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On Offerings in Astrological Magic – Part III
In Part I of this series on offerings in astrological magic, we examined historical sources to make two points about the use of offerings in astrological magic. From the example of Albertus Magnus, we saw that making astrological talismans definitely does not require offerings. From other sources more aligned with the devotional, theurgical side of things (Iamblichus, Proclus, and Agrippa), we illustrated how offerings can be seen as part of the tradition of astrological magic, if only an optional part.
In Part II of this post series on offerings, we dug deeper into the possible meanings of offerings to examine how materialist and human-centric viewpoints can easily corrupt how we understand offerings, and to offer a relational perspective that can serve as a corrective.
In this third part of this series, we apply some of the principles explored in Part II to address two common questions about offerings that arise in actual practice. Specifically, we consider what to do with food offerings after ritual, and concerns about whether consumable offerings are wasteful. Considering these aspects of the hands-on practice will help us clarify and deepen our understanding of offerings from a spirit perspective and the role of the mage/supplicant in the offering process.
What Happens to Offerings After Astrological Magic Ritual?
One question that multiple people have posed to us is: what should one do with offerings after a ritual (e.g., of attunement, or of ensouling talismans)? Sometimes, people ask whether it is okay to partake of or eat the offerings after a ritual.
(Note: We offer what follows for people who lack clear guidance on these issues. If you come from a cultural context or spiritual practice that has clear guidelines about offerings or issues clear taboos against eating from altar offerings, the following considerations and suggestions are not meant to apply to your practice.)
Questions about offerings might come from an anxiety about being wasteful, which we will return to below. They might also come from concerns about being respectful, or not angering the spirits. Whatever the source, such concerns can reflect a lack of shared cultural understanding about what functions offerings serve and what role humans play in them.
As we noted in Part II, we conceive of offerings not as gifts or bribes to the gods, but rather a way of participating in their sphere: offering with, rather than offering to. When viewed from this relational, participatory perspective, the concern about offending the gods by taking what is theirs evaporates. It is not that the offerings are for them to the exclusion of us, but rather that we are, through the intentional use of offerings, entering into collaboration with a particular sphere. In sitting at the table with the gods, should we not also partake of their generous offerings which we have simply gathered up and arranged?
This perspective does not reflect contemporary idealistic wishful thinking. Co-participation in the sacrificial rite (i.e., ritual offerings) was a cultural and mythological norm within the religious and cultural traditions from which we partially receive our traditional of astrological magic. Many historical sources demonstrate a shared cultural understanding that humans participated in sacrifice/offering and shared in its bounty.
The Neoplatonist philosopher Porphyry, for example, in an essay called “On abstinence from animal sacrifices,” devotes significant attention to the problem that animal sacrifices posed for vegetarians (those who eat a “fleshless diet”), which highlights how the consumption of sacrifices (i.e., offerings of animal meat) was understood as common practice by the Greeks. Porphyry explicitly notes that “history is full of instances of the Gods having ordered certain persons to sacrifice animals, and, when sacrificed, to eat them” (Book I, §25).
In fact, Porphyry dedicates the entire second book of his treatise to the problems that sacrifices pose for people who do not eat meat. He begins the book with his claim that “it does not follow because animals are slain that it is necessary to eat them. Nor does he who admits the one, I mean that they should be slain, entirely prove that they should be eaten” (Book II, §2).
This passage is notable, because if it were simply taken for granted that offerings/sacrifices belonged to the gods and that humans should not partake of them, there would be no problem for Porphyry to discuss. The fact that Porphyry felt motivated to write an extended defense of not eating sacrificial meat provides strong evidence that consuming offerings was common practice—possibly even considered obligatory, at least in certain times and places. The existence of this texts suggests that it was expected for people to eat at least part of what was offered.
