Kingdom Come

Toward the Pagan Restoration of Sacrifice

In the ancient world, like unto elsewhere today, the rite of animal sacrifice was central to the experience of the Gods….after the offering, the rest of the animal generally was cooked and eaten in a mood of celebration. 

The purpose of sacrifice is to build, maintain, and correct our connection with the Gods…The common explanation of sacrifice is to somehow ‘feed’ the Gods, but this is generally challenged…Rather, sacrifice properly done affects the sacrificer by attuning us to the Gods we invoke [and]…(bonding us to those we share it with)…

Material offerings themselves are part of a continuum of offerings stretching from the material to the purely noetic or ‘mental,’ with a kind of hybrid between them made of both ‘matter’ and ‘thought’. Speech is an example of this, which is both material (being sound, experienced through the senses) and mental (having meaning, experienced and understood by the mind). This middling sacrifice, between the material and the mental, can be termed ‘symbolic’…otherwise called ‘invocations’…

This is most commonly experienced by “oaths” and “curses” calling on one’s divinities to bless or harm others on one’s behalf. What seems to have become simply a verbal ejaculation of intense emotion in secular society today, interchanging either “sh_t!” or “Jes-s Chr_st!” on encountering a shock, is a carry-over from when society was fundamentally spiritual. We still see people making the cross on themselves to ward off evil. Invoking, however absent-mindedly from social habits, the names of society’s divinity as “My Go-d!” or other like terms is likewise calling on spiritual power for protection from the powerful forces encountered as danger to death, or calling out a curse to ward off the harmful human or natural forces.

I have to credit pagans for understanding the essential spiritual aspect of our world.

It is time for Pagans to restore sacrifice to its ancient and central place in our rites (and some are!). The world needs the Gods in Their fullest presence and we need to be fully present to Them if we wish our species to live in harmony with our world. The rite of sacrifice is crucial to our success. Let us restore it.

The common meaning of sacrifice is “to give up”…The older meaning of sacrifice is “to make sacred.” By dedicating something to the gods through ritual and ceremony it becomes sacred – it takes on some of the essence of the gods. Some of that divine essence then returns to us…

Sacrifice is important because it brings us into closer relations with the gods…

Can our ordinary meals be made sacred through invocation and ritual? We have to eat – can we make eating a sacred act? Might making eating a sacred act cause us to be more mindful about what we eat…?

Could an ordinary job be made sacred through invocation and ritual? We have to provide for ourselves, our families, and our communities – could dedicating our work to the gods make working an ordinary but necessary job a sacred act?…

Materialistic humanists oblivious to, or ignoring, the essential underlying narcissistic evil vs good are also partakers of the table of devils through the same process of sharing food and drink dedicated to a higher power for the express objective of bonding the group to the higher power for reciprocal benefits.

Think of an office Christmas party. The Seventh Day Adventist is known by refusal to eat any meat. The Jewish person is known by refusing to eat the bacon-wrapped shrimp hors d’oeuvres. Many people who go to a Christian church on Sunday  don’t separate themselves but instead mingle with the secular crowd by drinking alcohol and laughing at the dirty jokes to identify with their friends, co-workers and superiors, especially the head of the organization on whom they depend for their livelihood and promotions. 

And those leaders are often bad people.

Throughout history, narcissists have always emerged to inspire people and to shape the future...when business became the engine of social change, it, too, generated its share of narcissistic leaders…

Consider how an executive at Oracle describes his narcissistic CEO Larry Ellison: “The difference between God and Larry is that God does not believe he is Larry.” That observation is amusing, but it is also troubling…

A narcissistic sociopath derives satisfaction from manipulating, deceiving, and abusing others in order to get what they want.These individuals will demonstrate traits and symptoms of both narcissistic personality disorder (NPD) and antisocial personality disorder (ASPD). They may use charm, charisma, humor, or other disguises to get people to trust them, making it harder to detect their narcissistic and sociopathic traits….

 Narcissistic Personality Disorder is characterized as a grandiose sense of self-importance, an attitude of entitlement or arrogance, and an excessive need for external validation. The symptoms of Antisocial Personality Disorder include impulsivity, aggression, and a total disregard for rules, laws, and social norms

A narcissistic sociopath (also called a narcopath or malignant narcissist) has both disorders and is considered one of the most dangerous, psychologically disturbed kinds of people. Their complete lack of empathy and regard for the feelings or needs of other people makes them much more likely to act out behaviors that are typically considered wrong, bad, or even evil.

