Category Archives: Magic

Ritual actions engaged in to effect changes in the outside world.

Folk Ritual: Superstition – Kafemanteia

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  1. Text: In Greek culture, it is extremely common that people practice a superstitious form of fortune-telling known as Kafemanteia. The way it works is extremely simple. Firstly, Greek coffee is prepared, which is different from American coffee. This Greek drink is brewed in a briki (steel pot) but isn’t filtered, ultimately causing the grounds of the coffee to remain stuck to the bottom off the cup once you’ve finished drinking it. Once the drinking is done, the Greek places the saucer on top of the cup, makes a wish to themselves, then flips it over. While it’s flipped, the ground stuck at the bottom of the cup is forced to slide down, creating certain patterns. A reader than analyzes the symbols and interprets the future of the coffee drinker. The reading is often conducted by a normal Greek, even the drinker themselves, as the practice is so common, but oftentimes a studied reader is needed to interpret the sign at the cups bottom. That said, certain symbols mean different things about what is in store for the drinkers future – circles could mean something is completed or unified, numbers could reflect dates, direct lines imply a journey of some kind. There are a multitude of variations, but each of these reflect a fortune for the individual.
  2. Participants Context: This is a practice my mother used to engage in all the time. In fact she still does it to this day. My mother was from a small village in Greece – they weren’t educated or anything like that. They immigrated to Canada in the 60s, but these were the pieces of culture they brought with them. It might sound very cute and interesting, but I actually take it very seriously. I fully believe in it, totally. My grandmother was what was known as a kafetzou, she was fully capable of reading the fortune of any cup. She knew the different symbols, how they interrelated and what it reflected for your future. I don’t know them, all the signs, so sometimes I’ll put the symbol into ChatGPT and ask for its analysis. And then of course, my grandmothers mother before her practiced this way of fortune-telling, and so on and so forth. It almost feels partly religious to me, a way of talking to the Panagia (Virgin Mary) or perhaps other saints. That or perhaps it was something born during the Ottoman occupation – I think the wishful quality of it might’ve been something that Greeks developed during that period of darkness, when they were super restricted and were under this nasty regime. Greeks were looking for something hopeful.
  3. Collectors Interpretation: I personally believe this superstition emerged as a means of addressing anxiety, difficult questions and long-term planning. Kafemanteia in Greek culture is largely practiced in the company of other people. The actual act of drinking coffee at a cafe, like in many parts of Europe, is key to social life in Greece. Where in America people often take their coffee to go, Europeans, especially Greeks, actually make a point of drinking a single cup of coffee over the course of 2-3 hours. By creating a fortune-telling practice with coffee, Greeks give themselves the opportunity to discuss amongst others what might be in store for their futures, perhaps projecting their subconscious concerns onto the symbols of the ground coffee. It’s a practice that, perhaps through subconscious influence, allows Greeks to annex the anxieties that are plaguing them. In this way, the superstition is a very healthy practice. It’s clearly a form of social therapy that is intertwined with mythic and folkloric undertones. Sometimes discussing ones problems in the context of a greater divine spirit or supernatural force is comforting. It may even be a way to help make sense of the world when it seems to not be making sense at all. Additionally, I’ll note that this form of magic is clearly homeopathic – in order to achieve the outcome of the fortune, the Greek must drink the coffee, place the saucer over the cup, make a wish and then flip it, waiting for symbols to develop. Anecdotally, this is surely what I’ve observed by watching my family practice this fortune-telling. It’s an opportunity to address the problems of their future that they haven’t yet solved. Juxtaposing that hypothesis is the fact that it’s also an opportunity to manifest what good things people believe might be in store for their future. For example, if the coffee has numbers forming in it, that might mean the drinker has riches in their future. Ultimately, I believe that the value of Kafemanteia is rooted in community.

AGE: 53

Date_of_performance: May 5, 2025

Informant Name: Confidential KT

Language: English

Nationality: Canadian/Greek

Occupation: Lawyer

Primary Language: Greek

Bloody Mary Oikotype

Language: English

Text Transcription

“I went to a Catholic elementary school. The building was a mansion turned into a school, and there were always rumors of ghosts and such. In fourth grade, my classmates and I were bored and so we decided to practice divination by going to the bathroom mirror and doing the Bloody Mary ritual. We didn’t know who would show up, but we figured with the ghost rumors, surely someone would appear. No one ever did. We tried again and again throughout the year, and nothing happened. Our teacher was definitely upset [that] we would believe in such things and told us to pay more [attention] in Bible class. I don’t know about the others, but I, for one, didn’t.”

Context

As I talked to the informant, they revealed that the version of the ritual that they did was slightly different from the version older students were using. Rather than try to glimpse a vision of their future husband’s face, they were hoping to summon an evil version of Saint Mary. They explained that the inspiration came from their disinterest in the original ritual and their desire for a more horror-inspired version. Personally, I took note of a possible counter-cultural aspect, considering the desire to summon an evil variant of a saint might not go over well in a Catholic school. It seems that this oikotype of the Bloody Mary ritual carries a bit of a rebellious streak.

How the Paoay Lake Formed

Text: A long time ago, there used to be a small town in the Ilocos Norte region in the Philippines. One day, an old beggar woman went there to beg for food, but they “cast her out.” She went to many houses, but many of them were not generous and despised her because of how dirty and  poor she looked. After visiting all the houses, the old woman said, “These rich people are selfish” and suddenly transformed into an angel. She then casted a spell and drowned the entire village—making it the Paoay lake that it is known today. Apparently, this legend has circulated around Ilocos Norte for years after this incident occurred and many people started to believe that the old woman did that. However, people say that years later, large pieces of houses and jewelry still surface. 

