The Strange Religious Meaning of Pigs

In the Twilight Zone episode, ‘Eye of the Beholder’, a plastic surgeon dramatically removes the bandages of Janet Tyler who has undergone surgery to be like everyone else. The doctor announces that the procedure has failed. To the horror of all who were present,as he removes the bandages, he uncovers a normal, beautiful woman. The camera then pans out to reveal that everyone, including the doctor and nurses, had the appearance of pigs.

The twist is that what was considered beautiful or normal in that fictional society were people with swine features of large, thick brows, sunken-in eyes, swollen lips and pig snouts instead of noses. It's interesting that, perhaps for shock value, the writers of that episode chose to use the pig image to highlight the contrast between beauty and ugliness. No one wants to be thought of as a pig based on their appearance or behavior.

Actually, you, me and all people really are like pigs. Pigs share a surprisingly high degree of genetic and biological traits with humans. More animal experimentation for the sake of advancing human health is carried out on pigs than any other animal including primates. Pigs have unwittingly saved countless human lives.

Leaving biology aside, we have all been tempted to engage our most base appetites. When it comes to morality, those who make hedonistic behaviors a habit might be called 'spiritual pigs'.

Perhaps this is why pigs are humanized in our culture. Subconciously we think, 'If it's frowned upon to be a pig, let's have pigs be like us'. Hence, we have created characters such as Piglet from Winnie-the-Pooh, Wilbur from Charlotte’s Web as well as Miss Piggy from the Muppets. And who can forget Porky Pig and Petunia Pig from Looney Tunes. Pigs are increasingly popular as pets too, particularly "mini" or "micro" pigs. No doubt many are given human names.

This human and pig relationship is the reason, in many cultures including our own, that pigs have acquired strange religious meanings. 

Pigs in the Old Testament: Unclean Symbol of Gentiles

For the ancient Jews, the pagan people that surrounded them such as the Hittites were associated with pigs. Since they raised them, ate them and offered them in sacrifice to their gods.

In Psalm 80, Israel planted a metaphorical vine in the land but it was attacked by wild pigs (boars). "The boar (gentiles) from the forest strips the vine; the beast of the field feeds upon it.” 

For Jews, only clean animals are those that can be offered to God in ritual worship, i.e. as animal sacrifices. Unclean ones cannot be offered. It was a law regarding ritual purity that declared pigs as unclean. Leviticus 11:7-8 spells this out: “You will regard the pig as unclean, because though it has a cloven hoof, divided into two parts, it is not a ruminant. You will not eat the meat of these or touch their dead bodies: you will regard them as unclean.”

In the Books of the Maccabees, around 165 BC the evil king, Antiochus Epiphanes sought to impose a brutal form of Hellenism on the Jews. He desecrated the temple with images of pagan deities and offered pigs to them on the Jewish altar of sacrifice. The Jews were then made to eat the flesh of pigs or lose their lives. The Jews called this method of demoralization and domination the "abomination of desolation". They were willing to go to their death rather than eat the pig meat with the understanding that God would exact revenge and bring about the ruin of their enemies. 

Proverbs 11:22 says, “Like a golden ring in a swine’s snout is a beautiful woman without judgment.” Later, in the gospel of Matthew, Jesus said, “Do not …throw your pearls before swine, lest they trample them underfoot, and turn and tear you to pieces”. In both cases, the golden ring and the pearls, that which is beautiful and precious in God’s sight is wasted on those who have embraced hog-like attributes. For those who have become like pigs are intent on satisfying the appetites of the flesh. 

Pigs in the New Testament:  Symbol of Redemption

Jesus uses the Jewish idea of the pig as the most unclean animal in the Parable of the Prodigal Son (Luke 15) to make a point. The son has so rejected his Jewish faith, he is so far outside of it and so unclean, that he is reduced to herding pigs. This means he is working for a Gentile as Jews had no use for pigs and would not keep them. To make matters worse, he was willing to eat the slop and scraps of the pig’s food. One could argue that this was more unclean than actually eating the pig. 

The most notable pig story in the New Testament concerns the exorcism of two tomb dwelling men and the casting of their demons into a herd of pigs that rush into the sea and are drowned (Mk 5 and parallels in Mt 8 and Lk 8). 

It begins with Jesus traveling out of the bounds of ritually clean Jewish territory into the territory of the Gadarenes which was teeming with gentiles, demons and pigs. Then comes the exchange of names. The host of demons recognise the holiness of Jesus calling him ‘Son of God’ and name themselves as ‘Legion’. In the ancient Roman military this equaled a fighting group of 6000 men. The demons prayed, "If you drive us out, send us into the herd of swine."

And he said to them, "Go then!"  Their drowning brings to mind the drowning of the Egyptian army which pursued Moses and the Israelites across the Red Sea. The whole town was so identified with the swine that they came out to meet Jesus,and when they saw him they begged him to leave their district. Begging Jesus to leave? Now that's a bad place to be spiritaully.

There is a debate about whether the demons wanted to destroy the pigs. Maybe the pigs were forced by the demons to drown as a sign of the destructive nature of demonic influence. Perhaps the swine voluntarily ran into the sea because they could not tolerate the presence of the demons within them. The demons were wrong in calculating that the pigs, perhaps because they were unclean, would tolerate their presence. They may be unclean but they had the natural revulsion toward evil which means they are good. 

