Lately, I've been hitting up against some major superstitions in the spiritual community. By lately, I mean in the last three or four years. Most of them I had never heard of before moving away from the East Coast. Some are downright strange and others make my head want to go "Scanners." It has gotten me thinking lately about even the more run of the mill superstitions that people have. So I'd like to address a few, giving my personal opinion. Let's start with run of the mill.
1. You must never speak ill of the dead. Really? What about Ted Bundy? John Wayne Gacy? Charles Starkweather? Jeffery Dahmer? Should we call them stand up guys because they're all dead? Let's take it a step further. Stalin. Hitler. Pol Pot. Bin Laden. Yeah, let's change the history books to not say anything bad about them because they're dead.
If you were evil in life, why shouldn't someone mention that evil in death? What's going to happen? You're going to get a strike with whatever deity you believe in, because you didn't say nice things about raging sociopaths? We should feel sorry for them because they're dead? It reminds me of being a young child and seeing Moms Mabley on some show. She said, "They say you shouldn't say nothin' about the dead unless it's good. He's dead. Good!"
That about sums it up for me when talking about someone who was hideous in life.
2. Opening an umbrella indoors is bad luck. OK, I can sort of see this if it's a small room. You could take someones eye out. Also, opening it before you try to get out the door can lead to the umbrella breaking. However, the Dictionary of Superstitions published in 1989 by Oxford University Press claims the superstition is if you open it indoors and hold it over your head, someone in the house will die before the year is out. This is very silly. I would think people would be over this one by now. If you have a house with a storm porch, think of the number of times you have left an open umbrella there to dry. That is technically indoors. Think of all the old Hollywood movies filmed on a sound stage where umbrellas were called for in a scene. Not all movies had the budget of "Singing In The Rain" where they could take an outdoor back-lot set and cover it with tarps and stick sprinklers in those tarps. However, doesn't that technically make the outdoor setting an inside setting? Chances are, you don't want to open an umbrella in the house because it is large enough to break something. This is one I had to try out as a child. No one in my house died for years upon years. So it's very silly.
3. Step on a crack and you break your mother's back. How many mothers have had to endure their children stepping on cracks and announcing it proudly? My mother always thought we wanted her dead when we did that. Nope. It was a 6 year-old foray into scientific inquiry. It occurred to me that it was easy to not step on a crack if it was a well-maintained sidewalk. But what about sidewalks where trees are growing up and cracking them, in terrible disrepair, to the point where crumbling is the next step? While I'd like to think that this superstition started as a way to tell kids to watch their steps on dangerous sidewalks, the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry gives a racist origin.
4. If you count the cars in a funeral procession, that's how many years you have left to live. Cool! The last funeral procession where I counted the cars, (it occurs to me I haven't seen one since I moved to my current city,) had over 120 cars in it. Not to mention the police escorts. That was about three years ago, so I've got at least 117 years left! I never did find out who they were burying that day as I sat at a bus stop and watched the procession. I'd like to think they were all friends and family of the deceased and not people who wanted to make sure that person was dead. That said, this is a silly superstition. I've been counting cars in processions since childhood, when I was first told it was a bad thing to do. If this superstition held up, I would have been dead by 15. However, I must insist on living another 120 years, thank you.
5. It's bad luck to put shoes on a table or a bed. I can sort of get behind this one. I don't want your shoes that have been outside stepping in who knows what on my table where I eat. Ever hear of cross-contamination? I also don't want your skanky shoes on my bed where I sleep. Who knows what germs are on them? This superstition is associated with both death and bad luck. Back when it started in the Dark Ages, no one knew about bacteria or anything of the sort. So you've been out all day cleaning the stables, come home and stick your boots on the table to clean them and then eat dinner off the table, yeah, you were definitely risking the galloping crud. I don't consider this one to be bad luck as much as I do bad hygiene. Also, cobblers have tables where they work to create the shoes. I've never heard of a time in history where all the cobblers in the world suddenly died from having their work on their tables.
6. A black cat crossing your path is bad luck. What if you own a black cat? It will cross your path on a daily basis. There is an old saying about all cats being black in the dark. So if you're walking at night on an ill lit sidewalk or road, you have no idea what color that cat is, as it's going to appear black. No one seems to be sure where this rumor started. However, in Japan it's considered good luck and gamblers will use Black Cat Oil to try to increase their luck. So this is definitely one where your culture plays a role. Having two ten month old kittens, I have to say, when a kitten crosses your path, chances are it's to see if they can knock you over. Especially if she's a calico.