Context: This was the first legend my grandma had told me after I asked her to tell me a folk narrative of some kind. Lake Paoay is one of the biggest lakes in the Philippines and is found in Ilocos Norte which is where my family is from and where my grandma had spent the first half of her life. She had originally learned this legend from her parents and older relatives but also mentioned that this legend was always in circulation in the Ilocos Norte region and considered true by everyone invluding herself.

Analysis: At first, I thought that my grandma had told me a local legend of some kind. The Filipino region that I’m from is not really common among the Filipino-Americans I know, so I was curious to know how local this story really was. I looked it up on the internet and was surprised to find out that other legends that were entirely different from what my grandma had told me. I had found multiple sources siting a Sodom and Gammorah rivalry type legend about this lake, but with the same ending: it is true because there are bits of houses and jewelry that float up to the surface. I thought it was interesting how this part of the story had remained the same despite the stories differing a lot. I also thought about how my grandma’s version of it was similar to the beginning of something like the Beauty and the Beast story. A stuck-up rich person shunned an old beggar woman because of her appearance. I also can’t help but think that this version had emerged in our family specifically because of religious implication. My family, my grandma and all her older relatives specifically, was/are very religious and into Catholicism. Maybe this version was the one that was told, but was changed to be more religious to get the children to like Catholicism more.

Kaguya – Legend

Nationality: Korean
Age: 20
Occupation: Film & TV Production Major Student at the University of Southern California
Residence: Orion Housing at the University of Southern California
Language: English

Text:

The popular tale of The Bamboo Cutter features an old man who finds a bamboo stalk with a girl inside the stalk. The girl grows to become one of the most beautiful people in the entire empire, catching even the attention of the emperor. To win her over, she makes her suitors do insane tasks. She eventually reveals that she is extraordinarily beautiful because she is from the moon. After falling in love with the emperor, she realizes she must go back to the moon, and offers the emperor immortality so that he may not forget her. However, the idea of being tortured by an eternity where he lives forever knowing he can never be his lover is too much for the emperor to handle and he burns the immortality token she grants him.
Context:

The performer witnessed this lore in Japanese culture originally before looking into its origins within Korean folktales as many “Kaguya” characters in Japanese media are beautiful women who seem out of the male lead’s league. One of the mediums he watched with involved this type of trope was the movie Princess Kaguya. He felt that while the Kaguya trope has many supernatural elements, the idea of being “banished” somewhere such as the moon, the feeling related to the universal duty one sometimes feels toward their “point of origin” (family).

Analysis:

A common theme within East Asian cultures is the idea of family and societal duty. The moon is representative of “home” or family in which Kaguya must return to and sacrifice her hopes of love for in order to serve a power larger to herself.
Additionally, Korean Buddhist ideas of balance, harmony, and impermanence are represented through this tale as at first, Kaguya resists her role of being a “submissive” beautiful object in society. However she can only resist for so long before nature runs its course and that beauty is taken away and sent back to the moon. While bittersweet, this story serves as a tale to remind Koreans to keep their realities in check. Sometimes it’s okay to dream big and long for more, but at the end of the day, family and loyalty to your origin should be at the forefront of one’s values.

Rites of Passage and Community in Wargaming

The Informant

The informant AG has been playing wargaming for over five years, and he has not only painted his own miniature sets but also developed his own homebrew games. The informant mostly plays ‘miniature agnostic’ games with abstract rulesets that enable players to bring their own unique miniature sets.

The Text

A common experience in becoming a member in the wargaming community is painting your own miniature sets, and it tends to be very poorly painted. The informant reports wargamers as largely older demographics amongst historical wargames while younger demographics play sci-fi wargames. A rite of passage the informant notes is learning how to thin the paint, as amateurs can be identified by blotches of paint on their miniatures that blot out the miniature details. While any wargamer can be identified by having miniatures of units on display, a passionate wargamer and a “poser” can be differentiated by the types of miniatures they have on display in their house. Uncommon miniature sizes like 6mm, 3mm, 2mm, and scaled ships or uncommon historical eras such as Medieval or Ancient as these miniatures aren’t usually commercially mass produced, and the players must go out of their way to acquire them. The base for the miniatures are also a good indicator, as companies like Litko allow specified customizations on base sizes and even material, offering wood or metals instead of the mass produced plactic, which proves further investment in the hobby. The Miniatures Page and Tactical Command are forums where these hobbies gather online, but they are rather dated in terms of web design. Tournaments and expos are events where wargamers gather, and people bring their own miniature sets while miniature studios market their services. If someone disrespects another person’s miniature set by stepping on them, tossing them aside, etc, they will be disqualified from the tournament or asked to leave if at a home game, likely to never be invited back again. These players often have special cases for carrying miniatures.

Analysis

There are a few folk aspects to this interview, starting with membership identification with a folk community through the miniatures, which seem to be highly valued and personal within the community. The existence and even preference for “agnostic” wargame systems suggest importance placed on the personalization of miniatures, and the personal offense taken when one’s miniature set is disrespected suggests a Frazeristic contagiously magical connection to the miniature as an extension of the self given the time invested on customizing and painting them. As such, they have meaning to the players in the sense that players convert their own time and labor into these products. Similarly, painting one’s own first miniature set is considered a rite of passage for becoming a member of the wargaming community, beyond first setting foot into a game store with the interest of trying a game with someone else’s miniature set. The choice made in how one creates or even carry their miniatures reflects Stuart Hall’s reception theory of identity expression in consumerism, with specific studios offering customized miniatures. Furthermore, tournaments and conventions serve as a festival where players can gather to share this common love for a niche hobby which they do not have much opportunity to express their affiliation in public otherwise. In a sense, performing this identity is an inversal of the norm, which the spatially and temporally localized festival enables and encourages.