There is a matter I wish to clarify for my polytheist, pagan, and heathen readers, and that is the matter regarding animal sacrifice.
There are no times for which this is necessary. I speak from my traditions and my ways. I speculate that this is generally true most of the time across the board in most ethical polytheist, pagan, and heathen ways.
I used to speak up on occasion for reserving this practice as a right in very limited circumstances, but I want to make clear that most of the time in most of the places, the circumstances are not right and should not be attempted. If a person lives on a farm, and this is part of their ways as their farm life and they wish to make a prayer and an offering to a deity when the animal's life comes to an end, then perhaps this is the 0.01% which is not inappropriate. But that is a private familial farming tradition which is done with love and care and it tends not to be a frequent thing.
For a vast majority of the population in the United States, 99.9% of the time this is not the situation. There is no reason to support the practice or to continue to support the practice, whether in person or by request. In case I haven't made this abundantly clear, 99.9% of times means no. No animal sacrifice. Put down the knife.
No animal torture: this isn't the same thing as animal sacrifice, but some malicious people do push this boundary intentionally and may try to parade it as religious rights. Be clear where I stand on this matter: NO!
If you want to make an animal offering and you are already a meat eater, you can buy some good quality meat from an ethical source. Free range, organic, kosher, halal, or by supporting a local farm, even through a CSA (Community-Supported Agriculture) meat share. Ethical, legal hunting and ethical legal fishing might also be options.
But there are other offerings which can be made and which do count: offerings of charity or community service, offerings of work, offerings of homemade goods, offerings of other foods, offerings of incense, offerings of candle light, offerings of time and service, offerings of devotion like prayers given for several nights in a row, offerings of praise and devotion. Though I still have mixed feelings whether or not this fits into a Canaanite / Natib Qadish religious context, I know of some pagan, heathen, and polytheist folks who would make a "blood offering" by donating blood through the Red Cross, and I applaud their efforts.
Unfortunately, there are a few irresponsible people, bullies who have demanded their way into our communities, and they use the matter of animal sacrifice in order to harm personal and communal boundaries intentionally. This stretching of boundaries can do harmful things: it pushes one's own personal boundaries into a group-think which can be dangerous, it stretches one's own moral boundaries and values, it can desensitize people to violence in an inappropriate way, it can be used as a gateway down a path of religious extremism. Sometimes they even make this boundary-pushing look pretty with a gloss of academia and a bow which mocks civility. Nope.
There are some people who maliciously do this and worse. They tack onto it suggestions of a faux "mystery" work, bringing a person to reflect on one's own death and then via irresponsible and abusive work in a "religious" context bring up human sacrifice or try to plant malicious cues. We, in our religious communities, cannot and must not tolerate this. No boundaries pushing regarding human sacrifice! This is wrong! This is not what we do. No, no, NO!
The stress puts pressure on a person's nervous system, causing a release of hormones and a state of stress by which clear thought and good decision making may not be available. Basically, it's like "hot-wiring" someone's brain to bully them into bad decisions like a crook would hot-wire a car in order to steal it. It's irresponsible and often malicious to use a human person's own fight/flight/freeze stress response against them in a sham and a shame of a "religious" context. Religion is not a roller coaster or an episode of fear factor, and people who drive it in that direction are all-too-often bullies with an agenda which has little to do with religion or with living in good relations with the gods or human communities. Again, NO! This has no place in good religious community.
It's a typical and saddening part of our lives that all lives will eventually come to a natural end. Gods willing that for most of us that natural end is gentle and appropriate and after a long period of good life. Eventually all of us will likely know the death of a loved one before we ourselves reach our death. There is enough to reflect upon here without forcing the subject, without harassment.
