So for the past day or so I've bee walking around with the phrase "cleansing blood" written on my wrist so I'd remember to write this. I got a few funny looks from people who happened to see my little note, and had to explain to them that no, it's not what it looks like.
In any case, I wanted to discuss the concept of blood as a symbol of cleansing and purity. In Bynum's story of how he got his Binding Song, he had to rub himself down with the shiny man's blood. Similarly, Loomis slashes his own chest, out of some desperate need to prove that blood cannot heal him, and bathes in the blood. This leads to him regaining his song and being whole again.
Bynum also uses pigeon blood on what seems to be a regular basis. He kills the pigeon and buries it before pouring the blood over the grave. Given the symbolism of blood in this play, along with the symbolism of the dove, a bird very similar to the pigeon, one can assume that Bynum is blessing Seth and Bertha's home.
I was hoping to find other sources in which blood could be considered a purifyer, but apart from Christianity (which I assume is where this play's association with it came from), I could not find anything. I did, however, find a compelling essay on the various uses of blood in the play Macbeth: http://www.essaydepot.com/essayme/234/index.php
If anybody else knows of some sources with uses of blood, I'd love to see them.
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Ancient people like the Mayans and Aztecs had similar beliefs. I think they drank animal blood to please the gods or something. Today though, besides in Christianity, that kind of thing isn't practiced much anymore.
ReplyDeleteThe Old Testament for Christians and the Torah for Jews talks about sacrifices. The blood or life of an innocent creature was required to pay the price for a person's sins. With Judaism sacrifices were actually made in the temple on certain holy days. For Christianity, it's the symbolic drinking of Christ's blood. In both religions, the price for a person's sins is a life, so the concept is that someone else pays the person's price, either an animal (specific kinds) or Christ.
ReplyDeleteThough, neither of these religions do the washing in blood. There was washing with the Holy Spirit, but that tended to be described as fire. The only other connection to washing and cleansing is baptism, which can be done with fire (done once with fire in the Bible) or as is typical done with water.