It's in the Blood

I'm in San Diego this weekend, doing a training for my day job. This is the view *outside* the convention center where I'm spending most of my time, alas. Fortunately it's an excellent training and I've learned some great stuff.

That said, I don't have much time to write this post. I might be pulling a bit of a James here. ;-)

Which is too bad, because the word of the week is one of my favorite things: BLOOD.

No, really.

I even did a paper in college about the religious significance of blood rituals.

They are there, throughout the various pre-Judeo-Christian ("Pagan") religions, in the Torah, the Qu'oran, the Bible. Elaborate practices and beliefs have been built around the letting of blood.

Some examples:

• Virginity and the evidence of blood
• Menstruation along with those taboos and rituals
• First blood as a signifier in a duel
• Kosher practices for clean blood-letting
• Blood sacrifice
• Jesus giving wine to his disciples to drink and calling it his blood

When you start paying attention, you'll find the concept comes up over and over. Why?

Now we understand how blood can carry disease, but so can other bodily fluids. I haven't seen many religious rituals built around pus or snot, for example.

Blood is the life-giver. It takes the place of the sea that used to surround us, that we took inside, to go on land. It is the internal primordial ocean.

Magic.