7. Thirteen is an unlucky number. This seems to have its roots in both Norse and Christian lore. Loki was the thirteenth, uninvited guest at a dinner and Balder ended up dead. There were thirteen at the last supper and Jesus ended up dead. People still believe this is an unlucky number. Buildings are still being built with no 13th floor. Well, the 13th floor is actually marked as the 14th floor. Like it or not if your room is on that floor, you are only fooling yourself if you suffer from triskaidekaphobia. People have been mocking this myth for at least 200 years. The Society of Eccentrics had their first Friday the 13th dinner in the 1780s. The Thirteen Club had their first dinner in 1894 and opened umbrellas at the dinner, put 13 at a table, invited bad luck. These dinners have been revived, no harm seems to happen to anyone who attends, yet the superstition remains.
8. Walking under a ladder is bad luck. Well, yes and no. Look up before walking under a ladder. If someone is up there with a can of paint or a nail gun, it might be in your best interests to walk around it. If someone is up there in general, it's a good idea to walk around it, as you don't want it to be bad luck for that person if you tip it over. But if nothing is going to fall on your head and you're not going to strand someone on the roof if you tip the ladder, go for it. Nothing will happen to you.
Those are just a few general bad luck superstitions. If I went on, we'd be here for weeks. There are equally silly superstitions in the spiritual community. Here are a few of them.
1. Never buy your own tarot cards, it's bad luck. I had never heard that one before a few years ago, when I moved to the Lower Midwest for a few years. But everyone seemed to believe that. Which led me to investigate why people believe something that silly. From what I can gather, it dates to when the anti-witchcraft and anti-fortune telling laws were in effect in various places. So while certain stores would sell cards, the owner could be arrested for selling to an undercover cop. If you wanted a deck, you needed to know someone who knew someone. Who would take you to the store, buy you the deck and then present it to you as a gift. That way, the store knew you were cool and not a narc. That is one story I've heard and the most plausible. My feelings on the subject are, it's only bad luck if you believe it. These days, the choices aren't nearly as limited as 70 years ago, which seems to be about how far back that superstition goes. You need a deck that speaks to you in some way. A deck you are drawn to. What if you're drawn to say Tarot of the Moon Garden, but your friends have convinced you of this rumor and insist on buying you your first deck and they get you the Necronomicon Tarot? Buy your own decks. It's not bad luck. If you can, find a shop where you can browse sample cards before buying. That way you will know if you are into that deck or not. Personally, if I waited for a deck to be gifted to me, I'd still be waiting.
2. An inverted pentacle is the sign of a Satanist and only bad, bad people wear them! Let me get this straight. You're claiming to be a high priestess in a traditional Wicca coven and you've never heard of second degree initiation? (When you're done explaining that, tell me more about how you managed to become an 18 year-old high priestess.) The inverted or upside down pentacle is used as a symbol of the second degree in Gardnerian and Alexandrian Wicca. It has to do with facing the darkness, so you don't become some fluffer-nutter who is so scared of the dark that all you can see is light at midnight during a blackout, because you've burnt out your retinas staring into the light for so long. It is a sign of balance. It represents the Horned God, who you claim to worship, but you can't get your mind to think outside of some 1980s hair band album cover. Considering the Horned God is supposed to represent logic, you fluffies who believe inverted = bad need to gather some logic. Because your insane rantings about Satan make you sound as crazy as fundamentalists who insist the Catholic Church is a Satanic organization because of the use of St. Peter's Cross.
3. Never burn a red candle and a black candle together! It will bring forth demons! The first time I heard this, I just thought the person who said it was being weird. Then I heard it a few more times. None of the people who have told me this can explain why then there are red and black double action candles, or why the traditional reversing candle is a red core, dipped in layers of black. These are used for unhexing. The use of red and black candles together is present in a number of traditions. I even had someone tell me once that I would bring forth Leviathan if I burned those colors together. When I pointed out to her that she didn't believe in biblical monsters, she hung up on me. For some reason, this color combination scares the crap out of certain pagans. I have heard everything from they will summon demons, even if that's not your intention; to both being negative colors!
If you need to reverse bad luck, don't freak out about the black and red double action and/or reversing candles. Keep in mind, they were around long before people started acting all weird about burning those colors together and they will exist for as long as candle magic is being done.
4. All psychics are lightworkers, whether they realize it or not! This is one that makes me want to slam my head into a wall or into the pavement, so I don't have to listen to the stupid. This seems to be part of the mix and match stuff people who follow whatever New Age thing that is trendy latch onto. Lightworker is a term that while according to the OED started being used in the 1800s, it really became popular through the I AM/Ascended Masters movement. From there, it has been twisted, reshaped and turned into something it is not. Some pages, such as Lightworker.org will tell you that EVERYONE is a lightworker, whether they know it or not. Yet other pages go on about darkworkers. There is no middle ground, just black and white, with no shades of gray or color in between. Most of what you find online will lead you places such as the St. Germain Society, which is the Guy Ballard founded Ascended Masters group, or to some UFO/doomsday cult, as they seem to be taking over the movement. Most of the UFO group sites will take you to the pages of people who believe Arcturus, a rogue red giant in our galaxy, is where we were all born and the aliens are going to come back to claim us. The simple fact Arcturus is a red giant makes that a bit impossible, as red giants cannot sustain life. The fate of our own sun in about 4.5 billion years will be to swell into a red giant and engulf the inner planets. So if there are any Arcturians out there on a space ship, they're lost in space at this point and I'm not sure Robot is there to scream at them, "danger!"
