Ritual for Butchering Animals

[SageWolf]

Does anyone have a Ritual for thanking an animal for giving it's life to sustain ours? My husband and I have baught a cow for burtcher and I wanted to thank it properally before we burtcher it,

SageWolf

[daibanjo]

I'm sure I'll get disagreement on this but I have to say it.
Sagewolf, do you really believe that the butchered cow is going to say "You're very welcome"?
I've heard of people who go out hunting and want to thank the spirit of the animal they've just killed. Does anyone think that the spirit of the dying creature is going to do anything other than tell you where to put your thank you's?
if you go hunting or if you just kill for food, that's your way and I've got nothing to say one way or the other but please don't look to the animal's spirit to make it ok.
The way I see it we have no right to take life in any form. But we do have the need to do so. So let's do it with dignity for ourselves and for the creature whose life we must take.
I know this sounds harsh. I'm not trying to be mean I just would like you to take another look at what you are asking.

[forgotten oceans]

You sound a lot like me Daibanjo, it's dead and maybe a little miffed, other than that, it doesn't care. But if it really bothers you, treat it well while it's alive and use all the parts you can. If you ask for all the cow back when they're done butchering it they'd probably give it back to you for a proper funeral. Just tell 'em it was a pet or your kids got attached to it, something believable like that. If you want the skull and are able to do the bucket trick, I recomend it, it's the fastest way I know.

To be honest, just the other day my SO found a dead owl in a box car, so I asked him to bring it home. I lite some inscense said a small prayer and then hacked its wings off along with it's feet, they're hanging to dry right now. While I feel for this poor creature, he's dead, he's not gonna be needing them, so I'll use them and fly for him.

[SageWolf]

I'm not offended at all, I just want to thank the animal for giving it's life to sustain mine and my families, I know the animal will be miffed and upset about it, but I also want it to know how much I apprecate it for it's sacrfice, for want of a better word, I was raised in a Shamanistic setting as achild and I was taught you never hunt or slaughter more then you can eat, so with a big freezer we can use the entire cow for at least 2 years. I understand there are people here who are Vegs and thats fine by me, I was one for sevral years when I was a young adult, But I've also believed that people are meant to eat meat and plants.

And Not to upset you here, but if you don't believe animals or anything should be killed for us, then why do you eat plants? Plants have spirits as well, and they are living breathing things as well.


SageWolf

[daibanjo]

Thank youi for not being upset or offended. I am a meat eater. As for the lives of animals and plants, as I said;


"The way I see it we have no right to take life in any form. But we do have the need to do so."

We are responding to a need but somehow it seems cruel to say thank you to the life we take even when we have no choice.

[Crazy Healer Lady]

Okay... sorry if I get a little grumpy here...

I understand there are people here who are Vegs and thats fine by me, I was one for sevral years when I was a young adult, But I've also believed that people are meant to eat meat and plants.

And Not to upset you here, but if you don't believe animals or anything should be killed for us, then why do you eat plants? Plants have spirits as well, and they are living breathing things as well.

Speaking for myself... I believe animals sacrifice their lives in order for us to live on. They are giving their bodies to us. That is something they should be honoured for, and I think you believe that as well since you are asking for information on a few ways to give thanks.

But I must say that just because someone is vegetarian or vegan does not mean they are dogmatic about it. I think eating meat & giving thanks is wonderfully symbolic, incredible, but it does not work for me. Plants give their lives for us too, and I thank them for that.

Seriously, everyone around me eats meat. Do I care? No. I'm not vegan for ethical reasons, and even if I was, I wouldn't expect others to do the same. And many people are only vegetarian for ethical reasons because of the way the animal is treated before it is killed & during killing, not for the reason that it is killed.

Once again, sorry for being grumpy, but I am so god-da**ed sick of people assuming that I am against eating meat & those who eat meat because I am vegan. It's not a big deal.

I always have people come up to me at BBQs or parties who see me not eating meat. They wave their hotdogs or steaks in my face quite rudely and proclaim the wonders of meat, that I'm a hippy b**** and if I don't like it, I can go to hell, and I haven't even said a word.

So, sorry if I'm flying off the handle.

[SageWolf]

CHL you have every right to fly off the handle, but I am not saying people are vegan's or vegs just cause of political reason, I myself went Vegan just because I ate more veggies then I did anything else, and I was young and wanted to see what it was like.

I'm not writing this post to offend anyone, I'm just stating my opnions, and as for ppl telling you to go to hell or whatnot for your beliefs, well they are just idiots with no knowledge whatsoever, I really can't stand ppl like that, it's none of their business and they can just STFU as far as I am concerned.

Ok well I'm off for now.

SageWOlf

[Willow]

Oh this old debate.

Interestingly enough, I explained to one of my profs why I don't eat meat (one part is for health reasons, but the other is that I can't bring myself to kill animals, I felt very hypocritcal....personal feelings, not criticising anyone else). I just felt very strange buying chicken and not having any clue what the animal ate, who touched it, how it was treated while alive or how it was killed.

Anyway, my prof felt the same way, so instead of becoming a vegetarian, she researched different traditions and learned how to become the most ethical hunter she could. She has researched how to kill animals the fastest and is a great shot.

Another girl became an organic farmer and began to raise her own animals. Every time they eat meat it is a big decision because one of their own animals has to die.

