"The term sin-eater refers to a person who, through ritual means, would take on by means of food and drink the sins of a household, often because of a recent death, thus absolving the soul and allowing that person to rest in peace. In the study of folklore sin-eating is considered a form of religious magic.
This ritual is said to have been practised in parts of England and Scotland, and allegedly survived until the late 19th or early 20th century in Wales and the adjoining Welsh Marches of Shropshire and Herefordshire, as well as certain portions of Appalachia in America (documented in the Foxfire cultural history series). Traditionally, it was performed by a beggar, and certain villages maintained their own sin-eaters. They would be brought to the dying person's bedside, where a relative would place a crust of bread on the breast of the dying and pass a bowl of ale to him over the corpse. After praying or reciting the ritual, he would then drink and remove the bread from the breast and eat it, the act of which would remove the sin from the dying person and take it into himself."
I have learned a lot from Charles Williams, a Christian theologian and an Inkling.
Here is Charles Williams' treatment of the subject of sin in Descent into Hell
"‘I know,’ Stanhope said. ‘It means listening sympathetically, and thinking unselfishly, and being anxious about, and so on. Well, I don’t say a word against all that; no doubt it helps. But I think when Christ or St. Paul, or whoever said bear, or whatever he Aramaically said instead of bear, he meant something much more like carrying a parcel instead of someone else. To bear a burden is precisely to carry it instead of. If you’re still carrying yours, I’m not carrying it for you – however sympathetic I may be. And anyhow there’s no need to introduce Christ, unless you wish. It’s a fact of experience. If you give a weight to me, you can’t be carrying it yourself; all I’m asking you to do is to notice that blazing truth. It doesn’t sound very difficult......."
There is some recognition of this in the saying: A trouble shared is a trouble halved.
Williams goes on after the woman has agreed that Stanhope can take her burden:
"The central mystery of Christendom, the terrible fundamental substitution on which so much learning had been spent and about which so much blood had been shed, showed not as a miraculous exception, but as the root of a universal rule . . . ‘behold, I shew you a mystery’, as supernatural as that Sacrifice, as natural as carrying a bag. She flexed her fingers by her side as if she thought of picking one up."
That would make sin an event relative only to the psychology of the actor.
For example, when I was young my priest told me that if I attended an Anglican service (virtually identical in High Anglican churches) then I would be committing a mortal sin.
And I believed that at the time, so I would have felt guilty.
But would attending an Anglican service really have been a sin in any metaphysical sense?
"The term sin-eater refers to a person who, through ritual means, would take on by means of food and drink the sins of a household, often because of a recent death, thus absolving the soul and allowing that person to rest in peace. In the study of folklore sin-eating is considered a form of religious magic.
Festive boards. Brn share the load.
Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting…trailing clouds of glory do we come from God, who is our home -Wordsworth
>I once pondered the question of the anti Christ and if he refused to lead people astray, would that be a worse fate for him than doing his job?
At the level of the solar system there are great beings that jostle and compete for the territory and followers. Perhaps there are better ways for the outworking of cosmic karma, but at least it is outworking.
Results can be seen on Earth right across the 20th and 21st centuries.
So has anyone considered Charles William's version of letting another carry your sin?
If you want to carry another's "sin", I suggest you confine your activities to those people whose "sin" seems to you to be minor. If not, you may find the burden too great.
Having taken on the burden it may be transmuted - being an energy structure.
So has anyone considered Charles William's version of letting another carry your sin?
If you want to carry another's "sin", I suggest you confine your activities to those people whose "sin" seems to you to be minor. If not, you may find the burden too great.
Having taken on the burden it may be transmuted - being an energy structure.
Why would anyone possibly want to do such a thing?
They say Japan was made by a sword. They say the old gods dipped a coral blade into the ocean, and when they pulled it out four perfect drops fell back into the sea, and those drops became the islands of Japan. I say, Japan was made by a handful of brave men. Warriors, willing to give their lives for what seems to have become a forgotten word: honor. -The Last Samurai
>what another thinks, feels, or desires is beyond my concern or control..
I would suggest that this is an important stage in a larger process. Humanity must progress towards functioning as a oneness and able to be effective in its role within the local Cosmic Existence.