Sharing: "Food, Ethics, Sacrifice" from Finnchuill's Mast

"I hadn’t planned to join the polytheist month of silence, but it kind of worked out that way. But an incident has come to my attention that I feel is very important to speak out on.

The ethics of food should be an important element in any religious considerations, but even more so for any pagan or earth-respecting traditions. As embodied organisms we all have to eat, and from an animist perspective that means we have to eat someone. So how does one do that in an ethical manner? Indigenous hunter-gatherer cultures are rich places to look and one can find numerous ways these cultures saw the exchange of lives as one of mutual giving and taking. But the taking of life was not one lacking in consequence."

 Please read the rest of this wonderful response to the recent horse eating horror. "Food, Ethics, Sacrifice"  

I am glad to see others speaking out on this!

A little about me, Skullarix

Hello, my online handle is Skullarix. With this name one might be surprised to learn of my background with horses. I am nearly 40 and I have been around horses all my life.

One of my earliest memories was riding double with my mom, with my hands griping her belt as we rode up a steep hill. Another memory is when I turned five I was permitted to ride by myself on the horse (I got to control it instead of riding double). I remember the first ride alone, it was a trail ride. My folks had given me strict instructions not to talk to anyone! I remember some lady, who must have known me asked how I was doing and I wouldn't answer her!

Looking back I'm a little mortified that my parents allowed me to ride as the soul rider of the horse when I was five!

My parents owned a "horse rental stable" or to those in the biz a "dude string." Now how we ended up there is not important right now. What is important to note is that we needed horses, cheap, lots of them and gentle. We visited countless back yards, ranches and even the kill pens to find them.

My father never felt he was that good with horses. Sure he could ride them and was damn good, he was an old guy when he came to own horses. As my folks liked to say, they didn't bounce so good anymore. My dad also said that it took seven horses to get a good one, because he didn't have the stamina or knowledge to "gentle" them. Now I can't say what happened to the ones we didn't keep, I know we sold them to homes but some went to the kill pens or "killers" as we called them. I shudder at the thought, and I like to think we rescued more than we ever sent. (Perhaps I shall tell some of our rescues stories here later)

I don't think my folks ever wanted to send horses to the killers, I guess they felt they didn't have a choice when they did. Thus I was sent to camps and clinics where I, who was a little more bouncy, could learn how to train in a gentle way. My dad wanted me to be able to take ANY horse and make it into a solid citizen that could be ridden on the trail.

While it cannot be forgiven that my family did send horses to slaughter, and I have to live with the memory of that. What I can do now is try to stop the slaughter and rehabilitate the lost souls that have been abused and neglected.

On a personal level when I have not had time to work on stopping horse slaughter I have donated money to agencies that protected horses or horse rescue.

There are several horse rescue facilities near me, I have looked in to volunteering at them, but my work schedule never allowed me actual time to do this. However with recent changes, I am once again looking into volunteering.

While one on one a horse is not helpless and is not a pet, event the smallest horse can put YOU in a world of hurt. Its when we humans suck them into the machine of corporate greed that they become helpless. We need to give them a voice!

I do currently own a horse, her name is Fionnabhair "Fin" for short. She is a BLM adopted mustang. While I did not adopt her from the BLM I did get her from some people who wanted to use her as a brood mare to make mules. I think she had other ideas about this, since she never got pregnant and that is why she was sold. The people I bought her from got her from a woman who was hard on her luck and traded her for an undisclosed amount of bags of dog food!

"You will never understand the true meaning of sacrifice"*

I've neglected this blog and I found myself alone working on it. Now that I no longer am, I hope to also post more often.

Meanwhile, anyone reading this probably is well aware that there has been a lot going on regarding horse slaughter in the US.  From a crazy slaughter house worker posting videos of himself shooting a horse, to state laws allowing slaughter being passed, to state laws banning horse slaughter being passed, to battles with whether inspection must be allowed, to the Agricultural Appropriations FY2014 getting through both the Senate and the House committee votes with amendments banning inspection, to S. 541/H.R. 1094—The Safeguard American Food Exports (SAFE) Act getting more co-sponsors in both Senate and House. Both bills have a ways to go yet, so please do not be shy about contacting your Senators and Representatives to make sure they stand for the horses (or to thank them if  they're already on it!...never forget to thank them when they're already doing it).