I openly admit, I am not a lightworker or a darkworker. I work in the center. I find to embrace only light or only dark to be incredibly unbalanced. Very little in life is as black and white as a newspaper. There are the shades of gray and the entire spectrum in between. As people have been moving away from using the terms white witch/black witch, white magic/black magic, the lightworker and darkworker seems to be taking their place. It galls me that people don't understand what it means, but insist on using the terms. If you belong to the I AM/Ascended Masters movement, then yes, you have the right to use these terms. But do NOT label those who don't belong to your movement, who don't believe in your "Source" and who are just living their lives as they see fit. I do wish some of you would stop staring into the light so constantly, you're going to burn out your retinas. Find a bit of balance, before you end up like one of the gurus of your movement, Elizabeth Clare Prophet. She spent her final years in that fortified compound in Montana, getting her followers to stockpile guns, because the world was ending. Sadly, too many of the groups out there now have taken up her doomsday scenario, instead of admitting to themselves she was suffering from dementia brought on by Alzheimer's.
5. Never use a Ouija board! It's evil! Eeeeeviiil! The Ouija board is made by Parker Brothers. It is a popular toy. I had one as a kid, so did most of my friends. We managed to scare ourselves with it, but we never brought forth demons, ghouls, poltergeists, etc. Use Google and you will find site after site, both fundamentalist Christian and pagan telling you never, ever use a Ouija board. There are horror movies based on the Ouija board. There are websites dedicated to people telling their horror stories about contacting something evil with the board.
At the same time, there are people who are designing their own boards, calling them witch boards or spirit boards. Some people can work the things, other people don't even realize they're moving the planchette. In most cases, someone is moving it unconsciously. How do I feel about the Ouija board? It's cardboard and plastic. You can make your own with a piece of paper and use a coin as a planchette. Do that and see how the answers you get are something you already knew, or something you're really hoping for, or really scared of. Basically, if you believe you're going to contact a spirit, you are going to move the planchette in a way where you convince yourself you are talking to a spirit. The same goes for demons, ghoulies, etc. If you don't believe me, watch this segment from Penn & Teller: Bullshit. Especially the part where they get the Hollywood tourists to use the board. See if you still believe it's pure evil after that. (Please note: If you are part of the fluffy love and light brigade who is going to watch that segment and get their noses out of joint for the snark thrown into the segment and the language Penn Jillette uses, or scream that they're bias because they're atheists, you are missing the point. It also says you put your beliefs over the beliefs or lack thereof of others. In other words, you choose to believe what you want to believe and aren't interested in any other side of the story or investigation. In which case, go find a cheerleader blog to read.)
6. You should never take money for readings, only gifts. Those who work in the spiritual field are meant to be poor. The very same people who will tell you this have no problem paying for a reading in a metaphysical supply shop. Or saving up to have a reading with someone like Sylvia Browne, who is far from poor and charges hundreds of dollars for a half hour reading. But if you work independently, you hear all the time about how you're not supposed to charge for your gifts. Christians will tell you it's against the Bible, Wiccans will tell you it's against the rules. And it is against Gerald Gardner's 161 Laws. However, admitting to practicing Wicca is also against the same rules. So to be running around wearing a pentacle the size of one of Flava Flav's clock necklaces, proclaiming to be more Wicca than thou while screaming it's evil to take money for a reading is cherry picking. I have heard people say, just tell clients like this that they're paying for your time, not the reading. But as this is a line that is used in the escort business, it's not something I'm going to say, because I don't feel I am a spiritual prostitute working as a reader. I provide a service and people pay me for that service. I actually had someone tell me once, it was OK for me to do it, because I wasn't making a lot of money. But it's bad for those who make money at it to do it. It is odd reasoning in my opinion. You are doing work and you are getting a wage for it.
Spiritual work takes a lot out of the person performing the work. It can leave you limp and listless for days, especially if that work is for a psychic vampire. Spiritual centers run almost completely on donations. So do a lot of churches. But I find it odd that people who say the smaller spiritual centers are supposed to be poor have no problem whatsoever with mega-churches. All in all, people expect those who do spiritual work to either marry well, or be like Cate Blanchette in "The Gift". In other words, both cases are Hollywood perceptions of those who do spiritual work. Then these same people make anyone who has written a feel-good book rich. It's fuzzy logic in my opinion.
