Something that came to mind for me today was the idea of sacrifice and how for some, it seems, it has to be a grandiose gesture or act that you perform in devotion to the spirits you worship. Offerings can take many forms, and can be many, many things.
Sacrifice is about making an object or an act sacred, in some way. It comes from Latin ‘sacrificium’, literally meaning ‘to make holy’, so it’s worth keeping that in mind when you are looking into making sacrifices. The idea that I had in regards to sacrifice involved the idea of blood sacrifice and the forms that could take. (I’m sure most folks, when I say blood sacrifice, think of the slicing your palm open and bleeding all over the place. Please don’t do that, it will hurt unnecessarily and you will get an infection.) My particular thought involved someone who regularly needs to check their blood sugar offering that blood as a sacrifice to their spirits. This then lead down a hole to thoughts of various self care acts as devotional, sacred acts we can do for our spirits.
Something as simple as drinking water, taking medicine, writing in a journal – those all could be used as devotional, sacrificial acts. Taking care of yourself in honor of your spirits and yourself is a powerful act. You are showing that you are taking your Work seriously, that you want to be the best you can be so you can be your best for Them.
I’d like you to take a few moments to think about self-care acts your can dedicate as a sacrifice. Things you can do to better yourself, strengthen yourself, give yourself strong foundations, and think about how that can be a devotional act. Maybe even something as simple as reading a blog post like this could be a sacrificial act – I personally think any god of knowledge or writing could agree to that.
This all being said, make sure you confer -with- your spirits and find out if its agreeable to Them, too. Sacrifice doesn’t need to involve pain, death, or suffering on anyone’s part. Sometimes a sacrifice is doing something to make you, yourself, that little bit more sacred.