What I'm here to post about now, however, is back on the whole  Pagans Ate Horses Thing  ...yet AGAIN! And this time more closely associated with my personal path, with Macha and Her Sister and involves people I had mistakenly tried to be friendly allies with. A lot of those who focus on eating horse meat are Heathens and there is evidence for it not being uncommon among early Germanic peoples, but it seems that despite the obvious rarity of it among the Celts that some who claim Celtic practice (even if actually very eclectic...which was always a problem I had but, yeah, try to be friendly and open and what do you get....) seem to believe it's something they should bring back.  Even if it never, you know, was a thing (but, again, there is a lot of holes in their poor research).

I'm debating putting the link here, at this point I won't...if people ask I may add it later. I don't want to add to this group's publicity. 

I am  not opposed to ritual sacrifice of food animals, but do feel it needs to be only food animals. Animals that you eat already. I raise chickens and I do make the killing of our meat birds a sacred act.  The very nature of what makes something a sacrifice is that it is done in a sacred manner and humanely, by us.

It is not a sacrifice if the animal is slaughtered at a commercial slaughterhouse.  Especially when the animal is tortured, which horses are as, despite lies told by some, it's impossible to humanely kill a horse in these hell houses. And a Canadian horse advocate has confirmed on my Flying with the Hooded Crow FB page that in the Providence this group was in, it's the only way to legally kill horses.

Are companion animals "fair game" for sacrifice?  I do think it would be a very bad precedent.  After all, if it become acceptable with one companion animal, horses, then why not others such as dogs and cats.  There is perhaps more evidence of dog eating  in Celtic culture than for horses. We also have the "chewing the raw meat of a pig, dog or cat" as part of the formula for inducing imbas; perhaps given how scary the idea of raw pork is some might think it safer to go with dog or cat.  How many in this group would have participated in the ritual killing of one of their dogs and sat down to feast on it, which given an Morrùgan's canine associations makes as much sense as eating a horse to "honor" a Horse Goddess.

And at least if it was one of their dogs, it would be theirs. Making it actually more of a sacrifice.  At no point in their post or their blather on my FB page, did either woman mention that she raised the horse with honor, deep care, as a true votive animal before sacrificing her/him. At no point did they say why this was a sacrifice.

Because it wasn't. Feeling a little "torn up" because an animal species is your "power animal" is not the same as holding an animal you raised with love from infancy and offering up her life.  It isn't actually giving up a damn thing! It's just taking a life. But don't get me wrong, I'm not remotely condoning actually killing your pets for sacrifice. But don't kill someone else's former pet either!

If you want to discuss animals and sacrifice, you have to start with caring for the votive animal. This, of course, becomes the actual sacrifice.  It can entail moving to a location which is better for the animals but might separate you from friends, career and other conveniences.  Giving up your lifestyle, concerts, parties, various activities. You may find yourself out at 2 am in -40 degree F weather walking a colicing horse. You

might find yourself melting in 90 degree weather with extreme humidity trying to cool that same horse, again colicing six months later.  It may mean losing friends because they have no interest in that which has taken over your life....or, should you be dedicated to stopping slaughter, because you realize they support it in one way or another and are too loathsome to want in your life. Certainly, life not dedicated to caring for horses as a sacred task is easier.

Eating a dish of meat from an animal you did not know and that someone else killed, no matter how much  you tell yourself it was "ethically" done, is not a sacrifice. It's taking, not giving. To do so in the name of a Horse Goddess, well, really, is it Pagans who are supposed to eat their Gods?  Seems that's someone else. Not to mention all those medications that make their meat unsafe for human consumption. So claiming it's also to over come "health issues," well, OOPS!  Have fun being poisoned for your health then.

