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In popular culture, the Sin Eater is depicted as a hideous outcast who devours the evils of others directly from their corpses in exchange for money. An image that both intrigues and repulses.
However, the Old Faith offers a far more generous version. Sin Eating is seen as an act of charity and healing that forms part of a series of ritualized funerary customs to aid the soul in its progression to the next life. Although the practice has become obscure, it is still remembered in regional areas of Western Scotland, Wales, Ireland and in the American Ozarks and Appalachian Mountains and possibly many other places besides. In this article, we will look at the living tradition of Sin Eating based on our family experience from the Scottish Borders.
Soul Burden
Regardless of modern science, there is a commonly held belief that after death some souls are prevented from moving on to the next stage of existence. Instead of looking upon the face of death, the newly deceased clings to the material existence they have known.
Many of the funeral customs that develop within a culture are specifically aimed to address this concern; helping the soul accept death and become liberated from the body so that an individual can progress to the next stage of their soul journey.
But what if a person does not move on after death? What happens if they are in such a fugue of despair or trauma they cannot see the ancestors who come to guide them? What if the weight of their heart is just too heavy?
Loved ones fear that these burdened souls will become lost and abide in loneliness or worse, become like hungry ghosts eternally bound to the earth. In these instances the family may call upon a Sin Eater.
A Healing Practice
The rite of Sin Eating originates in spiritual healing practice to release the soul when the usual funerary customs are ineffective. The person who was trained in this task, was also trained in other healing methods, but whether they professed the Old Faith or Christianity might vary, depending on the company they found themselves in.
The term 'Sin Eating' is deliberately misleading. While it is easy to see how emotional burdens could be called sins in the Christian sense, the word Sinn carries the meaning of spiritual cleansing and protection on the Borders, probably akin to the Gaelic word Sain, meaning a charm for protection. [1]
Funeral Practice
Traditionally, when bodies were laid out in the home for burial, it was a common practice to put a plate of salt upon the breast to symbolically draw out the lingering life-force of the deceased. Where the body is not present, a bowl of salt is may be set out with a Dumb Supper [2]
A specially prepared bannock or stron representing the earthly soul is placed on the salt. Sometimes it is dipped in the salt, or the salt sits on top of it. Stron (or struan) is the offering of choice for certain ancestral rituals including death rites and harvest festivals. Made from grains, honey and butter, stron is a flatbread made without the help of metal implements. The butter represents the divine gift of sustenance. Grain holds the mystery of rebirth and honey is the dew of wisdom.
Sometimes called death-cake, the stron may be shared among community or left as an offering under a tree. But where it is perceived the soul may be in distress, the Sin Eater will use the bread in a rite of sympathetic healing to ease the pain of the deceased.
Worst Job Ever
This following first hand account from Wales describes a ritual of Sin Eating from the 1850's which features bread and salt.
“When a person died, the friends sent for the sin eater of the district, who on his arrival places a piece of salt on the breast of the defunct, and upon the salt a piece of bread. He then muttered an incantation over the bread, which he finally ate.
"I give easement and rest now to thee, dear man. Come not down the lanes or in our meadows. And for thy peace I pawn my own soul. Amen.”
A small fee accompanied the ritual and he was often given beer or wine. [2]
English antiquarians, not understanding the ancient Celtic origins of the Sin Eating rite, further portrayed this event as a ghastly custom and the Sin Eater as a despicable outcast of society who was willing to absorb the evils of mankind and soil his own soul for the reward of a penny. It is from these biased critiques that we derive the pop culture image of the Sin Eater as a macabre figure in movies and books, and countless memes announcing Sin Eating as the 'worst job ever'.
Soul Pledge
A more true understanding of this account of Sin Eating lies in the cultural context of the word pawn, from the Welsh word Gwystl, which means to commit a pledge or promise.
