An ancient tradition, going back to prehistoric times, linking kingship to the Divine, the land, and the people. Just as crops “die” to help make the land fertile for the next crops, the Divine or Sacred King would be sacrificed at the end of his reign or during a crisis. The concept was popularized by James Frazer in The Golden Bough and picked up by many other authors and Pagans. In some modern Pagan traditions, when a High Priest steps down from the role he is symbolically killed and replaced, indicating that the older HP’s wisdom is maintained by the newer ritualist.