Wierd how the same problem can be solved in different ways. Oddly enough, none of us think less of the other person, we just all accept that we found differing ways to deal with our feelings.

As for plants, i am slowly learning how to garden...meditating a little on what it means to kill a plant to eat it or to take its fruit. Mind you, i don't really think plants have as much (or the same type of) awareness as we do, but they do come from the same energy source as all of us and we have to respect that.

[Jescissa]

Mind you, i don't really think plants have as much (or the same type of) awareness as we do, but they do come from the same energy source as all of us and we have to respect that.

I'm reading an amazing book right now called "The Secret Life of Trees" and I've learned that even though plants do not have brains and don't think, see and feel the same way we do, they still have these senses. As trees live for so long, they feel a lot more slowly than we do. A tree has to prepare months in advance before it gives forth fruit, and equally as long before it drops its leaves in time for winter.

If you cut the branch of a tree or twist an apple off a stalk the tree will know and it will grow differently to compensate - after an aggressive caterpillar attack, the next spring a larch tree will grow stouter, thicker leaves that aren't as tasty to the caterpillars and the bugs will leave them alone. It can take many years before the larch feels confident enough to put forth longer, thinner leaves again, but it will eventually and the cycle will start again.

CHL, I don't blame you for your grumpiness, I would feel just the same way if people treated me that badly about my food choices.

[forgotten oceans]

CHL, don't worry, if by some fluke you make it to Hell, you can share my condo with me. You're gonna love it, I made sure to reserve early for the lake side view. No one's going to hell for what they eat, it's all guilt crap. But even I still say prayers nightly for those I've wrongfully wronged, and sometimes I even pray for those I wronged rightfully, just depends on how I feel for that day.

Plants feel, they know things. I'm not a shaman, but I can feel the trees just as easily as I can ppl. I've seen Pines moarn the death of another tree, it was so sad. Smaller plants too can feel, but some a harder to feel then others. Ornament bushes are the ones I have trouble hearing, veggy and fruit plants tend to be chatty and I've rearly had problems with any tree I've come across, eccept Oak, they tend to be very high strung. But if you find them in large groups it's almost a courtly effect, like something out of the middle ages with lords and ladies, it's truely awe inspiring.

[Crazy Healer Lady]

Wow everyone here is so accepting and wonderful. I feel like I'm at Hospice...

Sagewolf, this is for you:

As for plants feeling: This is interesting! Now, I just searched my bookshelf, and do you think I could find the study I am about to refer? NO!

Anyway, there was a study done at a college where they experimented on these two plants of the same type (cannot remember the plant; one that reacts instantaneously to stimuli, but it was not venus fly trap). They took something like 200 students and chose one male student to burn one of these plants, right beside the other. They then had every student walk by the remaining plant, one by one, and then exit the room. When the student that had burned the other plant walked by, it shrivelled up (contracted in response to danger).

Crazy huh? When I actually FIND this resource I will post it!

[Willow]

No doubt, i know plants can feel something, and I know that there is something in spirits...but it is differnt, if I eat a strawberry, I don't feel like I am eating a baby...just a bit of its fruit.

Anyway...my beliefs are all mucked up and I am eternally searching, I may feel something completely different in a week.

[Kitsune]

Plants definiately have souls and personalities.

We personally have one tree in a park near my home downtown that reminds me of a silly old man. Whenever I walk by, he tends to wake up and grumpily ask why its still so cold.

I've never had to explain that it's still winter to a tree before. Usually they're the ones getting irritated at me for welcoming them and waking them up just a little bit early.

[My Psionic Nature]

Anyway, there was a study done at a college where they experimented on these two plants of the same type (cannot remember the plant; one that reacts instantaneously to stimuli, but it was not venus fly trap). They took something like 200 students and chose one male student to burn one of these plants, right beside the other. They then had every student walk by the remaining plant, one by one, and then exit the room. When the student that had burned the other plant walked by, it shrivelled up (contracted in response to danger).

Crazy huh? When I actually FIND this resource I will post it!

There was another one where a plant was cloned twice (rose I think, please correct me if you know about this article I'm posing here)....

They got a group of scientists to tell talk to each flower. One group were shouting at the 1st rose it telling it how ugly it was and how much of a rubbish plant it will be when it buds. Lo-and-behold it made a manky looking rose. The other rose got told how beautiful it was and how angelic it will be when it buds, and it grew fantastically.

[Kystar]

I'd say, treat the cow with respect. Use as much of it as you can, properly bury that which you can't use, and thank it.

On the plants-feeling front, I have to say that I only get strong "vibes" from a plant that lives more than one season. Bushes, trees, flowers that bloom from a bulb, these all speak to me, some more loudly than others. Like, trees have the strongest presence for me...but sometimes don't respond in what I would consider "my" time. And some of them can be really grumpy. Got one Pine Tree near my house that actually THREATENS people during a storm or wind...talks about how it hates these creeping things and the way they change the land...wonders what it would look like if it fell on our cars or our neighbor's house. ICK! Bushes are a little chatty, but only if they flower. Shrubs that get trimmed often are grumpy things, too.

I've never gotten a strong vibe off of a single-season crop plant...except the creepy feeling I sometimes get off of farm fields...since the ones I've been around actually count down to their own deaths...from what I could tell.