Tag Archives: contagious magic

Post Funeral Practices

Nationality: American
Age: 50
Occupation: Home renovator
Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Language: English

Text:

“After funerals, we always wash our hands with pomegranate leaves in a bowl before we can enter the house. Also, you cannot go straight home directly after a funeral, as it will bring bad luck. You always need to go somewhere else.”

Context:

My informant learned this from the older Chinese generation in his family. His mother would always remind him to do these rituals after attending a funeral.

Analysis:

Chinese culture has many superstitions regarding funerals, as demonstrated through these rituals. This practice of washing your hands before entering the house is related to apotropaic magic in that the symbolic action is intended to wash off any bad luck or ward off evil spirits. This falls under the category of contagious magic, the idea that things that were once in contact will influence each other even after the contact is broken. In the context of a funeral, individuals who have come into contact with impurities must wash it away to break the connection.

Folk Ritual: Superstition – Evil Eye

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  1. Text: Perhaps the most iconic piece of folklore to emerge out of the Greek culture has been that of the Mati, otherwise known as the “evil eye”. The motif of the evil eye is world famous, a black pupil inside a white eye which is surrounding by another circle of royal blue. The belief about the evil eye is that it can be given to certain people as a consequence of their envy and jealousy onto them. This is where the idea of the “eye” comes from – as one person stares at another with negative connotations or emotions, they will potentially impart a curse of some kind onto them that will leave them sick. In order to deter this potential evil from other people, the Greeks actually hang the image of the evil eye around their homes, believing it will keep the dark spirits away. This is considered common practice in all Greek homes, a common folkloric concept that has not only been around for centuries but remains relevant in the culturre today.
  2. Informant’s Context: The presence of mati is very real. Mati comes from people being hateful – they will look at you and snare if they you look handsome or beautiful. They might gossip about you behind your back if they become jealous of you. You can tell if someone is jealous by how ticklish they are. If someone is very ticklish, they are jealous people. Mati isn’t always something that is given to people because they’re jealous though. Some people are just bad luck, they’re a jinx, even if they don’t mean pain by anyone. For example, they say that someone who has a unibrow, one eyebrow that connects, can give someone mati even if they don’t have jealousy. My husband would sometimes compliment people in passing, but because he had the unibrow he would give them mati. Not his fault. Once someone gets the mati though, they become very ill. They might have high fever, they might have migraines. Sometimes they go into shakes in their bed. To know for sure if one has mati, a test must be conducted called Xematiasma. This is when we take a glass of water and we say a prayer over the water. We then take multiple droplets of olive oil and put them into the water. If the olive oil rises to the top of the water, the person we are testing for mati does not have it. If the olive oil sinks or lowers, maybe disappearing in the water, then the person being tested definitely has it. Water and oil are supposed to separate – if this doesn’t occur, then its clear that the individual has been cursed. If they have mati, they must remove their clothes and put them in the wash, shower themselves and clean their bed sheets. They must wash the evil off themselves and get it out of everything around them. Once they’ve cleansed themselves and taken time to rest, the dark spirits will leave them. The only way someone can learn to perform the mati test is through ritual. I am the only one in my family who knows how to conduct it. I can only pass it onto a male member of my family on the Holy Thursday before Easter. It’s only at this time that I can teach the prayer that goes with the water and the way to apply the olive oil. I tried to pass it onto my grandson this year, but he wasn’t home for the Holy Thursday. If I passed it onto him, he would then only be able to pass it onto a female member of our family, also on the Holy Thursday before Easter. That’s how I was also taught these practices. My father taught me how to use the olive oil and water and what prayer to say alongside them.
  3. Collectors Interpretation: I believe the cultural and historical connotations behind the evil eye tradition are fascinating. So much of what the informant described is a folkloric metabolization of cultural concepts regarding envy, jealousy and vindictiveness. There has long been considered an issue of in-fighting in Greek culture, dating as far back as the Peloponnesian Wars that wreaked havoc on the nation. The evil eye is a manifestation of a culture that is deeply weary of spitefulness. As a piece of magical folklore, much of what the informant discussed about the mati lore is both homeopathic and contagious. The actual act of one person impressing the mati (evil spirits) onto another person by being jealous is clearly an example of contagious magic. Moreover, the ritual in which someone diagnoses mati through water and olive oil is an example of homeopathic magic. Not just that, but the concept of mati also implies that purity is necessary for health. In order to rid oneself of the dark spirits, they must clean themselves and everything they own, almost as if to say that jealousy, envy and spite are filthy qualities. It also implies that these hateful emotions can be spread. The deeper meaning behind this might be that misery loves company, and when one person hates another its easy for those ideas to proliferate amongst communities of people.

Fields

AGE: 85

Date_of_performance: May 5, 2025

Informant Name: Confidential (EZ)

Language: Greek/English

Nationality: Greek/Canadian

Occupation: Retired

Primary Language: Greek

Residence: Canada

Sleep paralysis

Text (memorate): 

“My grandmother used to say when I had sleep paralysis that meant that ‘the witches are riding you.’”

Context: 

A is from Texas and comes from a spiritual, religious background. Her grandmother is very superstitious and she recalls this supernatual explaination her grandmother had on sleep paralysis.