Unlike classic narcissists, sociopathic narcissists are not only driven by their own self-interest. Some experts believe that narcissistic sociopaths are sadistic, and derive pleasure or satisfaction from the suffering of other people. 

10 Signs of a Narcissistic Sociopath…

1. They Live In a Deluded Reality

2. They Are Obsessed With Power & Control

People with NPD and ADP are power-hungry. Sociopathic narcissists put a lot of time and effort into acquiring positions that give them power or control over people, bowling over anyone who gets in their way. Once they obtain control, they may demand to be addressed in a certain way or make others follow rules that don’t make sense. This obsession also tends to show up as a refusal to acknowledge any other authority, including rules, laws, policies, or requests made of them by others.

3. They Take Advantage of & Use Other People

Narcissistic sociopaths have a habit of using, exploiting, and taking advantage of others….in all of their relationships, including romantic, platonic, or familial relationships…

4. They Have No Moral Boundaries

There are no lines a narcissistic sociopath won’t cross to get what they want. Their moral compass is non-existent, leaving them without the sense of “right and wrong” that most people have. After doing something harmful, illegal, or sadistic, they won’t feel remorse, regret, or guilt. In fact, they may even feel a sense of satisfaction knowing they were able to deceive, emotionally manipulate, or hurt someone.

5. They Have a Limited Range of Emotions

Narcissistic sociopaths don’t experience feelings of love and affection, or more vulnerable emotions like guilt, shame, or sadness. The only strong emotion they seem to be able to access is anger. This can show up as outrage or narcissistic rage when they’re slighted, offended, or not granted something…

6. They Have a Huge Discard Pile

Narcissistic sociopaths are known to discard people and things that are no longer useful to them. Over time, their narcissistic discard pile stacks up and may include former friends, lovers, colleagues, and mentors. Their discard pile may also include…roles or activities that served a purpose at one time but are no longer useful to them.

7. They Become Hostile When Threatened

Narcissistic sociopaths are most dangerous when they feel threatened…the narcopath will often become hostile and aggressive, lashing out and becoming abusive toward others.

8. They Feed Off of Negative Energy

A narcissistic sociopath feeds off of negative emotions and energy. There is something about drama, others’ fear or pain, or the chaos of disaster that seems to excite them or give them energy. This kind of parasitic attraction to negativity…is also what makes sociopathic narcissists sadistic and dangerous, causing them to enjoy the pain and suffering of others.

9. They Get Bored Easily

A narcissistic sociopath is constantly seeking sensations and cheap thrills because nothing can hold their interest and attention for long…For this reason, people with these traits tend to be impulsive and aggressive, or engaged in crime, violence, or drug use.

10. They Are Empty Inside

A narcissistic sociopath may have worked hard to craft a powerful, important image, but this is a front. Lacking the ability to feel a full range of emotions makes them hollow and empty on the inside, keeping them from really experiencing things, expressing themselves, or connecting with others.

The above humanistic diagnostic criteria is also definitive of evil spiritual entities. 

Drug use is another means of intentionally, or inadvertently, crossing over into the spirit dimension.

Certain plants have long been known to humans as having psychoactive effects—they produce changes in a person’s thoughts, sensations, and behavior…People viewed these substances as sources of the sacred and spiritual realms. These plants were generally used in community rituals…Plants such as the psilocybin mushrooms, iboga, ayahuasca, datura, betel, and kava served…to help a person achieve an experience of the sacred…

mushrooms that contain psilocybin, a hallucinogen , have been used. As Richard Schultes and Albert Hofmann explain in Plants of the Gods (2002), they produce such dramatic effects that people have described them as “foods of the gods” and “voices of the gods.” In many prehistoric cult practices, hallucinogenic mushrooms served to strengthen the community’s connection to nature and as a way to contact powerful spiritual forces. People who ate these mushrooms often felt intensely aware of the interconnectedness of humans, nature, and the supernatural. They felt that mushrooms increased their own personal power, leading them toward self-transformation…

A word used by Michael Winkelman, “psychointegration,” characterizes the common effects of substances called hallucinogens and psychedelics . Psychointegration is a state in which the human brain produces brain waves in the emotional (limbic) system and frontal cortex that results in a feeling of unity. Psychointegrators were central to many shamanic practices…to enter into altered states of consciousness and to enable them to contact spirits….

