The Lord of Spirits Podcast: “Eating with the Gods”

Hosts: Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick & Fr. Stephen De Young
Date: February 13, 2021
Theme: The Seen and Unseen World in Orthodox Christian Tradition – Sacrifice and Sacred Meals in the Ancient World

Episode Overview

This episode kicks off a three-part exploration of sacrifice in the ancient and Christian worlds. Fr. Andrew and Fr. Stephen dive into humanity's oldest ritual practices—especially the act of sharing a meal with the gods. They explore how early settlements were shaped around places of pilgrimage and spiritual experience, not merely material needs, and how sacrificial rites created real communion between the physical and spiritual realms. The discussion interweaves archaeological, mythological, and theological insights, setting the stage for future episodes on Israelite and Christian sacrifice.

Key Sections and Insights

1. What is Worship? (01:38)

• Worship is Undefinable in Scripture: The Bible never clearly defines “worship”; it simply presents humans (like Cain and Abel) offering sacrifice to God without context or explanation.
• Ancient Context is Essential: To understand early worship practices, especially sacrifice, it’s necessary to view them within the broader ritual context of the ancient world.

“Worship happens long before any of those texts are written… If we're going to understand the sacrifices of Cain and Abel as well as worship in the ancient world in general… we need to understand the ritual context of the ancient world.” — Fr. Andrew (01:38)

2. Revisiting the Earliest Sacred Sites (03:53–19:16)

a. Dates and Archaeological Context (04:05)

• Archaeological dates for early settlements are approximate and serve as framework, not dogma.
• Oldest sites discussed: Jericho (10,000 BC), Göbekli Tepe (9,000 BC), and Çatalhöyük (7,100 BC).

b. Ritual Before Settlement (10:10)

• Göbekli Tepe was not a city or village, but a ritual site full of monolithic structures and animal carvings, likely serving as a pilgrimage center.
• Earlier scholarly consensus held that settlements arose for material needs, with religion coming later. Now, evidence shows the reverse: ritual and spiritual experience prompted settlement.

“What they're finding with Göbekli Tepe... is that the exact opposite is true. These first sites were actually ritual sites and began as places of pilgrimage. … The need to service those pilgrims... gave birth to settlement.” — Fr. Stephen (11:47)

c. Sacred Place as Foundation (15:18)

• The location’s spiritual significance—often rooted in repeated divine encounters—drew people to settle.
• Modern mobility and skepticism make it hard to appreciate how central “place” was in ancient religious life.

“Modern people... tend to think of religion as a kind of add-on... Whereas what makes you, in the ancient world... want to actually build something and... start to raise crops... it must be something super important, you know, and all signs point to that super important thing being spiritual experience.” — Fr. Andrew (17:21)

d. Parallels to Modern Practice (17:35)

• The pattern of sacred places—monasteries turning into cities, altars marking miraculous events—continues in Orthodox Christian history.

3. Gods, Bulls, and Behemoth (21:00–29:49)

a. Çatalhöyük and Home Shrines (21:07)

• Burials under house floors and inclusion of grave goods (tools, animal remains) signal a belief in the afterlife and ritual sacrifice.
• Most homes featured bull idols (‘icon corners’), showing early, universal veneration of powerful animal spirits.

“This is a chalcolithic icon corner... these bull heads are found in almost every domicile, almost every home...” — Fr. Stephen (24:46)

b. The Universal Divine Bull and the Serpent/Sea Monster (25:06)

• The male bull god archetype is widespread (e.g., Baal, Gilgamesh’s Bull of Heaven, Greek myths). The bull, called “Behemoth,” often symbolizes might and tyranny.
• Divine feminine—Leviathan or sea monster (chaos/chaos-feminine archetype): Symbolizes dangerous, unrestrained power (e.g., Tiamat, Greek Gaia as a primordial force linked to monsters and revenge).

“Leviathan kind of represents this chaos... then Behemoth is this image of tyranny… one is kind of toxic masculinity, the other toxic femininity.” — Fr. Andrew (29:49)

4. Why Eat with Monsters? (34:04–36:26)

• Purpose of Worship: To establish peace/relationship with powerful spiritual forces (whom Christians identify as demons), as outright confrontation is impossible.
• Sacrifice is hospitality, a means to avoid destruction by hostile or capricious spirits.

“Establishing that relationship and that rapport, especially through the offering of hospitality, becomes the purpose of rituals at these sites.” — Fr. Stephen (35:54)

5. From Hospitality to Sacrifice: What Did They Actually Do? (38:02–58:01)

a. Processions and Rituals (51:03)

• Procession: Worshipers bring food—especially domesticated animals, breads, oil, wine—to the sacred site (not always an animal!).
• Hospitality and Meal-Sharing: Main focus is sharing a meal; most ancient sacrifices are food offerings.

“Most sacrifices did not involve killing animals. The majority... were of grain cakes.” — Fr. Stephen (54:03)

b. Designating the Offering (61:30+)

• Sanctification of elements: Items chosen for sacrifice set apart (often by laying on hands or symbolic acts).
• ‘Voluntary’ animal sacrifice: Ritualized by cutting hair from the animal, burning it with incense as a token of willing participation.

c. Blood and the Dead (65:36)

• Animal blood drained, collected; often offered to heroes/shades (Ancient Greeks, Odyssey parallel) to sustain memory and aid communication with the dead.

