Superstition & Fear
"Knock on wood!" Yes, I admit it, I do it all the time. It’s become habit I guess. I never leave cupboard doors open either, if you do, people will gossip about you. Spilled salt is thrown over the left shoulder with the right hand to keep the negative away.
For some, black cats represent good luck, not bad. Some people never develop a fear of the number 13, to them, it’s a favorite number. Hammer three nails in the shape of a triangle on your door for protection, or place an amulet in a tree outside.
A strategically placed Mojo Bag under the porch or a "Witch Bottle" under the kitchen sink works too. Even egg shells have a purpose. Mostly these things are done to protect home and family and to bring prosperity.
I like doing many of these little things myself, I feel as though I'm taking steps to improve my life and "luck." I like taking action. My choice has generally been to not leave my fate in the hands of others, or even in a god. I'm less the “sit in the pew & be told what to do” type and more the mad scientist. When I think of these little things, these reminders, and participate, it just feels right to me.
Taking action and making otherwise mundane moments really mean something is helpful to me. I can only speak to my own experience as to the reasons that I live the way I do, I wouldn't presume to speak for anyone else.
I can say that most often, my choices go against the “normal” flow of things, and that can be a challenge. One thing that helps, that reminds me to pay attention, are these little “superstitions” that I have, these small actions that I take. None of them are driven by fear, in point of fact, there is absolutely no fear involved, only ways to deal with it, to be stronger than it.
To me it makes no sense at all to associate fear with superstition. There are so many ways to look at superstitions, so many ways to define them and different choices to make with regard to them. It can be found in some dictionaries broken down to Super meaning "above" and station, which is allegedly the Latin for "to stand."
In that breakdown, we get “stand above” or “stand over.” I haven’t found a Latin dictionary that has that word though, and how it came to be associated with other current definitions is beyond me, since most current definitions mention “irrational fear” and “ignorance.”
If it does mean to stand over, it’s good that it’s generally not the ignorant mind that can "stand over" anything. It could suggest living an examined life, standing over things, contemplating them and putting thought before action. Still, if you peruse various dictionaries and the definitions they provide of the word “superstition,” you will see words like irrational, ignorant and unreasonable, why? I suppose it's like anything else, a choice.
In a nutshell, I guess it's clear that I think superstition, despite the random oddness and variance of definitions, can be productive as a motivating factor should one make that choice. I suppose that's because I have my own way to incorporate it as well as my responses to it. The words irrational, ignorant and unreasonable are not any part of the way I blend mystery, fun and empowerment through action into my life.
Science has attempted to figure out whether or not there is any legitimacy to superstition, more than likely to figure out a way to market the diagnonsense and the pill that would go along with it. B.F. Skinner was able to trigger what could only be described as a “superstitious response” in pigeons with one of his experiments. Are humans smarter than pigeons? Sometimes I wonder.
At any rate, I’ll continue to throw salt over my left shoulder and keep my cupboard doors closed, among other things. It’s all about being active in my own life, in my own growth. No one can do it for you and sometimes you have to work with little.
In this case, a little can go a long ass way.
"Ritual is to the internal sciences what experiment is to the external sciences."
-Timothy Leary