I will say when getting spiritual work done, such as an egg cleansing, or getting a reading, it can definitely be a case of buyer beware. You need to go with your gut. Someone who is skilled with a cleansing isn't going to send you home with an egg to sleep with under your pillow and crack it open in a poorly lit room, slipping a piece of pumpernickel in to make it look like blood and a curse. Someone who is on the up and up isn't going to bilk you out of money to remove a curse either. Nor are they going to go on about Jesus and praying with them and getting offended if you tell them you're not Christian. You get my drift, I'm sure. On the other end of the spectrum, someone offering you real spiritual guidance isn't going to treat you like something they scraped off the bottom of their shoe if you are passing out and need to leave the sweat lodge. Keep in mind, just because someone claims to be poor or appears to be rich isn't a guide for how spiritual they are. If you really believed money was evil, you'd be spending more time listening to that homeless guy who spouts his philosophy to anyone who will listen over a man with his collar on backwards, or some self-help guru who has sold over 1,000,000 copies. The poverty mentality is a myth and one that has to disappear from the spiritual community.
7. Karma is going to get you! The western view of karma is not the original meaning of the word. While it has to do with cause and effect, it is not if you break up with that obsessed girl, you're going to get yours. Karma has nothing to do with her stalking you after the break up. As a matter of fact, as karma is a build up of deeds and actions from past lives and this life, that break up with her could very well be her paying for karma from a past life. If you live a life that seems cursed, if you believe in karma, you have to face the fact that you might not have been a very nice person in past lives and now you are paying the price. It does not mean that if your college roommate tends to steal your food, that roommate will be fat in ten years, because karma is going to get them. Or if some guy breaks up with you, karma will make sure all his future relationships are bad. Karma has some darker implications that we in the west really don't want to think about. Such as, if a child is born handicapped in some way, the eastern belief is that child has a karmic debt to pay. If you even suggest that in western culture, you are a bad, evil person. If your boyfriend beats you and you stay and put up with it, because you think he's your soulmate, well, soulmate indicates past lives with that person. Which means, as far as karma goes, you probably did something really bad to him in a past life, so you are being beaten by him now, because you deserve it. If you're poor and hungry and end up starving to death, that could mean you were the food stealing roommate in a past life. So we in the west have cleaned it up to mean you will get yours, if you act like a bastard. Because no one wants to deal with the idea that a child being beaten and starved and not allowed out of the basement is a victim of past life karma. Karma in its purest sense is kind of disturbing.
While in a way, karma is like Newton's Third Law of Motion, with past lives thrown in. Karma says we all get the lives we deserve. So yeah, karma does get you, but not in the way people in the west believe. According to karma, if you're suffering in this life through no fault of your own, you deserve it.
8. All followers of Norse Tradition/Heathenry are white supremacists. Um, yeah. And Anton LaVey was a theistic Satanist.
This is another one that makes me want to bang my head on my desk or into a wall. Yes, a good number of neo-Nazi groups have adopted Germanic Heathenry, as they feel, oh, who knows. The gods are all lily white? But while they're giving heathenry a bad name, there are groups out there trying to fight the racist label that the alarmists are giving the entire movement. I live in Southern New Mexico and I can tell you, there are a number of people of Mexican descent around here who are practicing heathenry and dangling Thor's hammer from their necks. A number of white supremacists are also Christian. Does that mean all of Christianity is a white power movement? There is a lot of misinformation out there. Even this site, which tends to defend religions, says Asatru is good, Odinism is racist. Sadly, there aren't enough pages like this, which seek to dispel that myth. There are minorities in heathenry. To say otherwise is an attitude born of ignorance.
9. All pagans are liberals. Which one might suppose, but it is far from the truth. There are quite a few conservatives in neo-paganism and even more who believe weird right-wing conspiracy theories. If you don't believe me, go to some public gathering near where you live and start talking about something like chemtrails or FEMA death camps, or your favorite conspiracy theory. You will be surprised at how many actually believe these things. You'd also be surprised at how many pagans on disability want to do away with social programs for everyone else. Or the ones who talk about altruism, but vote against any candidate who believes in it. Or who go on about protecting nature, but vote for candidates who want to end any and all regulations on businesses. While it boggles the mind when someone announces they are voting for a candidate who wants to turn this country into a Christian theocracy, it does happen. Usually among the group that feels income taxes are illegal. (Which they are not. Which they would know if they bothered to read the U.S. Constitution.)
I realize there are far more myths than these. If I were to write about all of them, I would be here a week. So those are the myths for this post.
