Blood Sacrifice

 Crucifixion as a Sacred Blood Offering

I’ve had two vivid spiritual experiences in my life. One was in Jamaica when an entity tried to smother me in a bed in my brother’s home. The same thing happened earlier in that guest room to his visiting sister-in-law. But, this is not that story.

Above: “Honoring Rasa Tafari”, a welded bicycle steel, etched and colored Plexiglass inlay sculpture, honoring Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia. The images are of the Ethiopian Coptic cross and an likeness of the Emperor on a pedestal with the Ethiopian and Rastafarian colors.

My artworks can take various forms as in the above “Honoring Ras Tafari” a welded steel bicycle and etched Plexiglass work on Jamaica’s religious movement which was part of Bob Marley’s belief, while the piece below honors the Caribbean’s goddess, Itiba Cahubaba as the Fifth Earth Mother giving “Birth to the Four-Fathers of Humankind“

Above: Itiba Cahubaba the 5th Earth Mother birthing Deminan (father of the Taino) and his three brothers, as the “4-Fathers of Humankind”, made from laminated and carved wood, shells and wisteria vines.

However, my next art piece is in a category by itself.

 

A Washington, DC Visit by an Akan Deity

My artworks are mostly based on research, then execution. However, there is one piece that was based on a sacrifice which I experienced in my side yard in Washington, DC. The work does not seem to be finished, since it continues to paint itself blue. I did not use that color. I had painted the Ethiopian cross in silver. However, I have come to realize that my interpretation of a goat sacrifice to an Akan god, created a spiritual experience. Here is the stretched skin of the sacrificial goat I named "Sacrifice". 

 

All I wanted was a curried goat for my birthday. But DC did not sell mutton in the supermarkets. My wife’s uncle had a source. I knew that he was an apprentice to a medicine man in Ghana where he also had a second home. He did sacrifices and libations for both Africans and other clients in the city. Depending on the requirements of the ceremony the deity may require gin or palm wine libations, at other times a deity required the blood of a living chicken or larger animal which he got from Amish farmers in Southern Maryland. So, he got me a live goat.

A large goat was brought to my DC side yard and tied to a large black walnut tree.

“Since we have the goat, let’s do a little thing with it, “ he offered.

“A little thing?” I asked not knowing what he had meant.

He took out a carved icon and placed it against the root of the large black walnut tree, cut the goat’s throat, and spewed blood on the icon. Suddenly a calm spread over the entire scene. 

I was ten yards away from the sacrifice. Behind me on my left was my parked 1965 Ford Mustang. A sparkling firefly-like cloud caught the corner of my eye. I turned to see an expanding sparkling cloud rising over the Mustang up into the leaves of the huge sacred Catawba tree next to my back fence. A presence appeared and emanated an unexpected feeling of calm spread over the scene. The Trinidadian neighbor across the street, selling ganja out of his front window, exclaimed,

"Oh, my god!" But, I never asked him what he saw from over 200 feet away.

“What the heck is that!” I said in shock to the "butcher".

“It’s the deity coming for the blood,” he casually replied.

I stretched the skin and dried it on my roof. When sun-dried, I painted and drew with ink and acrylic, a modern image of a crucified brown man on a silver Ethiopian cross. I made the cross Ethiopian since my student/friend from that Coptic culture, made ink drawings on dried goatskins, just like the bibles from his homeland.

The Painting

The goatskin continues to turn blue where I had used silver sprayed acrylic through as cut mask of the cross, then sealed it with a clear lacquer finish.

Traditional Blood Sacrifices

The use of blood for religious purposes is ancient, and widespread. Christians, such as me, observe the most sacred event in Christianity, the ritual drinking of the Blood of Christ, in the form of wine or the blood of the grape's juice. "Christ shed his blood for us," the religious leader chants, a reference to the Crucifixion. This is what I recognized during the goat sacrifice, and I assume that when Jesus the Christ was beating the money-changers in the Jewish temple, doves were then used for a blood ritual. In the Old Testament, Isaac was about to sacrifice his brother, when an angel showed him a ram caught in the bushes by its horns. Christianity is well versed in sacrifice. Yet, when others do the same thing, it is chastised as "heathen".

Bloodletting

When the Spanish Cristianos arrived in Mexico, they denounced Aztec and Maya blood sacrifices. Bloodletting was performed by piercing a soft body part, generally the tongue, and scattering the blood or collecting it on amate, which was subsequently burned. The act of burning the sacrificed blood symbolized the transferral of the offering to the gods via its transformation into the rising smoke. However, both animals an humans were also sacrificed.

However, the crucifixion and the Blood of Christ is the most sacred icon for Christians. And I have taken part in the ritual drinking of his blood in the form of the "blood of the grape", both alcoholic and non-alcoholic.

Above: A commercial Christian icon of the Crucifixion and the Blood of Christ.