The prevalence of of the seemingly inseparable relationship of sacrifice and communion is a tremendous mystery. Ritual sacrifice was a unanimously practiced activity that reverberates through religious doctrine and mythological documentation to this day. The connection, coincidental or directed, between death and the experience of altered states of consciousness has suggested a supernal or otherwise otherworldly influence to man from time immemorial. A universal preoccupation with death coordinating some opening or transference between dimensions is evidenced through a perusal of any paradigm, modern or ancient, of all races or creeds, and contemplated at some level by all but the most staunchly dogmatic atheists. Is there more to the historical and mythological connection between sacrifice and sacrament than on one side an actual supernal influence, and on the other an abstract and metaphorical concept? Could it be that the connection between sacrifice and communion was an externally assisted experiential one facilitated by eucharist, that man had apparent direct communion with spirits, ancestors or gods through the actual ingestion of psychoactive substances procured from the dying or dead bodies of sacrifice victims, refined physically through biological processes and assisted through suggestion by the accompanied subjection to associated mythological and magico-religious contexts and concepts?
In the Siberian shamanic complex the Amanita Muscaria is one utilized psychoactive sacrament, it is known that the urine of an individual, or interestingly a reindeer, who has consumed this mushroom will retain the psychoactive component of the mushroom itself. In fact it has been shown that the digestive activity of the body will remove or detoxify much of the more toxic element, Ibotenic acid, leaving a more desirable proportion of Muscarine, the “vision producing” component, this biological refinement has been noted by Shamans for centuries, cases of intoxicated reindeer urine ingestion and even omophagia(the slaughter and immediate ingestion of raw flesh) have also been documented.
The ancient Egyptians sacrificed and mummified countless millions of sacred animals in caches frequently discovered at ancient ritual sanctuaries. These animals, at different localities ibis, cat, and crocodile to name a few, where considered “The living image” of the particular god being worshipped, and it was understood that through the act of each sacrifice a communion with the particular deity was enacted. In its most ancient form is it not plausible to suggest that this ritual practice could have involved a eucharistic consumption of a ritually prepared portion of the victims flesh or bodily fluid. Perhaps through the intoxication of the victim by envenomation or other terminal poison subjection, and the resulting natural immunological and/or digestive response of the victims body causing a natural refinement or alteration of the chemical, facilitating in turn a less toxic and more psychoactively viable consistency of the proposed poison?
The Kanaima complex in South America practices a form of predatory shamanism. They hunt and subject a victim to a gruesome and terminal ritual beating and intoxication, for the sole purpose of ultimately procuring their sacrament, the sacred "Maba" from the extracted anal tract of the dead victim 3 days post mortem. After subduing and restraining the victim they puncture the lips with a certain venomous snake's bite or alternately a poisonous thorn causing an oral inflammation that alots for complete continence of the mouth. The anal passage is then destroyed through the action of an iguanas, or alternately armadillos tail, causing in effect a complete incontinence of the anus, a certain mixture of the plants considered sacred, or magic, by these shamans is then inserted into the anal cavity of the victim assisted by a strategically placed stick that holds the anus open. The victim will slowly dehydrate and die within a few days, the shamans will then hunt down the grave, and often against the best efforts of the victims family to hide and protect the corpse, they will insert a long reed into the ground known as the Ye stick and use it to sample the concoction and gauge its completion, if it is ready they will dig up the entire corpse and remove the anal tract, the resulting powerful psychoactive substance is said to give these men the power of flight, foresight, the ability to hunt and smell out the victims corpse, lycanthropy(namely transformation into the jaguar). The “sacred heat” supplied by this necrotic flesh is the core of the Kanaima shamanic complex.
Ancient terminological and symbolic or iconic parallels to the above currently practiced Kanaima ritual abound in the epistemology of ancient ritual and religion. It is Prometheus who stole “fire” from the gods in a reed, who also invented sacrifice itself and definitely sequestered the delectable “Splancha" ( the first eaten organs of ancient sacrifice, heart, liver, spleen, bowels etc.) to the portion stacked up and granted to Man. In the Bacchae Maenads pierce the ground with their reeds to the spurting of milk and honey, they also participate notably in omophagia even on humans. The “sacred heat” of the Soma also shares many other elements with Maba production, as it is “cooked” in the belly of the sacrifice. The feared goddess Hecate is known for the cryptic activity of “closing what is open and opening what is closed”. Geographically closer to the current Kanaima phenomenon we find ancient Mayan vases depicting a supposed “enema ritual” wherein the patient is suspiciously tied.
Much more to come with Pictures and Citations......