Fertility myth and ritual appear in mythology and practice throughout the world. Common to many cultures is the theme of the sacrificial god. It could be a symbolic sacrifice, a harvest sacrifice such as the rooster, sacrifice of humans from slaves to Kings (and how some got around it) or sacrifice in effigy.
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To increase the fertility of crops and the bounty of the natural world, it was common to first spill some blood. The most precious blood is that of a King, and of those, the King of Gods. The sacrificial god appears in various versions and is almost always male.
Fertility rituals ensure the seed spilled upon the Earth will produce a great crop. Agriculture with intent began about 11,500 years ago in the Pleistocene epoch. Many elements could affect crop growth including weather, soil conditions, pillaging tribes and evil spirits.
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Some nature spirits are neither good nor evil but their actions can affect the yield. If half the maize is struck by blight, rotted or burnt down, starvation follows. Some harvest spirits are incredibly evil before, during and after the harvest. Many, like the German Harvest Spirits Hafermann and Murrkater (grumbling tomcat), steal and eat children.
So, it was common to sacrifice a chicken, or the King of the Chickens, the rooster. Sometimes it was done in cruel ways, such as burying the rooster up to its neck in earth and competing to cut off its head with a sickle.
The King is fallen, representing the death of the God and the cycles of the Earth. His blood flows into soil and his flesh goes into soup. Those who eat of it consume the power of the deity, attune to its elemental qualities or hope for abundance.
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Bear and Bull sacrifice both relate to the sacrifice of the god. Both animals are powerful and potent. Oxen, who aren't potent, nonetheless represent the quality. The Bull is a domestic spirit, the Bear a wild one.
The Bear Harvest Spirit may show up in the pea patch. Loud clanging of pots with noise usually reserved for demons could scare it away. If not, say goodbye to the peas, for the Bear is hungry toward the autumn months. Like most Harvest Spirits he leaves some fertility magic, so the sacrifice of peas might not be in vain.
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Bear worship was most prevalent in the Slavic countries, possibly because these countries including northern Russia have the highest population of brown bears in the world. Even into the 20th century people such as the Nikvh in the Russian far east and the Ainu of north Japan killed and ate sacrificial bears representing the King of Gods.
As well the Bull, with his fiery nature and virile strength, was admired, worshipped and sacrificed in fertility rituals throughout the ages. In Greek lore, the God Dionysus, a harvest deity, is often represented by a Bull.
White bulls are especially sacred. During seasonal celebrations the Bull represents the power of the God and is slain in sacrifice. Followers eat the flesh and drink the blood in tribute, or to assume the symbolic powers of the God.
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In Rome from the 2nd to 4th centuries AD the ritual sacrifice of a Bull was taurobolium. In the 2nd century the rites were connected to the worship of the Great Mother Goddess, Cybele.
She was an Anatolian goddess adopted by the Greeks, who proliferated her worship, partly to help subdue unruly Carthage, one of the most affluent cities of the ancient classical world.
Human sacrifice could involve anyone from children to captives to kings. In the case of kings, people like the Aztecs made a compromise as they didn't want to kill off a major God King every year.
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Thus the tongue or lip of the King was ceremoniously slit and his blood dripped into a bowl. Priests might drink the blood of the god and pass it symbolically to the people in wine. Bread might be served to represent the flesh of the God.
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