Blood Rituals

[Leon]

Native Americans like many cultures have for millennia done blood letting rituals, they come in many forms, from the forming of friendship, to the letting of contaminated blood from the body.

A blood ritual is a ritual which involves the intentional release of blood. A frequent blood ritual is the blood brother ritual, which was started in the ancient period or historical in Asia and Europe. There are more than the two or more people mainly male, which are used to amalgamate their blood in any condition. This basically symbolic and brings the participants together into one family and it can be an unsafe practice where blood-borne pathogens are concerned; the use of safe, sterilized equipment such as a lancet can diminish this problem.

Now a day, people are piercing their body which also comes under in the blood ritual, though body piercing may not cause bleeding, the piercing has been exercised in a number of original cultures throughout the world which is usually as a symbolic ritual of passage, or a symbolic rebirth and death which is an beginning or for the reason of protection.

A Blood ritual usually involves 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 of prayer, ritual magic, and spell which is casting to build up the power of such kind these activities.


The Native American sun dance is mainly and mostly accompanied by blood sacrifice. Some blood rituals involve two or more parties hurting themselves or each other followed by consumption of blood. The participants may regard the release or consumption of blood as producing the level of energy, useful as a healing, sexual, or mental stimulus. In many cases, blood is a primary component as the sacrifice, or material component for a spell.

[Ishtahota]

I have thought hard about what I have read in this thread. Sun dance is not a spectator thing. There are no tickets tat can be bought to gain entry. I have taken part in the Sundance many times and I can tell you that it is not about the blood. It is the giving of flesh. Supporters and dancers alike can all give flesh at a dance. The dancers themselves making the larger donations. Sundance roughly translates as suffering for the people. Any body who has taken part in any of these sacred ceremonies find it really hard to talk about them. All that you have put up in this thread has come from the point of view of an outside observer. Participants rarely talk about these things and the outside observers always get what they see wrong.

[holistichealer]

I have also been to Sun Dance. Only once, as a supporter, at Pine Ridge, South Dakota. But I wound up piercing as well while there. My pierce and dance was unplanned. I unknowingly violated a rule when the tree was being cut. And their tradition calls for someone who does so, to pierce, which I did.

Maybe there is something about my "distance" from the events that gives me a bit of, for lack of a better way to say it, "clarity" to put it into words. But what I can say is that it was one of the most powerful, spiritual, cleansing experiences of my life. And I don't regret anything about the journey.

When the intercessor ("Sun Dance Chief") said that I would have to pierce, I felt, not shame, but a sense of destiny. And 3 of the participants there stepped forward to help me prepare, one lending me his skirt, one his pegs and the other his support, counsel and advice. All became "brothers" in that process.

One of the most humbling, awesome parts of it, for me, was the "dust- off", or quick sweat that is typically done right before the day begins. It was awesome for me, because, since I wasn't part of the "official" (committed dancers) group, I did the sweat by myself. And to do a sweat on Sun Dance grounds on a Lakota reservation, by yourself, pouring your own water and saying your own prayers- it's truly humbling.

I was the first to pierce. So I had no idea of what was coming, except for descriptions by my Native Elder friend back home and from the lady we were there to support. (I mention here that I do have Native blood myself. My grandmother was Muskogee Creek. I never mentioned that while at Pine Ridge, though.)

The main thing is to focus on your prayers. Actually, that's the only thing. And you pray as you're dancing there in the arbor during the round you're pierced. There's something beyond amazing as you're out there and the drums are pounding and songs are being sung, and you're praying in gratitude and in request, that's truly humbling. It can't really be put into words. And I think that that's part of the process.

If you can put it into words, then, you weren't fully "there", I guess.

Anyway, I felt cleansed and fundamentally changed / awoken by the process.

[Ishtahota]

So you stepped over the tree?

[holistichealer]

Yes.

I was on one side of it and went to the other to help lift it. There weren't enough people on the other side. I had no idea that going over the tree was something that wasn't okay.

The intercessor picked his shirt off of his chest by pinching the fabric and pulling it up slightly with both sets of fingers. And one of the guys said, "You stepped over the tree. You gotta pierce." He wasn't critical or judgmental. It was more of a matter- of- fact, yet apologetic kind of thing. He explained that in their way, stepping over the tree (and I guess, other things) would cause people to get injured. And as we were leaving with the tree, someone got tangled up in the barbed- wire fence that had been pushed down so we could cross it. And he said, "See?".

I was there to honor their tradition. Even if that meant piercing. So I did.

[Ishtahota]

Thank you brother.

[holistichealer]

Glad to help.