The Occult in your Culture or/and Lifestyle

[Kwestos]

I think people find the images comforting and familiar, especially the Virgin Mary holding baby Jesus.

I remember when I was in high school, one day my hometown was visited by some special figure of Mary of Fatima (apparently only a few of them 'walk' around the world or something), obviously most classes used it as a pretext to finish lessons earlier, I remember one my teacher (who was a military guy and militant atheist) made a tirade how medieval it was, he said 'even bible says dont worship images, these people live in medieval times, pagans'. and there was a big crowd already approaching like a bad omen.

To be honest, when you look at this from side, this procession, this big figure, people with lights etc, it makes some kind of demonic impression. Especially when it is at night. You forget that its just a plaster statue.

[amerinese]

My mother used to have a casual interest in Chinese astrology. My wife has this also. I think this is all BS myself. My paternal grandmother used to speak in tongues, and I literally had to suppress my laughter and leave the room to not make an ass of myself.

[Kwestos]

aha, just a few more half-serious, but for some serious 'omens', I think universal:
chimney cleaner- catch your button
black cat crossing road- bad luck
broken mirror- 7 years of happiness
when a bird shit on you- luck is coming (this one is weird)


Also in Poland there used to be interesting funeral habits, but this was more like 100 years ago, especially in in villages, small communities etc, I dont know how its now, but theres a law that you cant keep corpse at home I think so and all that, medicine and lawyers involved.

Anyway, when a person died, people would stop all clocks in the house (Idont ask me how they checked the hour, probably with a neighbour). They would cover all mirrors in the house, then after the dead left house, they would trip over all tables in the house.

[ItaloPortuga]

I remember when I was in high school, one day my hometown was visited by some special figure of Mary of Fatima (apparently only a few of them 'walk' around the world or something)

My mother was named after Our Lady of Fatima. It´s an interesting story because Fatima is originally an Arabic name. It´s a town in Portugal and I guess it got it´s name during the Arabic conquest of Iberia. Supposedly the Virgin Mary appeared to three young children there, in 1917, and now Fatima is a very common name among Catholics in Portuguese speaking countries.

By the way...
what do you guys think of this?
Our Lady Of Crack, in São Paulo:
http://www.brazildispatch.com/2011/0...aulo_9468.html
Crazy...

[Kwestos]

My mother used to have a casual interest in Chinese astrology. My wife has this also. I think this is all BS myself. My paternal grandmother used to speak in tongues, and I literally had to suppress my laughter and leave the room to not make an ass of myself.

that started being my problem at some stage, I couldnt stop sometimes noticing only comic side of all various things that others would take seriously.

---------- Post added 2012-02-21 at 02:53 ----------

My mother was named after Our Lady of Fatima. It´s an interesting story because Fatima is originally an Arabic name. It´s a town in Portugal and I guess it got it´s name during the Arabic conquest of Iberia. Supposedly the Virgin Mary appeared to three young children there, in 1917, and now Fatima is a very common name among Catholics in Portuguese speaking countries.

Yes, also Fatima is very popular in Poland, cause it was favourite place of Polish Pope John Paul2, which is ver adored in Poland (which could be example of a superstition thinking too in a way, the scale and size of worship of him).

[annihilus]

when a bird shit on you- luck is coming (this one is weird)

Left bird: Watch this, I am going to shit on the head of that man over there and he is going to run to the man with the hat and is going to take papers from him.

Right bird: NO WAY!

[ageladakos]

The question is simple

Do you have any occult happenings in your culture


By Occult I mean:

Magic, Alchemy, Extra-sensory perception, Astrology, Spiritualism, and Divination.

yes we greeks do have such stuff.

Dream explaining: we believe that dreams can be be signs of things to come, there are special books that are called "dream_judgers" which interprete every element of ones dream, i know people who predicted deaths in their dreams.

Astrology: no need to explain

Coffee reading: after drinking coffee (traditional aka greek/turkish one) in a cup, be it the traditional Flitzani or some bigger cup, one can read the future from the left overs in the walls of the cup.
in theory the cup needs to be placed upside down so the left overs can go around the walls and the future be easier to be read, but in practice a person who has the gift of reading the coffee can see things even if this doesn't happen.

