What are you ready to Sacrifice?

In ancient cosmologies, the core of animist and shamanic teachings was the law of sacred reciprocity. This law, unbreakable like the foundations of physics, biology, chemistry, and magic, stipulates that all energy in the universe is constant and changes are only from one form to another.

So, when it comes to bringing new things into our lives and shifting paradoxes, the notion of sacrifice (the origin of the name is “to make sacred”) involves giving and receiving.

We will often need to sacrifice (as surrender to the greater cosmos) a relationship, a job, a belief, patterns, habits, connections, etc., in order to receive something back.

In ancient cosmologies, sacrifices could also include offerings of food, animals, or even human lives to appease the gods or seek their favor. It could also be time, energy, or presence, especially if those are very precious to you.

Because of the law of energies, the size of the gift is proportional to the sacrifice. My teacher often jokes that if you give $1, you will receive a $1 gift. Taking a Western accountability metric like money to make me understand, but elaborating that in all ancient stories, myths, and cosmologies, the spirits, guardians of doors, and magicians of the invisible will request something from us first to gift us some powerful transformation, healing, and wisdom.

In fact, you never endeavor to go to some of the “other worlds” without bringing gifts with you (I was joking about that with Matthew…