cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/887096
I mean anything like cursed or lucky objects, ghosts, etc?
Figured it's the spooky season and I don't know too many people irl to talk to about the supernatural without discovering q-level brainworms.
I'll comment in the thread with my answer.
No. I think belief in the supernatural is just an expression of a lack of satisfaction with the world or one's own life.
I played baseball and now I do santería maybe there's a correlation there, are there grifters in magick spaces? Yes but there grifters everywhere. Just like there's shitty people everywhere who take advantage of others in religion you will also find that in these spaces.
Pre game rituals are a real thing and even though I know logically they have no impact, they definitely help to settle the nerves, to perform a set routine before doing something important.
I'm of the opinion that the supernatural is an invention of the human mind, in that I don't believe in the supernatural superceding experimental conditions, but I also respect that that these beliefs interact with human behavior and society.
Like, I don't believe that voodoo has an invisible supernatural ability to control others, but I believe in its power amongst humans beings. If everyone around you gasps and backs away because of a "curse" laid upon you, it might as well be real in the interpersonal realm.
Most of us over on c/paganism believe in various forms of magic and/or spirits. I'd be happy to answer any questions you have over there, not going into anything here because the rest of this site can get ridiculously hostile to pagans or anyone who believes in the super natural.
Honestly, from someone who knows little about paganism, I haven't read much about it (obviously) and I'm afraid that I would be rude or unknowingly disrespectful. It's like I feel I need to fully research a thing before I can talk to people about it.
But I have a chance to talk to chill people who get social anxiety and other common interests. What better place to start? I'll start looking at c/paganism. Thanks for the invite!
Looking into paganism can be a bit tricky at first. Trying to separate out the grifters and the tiktok witches from actual practitioners isn't always easy if you don't know what you're looking at. But we're always down to have legit questions and discussion on our com. Even really basic questions are fine, a lot of people are almost totally unfamiliar with what pagans are actually like.
Yea many have been hostile to me here just for the mere mention of astrology. It's concerning to me because sometimes what people consider magic can be what BIPOC do when they want to get in touch with their roots, some of the practices come from indigenous or religious or cultural roots.
"Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence."
I have seen no evidence for the existence of the supernatural, but sometimes I hope there might be a hell, just to think of all the shit-bag oligarchs it would be full of.
No, but belief is a powerful thing and can transform the way one experiences the world. For better or worse. Personally, I think leftism could use a bit of spirituality to it with the understanding that each of us live in an objective world but experience it through our own mythology. Learning how ritual works within the confines of science doesn't need to inhibit belief if we'd all understand there's a story living inside of each us which we can interact with through ritual and woo.
Reposting what I coincidentally wrote yesterday:
Well, a properly scientific view is not dogmatically opposed to concepts that are culturally associated with mysticism. The CPC made a point to investigate and for a time even promoted qi stuff before they felt certain it was nonsense and rejected it. If something under the umbrella of "magic" can observably produce change in the material world, demonstrate it! Such a thing would almost certainly be useful.
The problem is that many new-age pagans take on their "beliefs" about magic as essentially a roleplay: they know deep down it doesn't work but proclaim that it does because the social mindset of it working is somehow involved in its actual use as what amounts to a therapeutic religious practice. There is more in common with Tumblr moon witches and qanon posters than either group would like to admit.
The moon witches are less on Twitter now. Would you have preferred I say tiktok? I am less familiar with those
Look, like I said, Tumblr is like one of two places with a noticeable community of mostly young people having made up politics centered on literal magic (along with tiktok). There's plenty of figurative idolatry, astrology, etc. on Twitter, but the literal segment sharply decreased (at least in visibility) since Elon fucked the platform and wacko reactionaries became the norm. On the other hand, my whole point is that these Tumblr communities have a significant amount in common with the traditionally 4chan centered qanon, reading tea leaves about secret events that absolutely just aren't happening as a way of feeling hopefully engaged in a made-up political reality.
What do you want me to do? Pretend the witches are on Facebook? You'll find more Q boomers there if anything.
Religion shouldn’t interfere with the realm of medicine, it shouldn’t promote cishet supremacy, it shouldn’t promote racism, most types of nationalism, like region has a lane it needs to stay in and most importantly they shouldn’t be making any fucking money.
If the supernatural existed then it would just be a poorly understood natural.
Same with magic. Anything magical is pretty much defined by not existing in my view because if it did, it would just be science. Is it really a meaningful difference between pouring a bunch of "magic potion" ingredients together to cure a disease vs pouring a bunch of "science chemical" ingredients together to cure a disease?
Tbf there are some quantum mechanics things that might qualify then.
no, lmao
and youre kinda weird if you do. spice of life i guess
i think most creepy/cryptid stuff can just be summed up by animals having genetic issues
Anything that actually happens is by definition not supernatural. I believe there are things we don't understand yet and might never understand fully, but that's because we don't know enough about the thing in question not because of some exception to cause and effect.
I get bullied a lot on hexbear.lib for this opinion but yes.
I generally follow a Jungian idea of magic. Are these archetypes just part of the human mind or are they some sort of eternal structure that existed before humanity and will exist long afterward? I think the question is meaningless. Look up at the sky, does Apollo drive the sun across the sky, or is it a product of nuclear fusion sending electromagnetic radiation to the Earth? Science would rightfully say the latter. But is the fact that it can be explained by a careful physical dance of atoms make the sun any less of a god?
It still brings warmth, light, and allows all life to exist on this earth. Does the fact that its not some human intelligence make it any less worthy of worship? Why does reincarnation necessitate an eternal soul? Every idea and experience that makes up me will eventually re-form into a different human, perhaps it already has and I'm just the nth such combination.
There is still just as much magic and god in the world as there was 6000 years ago. People just think that because it's not some conscious human-level intelligence its no longer divine.
