1
Martha Blake ‘The Psychology of Sacrifice’
In the spring of 2001, I began sorting through information I had been collecting on the practice of
sacrifice in the early hunting and agrarian religions. I had read there was a difference in their
practices and I wanted to describe the dichotomy. My interest was academic and intellectual. Then
the events of September 11, 2001 graphically brought the word "sacrifice" to our ears each day as
newscasters described the various ways people from all over the world had given their lives in the
drama of the World Trade Center. In October, I had an archetypal sacrifice dream harkening back
to the Bronze Age. My curiosity was now grounded in profound emotional experience and had
shifted to the much larger topic of the nature of human sacrifice in general. I longed to know why
individuals and cultures engage in sacrifice, why there are so many forms of sacrifice, and where in
the human psyche the desire to sacrifice originates. This paper documents an exploration into
theories of the origins -- what might be called the phylogeny of sacrifice, explores the additions to
consciousness of several religions and cultures-what might be called the ontogeny of sacrifice, and
proposes the psychic processes that may be at work as humans sacrifice.
THEORIES OF SACRIFICE
According to E.O. James, the history of ritual is the history of religion, and the importance of
sacrifice to the human psyche is evidenced by its ability to survive even when it is reinterpreted
into metaphysical and ethical concepts. [i] James held that in order to understand a practice as
fundamental as sacrifice, one had to approach it anthropologically, historically and psychologically.
He believed, as many others do, that in the broadest sense, mankind performed sacrifice as a
purifying and life-giving process to remove the taint of evil and assure a desired outcome. Ancient
practitioners ritually removed or wiped away pollution contracted involuntarily and unwittingly. [ii]
To the primitive mind, good and evil, life and death are in the nature of materialistic qualities
capable of transference or expulsion by quasi-mechanical operations. Misfortune and disaster
demand concrete atonement in order to remove evil and restore right order between man and the
natural order. Failure of crops, calamities, plagues and diseases are attributed to ritual defilement
that is removable by life-giving substances such as blood and water. Sacrifice then is the normal
means of transferring life and power to mortal deities to keep them vigorous and beneficent. [iii]
The word “sacrifice” and the word “sacred” both derive from the Latin, “sacrificium” meaning “to
set apart from the profane, to make sacred” although in colloquial usage, it has come to have
many different connotations. Sacrificial acts are highly differentiated-- there are many
motivations for and forms of sacrifice, although it always entails offering life in one form or
another. [iv] Most theories of sacrifice focus on a conscious action behind an original rite, a kind of
“if-then” causal thinking. If the community sacrifices, so the thinking goes, then the gods will
respond. Here is how some anthropologists have described approaching the numinosum via sacrifice.
(Emphasis mine.)
o
o
o
o
o
o
Tylor: Sacrifice is a gift to the soul of a person, object, or personified cause.
Robertson-Smith: Sacrifices is a communion that establishes or re-establishes kinship
between the worshiper and his god.
Frazer: Sacrifice is a form of imitative magic.
Westermarck: Sacrifice is a substitution of the victim for the worshiper who has incurred the
wrath of the gods.
Hubert and Mauss: Sacrifice offers an intermediary between the worshiper and the
dangerous forces of the supernatural world.
Loisy: Sacrifice is a combination of the ritual gift and the magical and symbolic rite of
destruction to acquire or eliminate something.[v]
2
FORMS OF SACRIFICE
A survey of the literature reveals that sacrifice takes on many forms depending on the cultural
application and that the process varies as well. What follows is a summary of the forms of sacrifice:
Robertson Smith hypothesized that sacrifice functions to commune between members of a group
and between the group and their god. Two forms of sacrifice have emerged over time:
o
o
Expiatory - piaculum to re-establish a broken covenant
Gift- honorary[vi]
James, however examined the way the word “sacrifice” is used and identified six meanings in
common usage:
Maintain sacred order- gods fulfill beneficent functions on earth.
Gifts as presents or tributes paid by creatures to Creator, an honorarium.
Atone for wrongdoing-piacular offering of life in expiation for sin.
Voluntary self-destruction or surrender-self-sacrifice.
