- Blood ritual
A blood ritual is any
ritual that involves the intentional release of blood.A common blood ritual is the
blood brother ritual, which started in ancientEurope andAsia . Two or more people, typically male, intermingle their blood in some wayFact|date=April 2007. This symbolically brings the participants together into one family. This can be an unsafe practice where blood-bornepathogen s are concerned; the use of safe, sterilized equipment such as alancet can mitigate this problem.Body piercing can also be part of a blood ritual. Though piercing does not always cause bleeding, it certainly can. Piercing has been practiced in a number of indigenous cultures throughout the world, usually as a symbolic rite of passage, a symbolic death and rebirth, aninitiation , or for reasons ofmagical protectionFact|date=April 2007.Blood rituals often involve a symbolic death and rebirth, as literal bodily birth involves bleeding. Blood is typically seen as very powerful, and sometimes as
unclean . Blood sacrifice is sometimes considered by the practitioners ofprayer , ritual magic, and spell casting to intensify the power of such activities. The Native American Sun Dance is usually accompanied by blood sacrificeFact|date=April 2007.Some blood rituals involve two or more parties cutting themselves or each other followed by consumption of blood. The participants may regard the release or consumption of blood as producing energy useful as a sexual, healing, or mental stimulusFact|date=April 2007. In other cases, blood is a primary component as the sacrifice, or material component for a spell.
Certain video gamesFact|date=April 2007 with a more occult theme have used blood sacrifice (or, as it is known in some, blood magic) as a source of magical power. Such video games include
Dominions II ."The Blood Ritual" is also a ritual created by
L. Ron Hubbard that invokes the Egyptian goddess Hathor. [cite book
last = Atack
first = Jon
authorlink = Jon Atack
title =
publisher =Lyle Stuart
year = 1999
isbn = 081840499X
chapter = His Magickal Career
chapterurl = http://www.clambake.org/archive/books/apobs/bs2-6.htm ]References
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