Evolutionary Mind - Terence mckenna ralph abraham rupert sheldrake - Trialogues collection 2
this sheds light on many religious traditions in which there is the idea of a sacrificial victim. When a predator approaches a herd of wildebeests or baboons, they usually attack isolated members of a group, the old, the young, or sometimes the young males who are defending the periphery of the group. They get killed first. After they have killed one and start eating it, the rest of the group can relax. They sometimes stand around and watch the predator eating the prey. When the predators have a victim, they are not interested in the rest of the group. So one member of the group dies, and the others are safe for a while. This is a simple fact of predation. Ehrenreich shows that this pattern, a sacrificial victim that dies for the sake of the rest, is deeply embedded in our consciousness as an archetypal pattern. She points out that most of the early gods and goddesses were seen as carnivores, for example Horus, the hawk god of Egypt. Even Jehovah is a carnivore. In the story of Cain and Abel, Cain is a farmer who offers the fruit of the earth to God as a sacrifice, and Abel is a herder who offers a sheep (Gen. 4. 2-10). God prefers Abelâ's offering. God likes meat more than produce, so Cain kills Abel. Heâ's jealous. Ehrenreich then points out that whole nations identify with predators, and in wars the whole nation becomes like a predator. The symbol of England and many other countries is the lion; the symbol of the United States, the eagle. All around the world predatory animals are national emblems. I think Ehrenreichâ's insights are particularly interesting because they show that so much of our mythology, religious structure, and fears are related to this long period of being preyed on. The nightmares of young children in modern cities like New York are not about child molesters or being run over by cars; they âre about being eaten by monsters and wild animals.