Philanthropic endeavor involving loss.
Disposal of an article at a greatly reduced value.[vii]
The Biblical book of Leviticus reduces all sacrifices to four elemental forms that were interwoven
in practice:
o
o
o
o
o
o
Olah- offerings to the divinity
Hattat-expiation of sins committed in ignorance of the Lordâs commandments
Shelamin-communion, thanksgiving, vows of alliance
Minha- presentation of vegetable matter[viii]
Hubert and Mauss reviewed German culture and identify three overlapping reasons for sacrifice:
o
o
o
o
Expiatory (Schnopfer)
Thanksgiving (Dankopfer)
Requests (Bittopfer)[ix]
Hindu texts differentiate sacrifices by their frequency:
o
o
o
Regular- periodical (nityani), daily, new and full moons, seasonal and pastoral festivals, first
fruits.
o
Occasional- sacramental (samskara), domestic, rites of passage, solemn, anointing a king,
religious and civil events, and votives.
When Hubert and Mauss examined what happened to the substance of the sacrifice, they described
two forms. Sacrifice is reserved for the latter form:
o
A votive, whose nature does not change as it is assigned to the service of the god, e.g. first
fruits left at the temple.
o
A living thing that is destroyed in the offering up process, e.g. a victim that is killed or
grains that are crushed. [x]
Herbert and Mauss describe sacrifices as a request, personal, or objective, -or a combination of
these elements.
o
Personal sacrifices:
o
o
o
Begin and end with the sacrificer-revolve around the sacrificer.
Regenerate the sacrificer-eradicate evil, regain state of grace, transfer divine power, grant
salvation, infuse the god, transform personality, proffer rebirth.
May extend into the future- result in a change of name, transfer the forces of immortality to
the soul.[xi]
3
Objective sacrifices:
o
o
o
Benefit something other than the sacrificer-revolve around another object and only
secondarily affect the sacrificer.
Focus more on the creation of spirit, e.g. guardian spirit.
Modify the sacrifice itself so that the attributes of the sacrifice (such as color) may be
transferred to the object.[xii]
Sacrifices of request:
o
o
o
o
Bring about certain special effects defined by the rite.
May release the promiser.
May bind the god by a contract.
Dictate the importance of the sacrificial victim.[xiii]
Sacrifices may combine elements of all the above in complex rituals. An agrarian sacrifice can
involve confession, purification, death of the victim, communion with the divine, and a
resurrection as it:
o
o
o
o
o
o
Reawakens the life principle in a field dormant after winter.
Fertilizes the field.
Allows the life principle to enter what will be grown there.
Preserves the life force in the field after the harvest.
Desacrilizes the harvest so that it may be eaten.
Redeems those who have worked in the field, their offspring, and those who have made the
sacrifice.[xiv]
Many social customs are linked to sacrifice:
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
Contracts
Redemption
Penalties
Gifts
Abnegation (to deny, renounce oneself)
Immortality
Morality[xv]
Therefore it may be said that the central conception underlying the institution of sacrifice is the
giving of life to promote and conserve life. Offering life to preserve life is the beginning of
substitution and propitiation, which in many of the higher religions has evolved into a lofty ethical
significance. [xvi] A description of one sacrifice parallels the core elements of all sacrifices:
The victim is brought to the place of sacrifice and there are performed in succession the four acts
which compose the sacrificial drama: presentation, consecration, invocation, and immolation. [xvii]
o
o
Originally, men and animals were perceived (archaic consciousness) in kinship with each
other. A totem animal was sacrificed, distributed and eaten. The totem animal’s blood
contained the holy life force shared by man.
When animals were domesticated and the kinship between man and animal was forgotten
(went into the unconscious) a domestic animal became the routine sacrifice. When the
totem or piaculum was sacrificed non-routinely, it was perceived as so sacred that it was
either completely destroyed or only offered to the priests to eat.
