I am not sure about the heart but the Mithraic initiate was made by being washed in the blood of the bull. He stood under a grate where the bull was slaughtered.
It is likely that being washed in the blood of Jesus was introduced to increase acceptability to Mithraic initiates.
There is nothing in the gospel story to suggest that followers used the blood of Jesus. If anything the story emphasizes water rather than blood from the body.
The Last Supper representation of blood is rather un-Jewish - for example Kosher meat has the blood drained out. Hence one might consider that that aspect is a later inclusion.
I am not sure about the heart but the Mithraic initiate was made by being washed in the blood of the bull. He stood under a grate where the bull was slaughtered.
Wasn't that to collect the life force in the blood.. it enhanced their own. Isn't that why blood letting is still practiced by some cultures?
There is nothing in the gospel story to suggest that followers used the blood of Jesus. If anything the story emphasizes water rather than blood from the body.
The Last Supper - This is my body (bread) and this is my blood (wine). The Christ energy changes water, of which we are largely composed, into wine... wine is fortified. Masonically, the ordinary good man likewise becomes fortified - strengthened.
(Interesting that Jesus is said to have been born in a House of Bread... Beth-Lehem. And Bethany ... Beth Anu?
Kosher meat has the blood drained out.
.. because it is still a living thing?
Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting…trailing clouds of glory do we come from God, who is our home -Wordsworth
It is more likely because the blood carries the toxins generated by the terrified beast prior to slaughter. If the animal is close to human in its biology (e.g. pigs) there is a significant transfer of behaviour to the human. (See also behavioural transfer with organ transplants)
The consumption of blood was forbidden to Jews. Also menstrual blood was ritually unclean.
It seems rather unlikely that the Last Supper as represented in the Gospels is actually what happened.