As a dedicant of the War Goddesses, Badb, Macha and the Morrígan, I feel I can also address certain other issues. Like "the Morrígan told me to do it" and what we might find ourselves asked to do. There are, of course, Pagans who clearly feel that if a God/dess demands it we must do it.  Perhaps there are some Gods this is true of, again, the Christian seems to operate this way according to some. Oh, wait, not always....seems there was some guy named Abraham who found himself rather conflicted.

Actually, an Morrígan, who, despite it being written late and by those who may not have fully understood it, we do have some story about how She interacted with a dedicant. Because that is clearly what Cú Chuainn is, when the stories are read from a warrior's perspective. But as those in question, along with an apparent majority of Pagans, have otherwise shown themselves to be unable to understand those stories by claiming She punished Cú Chulainn for rejecting Her, this is often lost.

But, no, think about what the sexual advances of a Sovereignty Goddess means, if you can get away from self-centered concepts "sovereignty."  It means easy victory.  If he accepted this he would have gotten that, his glory forever lost, he may have lived a longer life with no fame, She'd have turned Her back to him. Instead he chose, as he had as a child, the fame and She aided him by Herself raising odds against him in battle. What you, a non-warrior, think is a reward is punishment to one such as he was.   (I already have a post planned, it will be awhile yet, for my warrior blog which will include more discussion about this and it's already discussed in an article I have awaiting publication.)

 So, if we choose to accept that this woman was told by the Morrígan or Macha to eat horse meat, her blind obedience, when she says she was conflicted, sounds like a seriously failed test.  To go against what you claim is your nature in service to a War Goddess is truly an insult to Her. This is a Goddess who challenges and expects to be challenged. We do not worship her on our knees and go against our values to do so. Therefore I do hope that these people, who also think She possess them yet somehow She is unable to pronounce Her title correctly for them, are just delusional.  Otherwise, they are surely lost.

As I have seen others become loss. They often do not know it, but others watch them stumble and play act. It's sad.

We do not worship a Horse Goddess by eating horses! It's utterly insane. We worship by sacrificing ourselves to care for and defend Her children. And we will speak against those who are so warped and twisted that they kill what is sacred!

*quote from the Wicker Man (original)

Toronto city council unanimously passes motion in support of Bill C-322

I'm new here, I will post an intro on myself later but I thought this was important to post:
from the "Canadian Horse Defence Coalition's Blog"
A few weeks ago, the CHDC posted an item regarding Councillor Michelle Beradinetti’s push to have Toronto Council agree to a Motion in support of the federal Private Members’ Blll C-322 – An Act to amend the Health of Animals Act and the Meat Inspection Act (slaughter of horses for human consumption). 
 The significance that Canada’s largest city adopted this Motion cannot be understated. The Motion recommends the Government of Ontario to prohibit the sale, movement and shipment of horses for the purpose of slaughter.  This would stop the sale of horsemeat at markets and restaurants, as well as ban the shipment of horses through Ontario, which is a major avenue for transport from the U.S. to Quebec slaughter plants.  The sale of horses to kill buyers at OLEX and other livestock auctions would end.  It would also provide the impetus for other provinces to follow suit, thus implementing the ban province by province.
We can now tell you that Toronto City Council has passed her Motion!
Thank you to Councilor Beradinetti and all supporters who emailed Toronto Councillors with their letters of support.
The Motion (MM36.14) calls upon both the Ontario provincial and (Canadian) federal governments to adopt Bill C-322.
Below are links to Councillor’s Beradinetti’s Motion.  The report.  The report in PDF format.
The CHDC is once again requesting your help in persuading both levels of government the need for adopting Canada’s anti horse slaughter bill.
PROVINCIALLY, your letters of support for Bill C-322 can be directed to your Ontario MPP and/or all MPPs who can be found here.
Please do include the Premier of Ontario and Ontario’s Minster of Agriculture, the Hon. Kathleen Wynne (minister.omaf@ontario.ca) in your emails and letters.
FEDERALLY, your letters of support can be directed to your MP and/or all MPs here.
Contact for federal officials as well:
Hon. Gerry Ritz, Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food
Email: ritz.g@parl.gc.ca
WebsiteTel:  613-995-7080
Fax: 613-996-8472
Mr. George Da Pont, President, Canadian Food Inspection Agency 1400 Merivale Rd., Tower 1, Floor 6, Ottawa, ON K1A 0Y9
Email: george.dapont@inspction.gc.ca
Web
Tel: 613-773-6000
Fax: 613-773-6060
Dr. Ian Alexander, Chief Veterinary Officer for Canada, CFIA
Email: ian.alexander@inspection.gc.ca
Web
Tel: 613-773-7472
Fax: 613-228-6637
Dr. Martine Dubuc, Chief Food Safety Officer, CFIA
Email: martine.dubuc@inspection.gc.ca
Web
Tel: 613-773-5722
Fax: 613-773-5797
The CHDC would like to thank you all for your continued support of Bill C-322.
If you would like to thank Councillor Beradinetti for bringing forth her Motion to Toronto Council, please email her here. (councillor_berardinetti@toronto.ca)