4
EVOLUTION OF SACRIFICE
In Totem and Taboo, Freud added to what the anthropologists had learned about the conscious act
of sacrifice. Freud saw in the sacrifice of a totem animal an unconscious repetition of a primeval
crime-a repetition and commemoration, or at least an unconscious desire for parricide that each
individual has inherited. Freud’s work on totems suggests that behind every act of sacrifice are
both conscious and unconscious aspects. In 1956, in a letter to Mrs. Kotschnig, Jung noted that “the
religious spirit of the West is characterized by a change of God’s image in the course of ages.”
[xviii] Jung made another important contribution to understanding the nature of sacrifice when he
noted that the nature of sacrifice may have evolved along with God’s image.
In early hunting societies comprised of small groups of people, the hunted animal was the sacrifice.
Life, death, and blood were consecrated in the act of killing one animal at a time, incrementally.
The next sacrifice was as near as the next hunt. In agricultural societies, members performed
sacrifices to assure the progression of the seasons and the growth of crops. If blood could keep man
and animal alive, then it had life-giving qualities that could be brought to bear on the weather and
the soil. Human blood in particular represented human vitality or life essence. If kings were
perceived as something more than human-either extra-human or divine-then the blood of kings
contained still more life essence. Sacrificing a king at the peak of vitality maximized the lifequality of the blood offering. Later as cultures adopted solar religions, members of the community
were sacrificed instead of the king.[xix] In agrarian societies, a sacrifice covered an entire growing
season or reign and extended to a larger number of settled people. The stakes were higher and the
sacrifice was often dearer-a human life.
Even though pure totemism exists in only a few remaining cultures, Robertson Smith postulated
totemic sacrifice as an evolution of conscious and unconscious elements reaffirming the
relationship between god and man: Robertson Smith claimed that the basic rite in ancient and
primitive religions is the sacrificium.[xx] (My parens.):
Eventually, rare human sacrifice replaced animal sacrifice. Humans became the only way to
exchange common blood between man and god, the piaculum sacrifice. Animals had been
demoted to the level of gift sacrifice from the individual owner to the god. At the end of
the ritual, just as a scapegoat, the sacrificial animal carried away the impurities of its
owner.[xxi]
E.B. Tylor also formulated an origin and progression for all forms of sacrifice. Although his theory
does not address the means of sacrifice, it did focus on the importance of sacrifice to the self.
o
Originally sacrifice was a gift made by the primitive to supernatural beings with whom he
needed to ingratiate himself.
o
Then the gods grew greater and more removed. Sacrificial rites developed to spiritualize
objects that would reach the spiritualized gods.
o
Eventually, the sacrificer expected no return, just paid homage.
o
Later, the sacrificial rite involved abnegation and renunciation-the symbolic sacrifice of
ones self. [xxii]
In the following chart, I have attempted to summarize the contributions to consciousness-the
ontongeny-- that have evolved with the practice of sacrifice by of each religion or culture. I
propose that different levels of consciousness may coexist on the globe at any one period in history,
including our own.
o
5
CULTURE
RELIGION
Babylonians
Assyrians
Egyptians
Crete
Greeks
EXAMPLE FROM RITUAL OR MYTH
USE
Innini, the Great Mother, identified with
Antu the goddess of war. Herdsmen made
offerings to Ninamasazagga, the shepherd
of the sacred goats of Enlil, to preserve
them and their flocks.
Marduk combats Tiamat, Chaos.
Attribute sickness and bad luck to
unwitting commitment of an error.
“I know not the sin which I have
done.”[xxiii]
Legend of Adapa. Ishtar, mother and wife
of Dumuzu pours water from the spring of
life that she has fetched from hell over the
sacrificed corpse of Dumuzu. [xxv]
Osiris-dispersal of corpse and tree
growing from coffin.
Mithras rides on the bull he is going to
sacrifice.
Legend of Charila at Delphi. During
famine, Charila asks the king for food. He
beats her and drives her away. She hangs
herself. [xxvi]
Consecrated sheaf takes the form of an
animal or man: Life of the vine becomes
Dionysus/goat, life of the corn becomes
Demeter/ pig.[xxvii]
Constellation Virgo is Erigone, an
agrarian goddess who hanged herself.
Artemis, Hecate and Helen also
hanged.[xxix]
Iodoma of Iton was the priestess of
Athena Itonia; Aglaurous of Athens was
the priest of Athena.
