Psychology
Modern man, despite the cult of rationality, science and technology, holds on to the magical world no less reverently than primitive people. Sometimes this happens automatically, without reflection (inadvertently looking in the mirror when returning home for a forgotten thing), and sometimes it is a conscious choice, as, for example, in the case of religion .
If a person is able to rationally explain to himself the need for magic in his life, then this makes sense for him and his psyche. The main reason for craving for signs and magical rituals is a feeling of anxiety and uncertainty in life. There are things that we cannot control, such as whether our plane will crash or not, and this lack of control instills fear. Ritual actions help create the illusion of control, which lulls the psyche, and anxiety goes away.
The more alarming and exciting the event, the more dancing with tambourines around it: a wedding, a funeral, exams, a long journey. There are also purely professional signs that are common among people whose occupations involve great risks and responsibility. There are many superstitions among military personnel, athletes, extreme sports enthusiasts, and travelers.
Some signs are quite rational. The tradition of sitting on the path is a good opportunity to mentally scan the apartment before leaving and realize that you forgot your passport or left the iron on. If bird droppings land on your head, the thought of unexpected money lifts your spirits a little.
Signs are carefully adapted to modern times and meet the requirements of the current century. For example, there is a belief that you should not wash the floor or sweep immediately after a person leaves: if you notice his return path, he may not return. Nowadays, it is not recommended to vacuum cleaner - there is a risk of vacuuming the way home.
According to psychologist Marina Gudzenko, a person believes in God in an attempt to cope with the fear of death and the unknown:
“Faith in this sense is a very strong resource for a person. It is often possible to observe how people become religious during serious illnesses or other serious problems. A person is frightened by chaos, and it is difficult for him to accept that misfortune happened to him just like that. For example, if a person finds himself in a wheelchair, then the search for a higher purpose may lead to the fact that he should engage in charity and help other wheelchair users. This can qualitatively change your life: motivation and strength will appear instead of endless suffering. People whose illnesses have psychogenic causes may well, with strong faith, be healed by venerating relics and icons.”
Michaelmas
November 21 (November 8, old style) is traditionally celebrated as Michaelmas Day, when the Archangel Michael is honored. On this date, it is customary for churches to celebrate the Council of St. Michael and other ethereal Heavenly Powers. People call this holiday Michael's Day, or Michael's Mud, because according to signs on November 21 it gets warmer sharply and mud appears on the roads.
Archangel Michael was considered the patron saint of those in need, so today everyone, if possible, had to help the poor and disadvantaged - some with food, some with money, and some with a roof over their heads.
The morning of November 21 of every Christian began with a trip to church, where he had to light a candle for the health of the living and the repose of the dead. It is obligatory to serve a prayer service for recovery and salvation from troubles, for the preservation of the state, as well as for the strengthening of strength.
Approaches to the study of superstitions
Superstition is a belief in forces and laws of nature unknown to man, which positively or negatively influence people, animals and the whole world. Superstitions can be viewed as a psychological phenomenon through several approaches.
Cognitive approach
From the perspective of this approach, superstition is an attempt to comprehend the unknown and inexplicable. Superstitions are passed on from generation to generation through the psychological characteristics of the crowd: infection, imitation, suggestion. With the help of signs and superstitions, a person tries to gain control over the whole world. In this context, superstitions are the result of memory and imagination.
With the help of superstitions, people order the world around them. But the perception of ongoing events is too subjective and situational in nature, distorting the true mechanisms and features of the things that are happening.
He tries to explain everything that goes beyond the usual ideas and knowledge of a person with the help of supernatural forces, omens, superstitions, fortune telling, and astrology. Accordingly, we can say that the higher a person’s intellectual level, the less prone he is to prejudice. Knowing the world through superstition is a simplified form of knowledge that relies on clarity and avoids learning the world through abstract scientific concepts.
Psychoanalytic approach
Superstitions are the result of a person’s transference of true, but for some reason unsatisfying, motives for action to the outside world. It is based on a person’s needs and pleasures, which he wants to satisfy quickly and not on his own. Thus, within the framework of the psychoanalytic approach, superstitions are the result of a lack of knowledge and unfulfilled current needs.
