What do a Balkan legend about a woman buried alive in a castle wall, a Roman human sacrifice under the Forum, a Celtic monk buried on a Scottish island, and a Japanese human pillar have in common? They all tell the same story about how civilizations have always believed that something living has to go into the ground before something great can be built on top of it.

In this episode of Faithful Fireside, we dig into the ancient practice of foundation sacrifices across cultures and time periods, from Eastern Europe and Rome to medieval Scotland and feudal Japan. We also explore how that same pattern shows up today in the modern workplace, where bureaucracies demand their own kind of sacrifice from team leads, workers, and interns who get buried under compliance, meetings, and meaningless tasks so that the rest of the team can thrive.

We ...