Willamena
08-12-2005, 20:58
When I was a kid, I used to be wary of walking down the sidewalk. Step on a crack, and you'll break your mother's back, someone had told me (probably my mother). I loved my mother very much, and I certainly didn't want to harm her. Of course, I quickly figured out that it wasn't true --there had been numerous occasions when, in my ignorance of this law, I had stepped on cracks, and my mother was just fine. Still, no sense in taking chances... and because it was fun, I'd step between the cracks. Eventually, I got to wondering where this "law" comes from.
This is the concept that most people have of superstition: some thing or action that will bring good or bad luck, good or bad events. Inherent in this concept is an attitude of fatalism that says that if certain rituals are or are not performed, universal magical forces will manipulate circumstances to produce this luck. Fatalism isn't the biggest problem superstition has incorporated, though. There is also an inherent expectation of superstition that is entirely taken for granted in our modern-day world: that is, that the "magic" that is a part of the universe should work the same, equally, for all. Like so.
In some parts of England, it is thought that tea leaves scattered in front of the house will ward off evil spirits and protect the family that lives there. Similarly, some people believe that if loose leaf tea is accidentally dropped in the house it will bring good luck.
When brewing a pot of tea, all sorts of things can happen. If the lid of the pot is inadvertently left off, then a stranger will call at the house. If you forget to put the tea into the pot before pouring on the boiling water, it is a very bad omen indeed. If you make the tea too weak, you will lose the friendship of someone close to you. If you brew it too strong, you will make a new friend. And it is very unlucky to stir the tea in the pot - if you do you will certainly quarrel with someone.
http://www.teamuse.com/article_001101.html
My purpose here is not to present all sides of what superstition is, but one specific archaic interpretation that stands apart from the modern definition of superstition, and that leads to a (perhaps) surprising conclusion: the real misunderstanding of superstitious omen comes when people expect that these rituals are supposed to apply to anyone other than the single individual for whom the omen presents itself. They are not.
According to Mirram-Webster, the word superstition comes from Middle English supersticion, from Middle French, from Latin superstitio, from superstes which means "standing over (as witness or survivor)". The witness is the individual with a unqiue perspective on the unfolding of events. The meaning (significance) of the omen is apparent only to them as an entirely subjectively determinable phenonmenon. The survivor is the person who has experienced an event, past tense. The superstitious person, then, is the one who attributes significant meaning to the outcome of an event that they participated in, meaning that is significant only for them. If you brew tea too strongly, will you make a new friend? If you step on a crack, will you break your mother's back? Of course not. That these things had significance to one person, once, doesn't mean it will happen to you. It only makes for a superstitious event for that one person.
There is magic in the world, but it doesn't come from without, from universal forces; it comes from within. The magic here is this superstition --it is our ability to assign meaning to things, to participate in external events, not in a physical way but by placing ourselves in relationship to them. Assigning meaning associating the event to ourselves, meaning pertaining to ourselves, is the means of doing that.
Seen in this new light, and through adult eyes, superstition has lost a lot of its fear-inspiring connotation. Surely we have nothing to fear from something as innocuous as personal meaning assigned to events. Stepping on cracks will not break mum's back, but I feel for the fellow who started it all.
This is the concept that most people have of superstition: some thing or action that will bring good or bad luck, good or bad events. Inherent in this concept is an attitude of fatalism that says that if certain rituals are or are not performed, universal magical forces will manipulate circumstances to produce this luck. Fatalism isn't the biggest problem superstition has incorporated, though. There is also an inherent expectation of superstition that is entirely taken for granted in our modern-day world: that is, that the "magic" that is a part of the universe should work the same, equally, for all. Like so.
In some parts of England, it is thought that tea leaves scattered in front of the house will ward off evil spirits and protect the family that lives there. Similarly, some people believe that if loose leaf tea is accidentally dropped in the house it will bring good luck.
When brewing a pot of tea, all sorts of things can happen. If the lid of the pot is inadvertently left off, then a stranger will call at the house. If you forget to put the tea into the pot before pouring on the boiling water, it is a very bad omen indeed. If you make the tea too weak, you will lose the friendship of someone close to you. If you brew it too strong, you will make a new friend. And it is very unlucky to stir the tea in the pot - if you do you will certainly quarrel with someone.
http://www.teamuse.com/article_001101.html
My purpose here is not to present all sides of what superstition is, but one specific archaic interpretation that stands apart from the modern definition of superstition, and that leads to a (perhaps) surprising conclusion: the real misunderstanding of superstitious omen comes when people expect that these rituals are supposed to apply to anyone other than the single individual for whom the omen presents itself. They are not.
According to Mirram-Webster, the word superstition comes from Middle English supersticion, from Middle French, from Latin superstitio, from superstes which means "standing over (as witness or survivor)". The witness is the individual with a unqiue perspective on the unfolding of events. The meaning (significance) of the omen is apparent only to them as an entirely subjectively determinable phenonmenon. The survivor is the person who has experienced an event, past tense. The superstitious person, then, is the one who attributes significant meaning to the outcome of an event that they participated in, meaning that is significant only for them. If you brew tea too strongly, will you make a new friend? If you step on a crack, will you break your mother's back? Of course not. That these things had significance to one person, once, doesn't mean it will happen to you. It only makes for a superstitious event for that one person.
There is magic in the world, but it doesn't come from without, from universal forces; it comes from within. The magic here is this superstition --it is our ability to assign meaning to things, to participate in external events, not in a physical way but by placing ourselves in relationship to them. Assigning meaning associating the event to ourselves, meaning pertaining to ourselves, is the means of doing that.
Seen in this new light, and through adult eyes, superstition has lost a lot of its fear-inspiring connotation. Surely we have nothing to fear from something as innocuous as personal meaning assigned to events. Stepping on cracks will not break mum's back, but I feel for the fellow who started it all.