Our Newly Vegan Bandmate Won't Participate in Our Black Metal Band's Ritual Blood Sacrifice. Help!
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By: Jessica Hopper
[Editors Note: Are you a musician? Is your group having issues? Critic Jessica Hopper has played in and managed bands, toured internationally, booked shows, produced records, worked as a publicist, and is the author of The Girls' Guide to Rocking, a how-to for teen ladies. She is here to help you stop doing it wrong. Send your problems to her; confidentiality is assured, unless you want to use your drama as a ticket to Internet microfame.]
Dear Fan,
I am in an anonymous black metal/noise trio whose signature concept
centers around the performance of music as an actual spiritual/occult
ritual. We have been relatively successful despite not publicly
performing live and have garnered some critical acclaim and a fantastic
fanbase. Each of us comes to the table with distinct ideas about the
practice of ritual music and we share a lot of common ground
spiritually.
Please advise, MT
Dear MT,
Despite my initial temptation to suggest you just let your newly vegan
member substitute with ketchup, I sought out some expert opinions from a
few witches and a shaman. Obviously you have a lot of belief invested
in the blood sacrifice, as a bond and as a ritual that you believe aids
in your career. I have even heard of your band, so perhaps your
bloodletting is working for you.
One of the experts suggested that your members could do a series of blood draws over time, stockpile your own blood, essentially, for use in ceremony. I asked about substituting with menstrual blood and she said that it's usually only for rituals related to women's magic and "a very different resonance to blood that comes from making a wound."
Aside from the substitution angle, I was hoping there might be a way where the whole band could take this as a mandate to evolve your practice. L.A.-based energy medicine practitioner Bettie Rinehart, who has expertise in this ceremonial realm, offered such a solution: fire.
"It seems to me that the vegan in the band is offering an opportunity for all the members to deepen the consciousness of their connection with spirit--which they are committed to obviously," says Rinehart. "Blood sacrifice presupposes duality--it demands pain or death in order to appease another--and is related to the lower chakras, which hold beautiful gifts, but metabolize the more primal, less conscious energies. Fire seems like a happy medium, as it connects the soul to who we've always been and may have forgotten."
Also, there seems to be some real power as well as an easily scaled and transportable spiritual practice: "Fire ceremonies can be intimate or quite large. In an outdoor fire pit or a living room fireplace. Even an ashtray works in a pinch. Like any ritual, it's all in the commitment, intent and gratitude. The offering comes from the heart -- both the light and shadow sides. It's as simple as calling in the protective spirits, putting together a good blaze and offering the fire that which feeds it: sticks infused with prayers--just blow them in--and a little oil or a bit of kerosene if you really need to blow out some heavy energy (just be safe). The band members then can spend time focusing on that connection they find so inspiring to their music. Fire ceremonies involve all the senses. Feeling the heat, the beauty of the flames' movement, the crackle and pop, the scent and taste of the smoke. As above, so below."
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