[Discussion] On the Gods and the World, Ch. XVI

[sdi]

Good morning and a happy Wednesday! Sallustius has another brief appendix for us this week, continuing last week's theme on the purpose of worship, so let's pick the puzzle-box back up, shall we?

XVI. Concerning sacrifices and other worships, that we benefit man by them, but not the gods.

I think it well to add some remarks about sacrifices. In the first place, since we have received everything from the gods, and it is right to pay the giver some tithe of his gifts, we pay such a tithe of possessions in votive offerings, of bodies in gifts of <hair and> adornment, and of life in sacrifices. Then secondly, prayers without sacrifices are only words, with sacrifices they are live words; the word gives meaning to the life, while the life animates the word. Thirdly, the happiness of every object is its own perfection; and perfection for each is communion with its own cause. For this reason we pray for communion with the Gods. Since, therefore, the first life is the life of the gods, but human life is also life of a kind, and human life wishes for communion with divine life, a mean term is needed. For things very far apart cannot have communion without a mean term, and the mean term must be like the things joined; therefore the mean term between life and life must be life. That is why men sacrifice animals; only the rich do so now, but in old days everybody did, and that not indiscriminately, but giving the suitable offerings to each god together with a great deal of other worship. Enough of this subject.

Comments

[boccaderlupo]

The post on your main blog is very thought-provoking and insightful. I think the principles you identify are vital (no pun intended), and provide room for extension across material tokens.

I must relay a ritual performed in the heart of Rome using found flowers that had some decidedly unpleasant side corporeal side effects, so to underscore your point—it is crucial to pay attention to the little things, both in principle and praxis.

[barefootwisdom]

Thank you! I'm glad it proved valuable to you.

If you don't mind, in regard to this ritual in Rome: was the issue purely at the material level (e.g., flowers that were physically poisonous or allergy-inducing), or was this an issue of something more subtle cascading down to the material realm?

[boccaderlupo]

Without trying to be coy or overly evasive, this is one of those situations I've reflected on for a few years and haven't fully resolved, but I strongly suspect the latter.

Points to perhaps ponder:

- Some of these exceedingly ancient places are extraordinarily "charged," for lack of a better term, with spiritual force (hence why the church chose to co-opt many of them, I suspect...the Ara Maxima is a good example. The times I've visited, the very air seemed "full," as it were.) It doesn't take much to "set things off" in such places, and it is my suspicion that, especially if formal rites have been followed in a place, then something less-than-casual many trigger untoward events. I believe it may be safer, in a sense, to perform rites in an appropriate "new" space rather than some of these places that have histories, especially if we are not fully cognizant of those histories.
- Some of these are places where multiple divinities have been worshipped, and again, I'm not sure whether there is syncretism that occurs or what exactly the dynamics are there. There's the additional issue of ritual spaces for different divinities in close proximity to each other...if you've ever visited the Capitoline, where the Temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus was once (and which bears some remains), you can more or less feel the intensity of that presence, but it's additionally a place that's been connected with Saturnus, and it's just a stone's throw to other myriad temples. I'm not entirely sure how those dynamics play out. A lot of unknowns, especially in the modern, changed landscape.

Take all of these observations with the appropriate grain of salt, as I'm not entirely sure. One takeaway for me: even if one's intent is (relatively) innocent, it does not pay to take an offering to the gods lightly...one is standing before Divinity, after all, and I for one can't afford the doctor bills!

Axé!