I love teaching and have taught various classes in the humanities like philosophy, ethics, theology, history, and the arts for a quarter of a century. Presently, I’m teaching a survey class in world religions. Last week, we finished a week on Hinduism. I came across an article in the Hindustan Times, about human sacrifices in western Uttar Pradesh in 2003. The police of Khurja, a city in Uttar Pradesh, discovered many victims of human sacrifice in 2006. Followers of Kali, the goddess of death, were the ones sacrificing Indians.

Kali, the goddess of death

It will be several weeks before we journey to Japan. Nevertheless, the Japanese have a type of human sacrifice, which is called Hitobashira. Hitobashira means human pillar. A half millennia ago, they would bury people alive especially if they deemed it necessary to protect various construction projects like buildings, bridge, and dams. Supposedly, Oshizu sacrificed herself to make the construction of the Maruoka Castle stronger with a human pillar. A part of her agreement was that while protecting the castle, she wanted her son to be a samurai.

Oshizu is a human pillar of the Maruoka Castle.

During WWII, kamikaze pilots went on suicide missions toward the end of the war. They fly their planes into US warships. The photo of the Maruoka Castle is adorned with cherry blossoms. The kamikaze pilots would paint their planes with a cherry blossom logo.

Near St. Louis, MO, there is a place called the Mound 72. There have been nearly three hundred bodies of people who were sacrificed and buried there. The mound dates to ca. 1050-1200, but the buried bodies were only discovered in 1967.

Mound 72

The theory is that the sacrifices were designed to pay homage two people that were also buried in the mound. The people obliviously were considered important. They weren’t sacrificed, and their remains were buried amid 20,000 pieces of jewelry most of which were made from shells.

Shell jewelry

Supposedly, the Druids had the wicker man, which was used for human sacrifice. Julius Caesar in his Commentary on the Gallic War mentioned the practice. Some believe that burning the wicker man and human sacrifices wasn’t as common as some to the Greco-Romans writers claim. Nevertheless, Druids in Gaul did sacrifice people. It was primarily Caesar that spoke about the Druids constructing a wicker man…and put men inside the wicker prison and set it on fire. It was designed to placate gods like Taranis, the god of thunder. The wicker man is a larger version of the burning the witches that were found guilty at the Salem Witch Trails.

A Wicker Man

Regardless of the gods or goddesses, the sacrifice was designed to improve the local’s life or to improve the personal desires of the various deities. In varying ways, the deities enter the human world and demanded sacrifices.

We are doing precisely the same thing in America. Many people pay homage to the deity, Donald the Dumb. This was the Donald the Dumb deity coming down from his heavenly mansion in the sky to dwell among the commers.

Apparently, he wants his faithful minions to sacrifice their lives on his behalf. He knew that the COVID-19 pandemic was deadly. Trump said to Woodward on February 7. “You just breathe the air and that's how it's passed. And so that's a very tricky one. That's a very delicate one. It's also more deadly than even your strenuous flus.”

However, Donald the Dumb told his followers not to wear a mask and don’t worry about social distancing. Why? He wanted to get reelected. He is preoccupied with the Stock Market. Hence, his minions are sacrificing themselves for the Deity Donald the Dumb.