A Very Pagan Magic

All of this begs a few questions, such as "Does this magic really work?" and, even if so, "Why would anybody intelligent enough and with spiritual sense enough consent to give his own life (or ask anyone else to give theirs) in the pursuit of such fame, fortune and power for somebody else?"
First of all, voluntary blood sacrifice as a way to magically win some tangible benefit for other people at the expense of oneself has been practiced for thousands of years. It is very ancient, and very Pagan. Like so many other aspects of Christianity that were appropriated from Paganism, this magic was used to create the basis for whole Christian religion. Absolutely, they stole it and claimed it to be their invention! Just around 2000 years ago, there was supposedly a man from Nazareth who gave his own life in order to win salvation for millions of people he mostly didn't even know. And this guy wasn't even near the first guy to try this technique. A lot of people believe that it works, and belief, I am assured, is one of the most important indicators that a ritual will be successful.
As for why any shaman would so consent to die for another person or persons, well, that's another issue. I can give you one perspective, mine, which says, "Sometimes the higher good of the Earth just basically outweighs all other costs."
The act of human sacrifice has been rightly condemned by modern society as evil. This is in spite of the fact that much of western society shares a Christian background, with its own god being sacrificed to himself for the salvation of mankind.


Laeviss does NOT advocate human or any other living sacrifice (in any case, it is no longer required by the Goddess.) Now, Laeviss is a firm believer in revealed wisdom, and when the Charge of the Goddess says, "Nor do I require aught of sacrifice" it is best to believe Her words. They do reveal new spiritual truth. What we have been discussing is old spiritual truth. While Laeviss does not believe in any list of proscribed actions as belonging to "good" or "evil" he does say that there are a couple of concepts to think about when considering whether an action might be right or wrong. Those concepts are "Do I use it to beautify the Earth, and thereby all of the life on the Earth?" and "Do I NOT use it to beautify the Earth, and thereby all of the life on the Earth?" Anything that promotes the beauty (meaning not necessarily physical beauty, but health and well-being) of the Earth and all of her inhabitants could be considered beneficial. Anything NOT used for the beautification of the Earth could be considered not beneficial. Ah, but how do we decide who gets to choose what is beneficial and what is not?
There have been many very misguided souls on the Earth who have had concepts of beauty that were rooted in evil thoughts. Anyone who tramples on individual humans, groups of humans, or human rights and liberties in general for their beauteous cause is working evil instead of good. Under the guise of benevolence, Christian leaders and other political leaders have tortured and murdered those whose beliefs and practices disagreed with their own. Just because someone's beliefs, practices, or appearance or understanding differs from your own does not make them any less worthy. A good rule of thumb should be: if a spirit or a god or your consciousness tells you to perform heinous acts or condones such acts in the name of righteousness, the spirit or entity or your consciousness is possessed of a spirit of evil. Do not listen to spirits of evil. Perform acts of goodness in the name of love, not acts of hate in the name of righteousness.
Sometimes the beauty of the Earth had to be maintained by selfless acts. In the case of Loki, the goddess known by many names in many countries, but here called Freyja, has entrusted him more than once with carrying out his intended purpose: to work with Odin in order to change the spiritual direction of the Earth in order to restore beauty or to prevent the Earth from continuing in a direction of non-beauty.
In this way, Loki acts like a compass. In the Lore, this is shown symbolically. When Loki is hiding from the Aesir, he builds a house with a door on each side, so that he would be able to see them coming after him. He is the center that the arrow swings around to point the way home. A compass will always point towards the North, and if you have such a compass, you will always be able to find your way home.

He is the hole in the needle, which makes the needle useful.
He is the doorway, which makes the door useful.
He is the space inside the bowl, which makes the bowl useful.

Or, like the sign on an empty storefront, "This building is not empty...it is full of potential!" Thus, one can take the potential that exists in the form of the energy provided by one's interactions with the client, and with the help of the Earth Elementals, allow it to manifest in its highest and best form, for the beauty of the Earth.