Similar evidence can be found in Hesiod’s Theogony, in which he tells a story about how Prometheus tricked Zeus into consuming the inedible parts of a sacrifice, which serves as an origin story for Greek sacrificial practices:
“For when the gods and mortal men had a dispute at Mecone, even then Prometheus was forward to cut up a great ox and set portions before them, trying to deceive the mind of Zeus. Before the rest he set flesh and inner parts thick with fat upon the hide, covering them with an ox paunch; but for Zeus he put the white bones dressed up with cunning art and covered with shining fat. Then the father of men and of gods said to him: ‘Son of Iapetus, most glorious of all lords, good sir, how unfairly you have divided the portions!’ So said Zeus whose wisdom is everlasting, rebuking him. But wily Prometheus answered him, smiling softly and not forgetting his cunning trick: “Zeus, most glorious and greatest of the eternal gods, take which ever of these portions your heart within you bids.” So he said, thinking trickery. But Zeus, whose wisdom is everlasting, saw and failed not to perceive the trick, and in his heart he thought mischief against mortal men which also was to be fulfilled. With both hands he took up the white fat and was angry at heart, and wrath came to his spirit when he saw the white ox-bones craftily tricked out: and because of this the tribes of men upon earth burn white bones to the deathless gods upon fragrant altars.“
—Hesiod, Theogony, 535-558, tr. Hugh G. Evelyn-White
A mythological story of this sort would be nonsensical without a shared cultural understanding that some portion of sacrifices are for the gods and others for humans.
Likewise, we have Homer’s Odyssey, which describes one such ritual partitioning of animal sacrifice:
“So [Eumaeus] spoke, an with the pitiless bronze split kindling, and the men brought in a pig, five years old and a very fat one, and made it stand in front of the fireplace, nor did the swineherd forge the immortal gods, for he had the uses of virtue; but he cut off hairs from the head of the white-toothed pig, and threw them into the fire as dedication, and prayed to all the gods that Odysseus of the many designs should have his homecoming. He hit the beast with a split of oak that he had lying by him. The breath went out of the pig; then they slaughtered him and singed him, then jointed the carcass, and the swineherd laid pieces of raw meat with offerings from all over the body upon the thick fat, and sprinkled these with the meal of barley and threw them in the fire, then they cut all the remainder into pieces and spitted them, and roasted carefully and took off the pieces, and laid it all together on platters. The swineherd stood up to divide the portions, for he was fair minded, and separated all the meat into seven portions. One he set aside, with a prayer, for the nymphs and Hermes, the son of Maia, and the rest he distributed to each man.”
—Homer, Odyssey, Book 14, 418-437, tr. R. Lattimore
Once more, the presentation of sacrifice partitioned between humans and gods demonstrates a cultural background in which offerings were understood as a shared meal. Such practices are referenced in the Bible: in 1 Corinthians 8, Paul explicitly discusses the issue of eating food sacrificed to idols.
Although the Hellenistic literary-religious tradition is the cultural-historical context we are most familiar with, we also note that such practices exist in other traditions. In Hindu offering practices, for example, the concept of prasada names the practice of sharing and receiving food offerings between god and devotee. Likewise, in Shinto practices the shinsen (food offerings) are consumed after ritual to solidify the relationship between people and the kami.
From these considerations, we suggest that it is not only acceptable, but historically normal to consider theurgic ritual a shared feast in which we participate, rather than a VIP banquet essentially off limits to mortals. In making offerings, we are not surrendering mortal bounty to the immortal realm, but creating a liminal holy space where the gap between immaterial and material, between sacred and profane, closes for a time.
From the perspective of an ecological spirit model, eating offerings makes complete sense. Ours is not a model in which we are decisively cordoned off from the gods. Ours is a model in which we exist in one and the same world and step into the same stream of creation when we perform astrological magic.
In making regular food offerings part of daily life as an astromage, the very food we eat is continually connecting us to the spheres, not only as tools in active ritual. Understanding which offerings are suitable for whom becomes part of understanding our own appetites and hunger, attuning us more deeply to the divine. Prioritizing seasonally and locally—as well as ritually—appropriate offerings is a further way to enmesh one’s astromagic within a wider spirit ecology.
In consuming ritual offerings, we share in the feast of the gods, mend our relationship with the divine, and incorporate the magical rite into our lives and literal bodies beyond the ritual moment.
Are Offerings in Astrological Magic Wasteful?
As we noted in Part II, questions about offerings often arise from discomfort. People drawn to spirit-oriented and polytheistic practices often seek out those practices in part out of ethical or ecological concerns. So it is no surprise that we field questions with some frequency about people’s concern that offerings of food or drink are in some way wasteful.