Time to stop the madness NOW!

With Oklahoma and New Mexico heading towards bringing horse slaughter for fun and profit back to the US, the European hidden horse meat insanity and some of my fellow Pagans apparently joining the call to bring killing horses back, it's long past time we get this stopped once and for all.

I was almost someone's dinner!

There are steps being taken. Recently Congressman Jim Moran (D-VA) has noted the need to get the USDA inspection ban back.  Today,Senators Mary Landrieu (D-LA) and Lindsey Graham (R-SC); Representatives Patrick Meehan (R-PA) and Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) have issued the new S. 541/H.R. 1094—The Safeguard American Food Exports (SAFE) Act.  Like the expired American Horse Slaughter Prevention Acts, this will ban the slaughter of horses for food in this country and their export to other countries for slaughter.

There are already two options to easily let your Senators and Representatives know you want them to cosponsor this bill, the ASPCA page and the HSUS page. Please use these today to let them know you want this! We need to keep pushing, no more bill dying in committee so that more horses die too!

ETA: I just got this link. It is for the Appropriations Committee, you can fax each member to let them know you want the defunding of horse slaughter inspection restored to the Agricultural Appropriations Bill. While we need a full ban that includes export, this will at least stop slaughter plants from starting in the US in the mean time. Faxing is free and online, no need for a fax machine. You can send five day, so it's three days to get through them all. But if you can do it, you can do all you want for $1.99 each. Or, of course, if you have a machine, you can use these numbers to do it the old fashion way.

That Pagans Ate Horses Thing... Again!

In midst of the on going battle, the publicity of the European horse meat findings and the Oklahoma horse slaughter laws and following year which saw a new rise in US horses being slaughtered. Medievalist.net published a post about how Christians reviled horse meat as "pagan food."   This link has been going around the Pagan and Heathen social networks, often without real commentary from those posting it.

Fortunately, many comments I've seen (but it might have to do with the sort of people I choose to associate with and actually pay attention to) have been "well, yeah, whatever, I have plenty of reason to not eat horse meat all the same, thank you." (okay, not all are so politely put)  However, the people Lysippe has posted about before, well, eat this sort of thing up and are promoting this post as an excuse to start bringing up eating horse meat as a ancient Heathen practice and promote horse slaughter.Some others fall in between, mostly I think because for growing number of people horses are ideas, not animals. Maybe they even saw one once, but the fact that these are living beings who humans have had an interrelationships with for tens of thousands of years is just not real to them.

The Medieval.net post is, of course, specific to Anglo-Saxon England, of course. While I have some knowledge of Norse and Germanic practices, and there does seem to have been a good deal of horse eating there, I have a stronger background in the Celtic cultures. There is evidence of horse eating among the Pre-Christian Celts as well, although it is sparse and seems to have only been during specific rituals, not as part of the regular diet. It also is often in conjunction with ritual dog eating. (see for example, Miranda Green, Celtic Myths, University of Texas Press, 1993, pg. 61) I don't see a lot of people calling for the return of eating dogs to prove how Pagan they are.  Of course, our Pagan ancestors also did human sacrifice and took heads. There are just simply things we don't need to bring back.