Ea commands his son Marduk to take the
king a scapegoat to take on his curse.
ADDITION TO COLLECTIVE
CONSCIOUSNESS
Humans can interact with the gods to
mediate circumstances.
Explain creation as death of one
god and survival of another
usually as a rite of spring. [xxiv]
Imitates the rites of agrarian feasts
that use sprinkled water to restore
the life of a field.
The vanquished is as divine as the
conqueror; opponents are of a single
spirit.
Ritual sacrifice related to theme of
death and resurrection of a god.
Sprinkling water related to new life.
Assures flooding of the Nile,
fertility and harvest.
Dualism-opposing forces of good
and evil. Humans can intervene for
good.
God undergoes ongoing periodic
sacrifice.
Sacrifice related to the mutilation,
death, and resurrection of an agrarian
principle; homogeneity of victim and
god.
Grain and wine as soul.
[xxviii]Spirit becomes detached
from what sustained it.
A god already formed both acts
and suffers in the sacrifice.
Explains the treatment of beating,
drying and seeding the corn.
Sacrifice appears to perpetually
repeat and commemorate an
original sacrifice.
Victims exalted, rendering them
directly divine.[xxx]
[xxxiii]
God appears to escape death.
Sacrifice to the god develops parallel
with sacrifice of the god. [xxxi]
Atonement for the king as
representative of the people.
Sacrificed goats when new house erected,
fresh ground broken, trees cut down, well
dug, or first fruit of harvest gathered. Abel
sacrificed a lamb. Later substituted butter
and henna handprints.
Firstborns[xxxiv] Applied in periods of
acute drought when populations stressed.
Protection against jinn, ghuls,
afrits that assumed animal forms.
A symbolic handprint can substitute
for a sacrificial animal.
Evolved from offering first
harvest.
Offered humans to the moon during a
spring festival; Abraham and Issac
(Genesis 22: 1-19.)”Even their sons and
daughters they have burnt in the fire to
their gods.” [xxxv]
Dual conception of getting rid of
evil to secure good, of expelling
death to gain life. Propitiation.
Hebrews: Post
exodus
Lord tells Aaron how to sacrifice a
scapegoat. [xxxviii]
Atonement for the people of
Israel. “Kipper” to cover. (James
198) Day of Atonement;
Passover.
Judiasm after
70 AD
Sacrificing ceased after the destruction of
the Temple.
Greeks
Agrarian sacrifice rituals of grain and
wine probably preceded myths of Demeter
and Dionysis.
References remain in Orthodox
prayer book, although references
eliminated from Reform practices.
Athenian soothsayer Euthyphro
maintained piety required prayer
and sacrifices. Socrates held
sacrifice is giving and prayer is
asking.
Survival may require offering that
which is most dear in order for the
community to survive.
Consecration of the victim or the
offering serves as an intermediary, an
open channel for energies to flow
between the sacrificer and the
divinity.[xxxvii] Substituting a ram
for Isaac reinstituted animal sacrifice
instead of firstborns.
Blood makes atonement for ritual
uncleanliness by reason of “nephesh”
or soul substance it contains. Death
met by a barrier of life at the
doorway. [xxxix]
Prayer takes the place of sacrifice.
Sumerians
Doubles the divine- priest is an
incarnation of god and victim.
“Kippuru” to tun away or remove.
[xxxii]
Early Semites
Ancient
Palestine
[xxxvi]
Sacrifice as a trade -an economic
transaction.[xl]
6
CULTURE
RELIGION
Hindu
Brahmins
Hindu
Brahmins
Indonesia and
Pacific
Nahuas and
Mayans
Aztecs
EXAMPLE FROM RITUAL OR MYTH
USE
King makes offering to fire-god, the
offering is the fire-god, the king becomes
the fire-god. But the general is the firegod, so the king becomes one with the
general, so the general becomes the
kingâs faithful follower.
Brahmins interpolate Soma the god with
soma the plant that is pressed and killed in
spring. [xliii]
Tribes viewed heads as rich in soulsubstance. Headhunting associated with
well being of crops and cattle. Vaporous
soul contains vitalizing principle and acts
like manure when spread over
fields. When grain is eaten, its life-giving
power is passed into the blood, then to
seminal fluid.
