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"Superstition brings bad luck."

This is at the top of felch grogan's profile page here on Atheist Nexus. It makes me laugh, even though I don't believe in luck.

As an ex-Neo-Pagan, it blows my mind how many people who fall under the Neo-Pagan umbrella (Neo-Druids, Wiccans, Heathens, Asatru, etc...) come from one religion with an entire set of superstitions, only to become Neo-Pagan and exchange them for an entirely new set of superstitions, or even to add them to the superstitions they already have.

Unfortunately, I was one of those people. One of these days I'll post about how I went from being a baby, newly born with no indoctrination; to my years of self-delusion; finally to atheism. I literally studied astrology (among other things) for 20+ years. I feel like I have a lot of catching up to do educating myself in useful studies.

I knew someone once who had to throw the I-Ching before they made any decision. I wonder if they ended up with carpal tunnel syndrome. Then there are people who make offerings to the "fey", and I'm thinking... I'll bet that would be put to better use at a soup kitchen.

That's just the tip of the iceberg.

Any stuporstitions that you used to believe, but have thrown off?

Tags: cultural appropriation, deep psychology, neo-druid, neo-pagan, neo-pagans, occult, superstition, wiccan, woo woo

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Prog Rock Girl on June 3, 2010 at 9:23am

I also went to some pagan festivals where, among other vendors, there were vendors selling fur, including the furs of arctic foxes. Maybe there is something I don't know about not all fur trading being as terrible as what you hear of...but still, that rather horrified me.

Permalink Reply by Prog Rock Girl on June 2, 2010 at 11:56pm

I think my experience was about the same as yours, Allison. I'd long ago realized that the people I can stand the least are ones who tell you "you create your own reality" as you're saying you have horrible luck with relationships, jobs, whatever. Reading the Secret I thought it was offensive and one of the worst books I'd ever read...but I also realized it was essentially the same beliefs, that you have to already believe the spell or whatever is working.

It boils down to another explanation of life being fair. Some Law of Attraction believer didn't see how this was so, but the LOA says that people get what they want, and if someone has horrible luck it is because they want it and are attracting it. Therefore, life is fair.

I psyched myself into believing that some spells, divination, etc, worked, but when I think about it, none of them did. I didn't talk about quite how ineffective they were b/c I figured my pagan friends would just think it was my fault, or that I didn't have powers, whatever. I saw the same things that you did; people claimed that their spells worked, they went through transformations, etc, but they still had the same old drama they'd always had, and were exactly the same screwed up people. Most of all, no matter how many intercovenal healing spells people did, everyone still hated each other, but wouldn't admit it!

Permalink Reply by Little Name Atheist on June 3, 2010 at 8:56am

Most of all, no matter how many intercovenal healing spells people did, everyone still hated each other, but wouldn't admit it!

Heh. I wonder if the Witch Wars are still raging?