The Old Faith claims that a heavy soul can not rise in worship to meet with its gods. The Sin Eater recognizes that the deceased is weighed down by an unbearable burden and makes a ritual pledge that they will carry their earthly load like a porter carrying luggage. This transfer is made through a symbolic magical act of consuming the salted bread. A coin seals the agreement. Once the Soul is freed of its impediments, it is able to move forward in its passage to the underworld, where it will be reunited with ancestors.
This act is comparable to the legend of the ferryman who transports souls across the river of death in exchange for silver.
Angels Singing
According to our teachings, the role of the Sin Eater was traditionally performed by a person of the Old Faith who was similar to a Keener (Gaelic) or Cine (Old Scots). Cine are mostly remembered in modern history as professional mourners who wail and lament for the dead during a burial procession; a function which is now performed by bagpipes.
The Cine is trained to use their voice to pierce the veils of existence and sing the soul to its final resting place. It was explained to me that the soul of the deceased can become lost in a maelstrom of confusion. The voice of the Cine is the first clear sound that the distressed soul has heard since their passing and they are naturally drawn to it. In modern rites, singing has sometimes been replaced by a bell, or by prayers and intonations in Catholic families.
Sometimes the soul is too distressed or oblivious to pay attention to the voice or bell, in which case there are other ritual methods to move a soul on.
Releasing the Soul
After eating the salted bread, the Sin Eater would drink whiskey to nullify the ‘sin’ they had consumed. Distilled from natural peat waters, whiskey remains an important ritual drink that is said to draw forth the fire from the underworld. It is attributed with the ability to cleanse the body, purify the mind and release the indwelling spirit.
When it is finally time for the soul to be safely released, a magical action is made with swiftness of certainty, such as the breaking of a vessel, or a candle snuffed out to signify the complete and irreversible release of the soul from the material world.
It is important the Sin Eater break the link and not call the soul back, nor should the loved ones. They must at no point absorb the burdens. Instead the Sin Eater must transform and release the energy. This is considered a special ability which requires training.
The Stand-in Sin Eater
In times and places where the traditionally trained Sin Eater did not exist, it was customary to ask a stranger. The logic being that a stranger would have no attachment to the deceased and could therefore release their burdens without taking it upon themselves. Sometimes a passer-by would be asked, or what have been called a Gentleman or Lady of the Road [4]. Even if they are known to the family, they are someone who has demonstrated the ability to act without judgement and to let go of their old life. It is easy to imagine that some of these folk would become quite experienced in Sin Eating, lending to the theory of a Sin Eater as an outcast.
In Grandma’s family, on an occasion when a Sin Eater was needed there were no strangers. Instead a trusted friend was invited to perform the ceremony. Someone who had touched on death, who had successfully overcome great tragedy in their lives, and demonstrated the courage to leave it behind.
Transferring Transgressions
Author Fiona NicLeod (aka William Sharpe), writes a haunting account of a Sin Eater in the Western Isles. Based in local tradition, the story demonstrates the role of the stranger and the importance of releasing the burdens of the soul. [5]
A young man returns to the village of his childhood after hearing about the death of a man for whom he holds a deep and abiding grudge. Unrecognized by the villagers, the young man pretends to be a stranger so that he can perform the ritual of Sin Eating in an act of retribution. His plan is to take the opportunity to deny the release of the soul and thereby eternally condemn the offender. But in his inability to forgive his transgressor, he instead condemns himself and is haunted by his own vengeance.
Stories such as this empower flights of imagination about the Sin Eater as a tragic figure. However it is not only the fear of the Sin Eater, but the fear for the burdened soul trapped between worlds that gives rise both to this misconception and to the reason that Sin Eating has remained prevalent for generations.
[1] The Scottish Gallovidian Encyclopedia, by John Mactaggart, TD Morrison, Glasgow, 1876
[2] Dumb Supper - meal for the dead
[3] Matthew Mogridge, Cambrian Archeological Society,1852
[4] A person who chose to live as a tramp, often telling stories in exchange for a meal.
[5] William Sharp aka Fiona nicLeod, The Sin-Eater and Other Tales, Patrick Geddes & Colleagues, Edinburgh 1895 - read for free