My Informants grandmother would say that this means the “witches are riding you” (they are on top of you trying to steal your energy) and you need to start praying to get it so stop. When in the trance like states she describes it as really quiet as if everything in the room had gone silent. Her grandmother, born and raised in Louisiana was very spiritual and believed in both good and bad spirits.

A: “In High school, I would have numerous occasions where they would get into a deep sleep and couldn’t wake up. Sometimes they couldn’t open their eyes, and sometimes they could but they weren’t able to move or speak. After a period of time they would eventually jump up out of the bed. After I’d wake myself up my grandmother would say that this means the “witches are riding you.”

Q: “What does this mean exactly?”

A: “My grandmother said this meant that they are on top of you trying to steal your energy and you need to start praying to get it so stop. When I’m in these trance like states it is really quiet like everything in the room had gone silent.”

Analysis: 

This text exemplifies a blend of a memorate and superstition as a seemingly natural phenomenon such as sleep paralysis is reasoned through the belief in supernatural existence such as witches. As described when “the witches are riding you” this really means the spirits are on top of you trying to drain your energy. This is a form of contagious magic where things that were once in contact can continue to act on one another as described by Frazer. The spirits of witches believed to be on top of my informant during her sleep paralysis were in contact with her and thus saying a prayer would be a valid form of contagious magic to protect oneself against the negative spiritual hold. My informants grandmother had a strong faith in spiritual belief and practices as they are from Louisiana where spiritual practices such as voodoo were common thus this is a common motif with Louisianan and African cultural influences. This is a practice is likely to have originated as a way to explain phenomena such as these before the emergence of modern medicine. This also can be classified as a superstition given it is a belief not based on scientific reasoning but rather myth and cultural tradition. It’s important to keep in mind, however, that just because something is not based on scientific evidence, that doesn’t undermine its truth value as scientific belief is not equivalent to truth.

Coins on the Ground

Context:                                                    

O is a Pre-med biology major at USC, currently a freshman. O is a Vietnamese American who grew up in Vancouver, Washington — a short drive from Portland, Oregon. 

Text:

Me: Do you have anything you collect or do for good luck?

O: Yeah, actually I collect coins. Not just pennies, but like all kinds of coins.

Me: Really? How do you find them?

O: It’s really ridiculous, I just pick them up from the ground and keep them in my pocket, because I think they will bring me good luck.

Me: From the ground?

O: Yeah, they would be lying on the ground while I’m walking and I’ll pick them up, put them in my pockets.

Me: Do you keep the pennies forever?

O: No. I take them out and put them back on the ground once I think I don’t need the luck anymore. Like, the luck can go to someone else. 

Analysis:

O demonstrates some form of sympathetic magic. He connects receiving luck to picking up coins from the ground, both how lucky he is to find the coin and the luck the coin itself gives him. The luck O has that initially gives him the coin is somehow transferred into the coin, where there is some exchange between him and the coin that gives him luck with the penny as a conduit, collecting and releasing luck for anyone to pick up. The idea of quantifying luck or magic seems like contagious/contact magic, where magic or superstition can transfer from one person to the next with the penny is added as a middle man. Keeping the coin is somehow magic that ensures the luck will be sustained in him while giving it away is also magic, ensuring that luck will be passed on to the next person. If luck was the contagion of magic, the coin would be patient zero.

Lucky Penny Magic

Text

“I believe in lucky pennies. I have a bunch right here; I have some in my window. They’re only lucky if you find them heads up. But if I find one that is heads down, I’ll flip it so it’s lucky for the next person.

“Sometimes if I know someone’s having a bad day, or they have an exam and they need some luck, I’ll give them one of my lucky pennies.

“But there have been times when I’ve found a lucky penny, and I’m like, ‘Ok, this is the day that I have to do something ballsy and brave. This is a sign.’ And then it won’t go well. And I’ll be like, ‘The lucky penny magic isn’t real,’ and I’ll swear off lucky pennies. But I never seem to stop myself. I always continue doing it anyway.”

GR said she couldn’t recall an experience when a lucky penny actually gave her good luck. “Unless I have incredibly spectacular, amazing luck, I’ll never recognize good luck. I only really recognize when I’ve had really bad luck.”

Context

GR is a 21 year-old college student from Portland, OR, currently living in Los Angeles. Her grandparents were Irish immigrants.

Lucky penny belief is performed mostly in public spaces where one is likely to have dropped loose change, such as a place of business, a parking lot, or the sidewalk. As a resident of a large urban area, GR often encounters such spaces. It is likely that the frequency of finding lucky pennies influences her belief.

Analysis

Lucky penny magic reflects the values of American capitalist society, in which money is the main mechanism of upward mobility and survival. Under this system of values, coming into any amount of money by chance is genuinely good luck.

GR’s belief goes further, however, claiming that the pennies are not merely an instance of luck but a token of it, a good luck charm. Lucky penny belief for some is merely a sign superstition, a form of belief that requires no action; one merely encounters a sign of good or bad luck.

However, GR actively takes part in the belief, choosing to collect the lucky pennies, give them to her friends, and flip a heads down penny over for the next person. This action is what makes her belief magic. Specifically, GR believes that lucky pennies are a form of contagious magic in their ability to bring good luck to whoever possesses them.

Additionally, her choice to collect the pennies out of belief that they may bring luck in the future reflects the future-orientation of American culture, as described by folklorist Alan Dundes.