Our Base Nature is as Werewolves

 

The legend of werewolves exists similarly in many different cultures around the world. Yet, perhaps the oldest account originated in ancient Greek mythology with Lycaon, the son of Pelasgus, who angered Zeus during the sacrifice of a child or infant and was cursed to remain a wolf the remainder of his days.

In the ancient world, sacrificing to or worshiping a deity meant having a meal with one's god(s) or goddess(s). It was a matter of hospitality and communion (common union). As I write this, we just finished Halloween. This was a part of the ancient Celtic tradition. Trick or treating evolved in Celtic Ireland from gathering food stuffs from one's neighbors for the village Samhain or harvest festival dinner. Point of note to all the churches out there who hold a harvest festival instead of Halloween celebration, you actually got it backwards. Halloween is the Christianized form of the pagan harvest festival. But that's another blog post. Sorry.

Anyway, at this harvest festival, dead relatives and deities dined with the villagers during the softening between worlds -- the afterlife and this life. Sacrificing or the offering food to one's deities was worship. Even in Christian heritage, the gifts of bread and wine are offered to God in thanksgiving (because he first offered them to us in the person of Jesus Christ). The Eucharist or communion is the chief form of worship in Christianity. Worship was and ought to be first a food offering... Something tangible and shareable with God. In John 6:53-54 and with early Church fathers alike suggest that the Eucharist was food for eternal life. The purpose of sharing this meal with God was to not only to honor and thank him, but to repent and receive a "common union" with him -- Jesus -- who is eternal. The shared meal suggests that through it, people partake in the divine nature of God. It was the same in paganism. A sacrifice to Zeus meant taking on Zeus's power and persona, applied to the worshiper through ritualized relationship. Another example is a sacrifice to the Anglo/Germanic goddess Eostre (the springtime goddess), which meant taking on fertility.    

When Lycaon sacrificed an infant to Zeus, he was taking the ultimate leap of communion. A human life assuredly meant a fullness of unity with Zeus. His punishment of becoming a wolf or like a wolf was a reflection of his failure to rise above his base nature, which sought extreme power. His malice was animalistic and violent. His curse was a divorce from his humanity for his grave sin. Being human, even in many pagan circles, meant rising above the base animal nature. Yet, I believe demonic agents capitalized on baseness, translating it as transcendence. 

What we need to keep in mind is that humans and human children were often consumed/eaten when sacrificed, since the practice was having a meal with the gods. This consuming involved either a human body being completely burned in a BBQ fire to serve the deity (his share) or part was also eaten by the worshiper. Yup! Human sacrifice often meant cannibalism. And this sacrifice was to gain greater union and empowerment from the divine. And you know what? We haven't changed.

To the glutton, he consumes inordinate amounts of food to satiate his appetite. His meal is an offering for psycho-physical gratification. He's inadvertently offering to the god of food and wholly for what benefits him. What of sexual immorality or sex for singular gratification? Is this a sacrifice to Aphrodite? Most of the deities in the ancient world offered a trait or experience endemic to human gratification. All sacrifices to pagan deities meant communion with them to obtain their traits and blessings. It was largely self-centered and aggrandizing, whereas Christ laid down his life for others so we then do the same... An outward and gracious offering. 

Pagan sacrifices appease human base nature. Cannibalism can be seen then as the highest form of self-centeredness, because it literally devalues other human life for the sake of one's self-interest. Today, I think of abortion along the same lines. And I don't mean medically necessary abortion that unfortunately has to weigh the viability of a mother who can reproduce again v. a child that might not make it. I mean the use of abortion as birth control, to accommodate a person's fears and comfort. Is this not an offering over to something unknown for the sake of self-interest? Is this not of the same spirit as cannibalism? 

Granted abortion is not cannibalism in the sense of a person devouring flesh, but it disregards human bodies and lives in such a way that consumption is gained in another manner. A person who uses abortion as a remedy for a mistake receives a reprieve from responsibility for another life and entirely for self-interest. Arguments can be made that some people are not emotionally, psychologically, or fiscally ready for parenthood, so abortion saves people from becoming terrible parents. Yet, there are many people and families ready to adopt these children. 

We can rationalize the variables till the cows come home. Outside of medical necessity, by some estimates, only 3.5% of abortions are for the "hard cases" like medical viability, rape, incest, etc. That means that 96.5% of cases are purely socio-economic. In other words, people are using abortion as a way out. They're sacrificing new life for the sake of theirs. This empowers their self-interests as overarching. The rationale isn't that far off from the self-seeking in pagan sacrifice.

We sacrifice in many ways to attain self-indulging or nearsighted things. We snap at our kids in angry violent ways, sacrificing children's inquisitiveness and play because we get annoyed. The focus is narcissistic. We are willing to give up a little of our hard gained income to adorn our cars, houses, and persons with fashion and trends, whilst our neighbor freezes without the funds to fix their furnace. We live in a commercially rich and tempting society. We do so much for ourselves and still disregard the lives around us. Is that not sacrificing other people's humanity for our own gratification? 

I am not innocent here. I just spent $80 on a photo with my wife, foster-daughter, and me with Billie Piper from the TV show Dr. Who while at ComicCon. It's not that I am prohibited from enjoying this pleasure, but I must remember that if I can spend such resources on me, I cannot forget the needs around me, or else I have an imbalance and I am -- to put it bluntly -- communing with demons. I am a wolf. We are werewolves by nature.