6. Sacrifice Structure: Preparation and Division (68:43–70:02)

• Prothesis: The place to prepare offerings—meat/cakes divided among god(s), priests, and people. Oil and wine poured to aid burning/burning as “consumption” by deity.

“The ones… being offered to gods are immolated, burnt up... The smoke rises up into the heavens.” — Fr. Stephen (71:39)

• Touch and Elevate: Final ritual preparatory act (touching/elevating the gifts) before burning the offering.

7. The Sacred Feast: Communion and Community (85:09–87:15)

• The burnt offering is followed by a feast—not just eating the sacrifice, but a large communal meal with side dishes (trapezomata, “table things”).
• This creates real communion (koinonia)—binding participants and spirits into fellowship.

“This created... the fellowship, the communion. It formed the community... bound them together.” — Fr. Stephen (86:30)

• Priests as Ritual Technicians: In ancient religions, priests were not pastors but experts in correct ritual performance, ensuring the sacrifice was properly accepted.

8. Incense and Purification (92:09–97:18)

• Incense played a major role—offered both as “pleasing aroma” and as purification (fumigation), driving out “aerial spirits” and creating a fit space for divine presence.
• Etymological insight: Many Greek terms for ritual purity (catharsis, kathiro) derive from Semitic words for offering incense.

“To sense something is not to metaphorically cleanse it. To cleanse something is to metaphorically sense it.” — Fr. Stephen (97:18)

9. Propitiation and Expiation—Two Faces of Sacrifice (97:47–99:05)

• Propitiation: Pleasing or appeasing the deity, making them “well-disposed.”
• Expiation: Purification, cleansing from impurity or danger.

Notable Quotes & Moments

• On Spiritual Experience Creating Settlements:
  “There had to be some kind of actual spiritual or religious experience there... for this site to become a pilgrimage site.”
  — Fr. Stephen (15:34)

• On Ancient Worship vs. Modern Mindset:
  “It kind of makes a sort of flat, secular worldview almost impossible... Once you know you can have a meal with your God... that takes what it means to be religious... completely out of the realm of ‘this is what I think and feel and believe’.”
  — Fr. Andrew (100:31)

• On Ritual’s Power:
  "Ritual is a way of connecting with reality... Sacrificial worship is basically human. The earliest humans we can find evidence of were practicing it."
  — Fr. Stephen (105:13)

• On the Centrality of Hospitality in Sacrifice:
  “The need to service those pilgrims and the ritual needs of the site actually then gave birth to the settlement.”
  — Fr. Stephen (11:47)

Timestamps for Key Segments

• 01:38 – Theme introduction & “worship” in the Bible
• 03:53 – Archaeology: Jericho, Göbekli Tepe, Çatalhöyük
• 11:47 – Settlements founded around ritual, not resources
• 21:07 – Çatalhöyük: home shrines & burial customs
• 25:06 – Universal bull/Behemoth & Levithean motifs
• 35:54 – Why “eat” with the gods (hospitality to spirits)
• 51:03 – Greco-Roman sacrifice: processions, food
• 54:03 – Most sacrifices are food, not animals
• 61:30 – Sanctifying and offering the sacrifice
• 65:36 – Blood as life & offerings to the dead
• 68:43 – Prothesis: preparing and dividing the offering
• 85:09 – The feast as communal and religious experience
• 92:09 – Incense: aroma, purification, etymology
• 97:47 – Propitiation versus expiation
• 100:31 – How ancient ritual challenges secularism

Memorable Moments

• Stonehenge Banter:
  Fr. Stephen jokes about being banned for life from Stonehenge (09:17), spawning running T-shirt jokes.

• Why Moderns Miss Sacred Place:
  “It is a fundamentally displaced thing…”
  — Fr. Andrew (19:29)

• Fantasy Gaming Sidelight:
  Discussion about Dungeons & Dragons' unrealistic idea of dwarves sacrificing metal (55:19), leading to “beer and ale drink offerings” jokes.

• Ritual and Reality:
  “Ritual is the way... that participation will produce actual communion...”
  — Fr. Stephen (106:34)

Listener Q&A Highlights

• The fate of guardian angels after death.
  (74:29–84:51): Multiple questions about angels—assignment, interaction, and eschatological fate—answered with theological nuance and playful banter.

• Why sacrifice if God is the offering?
  (56:01–57:55): Preview of future episodes—Christ's self-offering is the ultimate inversion of pagan sacrifice: God offers Himself as hospitality.

Closing Reflections

Ancient rituals—far from primitive superstition—were about reaching out in hospitality to the unseen world, connecting divinity and humanity through tangible acts, not simply inner beliefs or feelings. Orthodox Christian practice does not oppose but fulfills these patterns, inverting their dangers by making God the host and the gift, offering not preservation from destruction but transformation into eternal sonship.

The rest of this trilogy will trace how Old Testament sacrifices invert the expectations of pagan rite and how Christ’s Pascha brings the true communion that ancient humanity sought around every altar and sacred meal.

Next Episode:
Exploring the distinctives of Israelite sacrifice—how Yahweh’s worship in ancient Israel subverts and fulfills the old patterns.

For Further Engagement

• Join the Lord of Spirits Facebook Group
• Send listener questions & feedback to: lordofspirits@ancientfaith.com

Memorable Closing Quote:
“Ritual is the way... that participation will produce actual communion. It will make us into a community with one another... and with our Lord and God and Savior, Jesus Christ... It's about finding our way back into reality and reconnecting with it and reconnecting with God in a real experiential way.”
— Fr. Stephen DeYoung (106:34)