The root of the iboga plant (Tabernanthe iboga) is a stimulant and hallucinogen…Healers and sorcerers have used iboga to achieve knowledge of the divine. In Africa, the…Bwiti cult used iboga to contact and affirm their relationship with their ancestors. By experiencing this sense of the individual’s relationship to group spirit, they hoped to strengthen the bonds of their society and promote the well-being of all who belonged to it…

Native groups of northern Mexico (for example, the Huichol and the Tarahumara) also have a long history of peyote use. Peyote [a cactus] contains mescaline, a substance that has both stimulant and hallucinogenic effects…Native groups of northern Mexico (for example, the Huichol and the Tarahumara) also have a long history of peyote use. Peyote contains mescaline, a substance that has both stimulant and hallucinogenic effects…Peyote use…promotes feelings of spirituality and unity…

Ayahuasca is a combination of two plants, Banisteriopsis caapi and Psychotria viridis. South American tribes used ayahuasca for various purposes: contacting spirits of the dead, achieving clairvoyance, making diagnoses, making prophecies, and healing…groups in the rural Amazonian basin take ayahuasca in collective adult rituals to strengthen group cohesion and identity…Ayahuasca traditions have also spread to urban areas, where many people use the drug to cope with anxiety and stress. Several Christian churches in Brazil consider ayahuasca a sacrament. In the United States, these churches are involved in legal battles over freedom of religion involving use of the drug for religious purposes. The scholars Jaques Mabit, Rosa Giove, and Joaquin Vega reviewed ayahuasca’s use in ritual treatments for rehabilitation of cocaine addicts in the Peruvian Amazon. These treatments integrate ayahuasca into traditional rituals and physical, psychological, and spiritual activities that address personal and emotional relations…

Native Americans used datura to produce…altered states of consciousness that could last from two to three weeks…Group male rituals using datura often involved a death-and-rebirth experience…the person is open to suggestion and readily accepts what is told to him. He or she loses touch with reality and becomes unable to think clearly or rationally. While the young participant is in this state, elders of the tribe instruct him in the ways, morals, and myths of their tribe. In Africa, the Shangana-Tsonga of Mozambique used datura in fertility initiations for girls to produce visions of the fertility god. Because of datura’s effects on reasoning and the sense of reality, the girls’ experiences while on the drug could be manipulated, or managed, by the tribe members…

The most common traditional drugs in the Pacific Islands were kava and betel. Kava is a sedative beverage made from the root of Pipermethysticum that produces a dreamlike state similar to that produced by mild hallucinogens. Betel is a stimulant made from Piper betel and Areca catechu and other ingredients.

Typically, people consumed kava and betel in elaborate communal ceremonies…In heavy doses taken after a period of abstinence from betel, betel can cause psychotic reactions.

Kava was often restricted to adult males, even exclusively high- status males. Kava was produced by women but consumed in special male-only ceremonial grounds that excluded women. These nightly ceremonies played a central role not only in community life but also in political and social dealings between communities. Hostile visitors were forced to consume large amounts of kava. Known for its ability to produce peaceful euphoria (an intense feeling of well-being), kava reduced the aggressive actions of these visitors.

Bondage to evil spirit powers is also evident – where else but? – the rulers of the world.

Take for example, Caesar Augustus. who like the gods had many titles, all of which attributed aspects of divine power.

• Divi Filius, meaning ‘Son of the Divine,’ or ‘Son of God,’ was his favorite title.  This title appears on almost every coin minted by Augustus.
• Dominus in Latin, or Kyrios in Greek, which means ‘Lord.’
• Soter, meaning ‘Savior,’ a title conveying that he had saved the empire from internal political instability, financial ruin, and external threats by foreign powers by his victories in battle.
• Pontifex  Maximus, meaning ‘High Priest’, i.e. vicar, human embodiment of the chief god Jupiter / Zeus who ruled through him.

From a biblical perspective, since of all these named attributes are appropriated titles of The Promised Seed / Prophesied Savior / Christ we can identify Caesar, the first Roman emperor, and anyone taking the title Caesar / Kaiser / Czar / Tsar, as claim to be his heir, as Antichrist.