"the world, according to an early Vedic idea, was created by Prajapati,
who is at once life and death—or hunger
It was created in order to be eaten
as the sacrifice which has himself offers to himself.
This is how the horse sacrifice is interpreted, the horse standing for the universe."
when we talk about the "conscious mind “assimilating” an unconscious content,
we are not saying much more than is implied in the symbol of eating and digesting.
Wherever liquor, fruit, herbs, etc., appear as the vehicles of life and immortality,
including the “water” and “bread” of life,
the sacrament of the Host,
and every form of food cult down to the present day,
we have this ancient mode of human expression before us."
@holon42 What a horrid image.
perhaps. depends on perspective.
it has also been envisaged as the Cosmic Christ, life involving sacrifice, a freely offered self sacrifice for the sake of all.
Odin on the world tree, to gain wisdom.
the old myths recognize that every life requires death to live.
and ultimately we are also sacrificed.
"The same symbolism is used in the Maitrayana Upanishad,
where the relation between the world and God is equivalent to that between food and the eater of food.
God, once glorified as the world nourisher, is now seen as the world devourer,
for the world is God’s sacrificial food."