The Blood of the Lamb

Every thought, word, deed, is a sacrifice of sorts. To whom and to what we sacrifice matters, and in the Path, this is critical.

As practitioners, our ritual acts can be carried out in the wrong way of the right way. Magick often seems to be aimed at achieving a goal, so it is ultimately transactional. If you sacrifice a goat for better crops, you are down one goat, and chances are the weather will remain as it is. If you meditate to get enlightened, then you are in effect doing little different from the tribesman sacrificing his goat, hoping that in exchange for your time doing meditation you will 'get' something. Your practice is then transactional, you have not even begun to understand sacrifice.

In ancient Hebrew religion the sacrifice of the lamb was transactional, of given in thanks for some boon from YHVH, or else something like the goat given to Azazel as 'blood payment' for the sins of the tribe. In Christianity this morphed into human sacrifice, the Lamb of God being Christ himself, or God incarnate. Here, mystically speaking, we have the sacrifice of self to self, since God is sacrificed for the sins of man, a blood offering to God Himself of Himself. This is closer to my conception, since it is not really transactional, what does God get by sacrificing Himself to Himself? The Christians teach only that in this way the sins of the world are paid for. But this is easy to misconstrue, and these days is aped daily by the church whilst the real sacrifice is hidden and unknown. Most never even approach that alter, let alone make the sacrifice, so I will attempt to clarify.

The Blood of the Lamb is us, our lives, our very being. Every moment we act, or refuse to act (which is itself an action), and so every act is a sacrifice. The Blood of the Lamb flows continually, but at what alter? What God to we truly worship? 

Many sacrifice at the alters of profit and gain, making money, obtaining riches. They give their life's blood to that end, and when the end comes, though richer in gold, they are as poor as anyone. A rich corpse is as much a corpse as a poor one. We can also sacrifice in a million small mindless ways to our habits and impulses, our compulsions and petty desires. These too, though we don't realise, are our Blood Sacrifice. What alter does your lamb bleed on today?

Or we can sacrifice on the meditation seat, in practice, training the mind and body. Often meditation is boring because we are not really meditating, but waiting for the bell to ring so it will be over and we can say we did it. A sacrifice grudgingly given is no sacrifice at all. Magical ritual performed for the sake of being seen as a magician, or for the sake of getting something out of it is not real ritual, only the sacrifice can really be called ritual, although it can take many forms it is of a singular essence. 

The sacrifice must be of the most virgin white Lamb if it is to be a sacrifice at all. 

Therefore, when we give our lamb to the sacrifice, it must be the best of the flock. When we sit in meditation, we sit completely for the sake of sitting. Ritual is for the sake of ritual, "work, and be our bed in working" as the book says. This alone is the Blood of the Lamb, and when we sacrifice in this way the blood is truly acceptable.