Blood, Religious Significance of
BLOOD, RELIGIOUS SIGNIFICANCE OF
"Blood" is from a Germanic root with the basic meaning of "bloom." The Greek term α[symbol omitted]μα, in the sense
Blood, Religious Significance of
BLOOD, RELIGIOUS SIGNIFICANCE OF
"Blood" is from a Germanic root with the basic meaning of "bloom." The Greek term α[symbol omitted]μα, in the sense of something which "arouses awe or reverence," belongs much more closely to the vocabulary of religion (see "Blut," Reallexikon für Antike und Christentum, ed.T. Klauser, 2:459).
In Mythology. In Norse myths, the skalds characterize blood as an intoxicant on the basis of the myth of Odin's drink of the poets (Edda, Skáldskaparmál 27). Blood itself is not personified, probably because, unlike water, it did not appear prominently as a great natural force or power. However, it was brought into numerous mythical relations with other things, and especially with the sun. In Egypt Ra (the Sun) was said to have originated from drops of blood. The association, blood and fire, is self-evident, but in Mexico it plays an especially significant role in Aztec religion. On the other hand, the blood of menstruation turned the imagination to the moon. The Bambuti, for example, call menstrual blood "moon-blood" [P. Schebesta, Die Bambuti. Pygmäen (4 v., Brussels, 1938–50) 3:190]. Practically the same idea is present in the Egyptian hieroglyph signifying the blood of Isis. Since this blood was shed to restore the dead Osiris to life, there is a clear association here of blood and life. The ideas of the connection between blood, fertility, and earth are firmly anchored in ancestor-worship. A Papuan group has a myth in which this combination is associated with that of blood and fire. Belief in the vampire is not found in this complex. It has perhaps a special origin, being found to some extent perhaps in animism. E. Rohde made animism the basis for his detailed exposition of the relations between blood and the soul in Greek religion (see E. Rohde, Psyche, English tr., H. B. Hillis, London 1925). In totemism, the blood of circumcision is regarded as a totem, at least in isolated instances [see Zeitschrift für Ethnologie 76 (1951) 63].
Sociological, Cultic, and Magical Aspects. Incest is generally forbidden even in preethnic groups, the prohibition being based on a feeling of fear or dread. At the same time, in all such groups the duty of blood revenge is already in evidence. It originated out of the barbarous experiences of wanton bloodshed in the kinship group. An extension of the kinship group by the mingling of the blood of men of different family origins—a procedure that may be described as a kind of primitive peace ritual (see König, Rel Hdbch, "Friedensritualien," 263)—is realized through the blood brotherhood.
The blood dance of the Bushmen has less of the religious in itself than the practice of sprinkling themselves with their own blood found among the Pygmies and the Pomo, for this procedure approaches the central concept of sacrifice. But in such practices, even if animals are killed to secure blood, as among the Yukaghirs, there is not yet question of a cultic act. It is only when such killing is thought of as an essential part of worship that blood sacrifice, including human sacrifice, especially to the sun, enters upon its development. Blood magic likewise enters only at this stage. It serves especially to give greater strength or power to implements, vessels, actions, or persons, playing a special role in bier ordeals.
In the Bible. The Biblical significance of blood is summed up in Leviticus 17.11: "The life of a living body is in its blood." This basic principle governs the Biblical theology of blood. Life belongs to God, and so blood belongs to Him. This explains both th