There's a serious disconnect with the concept of eating horse meat as a sacred act and horse slaughter that those who are all happy about horse killing are not getting. Namely the sacred part. Our relationship with the horse has changed, we no longer depend on them, the way these people are thinking of killing them is far closer to Slaughterhouse Sue than the ancients would have. To kill a horse during the Iron Age would have meant killing a lifeline. It would not  have been taken lightly.

Even when these would be horse "sacrificers" talk about doing it themselves (because they don't understand the laws being discussed, to begin with) they show this great disconnect. In a friend's FB post awhile back one such person was going on about how "as soon as it was legal" he was going to buy a horse and kill "it." He actually made it quite clear, he wasn't going to have anything else to do with the horse. He'd just buy "it" and kill "it." Disassociated and cowardly.  But then others who know that the law is about slaughterhouses, about strangers running horses through chutes, cutting them up while they're still alive and awake, where they don't have too actually see it done, feel that that's just dandy way to get their "sacred meat." 

If you really want to honor the our ancestors' relationship with horses, you need to start with the actual relationship.  You need to start with caring for the animal, communicating with him or her. We need to start by creating the sacred relationship.Honor the Horse Goddesses by taking care of the horses. And there is no reason to move towards killing the animal to prove anything. But until an actual sacred bond is made, if you want to make an excuse to joyfully kill someone's pet that you bought with a lie, the remember that deep down some of us really want to bring back headhunting.


If eating someone's pet doesn't trigger any ethical response in you, do consider that you'll be eating a poisoned pet. We all routinely give medications which permanently make our horses unsafe for human consumption. Some of us who prefer to use more natural methods will at least sometimes opt for those poisons just for this reason. But most horse owners do not look for alternatives, anyway, the odds are high. You're looking at huge increase in cancer risk as well as an incurable blood disease. All so you can feel speshul.

Honestly, I wish I could be more eloquent on this, more persuasive, but the fact that there are people having a fucking happy dance over the idea of killing horses as some sort of proof of their Pagan status make me sick and furious beyond words. Literally beyond words. I'm not any happier seeing Christians use this ancient history to further revile us...and the two together are some sort of sick joke. So any Pagan posting on this and not taking a strong stand that we do not want to bring horse eating back is beneath contempt to me as well. Our horses are being tortured, if you don't stand against it, you're a part of their suffering.

Oklahoma slaughter bills and British Lasagna

I've been bad about maintaining this, so I assume that most of you have other, better sources, and know about the uproar in Britain and Ireland and then several other European countries with horse meat found in various "beef" products, including in fancy steakhouses, fast food restaurants, packaged products and more packaged products and schools. 'Bute tainted meat at that (face it, you eat horse meat you ARE eating the extremely dangerous drug).

Meanwhile, Oklahoma is well on it's way to bringing horse slaughter back to the US. To bring not only torture and hell for horses, not only 'bute tainted food to those who either deserve it or are unwittingly eating what they think is beef, but also crime, poverty and pollution to their neighborhoods.

I have been signing petitions, written letters and called the OK Gov's office.   I hope you are too.  You can find out more at Shut down Oklahoma Horse Slaughter Bills SB375 & HB1999.

Of course, we desperately need to get the American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act going. But first, it appears, we need to get a new bill STARTED. Since the 2011 bill died this January, I have been unable to find anything about it. Write your Reps., tell them we want it and we want it DONE this time!  We can't keep fighting this a state at a time, we need to get this finished once and for all on the national level. Then there is no recourse, no way these money grubbing scumbags can push through.  And, yeah, if they do go ahead in OK, then I'll  rejoice at the financial disaster it will be for them because of their cruel shortsightedness.