Myth and Ritual

"There are a greater number of trials to overcome and, having survived the last, the initiate may find he is "the only one" (Calasso 260).

Initiation and ritual appear to be tied hand-in-hand.  What was interesting for me in class was the relation between The Lottery and Taurobolium.  They both personify the ritual of expulsion.  The Lottery is especially troublesome because the town people establish this sacrificial ritual and the person who wins is the person that dies.  Thanks, but I won't be buying that ticket.

Or perhaps an effigy.  Just like Charila.  There is a symbolism in the throwing of the sandal just like the rock throwing in The Lottery.  What that symbolism is I really don't know except there is a lot of violence involved in sacrificing humans or animals for the gods.  Perhaps it is all part of the initiation in the cycle of life.  We're born, we endure life full of its suffering, happiness, and fears, and then we die and begin all over again.  

I remember once as a child, my sister and I made up a voodoo doll that looked awfully familiar to my best friend.  My best friend and I had had a fight and I went home crying to my sister.  She was the one who thought up the idea of making this voodoo doll.  I can't remember all that happened except that it felt kind of strange to want to hurt this person and the thought that if I poked a needle in her eye it would hurt.  I do remember that nothing happened to my friend and it was I who felt an ominousness in what I had wanted to do to hurt her.  My Catholic upbring I'm afraid.