Nomadic people who introduced human
sacrifice into Central America after they
adopted a settled life and borrowed
agricultural cults from the Mayans. [xlv]
Fertility depended on extraction of human
hearts to nourish and sustain the sun god
Ipalnemohuani. Victims skins worn by
men personating the god to show that the
earth-god had put on a new cloak.
Prisoner disguised as divinity, hosted for a
year then sacrificed. Successor
immediately invested in office. Women
and girls sacrificed at other months in the
growing season. [xlvi]
“Rita” is universal --cosmic order,
ritual sacrifice and moral law.
Later replaced by Karma, the
doctrine of the deed and Atman, or
world-soul.[xli]
Soma is perceived disguised as
evil which is then killed.
The desire to imbibe the attributes
and qualities of the victim led to
cannibalism and to surrogate
cannibalism-e.g. blood combined
with maize paste.
Transform the Aztec warrior god
Uitzilopochtli into a solar divinity.
Tradition told of four previous
suns that had been destroyed at the
end of previous world-epochs
therefore justified the high cost of
sacrifices in 18 of 20 calendar
periods. Vegetation cults had a
military character reminiscent of
the Great Goddess. Purpose was
promotion of the life-principle of
cereal crops. Victims outside the
group obtained by aggressive
warfare.[xlvii]
When grains removed from maize
cobs, sacrifices made to maize
images where sun descended.
ADDITION TO COLLECTIVE
CONSCIOUSNESS
The god obtained heaven. The
sacrificer is the god. Prajapati at his
own sacrifice.[xlii]
God is released upon the death of the
plant and spread to live throughout
the world
Cannibalism and sacrifice involved
giving and receiving of soulsubstance. [xliv]
Stresses on agricultural food sources
caused by settling of nomads
attributed to gods who required
constant appeasement.
Calendar reflected a ceremonial
cosmic order as a religious system
rather than a dating system.
Sacrifice linked to war.
Incas
Sacrifices offered to maintain the vigor of
the sun-god. [xlviii]
North
American
Indians
Persia:
Zoroastrianism
Iroquois, Pawnee, Natchez, Pueblostraces of sun and war god sacrifices.[l]
Combinations of hunter and
agrarian practices.
Hunter ethic has survived more in the
popular culture.
Zarathustra brings the life of his own
body, choices of good thought, action and
speech unto Mazda. [li]
Sacrifice never reached cult status,
performed mostly by individuals at certain
times of the year.
Yin and yang, positive and negative
principles, responsible for seasons.
First determined effort against the
institution of sacrifice. Reverted
after Zoroasterâs death. [lii]
Atonement by good deeds
counteracts the evil committed by
the individual. [liii]
Worship to secure health and
wealth banish famine and
barrenness.[lv]
Accessible personal deity
permanently united to man. His
personal sacrifice is periodically
reenacted.
Man participates in a bloodless
renewal and communicates with
His transubstantiated form via the
Eucharist .God is transformed.
Plant and animal sacrifice conflicted
with a highly spiritual conception of
God.
Sacrifice (yanna) is an offering of the
self. [liv]
[xlix]
Buddhism
Hinduism:
Confucianism
Christianity
Catholicism
Christ sacrificed his life so that others will
not need to. Christ symbolized by Paschal
Lamb, victim of agrarian or pastoral
sacrifice. [lvii]
Redemptive sacrifice of the god is
perpetuated in the daily Mass.
Moral law of justice and ethical
rightness. [lvi]
One sacrifice 2000 years ago
interpenetrates the Christ-quality in
accepting material souls forever.
[lviii]
God sacrifices Himself- Christ as
sacrificer and sacrificed. Priest
becomes Christ. Man consumes the
God in the form of a sacred meal.
[lix]
Protestantism
St. Paul
“I beseech you·that you present your
bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable
to God.” [lx]
Purely subjective offering of a
pure heart, human vitality, and
vocal thanksgiving connected with
symbols of the death of Christ.
