Karreka:
"...became skeptical, and considered the pagan rites of propitiation a waste of good meat." (p. 28)
The rites certainly are a waste if the meat is - what? Burned? Left to rot in front of an altar? Thrown away? The obvious thing to do with sacrificed food is for the worshippers to eat it. At large gatherings in London, I gratefully accept free vegetarian curry and rice that have first been offered to Krishna although I suppose that Christians or Muslims must consider this inappropriate.
Karreka is considering the diverse attitudes to the Red Sun that scorches Ishtar every thousand years. His Triadic cult teaches that the Rover, as they call it, is a recurrently returning outlaw god whereas some barbarians will not even name it. But the creepiest concept, in Karreka's opinion, is that of the human beings who claim that the three suns, Anu, Bel and Ea, are merely fire with no kind of soul anywhere in them! That idea is hard for an Ishtarian to grasp.
Karreka follows the rites because they are popular and good for military morale and discipline. I participate in Buddhist or pagan rites on this sort of basis but only because they are not accompanied by a creed excluding non-believers.
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
Before the destruction of the Temple by the Romans in AD 70 the Jews sacrificed animals to God. But the meat was afterwards given to the priests or to both them and the worshipers.
As for meat offered to idols I recall how St. Paul instructed his converts not to worry about that as long as long as it was purchased in the marketplaces. No way of telling whether this or that joint had been offered to pagan "gods."
Ad astra! Sean
Post a Comment