Amulets

Superstitions, talismans, controlling the future

I will start out letting you know I am superstitious. Not in the same way that my parents and grandparents were, but superstitious nonetheless. No I am not afraid of a black cat, a broken mirror, or a crack in the sidewalk. I am not afraid of halloween, and don’t believe in a world to come. I do believe in evil though. Real evil. Evil that lives in the human soul. An evil where we need to find some kind of protection.

Life is a dichotomy, as I have said before. If there is good there is evil. It is simple. I suppose the Bible/Torah talks about this all the time. It is in the most basic story of the Garden of Eden. Eating the fruit from the tree of knowledge allowed Adam and Eve to perceive good and evil. Now, being the cynic that I am, I was always mystified that somehow understanding the difference is what led G-d to be angry at them.

Of course it’s because they didn’t listen to G-d, in much the same way that children don’t listen to a parent, so there has to be some kind of punishment. Today we take away the phone or ground them. But we don’t generally throw them out of the house. (Tough parenting or not, most people will not leave their children to the vagaries of the world without their support.)

So G-d sending Adam and Eve out into a world that was evil seems a bit hash to me. I would also have thought that by understanding the difference between good and evil, they would then know what is evil and then do good. What is wrong if they had been taught the differences? Think about it. Evil existed in the Garden of Eden or the snake/serpent/satan would not have been able to tempt Eve. In fact, by not arming Eve and Adam with the knowledge of good versus evil G-d basically set them up for failure.

So, the punishment of banishment was for not listening to a dad who didn’t do the basic job of parenting. Kinda harsh don’t you think?

Children who can think and reason, don’t just listen to a parent because they are a parent. Throughout history society had taught that children needed to listen to parents or they go to hell or there would be some horrible consequence. Most may have listened. But it is also human nature to strike out on your own and think for yourself. Those who disobeyed were the ones who furthered humanity. They saw beyond the box, they colored outside the lines. They were inquisitive and thirsted for the knowledge of why.

But moreover, being tempted is part of human nature. If you don’t arm your children with the knowledge on how to combat temptation, then they will fail. As Adam and Eve failed. (PS I also think it’s quite the patriarchal bullshit that somehow Eve was solely to blame. That she convinced Adam to eat from the fruit. Apparently, Adam was gigantic loser who couldn’t think for himself. If men are so stupid that they can be coerced by a coy smile and have no brains then they really should not be in control of society should they? If men don’t have strength of character then whatever they come up with is diminished in its effectiveness. Maybe another reason to think that the patriarchy should really be dismantled. Hmmmmmm, just a thought.)

If you want your children to know right from wrong, you need to teach them. It is not something inherent in human nature.

Meanwhile, the world is filled with evil. The Bible/Torah also teaches us about angels and demons. The dichotomy once again that balances the world. If there is good there is evil. Not sure why that is, but that is how things are set up. Not sure why it is even necessary. If G-d had set up the world, what was his reason to create evil? What did he hope to obtain by making life so difficult for human beings? Are we forever supposed to be punished for the failings of 2 people who lived how many millennia (thousands of generations) ago? Now granted the Bible/Torah teaches us that the sins of the parents are visited upon the children, but for how many generations? How long does the punishment have to last?

The Bible/Torah also says that as punishment for enticing Adam to eat from the tree of knowledge, women forever will have to give birth in pain. I think whoever came up with that is a complete jackass. Think about it. Men who interpreted G-d’s word have decided that women are to be punished for Eve eating the apple forever (and no I don’t think G-d wrote the Bible/Torah, I think it was written down from oral stories which had been passed down generation after generation by scribes in the court of David). I guess it never dawned on these mavens that eventually women might just decide to stop having children because it was so painful. Granted in much of human history women may have not had the choice to not give birth, but apparently today we do. Now how’s that going for society?

So over time, humanity has confronted evil in many ways. Superstition is one way that humanity came up with in order to deal with things they had not other way of parsing. You could say that superstition was the way of handling issues when science was not abundant and when humanity had no way of understanding the world around them. But as science has progressed, and it tends to slowly make sense of our world, the question is why does superstition prevail?

