karmically, in exchange for having hung others without remorse in that past life without justification...he too was hung...but on a cross instead of a tree. For me though, the main reason that he did not try to escape persecution and death on the cross was because he had to leave the disciples. As long as the disciples had access to Jesus they didn't try to contact God themselves. They did not try to get in touch with the Holy Ghost (the subconscious) because they could go directly to Jesus in the flesh and ask their answers. They didn't trust themselves to be channels for the Divine. I'm not a huge fan of the Book of John in the Bible (I think the book of Matthew is closer to what truly happened- but that is a bias based on a past life memory of having seen Jesus in Jerusalem in a past life. A past life, I must remind you, where I was stoned to death by the members of that first church formed by Paul the Roman for saying, "That's not what he said!" So, at some point I heard Jesus speak and that's why a lot of the dogmatic interpretations of his words ring false to me.) "But very truly I tell you, it is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you." John 16:7 But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have told you. John 14:26 Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one's life for one's friends. John 15:13 These are Jesus replies to the disciples when they ask why he must die. He does not say that he is dying to wipe away the sins of his followers with his physical blood so they may enter the Kingdom of Heaven. He does not say that his father requires his blood to free the world. He does say that he is laying down his life for his friends so that the Holy Ghost, the advocate, may come to them. Jesus knew as long as he was in the flesh acting as intermediary between his disciples and himself they would have no reason to turn inward, as he had done, and connect with the Divine. Only his absence would be the catalyst for them to take on this personal transformation for themselves. The bit about a blood sacrifice that wiped away the sins of the followers of Jesus without them having to change anything about their own personal psychology was added later by Paul the Roman who thought as Roman's do and who had no regard for Hebrew tradition...although, the animal sacrifices at the Temple might be an explanation for why the ultimate sacrifice of a human body that housed the divine form would have to be be sacrificed for the 'worlds sin'. Paul was not taught the secret teachings directly and there is no references that the Apostles ever taught him the secret teachings of Jesus. In fact, we lose all track of the disciples as soon as Jesus is dead. Who knew what the disciples taught or what they did really? After Jesus's death the New Testament is all about Paul the Roman and his interpretations as well as guidance to the newly formed churches. So, he just projected what he knew from his own religion on to the new religion that was formed after Jesus died...with no regard for the Hebrew teachings that Jesus revered. Conclusion Animal and human sacrifices were never required to return to Source. More then likely it was a misinterpretation of ancient knowledge. With the story of Ra Ta we have one source for this idea that is more then likely, if it is true, the cause of most of the practices of human and animal sacrifice. The processes once used to purify the bodies of partly astral beings were misinterpreted and then a complex system of sacrifice arose. The part of humans having mostly astral bodies to start off with is corroborated by the Channel Bashar in a context that had nothing to do with the Edgar Cacye story. So there is more then one source that hints at this idea. The main part about sacrifices that always failed to hit the mark, as far as I'm concerned, is that it never required that the person performing the sacrifice change in any way.. As long as they sacrificed something outside of themselves- even Jesus- they have absolutely no reason to look within. They can just go to a Temple or Church and preform the correct rite...then go right back out to sinning again...and in a cycle of returning to the church always be forgiven. This is the sort of illogical hypocritical nonsense that gave rise to atheism. The fact a person never had to change their behavior is why sacrifices never worked. If you truly desire transformation it is not an outer physical sacrifice that must be met. The sacrifice has to be made within the Interior Temple and it is not a physical body part that is required. The sacrifice that is required is the attachment to the material world. Just the attachment...it does not require that you get rid of what you are attached to but that you let go of the importance that you place on that physical item in your life. Really, it'st he sacrifice of your Shadow and this involves Shadow work. There is no pain when you give up your Psychological Shadow...there is a great deal of relief. The Shadow and the Ego cause more pain and suffering then anything else in this world. Both are the product of attachment to the physical world and physical outcomes. To me, when looking at religions without bias, the role of sacrifice and how it became distorted is obvious and clear. With the history of Ra Ta we have a precedence of where the idea came from and how it's been misapplied by the generations of priests that came after that time. They didn't know or understand the origin so they interpreted it the best that they could. So, it was not a great conspiracy. Just a lack of understanding on the part of all of those involved and a bit of an obsession with death.
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Brave Soul! May Your Journey On The Path Of The Seeker Bring You Joy and Peace! I'm currently posting every Saturday. With a new addition the family I have pre-scheduled most posts through December 2022. Full Moon Posts will contain up-to-date content when I can get to them. Thank you so much for your support and understanding! This is a place where you can encounter new spiritual ideas that have helped me develop as an Individual On The Path of the Seeker. Take or Leave this information as you see fit. Archives
April 2024
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