Jesus breaks with Leviticus' restriction on eating unclean animals. He teaches the concept of ‘unclean’ to be deeper than surface level.  “Do you not realize that everything that goes into a person from outside cannot defile, since it enters not the heart but the stomach and passes out into the latrine?” (Thus he declared all foods clean.) “But what comes out of a person, that is what defiles. From within people, from their hearts, come evil thoughts, unchastity, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, licentiousness, envy, blasphemy, arrogance, folly. All these evils come from within and they defile” (Mk 7:18-23). 

This was a radical reminder that all of creation is good and serves God’s purpose, even pigs. The era of unclean foods is past.. As the Redeemer said, “Behold, I make all things new” (Rev 21:5). 

For some Christians like Martin Luther, the view of pigs going from unclean to clean may have changed but his view of humans did not. For Luther, humans are regarded as a pile of poop, only fit for covering. His metaphor for salvation of humans reflected his theory of justification being imputed to humans on a surface level. He compared humans who were saved by Jesus to ‘a dung heap covered by snow’. He taught that Baptism was a change in God’s disposition to us, but it is mostly symbolic as it does not infuse the person with sanctifying grace.

For Catholics, on the other hand, salvation is about sanctification. We are transformed into a mirror image of God as a saint from the inside out. Beginning with Baptism we enter into an adoptive relationship with God whose love is poured into our hearts. We not only go from unclean (sinful) to clean (forgiven) but the infusion of grace into the soul makes the whole person inside and out holy and  acceptable to God.  

Catholics have always believed in the efficacious sacrament of baptism but It took a while for Peter and some of the Apostles in the early Church to ratify the unclean food teaching. In fact God had to intervene by revealing to Peter a vivid dream. He showed Peter a large sheet coming down from heaven. On it were various unclean animals presumably including pigs. God then declared in an authoritative voice, "Do not call unclean what I have made to be clean" (Acts 10:15). This is why for Christians, unlike Orthodox Jews and Muslims, when it comes to eating pork, there’s no need to fret. We may enjoy our breakfast bacon and Christmas ham guilt free. 

The Occultic Meaning of Pigs

Pig Rituals on the Island of Bali and the Moli Tribe:

There are rituals in the Balinese region that involve the use of pig’s blood.  Blood sacrifice, including using pigs or chickens, is part of ritual practices called 'caru' in Balinese religion. These rituals are performed as offerings to deities and spirits, with the belief that the universe is comprised of both positive and negative forces, which need to be appeased.

The Mole Tribe (Indonesia): The Mole tribe has a long-standing tradition of incorporating pig's blood in various traditional rituals, with the belief that it signifies success in life, livelihoods, and harvests. Even some tribal members who are Muslim actively participate, despite pigs being considered "haram" in Islam. The process of using pig's blood in various traditional rituals is to be smeared, rubbed or dripped on human body parts, objects, or something that is traditionally sacred but not consumed. 1 

Pig’s Blood Graffitti:

In a video still posted on Youtube from the 1990’s, Marina Abramovic (who claims to be an artist) performed an occult ritual called “Spirit Cooking”. I watched the video so you won’t have to. As one commenter said, “After watching this I feel like I need to go jump into a pool size of Holy Water”.

Using a large container of blood taken from a pig she used it to paint on white walls of a room with a paint brush. She painted vulgarity and really gross witchcraft slogans.  After this she splashes a statue in the corner of the room with the remainder of the pig’s blood. She said “we used pigs blood because it was the closest thing to human blood.” As one comment said, "This isn't art: this is a ritual. Thats not an artist neither: thats a witch". 

Pig Snout Portals to Hell:

This is a true account of how satanic rituals sometimes involve the use of pigs. It is taken from an article in the Tampa Bay Times. 

A couple went to visit their child's grave and discovered that it was desecrated with a severed pig's head and other pig remains. They had their priest bless the grave as an act of reparation.

On a separate occasion in the same cemetery, a woman went to visit her husband's grave and found a pigs snout sticking out from the ground. The local sheriff said his priest found it significant that the pig's head was left the night of Good Friday and was buried with its snout pointing up. "According to my priest, (the pig snout) is a passageway for Satan to enter this world," the sheriff said. "Good Friday is one of the most powerful days for the occult because it's the day Jesus died, and it's the day his powers were weakened."

Conclusion

In scripture, the pig goes through a type of redemption arc. Pigs went from being called unclean and untouchable to being possessed by demons to then being declared clean along with all other animals by Jesus and the Church. Humans too are called from a fallen state to a redeeemed state. Every person has the potential for virtue and holiness. For most of us that's an uphill struggle. We strive to rise above our animal inclinations and concupiscence. We also have the potential to warrant the name of 'pig' through our thoughts, words and actions.  Every individual has the capacity for both good and evil. As Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn said, "The line between good and evil runs through the heart of every man." Those who through the occult try to tap into the spiritual power of pig's blood are offending God. There is only one way that our Lord has given to become sanctified when he said, "I am the way, the truth and the life." (Jn 14:6). 

C.S. Lewis spoke of this transformation from our animal side to our angelic side through grace. He said, "He will make the feeblest and filthiest of us more like God, a dazzling, radiant, immortal creature, pulsating all through with such energy and joy and wisdom and love as we cannot now imagine, a bright stainless mirror which reflects back to God perfectly (though, of course, on a smaller scale) His own boundless power and delight and goodness. The process will be long and in parts very painful; but that is what we are in for. Nothing less. He meant what He said.”