The Cauldron: A Pagan Forum

Long story short, life got in the way of religion for awhile and I'm currently trying to get back into the swing of things. This includes making amends with a few gods I was honoring before. One in particular is giving me a strong vibe of wanting small blood offerings, and I just have a couple of questions about this:

-How does one go about offering blood in a safe, hygienic way?

-What do you do with the offering? Do you leave it on your altar, or offer it outside where it'll go directly to the earth?

-Right now I'm leaning towards somehow leaving it on my altar, because I'm living on a very busy college campus with no safe way to get to any natural place where I could do this in peace. But this would then mean having to clean it up after awhile, yes? How do you do this without it being offensive to the god in question? And furthermore, what would I offer it on in the first place?

Sorry if these are stupid questions, I just don't want to jump into something without knowing what I'm doing.

Long story short, life got in the way of religion for awhile and I'm currently trying to get back into the swing of things. This includes making amends with a few gods I was honoring before. One in particular is giving me a strong vibe of wanting small blood offerings, and I just have a couple of questions about this:

-How does one go about offering blood in a safe, hygienic way?

-What do you do with the offering? Do you leave it on your altar, or offer it outside where it'll go directly to the earth?

-Right now I'm leaning towards somehow leaving it on my altar, because I'm living on a very busy college campus with no safe way to get to any natural place where I could do this in peace. But this would then mean having to clean it up after awhile, yes? How do you do this without it being offensive to the god in question? And furthermore, what would I offer it on in the first place?

Sorry if these are stupid questions, I just don't want to jump into something without knowing what I'm doing.

 
I agree, disposable lancets are the best way I've heard of to safely and hygienically get blood.  If it were me, I would probably use the blood to mark a piece of paper as an offering.  You could further decorate the paper or write other things on it as part of your offering.  The paper could be offered up on your altar for a while, then burnt, laid outside, buried, hung from a tree or whatever.

If I were to offer up blood in a bowl or other thing that would need cleaned after a while, I would decide ahead of time how long the offering would be left out for and include that in what I said as I made my offering (such as:  I offer up my blood in offering, which will be left here in your honor for three days).  At the end of the time, I would say a little something and then clean the item as a ritual action.

-How does one go about offering blood in a safe, hygienic way?

 
One thing I'd think about really carefully - above and beyond the advice people have shared - is about disposal, especially since you're living in a communal space.

In a dorm setting, people seeing a bit of blood may well freak - and there's some good reasons for that. (Hepatitis can linger for a surprisingly long time, for example.) And things like the dorm cleaning staff, or groundskeeping staff have to take a whole bunch of specific precautions if they're handling something that involves blood, even a very small amount.

So whatever method you use, thinking about the end outcome would be very important to me. (I've generally, when the blood isn't being used to charge an item, used a small scrap of cloth or cotton ball, and then when I'm ready to dispose of it, either burned it, buried it, or wrapped it up very carefully for disposal.)

Disposing the lancets themselves seems like it would be more of an issue to me.

 
Firstly, thank you so much for the advice everyone! I don't know why I didn't think of lancets in the first place myself, but thank you for the warnings about disposal (which I definitely never would have thought of). I'm not sure if this is going to be a recurring practice just yet, but if it is I'll definitely buy a sharps disposal container. I don't think my roommate would find them if I just threw the lancets out in our trash, but I definitely don't want the cleaning staff to get pricked or anything.

If it were me, I would probably use the blood to mark a piece of paper as an offering.  You could further decorate the paper or write other things on it as part of your offering.  The paper could be offered up on your altar for a while, then burnt, laid outside, buried, hung from a tree or whatever.

 
Thank you for this suggestion! I actually think this might work best for me, at least with my current living situation, and I think it would be easier to ritually dispose of the paper than anything else.

Long story short, life got in the way of religion for awhile and I'm currently trying to get back into the swing of things. This includes making amends with a few gods I was honoring before. One in particular is giving me a strong vibe of wanting small blood offerings, and I just have a couple of questions about this:

-How does one go about offering blood in a safe, hygienic way?

-What do you do with the offering? Do you leave it on your altar, or offer it outside where it'll go directly to the earth?

-Right now I'm leaning towards somehow leaving it on my altar, because I'm living on a very busy college campus with no safe way to get to any natural place where I could do this in peace. But this would then mean having to clean it up after awhile, yes? How do you do this without it being offensive to the god in question? And furthermore, what would I offer it on in the first place?

Sorry if these are stupid questions, I just don't want to jump into something without knowing what I'm doing.

If you're a female you can use your menses. Have you heard of diva cups? And if you want to give back to nature you can buy a plant (or grow one) and mix the blood with water and water the plant.

Menses, for me is more for spell work. I would use blood from the body for an offering.

 
The other thing to consider with menstrual blood is that it's not a sacrifice. It's something a body is getting rid of anyway. Now, not all offerings have to be a sacrifice, but it's something to keep in mind.

If you're a female you can use your menses. Have you heard of diva cups? And if you want to give back to nature you can buy a plant (or grow one) and mix the blood with water and water the plant.

 
I've used my monthly cycle as blood offerings as well.  I've a small cast iron cauldron on my altar specifically for this offering and I do thoroughly wash it out after a short while.  As the cauldron is covered, nobody really goes and looks inside...

I find this fascinating as I work with goddesses who historically have accepted blood offerings and like them. I'm too squeamish currently to go ahead, either with the lancet finger prick or menstrual blood, but I'm strongly considering it. I've heard that blood offerings not only please them but also give them energy and power, so when I'm asking for particularly difficult boons, I want to give blood offerings.

Has anyone else offered menstrual blood to the deities?

 
I donate blood three times a year as an offering to the Morrigan

I don't offer menstrual blood because as someone mentioned that's not a sacrifice as it's something the body is getting rid of anyway. (I also get a strong feeling that my gods wouldn't want it.) I do use it on my garden so I guess that's kind of an offering to the land spirits.