Afterword
Superstition is the victory of emotions over reason. And one of the main driving forces is fear. This is blind faith that inhibits thinking. Prejudices are similar to superstitions:
- superstitions are an element of the structure of prejudices;
- prejudice is an erroneous perception of something caused by information imposed from outside (superstitions and signs).
Signs, superstitions, and prejudices relate to the psychology of the masses. This makes it difficult and impossible to completely eradicate beliefs. But it is possible and necessary to work with an individual person if superstitions interfere with his personal development and life, bordering on anxiety-phobic disorders and obsessiveness syndrome.
How to do it? Understand what function superstitions perform in this case. This will help you find the true reasons: lack of knowledge, fear, lack of self-confidence, personal problems and more. Next, you have to work to eliminate this cause and gain a sense of control over yourself and your life through internal resources and a logical, rational understanding of the world. Once you develop creative and positive thinking, superstitions will begin to fade into the background.
However, some signs and superstitions can be confirmed from the position of science, which is why they are still alive in the public consciousness. Read more about this in the article “10 signs that have a scientific explanation.”
Folk signs associated with dishes and household utensils
- According to popular beliefs, dishes should not only be given, but also taken. By borrowing it, you lose energy. And this can lead to unpleasant consequences.
- By taking someone else's dishes, and even those that have been used, you can capture someone else's negativity.
- What if she was spoken to? The consequences of conspiracy and damage are unpredictable: right up to your deathbed.
- And in this case, our ancestors still found a loophole: kitchen utensils can be taken, but they must be given back, filled with water - and, accordingly, cleaned.
Although, again, in the good Soviet times this sign was somehow forgotten.
Still, it will be better if you leave your spoons, forks, plates and mugs with you.
Just in case!
What not to do
- Wash your hair. It is believed that washing your hair on Michaelmas Day will erase your memory or worsen it tenfold.
- Do handicrafts and cleaning. These deeds are considered a sin on this bright holiday and can bring a lot of trouble to your home and family.
- Do evil and hurt others. Archangel Michael is the protector of the living, so he categorically does not like those who are capable of hurting their neighbor.
- Enter into conflicts and create scandals. A bright holiday should be filled with calmness and fun, a good atmosphere. Anger and conflict can bring disaster to the home.
Hurray, it worked!
Personally, I have never met a person to whom something mystical did not happen at least once. One of my friends met her future husband the day after she caught the bridal bouquet. Another one wished for the job she wanted while blowing out the candles on the cake, and a week later she went for a fateful interview. Moreover, once I myself described in detail on five A4 sheets the man of my dreams, burned the treasured list and scattered it over the crossroads. Everything matched, including name, height and profession.
However, psychologists have an explanation for this magic. There is a theory that when we dream about something, we send information to our own unconscious, which in turn analyzes the situation and leads us to make our fantasies come true. A simple example: a person wanted to eat a burger. He vividly imagines the warmth of a soft bun, the juice of a hefty meat patty... when suddenly he looks up and sees a restaurant serving burgers - piping hot. Or the girl is tormented by the question: should she have a child now? And then he meets two expectant mothers with impressive bellies on the street. This is called the selective observation effect. In fact, we simply begin to pay attention to what is constantly spinning in our heads.
How do you like the “thank you, it’s gone!” effect? One of my friends was looking for a job in human resources. But every time a suitable position turned up, for some strange reason I was late for the interview. Either the car broke down in a traffic jam, then I forgot the necessary document at home, or I got sick. Coincidence? I don't think so. More likely, a reluctance to go to a job you don’t like. As soon as the girl completed the stylist course and received her first business invitations in her new specialty, the car never broke down, and the necessary papers were always at hand. She just genuinely cared about having what she really wanted.
