Blood ritual

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This article is about the ritual custom. For other uses, see Blood ritual (disambiguation).

A blood ritual is any ritual that involves the intentional release of blood.

A common blood ritual is the blood brother ritual, which started in ancient Europe and Asia. Two or more people, typically male, intermingle their blood in some way. This ritualizes bringing the people together into one family in a symbolic way. Obviously this is an unsafe practice where blood-borne pathogens are concerned.

Body piercing can also be part of a blood ritual. Though piercing does not always cause bleeding, it certainly can. Piercing has been practiced in a number of indigenous cultures throughout the world, usually as a symbolic rite of passage, a symbolic death and rebirth, an initiation, or for reasons of magical protection.

Blood rituals often involve a symbolic death and rebirth, as literal bodily birth involves bleeding. Blood is typically seen as very powerful, and sometimes as unclean. Blood sacrifice is sometimes considered by the practitioners of prayer, ritual magic, and spell casting to intensify the power of such activities. The Native American Sun Dance is usually accompanied by blood sacrifice.

Some blood rituals involve two or more parties cutting themselves or each other followed by consumption of blood. The participants may regard the release or consumption of blood as producing energy useful as a sexual, healing, or mental stimulus. In other cases, blood is a primary component as the sacrifice, or material component for a spell. In the Christian tradition, for instance, the blood of Jesus Christ was required for mankind to remove sin.

Certain video games with a more occult theme have used blood sacrifice (or, as it is known in some, blood magic) as a source of magical power. Such video games include Dominions II.

"The Blood Ritual" is also a ritual created by L. Ron Hubbard that invokes the Egyptian goddess Hathor.