Card reading: i know people play "pacienca" to ask questions and get replies, if it is solvable its possitive and if its not its negative.

souls of the dead: when a person dies his soul remains to our world for forty days, in these 40 days people need to keep a candle burning so the soul of the person can go and rest on the flame, also night butterflies are a sign that the soul of a person is nearby and its concidered bad to kill them.

Mirrors + the devil: it is said that people shouldn't look at mirrors when there is no light because there is a chance they will see the devil.

Spirits in wood: when people say something bad about health or something, they need to knock on wood 3 times.

The eye: also called as Vaskania, is the believe that someone can be negatively affected by someone that saw him, because he was envy or jelous but also by mistake.
the church accepts its existance but attributes it to the devil-devils, the christian way to remove it is to say a specific prayer and the believe that "eye beads" protect is widely accepted.
if one feels jelous about someone but doesn't want to give him the evil eye he needs to make as if he is spitting to not give him the evil eye, and on this there is the expression "spit you to not give you the evil eye"

Beings:
-kalikantzaroi: they are goblin like creatures that live in the earth (hades) and come up during the triodio
-aerika
-xotika
-vrikolakes (vampires)
-vourvoulakes
-pagani
-parorites

Cross in door frame: in the easter where we get the holly light, people make 3 times a cross with the smoke that comes from the candle that has the holly light, this is a protection of evil things entering the house.

Smashing the Pomegranate + entering house with right foot : in the new years eve, after the new year comes some person needs to go out and come back in the house but stepping with his right feet to bring luck to the house.
if he carries icons of mother of god and jesus, saint basil or the prefered saint of the family is also good.
after this traditionaly people brake a pomegranate, either by throwing it on the floor or by stepping on it, i have heard that the possible explainations are that there will be good luck as many as the pomegranate "seeds" are, or that the spilled blood reminding juice will prevent blood being shed.

Sacrifice of a cock: in theory one can sacrifice a cock in the foundations of what will be his house to make it stronger.

Foundations: on the foundations of a building one should make a cross with boards to protect the building from the evil eye

Various superstitions:
-if you see a black cat while going somewhere, you need to follow a different path
-if you brake a mirror its 7 years of bad luck
-if somebody walks over the legs of a child, that child will remain short
-a knife shouldn't be given to a persons hand
-people shouldn't cut their nails on monday and friday, and they shouldn't bath in sunday
-loved ones shouldn't kiss in the eyes because that means separation

ok i am tired, if people are more interested they can see the link lol
http://www.artofwise.gr/html/categor...rolipseis.html

The question is simple

Do you have any occult happenings in your life?

yes

[asingh]

Let me see there are so many and some of them drive me crazy.

You can't cut your nails after dark.
You can't wistle after dark.
You can't howl with the dogs (loved to do that as a kid in the dark).

If you take a piss in the dark you have to do something to make sure if there is a cin (djinn) it leaves so you don't piss on it's head. We used to swear at it as kids so it would leave, but I'm sure that is not the proper way

There's tons more

The ones in bold, we have those, exact. Same reasoning, same following.

---------- Post added 2012-02-21 at 09:44 ----------

Let me see there are so many and some of them drive me crazy.

You can't cut your nails after dark.
You can't wistle after dark.
You can't howl with the dogs (loved to do that as a kid in the dark).

If you take a piss in the dark you have to do something to make sure if there is a cin (djinn) it leaves so you don't piss on it's head. We used to swear at it as kids so it would leave, but I'm sure that is not the proper way

There's tons more

The ones in bold, we have those, exact. Same reasoning, same following.

And then, there is the concept of Nazar.

[Unome]

was not responsible

That was a typo, by the way.

[Curiouscat]

What
Ageladakos said it so true, a true fortune teller doesn't need to see the coffee in the cup to tell that person what is to come/is happening.

And so Ageladakos, what is happening in your life at the moment, that you would describe as occult?