[lxi]
God sacrifices Himself for man who
commemorates the event in
remembrance of Him.
7
CULTURE
RELIGION
Islam
Modern Arab
youth
EXAMPLE FROM RITUAL OR MYTH
USE
Sacrifice has little place.
Sheep offered at end of Haj; served guests
at feast meals.
Suicide bomber ego ideal.
James states that when sacrifice
ceases to operate, the associated
religion tends to disintegrate.
Spilling blood continues the
contact with ancestors who
protect the clan against invisible
forces.
ADDITION TO COLLECTIVE
CONSCIOUSNESS
Lack of emphasis on sacrifice may
explain why older Arab traditions filter
into fundamental Islamic beliefs.
Self sacrifice for community as an act
of war.
THE PSYCHOLOGY OF SACRIFICE
Psychological explanations examine the conscious and unconscious motivations behind the religious
ritual-- a desire to restore and maintain a constructive relationship, a balance of life, leads
mankind to sacrifice. James stated that if a pattern of relationship is broken or at risk of being
broken, something must be done to “atone for or cover or wipe out the offense to re-establish the
vital union upon which the welfare of the individual and the group” depends. [lxii] If the breach in
the relationship was due to the nature of the god, then “suitable offerings had to be made to
secure the continuation of divine benevolence and to set up a barrier against evil.” But if the
breach in the relationship was due to the nature of mankind, then the evil had to be “purged and
removed by mechanical means such as washings, confessions, offerings of propitiatory value, or
transference of the sin to some animal or human victim.” [lxiii]
Every sacrifice involves a consecration-a passing from the common into the religious domain. But
there are different kinds of consecration related to describing for whose sake the sacrifice is
performed-the object of the sacrifice.
• Limited - a specific man or thing-king, house, well.
• Social--passing to others -sacrificed and sacrificer- individual or group-king and subjects, house
and dwellers, well and drinkers. [lxiv] Limited sacrifices accrue psychological benefits to the few.
Social sacrifices accrue benefits to the community or society.
In Ego and Archetype, Edward Edinger proposed four egoic situations depending on who performs
the sacrifice and to whom the benefit accrues:[lxv]
SACRIFICE
God sacrifices man for
God
God sacrifices God for
man
Man sacrifices God for
man
Man sacrifices man for
man and God
MOVEMENT
Divine realm augmented at
expense of human
From divine to human
From divine to human
From transpersonal to conscious
ego
IMPLICATION
Ego too full and transpersonal world too empty.
Emptiness of ego requires sustaining influx from transpersonal,
collective unconscious.
Desacrilization; reluctant relinquishing of old modes of being. A
condition requiring an increase in conscious autonomy.
Hypothetical ideal. Sacrifice of the ego by the ego for egoâs own
development and fulfillment of transpersonal destiny. Motivated by
conscious cooperation with urge to individuation rather than
unconscious archetypal compulsion.[lxvi]
Edinger’s model is consistent with Hubert and Mauss who propose a religious definition with
psychological overtones: “Sacrifice is a religious act which, through the consecration of a victim,
modifies the condition of the moral person who accomplishes it or that of certain objects with
which he is concerned. A personal sacrifice directly affects the personality of the sacrificer. [lxvii]
Jung held that religious rites and symbols have developed everywhere the same way and out of the
same conditions of human nature. In “Transformation Symbolism in the Mass,” Jung wrote, “The
act of making a sacrifice consists in the first place in giving something that belongs to me.” [lxviii]
Mine-ness reflects an unconscious identity of object with my ego. If a sacrifice is a true sacrifice,
8
the object must be given as if it were being destroyed. Any claim of ego to the object in the future
is foregone. The Deity must not be bribed. The sacrificer must be conscious of his identity with the
gift and have some awareness of how much of himself he is giving up as he sacrifices the gift.
With each sacrifice, there are claims attached, “the more so, the less we know of them.”[lxix] If
one gives and expects nothing in return, one experiences a loss. A sacrifice is meant to be like a
loss, the ego relinquishes any claim on the object. Jung held that if you can give yourself, then it is
an indication that you possess yourself. Therefore anyone who can sacrifice himself and forgo his
claim to himself, must be conscious of having a claim -possess considerable self-knowledge. This
means the ego can be subsumed as an object under the supraordinate authority of a personality
that is emerging into consciousness from the unconscious. Jung called this process “individuation.”
