What folk remedies/superstitions does your family follow?

[mantis]

I'm from the Dominican Republic but being raised in America, I don't know much about our folk medicine or superstitions. A few of them are

 

Don't expose yourself to cold right after a hot shower

Don't go to bed full

For women trying to conceive don't sit on metal surfaces

Don't walk barefoot on cold surfaces

 

As for medicine, the only one I readily know of is mixing honey with a lime to treat cough.

[Aetherous]

Cool topic.

 

It's funny how much folk magick is actually integrated into everyone's lives, no matter what they believe/know/etc. It is a very human thing...it's just living in accord with the way things are, and the way we are.

 

For instance, at my parent's house (they are purely Christian), we have statues and figurines of animals...like bears, turtles, birds, etc. Why? Who knows the reason my mom puts them up...but regardless of that, they symbolize different feelings to us. For instance, the bear can represent being protected, and a calming influence. Birds represent a feeling of being carefree...we feel more connected to the earth with these animals around us. Without them, a home is less "lively".

 

Nature...life...

 

We have signs on the way into the house saying "bless this home and those within" etc. Basically the same effect as a Tibetan prayer wheel...where the wish is sent anytime you look upon it. The colors my mom uses to decorate are basically of the elements...gold, red, black, white, etc. Essentially as a people we tend to decorate in the way that makes us feel best (unless we are completely out of touch with our feelings).

 

We do landscaping to connect with nature, so we don't always have to journey into the depths of the woods to feel at one.

 

As a country, most of our holidays are basically "pagan". Think of the immortal Christmas tree, with the pole star above...that has nothing to do with the story of Jesus.

 

Even the days of the week - many are named after the "gods" or otherwise heavenly bodies. Moon day. Tiw's day. Woden's day. Thor's day. Freya's day. Saturn day. Sun day.

 

As for old remedies...chicken soup is typical. Warm milk is another thing...

 

We tend to get together in the backyard, drink beer and cook meat over fires...a way of connecting back to our roots, as hunters and part of a tribe/clan/group of families, celebrating the kill.

 

It is obvious to pretty much anyone that when you go for a walk in the woods, or take a dip near a waterfall, or in a lake, you are deeply rejuvenated...we don't consider these types of things as superstitions, because we aren't thinking in terms of the old religions. We just get the effect and it is what it is. It is the way of life.

[Taomeow]

My favorite topic. I collect books on "superstitions" of the world and study, compare, and follow many of them too. I had scientists as far back as great-great-grandparents in my family, and my great-great-grandfather used his superstitious upbringing to apply to his scientific pursuits in agriculture. The result was the sturdiest, most successful crop Ukraine ever had for over a hundred years that is still going strong, sugar beets of outstanding performance. The old man became CEO of a company that exported sugar to 13 European countries, supplying more than half of their overall demand. No one was fat on my ancestor's sugar! My grandmother, who remembered him well from her childhood as an outstandingly superstitious man, told me that his main quarrel was with firearms -- he thought the earth got sick from the sound of shooting. He predicted WWI based on the behavior of the soil...

[mantis]

Cool topic.

 

It's funny how much folk magick is actually integrated into everyone's lives, no matter what they believe/know/etc. It is a very human thing...it's just living in accord with the way things are, and the way we are.

 

For instance, at my parent's house (they are purely Christian), we have statues and figurines of animals...like bears, turtles, birds, etc. Why? Who knows the reason my mom puts them up...but regardless of that, they symbolize different feelings to us. For instance, the bear can represent being protected, and a calming influence. Birds represent a feeling of being carefree...we feel more connected to the earth with these animals around us. Without them, a home is less "lively".

 

Nature...life...

 

We have signs on the way into the house saying "bless this home and those within" etc. Basically the same effect as a Tibetan prayer wheel...where the wish is sent anytime you look upon it. The colors my mom uses to decorate are basically of the elements...gold, red, black, white, etc. Essentially as a people we tend to decorate in the way that makes us feel best (unless we are completely out of touch with our feelings).

 

We do landscaping to connect with nature, so we don't always have to journey into the depths of the woods to feel at one.

 

As a country, most of our holidays are basically "pagan". Think of the immortal Christmas tree, with the pole star above...that has nothing to do with the story of Jesus.

 

Even the days of the week - many are named after the "gods" or otherwise heavenly bodies. Moon day. Tiw's day. Woden's day. Thor's day. Freya's day. Saturn day. Sun day.

 

As for old remedies...chicken soup is typical. Warm milk is another thing...

 

We tend to get together in the backyard, drink beer and cook meat over fires...a way of connecting back to our roots, as hunters and part of a tribe/clan/group of families, celebrating the kill.

 

It is obvious to pretty much anyone that when you go for a walk in the woods, or take a dip near a waterfall, or in a lake, you are deeply rejuvenated...we don't consider these types of things as superstitions, because we aren't thinking in terms of the old religions. We just get the effect and it is what it is. It is the way of life.

