by Caroline Breeze

Created on: October 19, 2009

Blood equals life force. A person who is bleeding is literally loosing his/her strength and life if the hemorrhage is not halted. First they feel a generalized and progressive weakness come about, then a certain wooziness /dizziness, then they loose consciousness, and if the loss of blood continues, it can lead to coma and finally death.

When there is a hemorrhage, vital organs take priority in receiving the irrigation of the body's blood supply, then eventually when there is insufficient blood reaching even them, then, their cells begin to die.

For example, why do people feel groggy or sleepy after a heavy meal? Well, the stomach, in its increased effort to digest all of the food ingested, requires more blood to perform its functions and therefore pulls it from the overall supply leading to a diminished supply to other parts of the body thus the feeling of fatigue.

The first testament refers to blood as the life of all flesh (the French version literally translated refers to it as the soul of all flesh and Israelites were strictly forbidden to consume it. It was used for offerings to God and not for human consumption.

Throughout human history, in various societies all over the world, blood is considered and used as the sacrificial offering of preference to the various gods and entities that these societies worshipped and still worship today in some cases often requiring that the life of the victim in question be taken.

Even today, in these modern times, in many traditional societies, blood is offered as sacrifice to spirits and other invisible entities in ceremonies where the people in question ask for a favor of some sort from these spirits and entities. The blood of chickens, goats, sheep, are offered to the spirits or entities, and eventually depending on the importance or nature of the request, a larger animal such as a cow, or bull or a different type of animal not ordinarily used can be sacrificed.

Human sacrifices are not excluded in some societies even to this day although deliberately not publicized.

Pardon the gruesomeness of the above description but it's a fact of many of the traditions of humankind.


Blood represents "Identity" within a family or lineage and therefore for the sake of the unity of the family, this shared blood line is invoked as a reason for demanding or imposing allegiance and loyalty toward the family entity and its individual members and especially leaders, who often represent the guarantor of traditions and various ties.

Marriage

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