I think it is a simple answer.

Superstition gives us control. Superstition gives us succor. It tells us if we follow some simple rules, perhaps evil will not prevail in our little worlds. If we pray to an unseen omnipotent deity (and yes I see this as a kind of superstition), if we carry amulets, if we follow the stars then we will be able to guide our own destiny rather than our lives being left to the unpredictability of mother nature. Perhaps if we hold onto things that are said to bring light, we will find a way to forestall the darkness.

Superstition is also a way to deal with tragedy. It is a way to process things that are unfathomable to the average person. If we create certain rituals, and maintain them then good things will happen. We see this with athletes who wear a certain pair of underpants to play a game, people with a rabbit’s foot, or a special pen to sign a check. There are any untold number of ways that we project luck onto inanimate objects so that we can control the uncontrollable. This gives us assurances that maybe just maybe the vagaries of life can be controlled.

We have the khamsa (muslim), the hand of G-d (Yad or hamseh in hebrew), hand of Fatima/Miriam (christian version), swan (hindu). We use it to protect ourselves from the evil eye- ayin hara. Jews will add the word chai (meaning life) to their hamseh, muslims will add a blue stone (this comes from the crusades because the crusaders had blue eyes, so to ward off evil they also paint their doors blue). You will also see alot of blue stones made to look like eyes to ward off evil as well. Meanwhile, Italians wear a horn, and paint their front doors red to ward off the evil eye. Chinese and Hindu brides wear red, not white, for good luck, prosperity and happiness. Every society has its own traditions in trying to protect itself from the undetectable.

When I was little, my mother would tie a red ribbon to my crib, this was supposed to ward off the devil as well. The red string of kabbalah is also worn to ward off evil.

Humanity has also invented many ways to deal with the future as well. There is the tarot, astrology, omens, runes and a belief in Nostradamus. A man who hundreds of years ago, could look into a pool of water and come up with the future. (My friend told me her sister read that 2025 will be the end of the world because it is written in Nostradamus. Like many feared that the Mayan calendar was also the end of the world. I told her then I won’t have to worry about paying my mortgage. So not going to worry about it. ) Throughout history we have had seers and oracles. There were prophets and magicians.

Astrological columns are some of the most widely read. What is it about the stars that we think the vast universe has some kind of message that it wants to give us. Why would the universe care what happens to us in our lives? Have you seen the size of the universe? We are a little dot, in the vast Milky Way Galaxy in a universe with thousands upon thousands of galaxies. But for some reason the stars want to send us, and us alone a message.

But we need this to be the case.

The unknown frightens us.

So we try to exert some kind of control.

The arcana of the tarot is supposed to tell us what will become of us as well. It is there to help us make sound choices, as if relying on playing cards is the answer to all our problems. It’s the magic eight ball of the middle ages .

Yes, that magic eight ball, or the ouija board. Interesting toys developed with the idea of human nature and its attachment to prognostication. We want to have easy ways to find answers to questions, or even talk to those who have died (Spiritualism was really a big thing in the 19th century too. Speaking to the dead is a really big business to this day.)

(And yes, I really liked the show Charmed- the original one (the reboot was ok, just not great)- which was based on the 3 sisters using a ouija board.)

As I said, I am superstitious.

There are hamseh’s throughout my house. Some with the word chai on them, others painted blue. I have blue evil eye stones in one room of the house (presents from a friend who had gone on a trip to Turkey). On my wrist is a red string, with a hamseh, Star of David and the Shema (the watchword of the Jewish faith) etched into the lining. (And yes, I also have mezuzahs through the home as well. We are commanded afterall to place the Shema on every doorpost. And yes, in many ways that too is superstitious, seeking G-d’s protection, but for us it is also a way to show the world that this is a Jewish home.)

There is so much in life that simply is out of our hands. Superstitions give us comfort.

Superstitions provide a modicum of control in a world that in a split second can be turned upside down.

TODAY 3 HOSTAGES CAME HOME. BUT FOR THE REST IT IS DAY 471 OF THE HOSTAGES BEING HELD IN THE TERROR DUNGEONS OF GAZA 🎗️

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