Continuing some of my previous works, "Ereklia" arose from a sort of quasi- and medicinal cannibalism, but now with a religious aspect. I deal with the Eucharistic miracles and the forgiveness of sins through blood sacrifice.
Substitutionary atonement is common in different religious and spiritual traditions. During one West-African Vodun ritual I witnessed, a penitent person’s sins were transferred to an innocent animal, and it died with the sins giving its blood and absolving the person. Blood sacrifice is considered the most effective form of sacrifice because of the supposed power of blood. This power can contact divine spirits, give them direction, wash away sins and bring souls back from the dead. It makes the deities powerful. Human blood is the perfect sacred offering.
Christians believe Jesus as the Lamb of God put an end to the blood sacrificial system. "THIS BREAD IS MY FLESH, WHICH I WILL GIVE FOR THE LIFE OF THE WORLD. …UNLESS YOU CAN EAT THE FLESH OF THE SON OF MAN AND DRINK HIS BLOOD, YOU HAVE NO LIFE IN YOU. ... FOR MY FLESH IS REAL FOOD AND MY BLOOD IS REAL DRINK." This message from the Last Supper is preserved by the Christian Church in the sacrament of the Lord's Supper, also called Holy Communion or the Eucharist. In Lanciano, Italy in the 8th century, a Eucharistic miracle happened in which the wafer was transformed into flesh and the wine into blood in the hands of a monk of uncertain faith. In 1971, the relics of this particular miracle were subjected to scientific tests and it was discovered that the transformed wafer contained human heart muscle tissue and the wine that turned into blood was genuine human blood of type AB.
For millennia, the faith industry has turned salvation into a marketing product as a remedy for existential anxiety, which it made available for purchase at the price of blood. Sacrificial system still exists in both real and symbolic form. Supernatural miracles and magic are demonstrations of divine activity. Something more powerful and omnipotent than us, something outside of us and capable of performing miracles which must be persuaded, however we can, to be at our service, and to work its magic for us. Here, the faith industry steps in to meet the demand. It offers eternity for consumers in innumerable ways.
In Ereklia, as a woman of science and art, I perform a miracle, turning wine into blood. I present the blood for consumption on a church wafer. I also make some of the blood available to anyone as a mummified relic. All this free of charge. I can not offer instant salvation from the crushing weight of sin, nor eternal life to those who are free enough to believe in their own omnipotence and creative power. Sometimes miracles simply alleviate my angst.