Burnt Offering of Inner Fire

Neville's Inner Vision

View the bird as your former self, the habits and thoughts you once welcomed as life, and the priest as your inner I AM. The wringing of its head is the moment you refuse to let fear reign; you loosen its claim by naming it and letting it fall away. The blood shed at the altar's side marks directing feeling—anger, longing, judgment—into the fire of awareness rather than acting from them. Stripping the crop and feathers and casting them east by the ashes symbolizes shedding appetite and memory, sending them to the dawn where they no longer rule you. Cleaving with the wings without breaking it apart invites you to experience wholeness within the sacrifice: even as you let go, you remain the intact self whose divine nature endures. When the priest burns the bird on the altar with the wood, a sweet savour rises—the sense that your life is accepted by the LORD within. The act is not external ritual but inward alignment: you surrender the old self to be consumed, and you awaken to a new state of consciousness already present.