Child sacrifice

The term "sacrifice" derives from the Latin "sacrificium," meaning "to make sacred" or "to offer." "Child" refers to a young human. While not a specific word with a single linguistic origin in the Hermetic tradition, the concept is embedded in ancient Near Eastern and Mediterranean cultures from which Hermeticism drew.

Child sacrifice is the ritualistic killing of children in order to please or appease a deity, supernatural beings, or sacred social order, tribal, group or national loyalties in order to achieve a desired result. As such, it is a form of human sacrifice. Child sacrifice is thought to be an extreme extension of the idea that the more important the object of sacrifice, the more devout the person rendering it. The practice of child sacrifice in Europe and the Near East appears to have ended as a part...

The notion of child sacrifice, as presented by Blavatsky, forces a confrontation with the darker currents of human religious impulse. While the historical practice is undeniably grim, its presence in esoteric discourse, particularly within traditions like Hermeticism, invites a symbolic interpretation. Mircea Eliade, in his studies of comparative religion, often explored the transformative power of sacrifice, suggesting that it served to renew the cosmos and reintegrate humanity with the divine. In the Hermetic context, the "child" can be seen as the nascent, unmanifested spiritual potential within the individual, or the pure, unadulterated consciousness before it is sullied by worldly experience. To "sacrifice" this child is to offer it to the grosser, material aspects of existence, to the desires and illusions of the ego. Conversely, the path of spiritual development often involves a symbolic sacrifice, a relinquishing of the ego's attachments and limitations, a conscious offering of the "lower self" to the illumination of the higher. This is not an act of destruction but of purification, akin to the alchemical process of separating the pure from the impure. The terror of the literal act, however, serves as a stark reminder of the potential for perversion within religious fervor, a cautionary tale about the desperate measures to which humanity might resort when seeking to appease perceived cosmic powers or when facing existential dread. It highlights the fine line between devotion and delusion, between the sacred offering and the profane act. The concept compels us to examine what we deem most precious and what we are willing to "sacrifice" for our beliefs, whether literal or metaphorical. What are we truly offering up when we seek to align ourselves with the divine?

RELATED_TERMS: Human sacrifice, scapegoating, immolation, expiation, ritual, ego death, spiritual purification, Gnosis