According to Jung, the first step in a resolution of the conflict between conscious and unconscious
is to become aware of it. An act of self-consciousness is inherent in each act of self-sacrifice. When
an ego becomes conscious of its claim to itself, the self causes the ego to relinquish the claim. [lxx]
Jung states that renouncing a claim in consideration of a general moral principle is a superego
function. I propose that renouncing a claim in consideration of a powerful individual principle, even
in the face of some resistance, is a function of the ego ideal. Peter Blos, in his book entitled The
Adolescent Passage poses that
The ego ideal spans an orbit that extends from primary narcissism to the Îcategorical imperative,â
from the most primitive form of psychic life to the highest level of manâs achievements. Thus the
fright of the finitude of time, of death itself, is rendered nonexistent, as it once was in the state of
primary narcissism. ·thus propelling man toward incredible feats of creativity, heroism, sacrifice,
and selflessness. One dies for oneâs ego ideal rather than let it die.[lxxi]
As Jung notes, none of this is without considerable suffering. An observing consciousness feels
tortured during any process of transformation, and sacrifice is a process of transformation.
CONCLUSION
For the purpose of this paper, there has been no attempt to distinguish between observing a
sacrifice, offering the sacrifice, and being the object that is sacrificed. Jung stated that every
sacrifice is to a greater or lesser degree a self-sacrifice. To participate in an act of sacrifice at any
level requires relinquishing a claim of ego, and it is the self that effects that relinquishment. The
self is the sacrificer. The ego is the sacrificed gift-the human sacrifice. I propose that on the
collective level it may be the Self that is the sacrificer, and that the egos of all participants are
altered by the sacrificial gift. Jung stated that the divine sacrifice corresponds to the manifestation
of the archetype of the “ root of almost all known conceptions of God. It is always a drama,
whether in heaven, on earth, or in hell.[lxxii]
Human sacrifice, on the collective level, is visible in attitudes toward war whenever a nation or
leaders command allegiance as passionate as any religion. Eric Fromm compared the slaughter of
WWI to child sacrifice. [lxxiii] Nigel Davies saw the Kamikaze pilots arising from the principles of
the Shinto religion. Orthodox Islam pays little attention to the issue of sacrifice, although by
ancient tradition, each pilgrim to Mecca sacrifices a lamb and feast meals include a lamb or
goat.[lxxiv] The youths willing to sacrifice themselves in the name of fundamental Islam are in
actuality responding to ancient Arab myths resonating in their cultural unconscious öthat spilling
blood continues a contact with ancestors who protect the clan from invisible forces.
Hubert and Mauss maintain that for sacrifice to be truly justified, two conditions are necessary:
There must exist outside the sacrificer things which cause him to go outside himself, and to
which he owes sacrifices.

These things must be close to him so that he can enter into relationship with them, obtain
strength and assurance, and obtain the benefits he expects from them.
Social relationships satisfy both of these conditions better than anything else. The collective force
of mental and moral energies in fact sustains sacrifice. The abnegation required in the act of
sacrifice reminds individuals of these collective forces they have conferred on each other.[lxxv]

9
Suicide bombing as an act of individual sacrifice to further the cause of the tribe, clearly meets
both of Hubert and Maussâ social conditions and may meet Edingerâs forth condition of the ego.
Suicide bombing is therefore is likely to continue as a form of self-sacrifice acceptable to large
segments of global society, especially when the families are compensated and the bombers are
hailed as martyrs.
Pathological behaviors can be acquired through modeling. Antisocial behaviors benefit the self at
great expense to others. Prosocial behaviors benefit others, usually at little reward or cost to the
subject. Antisocial behaviors probably develop more easily and are more resistant to extinction
whereas prosocial behaviors easily fail to take root. Reinforcement and shaping of positive and
adaptive behaviors is thus as important as the extinction of maladaptive behaviors.[lxxvi]
Suicide bombing as an act of sacrifice contains both prosocial and antisocial elements that may
make it especially appealing to the young.
