What we believe is religion, and what others believe is quasi-religion.
Well, I'm an unbeliever. So, all belief is quasi-religious... is that objective? <gg>
I take the point, though - much of what we now deride as superstition in the British Isles is actually relict Celtic, Saxon or Viking religious belief. A few common examples:
Black cats (& other black creatures, varying - crow, raven, &c)? Death, or the Morrigan, or Hecate, or the Allfather come calling, or similar.
Touch wood? = invoke Thor or Odin.
Spill salt & throw it over the left shoulder? = blind the fae, who approach from the left - widdershins. The fae, the 'little people', may possibly be references to Neanderthal, Palaeolithic or even Neolithic peoples who fled to mountains, deeper forests and similar when driven out of the best lands by the incoming Celts - flint arrowheads were identified as 'elf-shot' until the 1800's.
My own guess is that they were more frequently left-handed than now, hence the wide-ranging 'sinister' [sic] interpretations of being left-handed... it's a common theme in early myths.
I really must brush up on my Jungian studies... good superstitious fun :) |
