Sacrifice
Sacrifice & Ghosti
Making a Sacrifice
Sacrifice is the act of making an offering to the gods or spirits. You are taking something of your own, making it sacred, and giving it as a gift to them. Many things can be an offering. Flowers, grain, coins, stones, poetry, songs, dance, and acts of service are all common offerings.
A sacrifice is a gift to the gods or spirits of something that is being removed from human usage. So, a sacrifice should be something that has meaning to both the person making the sacrifice, and the being that they are sacrificing to; it should be a gift.
Ghosti
Ghosti is a term that the folk of ADF have adopted to mean the reciprocal relationship that we have with the spirits. While it comes from the Proto-Indo-European reconstructed word *ghostis, which refers to the reciprocal guest/host relationship, the word “ghosti” has taken on a life of its own within our religion. In our practice, when an offering is given then part of the ghosti (reciprocal) relationship is formed. We, the folk, have given something to the Kindreds, and they will in return give us something back. Some examples of this are the Return Flow (explained later in this section) or the shared meal.
Prayer of Sacrifice
Within ADF rituals, the Prayer of Sacrifice is the hinge of the rite. This is where we take all the energy and praise we’ve gathered up to this point and focus it into one final offering. In this final prayer we focus on sending all the offerings out into the realms so that the spirits who we have honored may fully receive the gifts we’ve brought. After this point in the rite, the energy begins to flow in the other direction, allowing the gifts of the Kindreds to come to us.
Further Reading
by Rev. Kirk Thomas
This book explores some key concepts in the reciprocal, *ghosti, relationship that forms a basis of our worship in ADF.
by Rev. Kirk Thomas
This article explore 5 different ways sacrifices are made and why.