Psychologist Irina Vinogradova: “There are such concepts as suggestion (suggestion - ELLE note) and the placebo effect. Suggestion as a method is used purposefully for medicinal purposes. And recovery happens! The processes that lead to it are launched in the body. As with a placebo, the changes in the body after receiving the pacifier are real, but they only occur because the patient is confident that he has received the real medicine. There is not a single organ in the human body that functions in isolation from the nervous system. An increasing number of diseases are recognized as psychosomatic. In the activities of a considerable number of magicians and psychics, the main working tool is suggestion, a mechanism of persuasion. One should not discount the characteristics of people who go to occultists - almost all of these people are initially highly suggestible. Magicians have little more knowledge about the mechanisms that work in diagnosis (diseases, life situations and events) and treatment than a person on the street. If you analyze their professional language, it is rather descriptive, conditionally explanatory. But, in the end, primitive man did not need knowledge of physics or chemistry to light a fire; heuristic observations were enough.”
Psychology of superstitious people
You can have different attitudes towards superstitions and prejudices. To believe or not to believe. It so happened historically that people pass on part of their folklore and communicative culture from generation to generation. From history textbooks we know how old-timers determined the future of their principality or inheritance based on the same weather.
What superstitions exist
Superstitions are with us all the time, as well as folk signs. For example, a superstitious person pays attention to low-flying birds as harbingers of rain and forgets that a few minutes ago he circled an advertisement in the newspaper or wanted to walk around the city. We urgently need to go home and take shelter from the rain!
As the long-term practice of superstitions shows, people simply have a desire to avoid unfavorable situations. And folk signs provide just such an opportunity. But is this really so? Let's try to figure it out. If a superstitious person is in a hurry to catch a plane and, according to popular belief, sees that he is wearing his beautiful sweater inside out, then he thinks not to board the plane and rent an apartment for the night or, at worst, stay overnight at the airport. After all, you may not reach your destination!
Black cat
Signs are different and there are a great many of them. The black cat is known from the song of the same name. If a black cat crosses the road, then our superstitious people begin to cross themselves and expect trouble. At the same time, according to most other superstitious people, a cat living in the house brings good luck and is the first (even a black one) allowed into the house at housewarming. And the British truly believe that a black cat brings them happiness.
Empty bottle
Now an interesting sign is gaining popularity in Russia (and not only). People don't leave empty bottles on the table - there won't be any money! Pardon the pun, but probably during the financial crisis, all the bankers in the world forgot empty bottles on their desks in their offices! Further more. Superstitious people continue to live by their traditions and views, even if their worldviews run counter to the good half of those living next door.
Another example is that you shouldn’t look in the mirror before leaving home; something might happen to the house. The history of this superstition is silent about its origins. But, probably, any woman likes to powder her nose before going out, how else can she make herself beautiful? But the expression “woman on a ship” has long gone down in history. Maybe due to the fact that in the old days shipwrecks accompanied the weaker sex? Maybe. But let’s present women in a dark light; we men also have something to fear!
The history of the occurrence of signs
Various signs of fate and superstition date back to ancient times. People did not yet know how nature works, the laws of physics and what causes certain phenomena, which sometimes frightened them very much. Therefore, they looked for explanations in other ways: they observed what preceded a certain natural phenomenon. Thus, people predicted certain weather conditions. For example, if birds fly low, it means rain, a clear sunset means sunny weather, etc.
Over time, signs began to be not only natural, but also social in nature. With their help, they began to predict certain behavior of people or specific life situations. For example, spilling salt means a quarrel, breaking mirrors means bad luck. All this once had a real, direct meaning. People fought over salt, since it was a very expensive and rare product, and if it was spilled, it would mean suffering great losses. Same with mirrors. Not only were they expensive, but they were also fragile. Therefore, the owners convinced their servants and family members to treat them carefully.
Belief in omens is so firmly rooted in the minds that in the modern world of science and technology, people often continue to predict certain phenomena through prejudices. It happens that they come true, but this has more to do with the mood of people. The latter begin to look for confirmation of signs. For example, if a person spills salt, without realizing it, he begins to provoke a conflict with his behavior. If a person is faced with a favorable sign of fate, he looks for pleasant moments in any situation, without noticing others.