In an era where as much as 40% of produce can wind up as waste and 1 in 8 children face food insecurity (both statistics relative to the USA) we are certainly sympathetic to this concern.
But what do we mean by waste?
Is it wasteful to feed birds out of a birdfeeder, or to use fresh, potable water to grow flowers for decoration?
Is it careless, extravagant, or purposeless to materially participate in the celestial spheres of creation through astrological magic?
How you answer any of these questions will depend on your ethical, metaphysical, and ecological perspective, and how a mage thinks about the ethics of offerings may very well depend on how they think about the aims of their practices.
Quite possibly, concerns about offerings being wasteful may derive from attachments to a materialist worldview. From the perspective of a psychological model of magic (which we do not hold), for example, offerings would have a symbolic purpose and their function might be simply as props to help the mage raise or alter their own consciousness. Within such a model, one might consider offerings wasteful since they do not “do” anything or “go” anywhere—especially if offerings merely got discarded after a ritual.
From the perspective of a fully fledged spirit model, however, making offerings to spirits or gods would not be any more inherently wasteful than feeding the birds or watering decorative plants. As acts that cultivate relationships within an ecosystem, such actions would need to be evaluated for their effects on individuals and communities. From our perspective at Idola Stellarum, offerings play a potent role in our theurgic rituals and in strengthening our relationships with the celestials, all of which ultimately aids in the process of creating astrological talismans that bring significant joy and benefit to many. We do not see anything wasteful (careless, purposeless, extravagant) about that.
One primary difference between feeding the birds and making offerings to the celestials is, of course, that we cannot observe how spirit partakes of offerings. For those of us who grew up steeped in secularism and materialism, this may rattle us on some level. We might find it difficult to truly feel into the immaterial aspects of our ecosystem.
Heraclitus noted that “The hidden harmony is superior to the visible” (Fragment 54, tr. Dennis Sweet). Reflecting on what hidden harmony might coalesce around and arise from our offerings in astrological magic may prove fruitful for dispelling worries about wastefulness.
All of that aside, we do of course recommend that practicing mages take whatever steps possible to render their astrological magic as ethically and socially responsible as is within their power.
Options for the ecologically minded mage when it comes to food offerings include eating/drinking/reusing most or all of an offering, including designing your sphere-appropriate offerings with that sharing in mind. While we don’t generally suggest offering food to strangers, if you have established relationships or local culture where that type of offering is appropriate, generosity is good magic.
From a practical perspective, we do recommend leaving some portion of offerings for the gods alone, and eventually disposing of them respectfully.
Composting rather than throwing offerings out can enrich your land-based practice and divert food waste from landfills. If it is not feasible to compost food on your own, many locales have community composting initiatives if they are not offered by local government. We don’t recommend leaving offerings outside for animals, unless you have a very robust relationship to your land’s ecology, seasons, current state of other food sources and possible dangers to animals of human interference, and an excellent idea of who will be eating them and why.
All that said, if you aren’t in a position to practice those methods of disposal and must usually throw offerings in the garbage, it is supportive to develop a relationship with your local landfill/waste disposal system itself. If you live in an urban setting with municipal waste collection, you can choose a public garbage can somewhere special to ritually and regularly visit to dispose of smaller offerings. Carefully placing still-edible food offerings in or beside public garbage cans also makes them accessible to any humans or animals who frequent them.
Closing Thoughts
We hope that this series helps practitioners deepen and feel more secure in their astrological magic and stellar devotion. As this post probably makes clear, we pay attention to the questions and needs of people interested in this type of magic—particularly the members of our Inner Sanctum—and we encourage folks to join our mailing list (below) or reach out to us with questions. We write, in large part, to make astrological magic more accessible and to help practitioners feel more empowered and confident in their practice.
To reiterate something we said in Part I of this post series, there is no One True astrological magic, and it is up to every practitioner to come into intentional, personal relationship with the tradition and develop their own understanding. At Idola Stellarum, we focus on relationships. Our values show through our practice. We hope that reading about our perspective on offerings gives you a sense of how we think about ourselves in relationship to the celestial spirits. Ideally, this helps you clarify your own thinking about and relationship to offerings in astrological magic as well.
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