River of life..., Why is using your OWN blood taboo? Options

Lets face it, blood is one of the most metaphysically powerful substances a witch has access to. And it is HERS (or his). So what is the hysteria that is so prevailent these days about using your OWN blood in rituals to add power to it. i can see in the old days when witchcraft was first struggling to come back and gain acceptance and they wanted to seem as bunny fluff as possible so that there would be no violent reprecussions. But we are past that stage now. i understand that wiccans don't want anyone to think that their Godess demands blood, but i am talking about witches. Blood freely and joyfully given is a powerful tool and i think it is a shame that we are letting fear ruin it for us. Now i know that it is a touchy subject for alot of people so, please, lets keep this as a friendly discussion. Thanks all

Dollhouse, to adress some of your points. i think that the people you are describing are in no way ready to practice the craft, with or without blood. Anyone who doesn't know basic safety, sterility and in short have any common sense shouldn't be practicing the craft in the first place. WITCHCRAFT is dangerous to the undiciplined mind wether you use blood as a conduit or not. Neither is it 'cool' anyone who practices craft for the 'cool' factor also doesn't need to be doing it.
As for finding out. i agree that minors who are still under the 'protection' ie. legal jurisdiction of their parents should steer clear of using blood. It is likely that a parent will misinterpret and over react. However if you are an adult and have learned to "Keep Silent" then i don't see a problem.
And we are back to the whole lets let fear rule us thing. i don't think we need to give up a useful tool to pacify the radicals. If we did that then all sorts of groups would never have made any progress in areas of social acceptance. What would have happened if our Gay and Lesbian sisters and brothers had just hid in the closets and never fought for what they wanted. We can't let fear of voilent people rule our actions.
And for your point that other bits and pieces contain the same DNA. You are right, but thats not the point. The word sacrifice comes from the latin roots meaning 'to make' and 'sacred'. Using hair or saliva would definatly be using your own DNA but you are not giving anything up, you are not doing anything that would be at all a hardship to you. It would be like saying 'i don't care about this old beat up candle, i think i'll give it to the gods". It means nothing to you and so it is a meaningless and insulting gift. THAT is why we use blood, because it is a little bit hard to give, it means something to us, it is sacred. (Moons blood is great for fertility rites involving happy fluffy bunnies, but i would never use it for anything more serious. )
i understand that you may be afraid to give up such a gift, but i find it counter to the spirit of openmindedness that this forum is suposed to convey that you call my beliefs 'completly ridiculous and over rated.'
BLACKSTAFF
Hi, thanks so much for talking. i use blood mainly for boosting the power of my ceremony. For example i will use it to draw out the runes i need for a spell or to empower a candle prior to burning or to write something out on parchment for a burning spell, things like that. i don't really focus on the pain, just the gift that i am giving, to me pain is just sensation, no different from any other. Its just your body's way of talking to you. Thank you for illistrating the point that i was trying to make earlier; that you have learned to diciplin your mind to work without tools and you have learned about safety and sterility BEFORE attempting to work with blood, that's just what i was trying to say. Hope to talk to you again soon!