My Journal #2

Superstitious

What is superstitious and what does it mean to me?

I am not superstitious. I've been aware if the phenomenon since I began to read scary stories. Most are based on fear. I found this in Wikipedia  Greek and Roman polytheists, who modeled their relations with the gods on political and social terms, scorned the man who constantly trembled with fear at the thought of the gods, as a slave feared a cruel and capricious master. Such fear of the gods was what the Romans meant by "superstition" (Veyne 1987, p. 211).
With this thought in mind we can safely say most superstitions are based on fear of retaliation.

There is also the fear of the unknown. The fear of black cats is based on the fact in Bible times warns not to have anything to do with witches or their familiars. At the time witches kept cats as pets so the two were the same. From then on Black cats were avoided. If by some circumstance a bad event happened after a black cat cross their path, it reinforced the superstition.

Fear is what drives superstition. Fear of failure. That's why sport stars will go through a ritual to ensure the do they same thing and it will bring good luck in their game. However we know someone has to lose. What does that tell the more rational people about rituals?

The segue to rituals just brings us back to religion. Most religions have their traditions and customs. Some are based on doctrine others on man made traditions. Its the doctrine of God and Jesus we must up hold. It is in direct conflict with superstition. Jesus is the fear breaker. He doesn't want fear in the sense of retribution. When His word says Fear it means respect, uphold and honor.  I know the power of an ocean waves. I love to run right at the base of a wave while its building and hunch down. When the wave breaks on the sand behind me I push up into the water and pop out in the safe zone and lit it take me back to shore. However once I wasn't paying attention. I wasn't dressed for swimming and my interest was picking up shells. A wave broke right at my feet and knocked me over rolling me in the sand and the grit. That never happened to me again. The result was the worst 3 mile walk back to the car I've ever had to endure.
I have a fear of the ocean. I'm not afraid of it nor am I superstitious of its power.