juantoo3 said:
I made the comment as a historical fact. Human sacrifice to nature gods, to my knowledge, has not been culturally acceptable commonly in Western cultures for a long time, at least a thousand years or more. But Frazer pointed out that in rural parts of Europe within the last 200 years, it was a common practice to sacrifice in effigy. He presented examples that still echo in some of the modern festivals and holidays, such as May Day. I am not well versed, but I think this is related to what is commonly called "sympathetic magick." I wish I had a copy of the book here to quote.
Are you referencing "The Golden Bough"?
A word or two about effigy sacrifices.
This is very very old. It has echoes in present-day things like Guy Fawkes Day and football rallies, or more seriously in the burning of political figures in effigy.
There are two views of effigy burnings. One view is that burning a human effigy is intended to create a spirit messenger - to connect the celebrants with energies and powers which would ordinarily be beyond their control. For early peoples, the energy of fire was connected with the sun which brings light, health, and growth, as well as the hearth fire of food and hospitality. Fire was the spark of life which connected human hearts with the stars; for some it was the fire of inner change and transformation, the quest for knowledge and power.
Frazer suggested that effigy burnings were rites of purification rather than seasonal solar rituals. But the timing suggests otherwise, or at least a confluence. The most important fire festivals of Old Europe were held in conjunction with the turning points of the solar year: Midsummer, Winter Solstice, the Spring and Autumn Equinoxes.
And the practices themselves suggest a solar connection, as the wheel that is set alight and spun or rolled down a hill.
In any case, fire festivals, including the burning of effigies, are related to the Earth's cycle of growth, maturing, decay and death; in particular, they focus on fertilization and growth. Leaping the bonfire (and, in the process, exposing one's reproductive organs to its flame) is widely held to promote fertility. Frequently, torches are carried through orchards, pastures, and fields to insure good crops.
BTW, the major authority for the burning of humans in a wicker effigy is Caesar's account of his observations of Druid rituals (during his Gallic Wars - hardly unbiased). No other ancient authority verifies this. It is assumed that the prevalence of effigy burning, together with evidence of human sacrifice in at least some groups, implies that effigies are a later substitution for earlier, more literal, practices.
Effigy buring, today, is used by modern Pagans as a process of transformation, an acknowledgement of the neccessity of change (including death) in the process of life. The sacrificed image represents the spirits of vegetation, the cycle of fertilization, growth, maturity, and death which defines the parameters of life on earth. The dried stalks of last year's growth must be burned and returned to the soil to prepare the way for new growth. Death is intrinsically linked to the emergence of new life. Everything enters the fire and is transformed.
So, we burn away those things that we wish to change in ourselves, adding them to the effigy on pieces of paper, or calling them out as the effigy burns. We may also burn things (things that burn) representative of what we wish to have transformed - this could be pieces of trash (to transform our consciousness of littering/befouling the Earth), or pieces of clothing from a person whose connection to us we wish transformed or broken), and so on.
If folks want to know *much, much* more about this, I'd suggest reading The Golden Bough, particularly those chapters about fire festivals in europe, his interpretations of fire festivals, and especially "The Burning of Human Beings in the Fire".