 

I just face palm every time I tell a Christian how they're beliefs are mostly Pagan and not in any way original and they're like "no way!!" I never saw the days of the week like that, though; but then again I didn't see BBQ's that way either

[Cloudhand]

My family practiced Santeria, but they have karma to pay, not my path at all. I rather follow Zen and Taoism. Cloudhand

[thelerner]

Being Jewish we celebrate Shabbat, the sabbath. The family eats together, we'll all say prayers in Hebrew. I like to translate them as 'Spirit of God, You are Imminent & Mysterious, Wow, time and light. Then the same prayer, but Wow, wine. Finally the same prayer ending with Wow, the grains of the earth.

 

Then its about eating a festive meal on a special holiday that happens once a week.

 

 

Michael

[Ramon25]

My family practiced Santeria, but they have karma to pay, not my path at all. I rather follow Zen and Taoism. Cloudhand

 

Dude no fucking way. Santeria. My family too. Sadly I had santo done when I was 1 1/2 years old. Kundalni has broken through that big time though. Anyways its a pretty sad religond ont you think? I have gotten my mom to drop alot of belief in it. Thats the only reason it works becuase you give those things your own power.

I commend you couldhand for following your truth

 

 

Mantis everyone of those "superstitions" actually have some sense towards them. except that metal one

[Taomeow]

Mantis everyone of those "superstitions" actually have some sense towards them. except that metal one

 

Well, the qi of metal "contracts" -- which is the opposite pattern of transformations to the one you want to promote while trying to conceive -- so this is not a superstition at all... unless one counts the rest of TCM and the rest of taoism and the rest of Chinese civilization a bunch of superstitions.

 

Interestingly enough, a close examination would reveal that most people's real unconscious definition of a "superstition" is "any belief that doesn't have a white male for its originator."

 

By the way, TCM will also tell you to open all the doors, closets and drawers in the house and unlock all the locks when a woman is in labor. This is not superstition either; this is ganying, the art and science of resonating patterns. Its surface is currently being scratched by cutting edge physicists and mathematicians tackling chaos and fractals. Its depth, meanwhile, is a sorcerer's, shaman's, and well-educated taoist's old stomping ground.

[vicious cycle]

I think some 'superstitions' are good and probably should be practiced more - such as washing your hands before you eat. I don't necessarily know that a lot are founded in religion - but even if they are - such as the Catholics eating fish on Friday; I just think it makes for a healthier person.

 

I guess I look for wisdom wherever it may show itself.

[rain]

sometimes religion and politics seem a sticky mess

the result just embarrasing anachronism not even superstition?

 

like when we were standing in a queue at the grocerie store and some guy

not too familiar with norwegian customs, puts a breeezer and a couple of beers

on the counter

and is told it's too late

 

19.00 pm on a weekday.

Edited April 26, 2010 by rain

[Taomeow]

Taomeow, you've got me thinking on this word ganying. I found out a little more about this word...

 

 

Exerpt from: Beyond textuality: asceticism and violence in anthropological interpretation

 

Thank you, Rainbow! Cool. I also choose "resonance" as the best translation, and the phenomenon is indeed worthy of contemplation... The notion is one of the taoist fundamentals, on the same level of significance as yin-yang and qi if not greater...

 

The superstrings of existence vibrate to the tune of ganying; nonexistence is merely a set of strings untouched by it. One could say that wuji is taiji without ganying, or to put it the other way around, silencing all ganying of houtian results in xiantian, or... tao-in-stillness doesn't ganying, and tao-in-motion doesn't move any other way but the way of ganying. This is the cat's meow of taoism, verily!

 

Which is why whenever I come across a "superstition" I examine it for its possible hidden ganying action. In different traditions it goes by many names -- the Doctrine of Signatures, the Laws of Attraction, like begets like, "vibrational frequencies," sympathetic magic, homeopathy, the list goes on and on... to say nothing of all manner of divinations (except the stupid ones) and the reason behind the I Ching being a true tuning fork of a wider reality, with its particular moment resonating just so into your own life... to say nothing of the whole concept of karma which is as ganying a phenomenon (and/or idea) as it gets.

 

Ganying is the very core of "real," by the way, but it is not easy to discern among the multitude of resonating patterns we're immersed in at all times. The main reason I study "superstitions" is because it is an exercise in sharpening my ear in discerning true resonances and differentiating them from sheer noise. It's a lifelong practice, to hear ganying... much like a music conductor hears a multitude of sounds produced by the orchestra and yet can clearly discern each and every one of them and tell whether it's ganying or not (without using the term, just using the ear and the vast experience that comes with decades of practice), any human being can learn to hear and understand it... with lots and lots and lots of practice. I suspect our ancestors who came up with "superstitions" "heard" it way better than we do, their world wasn't nearly as noisy as ours... so I tend to respect much of what they "heard," and don't dismiss anything on the basis of "I can't hear it" until I listen very very closely... not only with my ears of course.

[Cookie Monster]

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Edited September 26, 2020 by Ocean Form

[mantis]

A modern superstition I can think of is that Coca Cola is good for you if you are sick.

I don't know if this is because the drink was originally intended as a medicine, but many people are not aware of this.

My guess is that water with sugar is good because it's easily absorbed, but people always protest when I suggest some other kind of soda for someone who is sick. It has to be Coca Cola.

 

Does anybody know if this is a norwegian phenomenon or can it be found other places also?

 

I've never heard of it used for that.