This paper has been a personal exploration into the phylogeny and ontogeny of sacrifice. Each
period in history, each religion and culture, has added to the collective consciousness of sacrifice.
At the same time, both the archetype of sacrifice and the sum of human experience remain in the
collective unconscious to emerge again at any time. The challenge for individual citizens in a global
society is to hold the several versions of sacrifice that may be operating simultaneously within
current events or as cultures clash.
The important thing is this: To be able at any moment to sacrifice what we are for what we could
become. [lxxvii]
________________________________
10
ENDNOTES
[i] James, 289.
[ii] James 186.
[iii] James 184-185.
[iv] Encyclopedia Britannica, Volume 16, p 128.
[v] Summarized by Money-Kyrle, 259.
[vi] Hubert and Mauss, 3.
[vii] James 289-290.
[viii] Hubert and Mauss, 16.
[ix] Hubert and Mauss, 14.
[x] Hubert and Mauss, 12.
[xi] Hubert and Mauss, 62-64.
[xii] Hubert and Mauss, 64-65.
[xiii] Hubert and Mauss, 65-66.
[xiv] Hubert and Mauss, 66-69.
[xv] Hubert and Mauss, 103.
[xvi] James 289, 196.
[xvii] Eliade, 53.
[xviii] Jung., Letters, 1956, 315.
[xix] James, 99.
[xx] Evans-Pritchard, in Hubert and Mauss, vii.
[xxi] Hubert and Mauss, 3-5.
[xxii] Hubert and Mauss, 2.
[xxiii] Langdon in James, 193; “Kippuru” to
remove or wipe away. James, 198.
[xxiv] Hubert and Mauss, 85-86.
[xxv] Hubert and Mauss, 83.
[xxvi] Hubert and Mauss, 84.
[xxvii] Hubert and Mauss, 78-79.
[xxviii] Jung, Op. cit, 254.
[xxix] Humbert and Mauss, 87.
[xxx] Hubert and Mauss, 79.
[xxxi] Hubert and Mauss, 90.
[xxxii] Thompson in James 197.
[xxxiii] James 198-199.
[xxxiv] Frazer in James 189.
[xxxv] Deuteronomy 12:31.
[xxxvi] James 192.
[xxxvii] Hubert and Mauss, 11.
[xxxviii] Leviticus 16.
[xxxix] James 190.
[xl] James 287.
[xli] James 276.
http://www.marthablake.com/sacrifice.html
[xlii] Sat. Br., vii2;iii, 2,2,4 in James 277.
[xliii] Hubert and Mauss, 90-91.
[xliv] James 108-112.
[xlv] James 84.
[xlvi] James 85-88.
[xlvii] James 85- 92.
[xlviii] James 94.
[xlix] James 95-96.
[l] James 94.
[li] James 279.
[lii] Moulton in James 279.
[liii] James 282-283.
[liv] James 282-283.
[lv] James 286.
[lvi] James 286.
[lvii] Hubert and Mauss, 81.
[lviii] James 287.
[lix] Jung, Op Cit, para 403.
[lx] James 279.
[lxi] James 289.
[lxii] James 187.
[lxiii] James, 186-187.
[lxiv] Modified from Hubert and Mauss, 9-10.
[lxv] Edinger, 244-245.
[lxvi] Edinger cited mythological examples of
Prometheusâ theft of fire and the original sin
of Adam and Eve.
[lxvii] Hubert and Mauss, 13.
[lxviii] Jung, Psychology and Religion: East
and West, para 389.
[lxix] Jung, Op cit, para 390.
[lxx] Jung, Op cit, para 392.
[lxxi] Blos, p 368-369
[lxxii] Jung, Op cit, para 402.
[lxxiii] Fromm in Davis, 284.
[lxxiv] Encyclopedia Britannica, Volume 16,
135.
[lxxv] Hubert and Mauss, 101-102.
[lxxvi] Oxford Textbook of
Psychopathology, 41.
[lxxvii] Charles DuBois