charms

• belief in c. destroyed personal initiative

69:2.7The first hu­man fore­sight was di­rected to­ward the preser­va­tion of fire, wa­ter, and food. But prim­i­tive man was a nat­u­ral-born gam­bler; he al­ways wanted to get some­thing for noth­ing, and all too of­ten dur­ing these early times the suc­cess which ac­crued from pa­tient prac­tice was at­tributed to charms. Magic was slow to give way be­fore fore­sight, self-de­nial, and in­dus­try.

• origin of ornaments

69:9.10The or­na­men­tal type of per­sonal ef­fects orig­i­nated in the wear­ing of charms. Van­ity plus ghost fear led early man to re­sist all at­tempts to re­lieve him of his fa­vorite charms, such prop­erty be­ing val­ued above ne­ces­si­ties.

• employed to insure happy and fertile marriage

83:4.4Child­less­ness was greatly dreaded, and since bar­ren­ness was at­tributed to spirit machi­na­tions, ef­forts to in­sure fe­cun­dity also led to the as­so­ci­a­tion of mar­riage with cer­tain mag­i­cal or re­li­gious cer­e­mo­ni­als. And in this ef­fort to in­sure a happy and fer­tile mar­riage, many charms were em­ployed; even the as­trologers were con­sulted to as­cer­tain the birth stars of the con­tract­ing par­ties. At one time the hu­man sac­ri­fice was a reg­u­lar fea­ture of all wed­dings among well-to-do peo­ple.

• certain blessed objects

88:2.4The ear­li­est im­ages were made to pre­serve the ap­pear­ance and mem­ory of the il­lus­tri­ous dead; they were re­ally mon­u­ments. Idols were a re­fine­ment of fet­ish­ism. The prim­i­tives be­lieved that a cer­e­mony of con­se­cra­tion caused the spirit to en­ter the im­age; like­wise, when cer­tain ob­jects were blessed, they be­came charms.

• anything connected with body could become fetish

88:5.1Since any­thing con­nected with the body could be­come a fe­tish, the ear­li­est magic had to do with hair and nails. Se­crecy at­ten­dant upon body elim­i­na­tion grew up out of fear that an en­emy might get pos­ses­sion of some­thing de­rived from the body and em­ploy it in detri­men­tal magic; all exc­reta of the body were there­fore care­fully buried. Pub­lic spit­ting was re­frained from be­cause of the fear that saliva would be used in dele­te­ri­ous magic; spit­tle was al­ways cov­ered. Even food rem­nants, cloth­ing, and or­na­ments could be­come in­stru­ments of magic. The sav­age never left any rem­nants of his meal on the ta­ble. And all this was done through fear that one’s en­e­mies might use these things in mag­i­cal rites, not from any ap­pre­ci­a­tion of the hy­gienic value of such prac­tices.

• items from which concocted

88:5.2Mag­i­cal charms were con­cocted from a great va­ri­ety of things: hu­man flesh, tiger claws, croc­o­dile teeth, poi­son plant seeds, snake venom, and hu­man hair. The bones of the dead were very mag­i­cal. Even the dust from foot­prints could be used in magic. The an­cients were great be­liev­ers in love charms. Blood and other forms of bod­ily se­cre­tions were able to in­sure the magic in­flu­ence of love.

88:5.3Im­ages were sup­posed to be ef­fec­tive in magic. Ef­fi­gies were made, and when treated ill or well, the same ef­fects were be­lieved to rest upon the real per­son. When mak­ing pur­chases, su­per­sti­tious per­sons would chew a bit of hard wood in or­der to soften the heart of the seller.

• all ancient objects considered magical

88:5.4The milk of a black cow was highly mag­i­cal; so also were black cats. The staff or wand was mag­i­cal, along with drums, bells, and knots. All an­cient ob­jects were mag­i­cal charms. The prac­tices of a new or higher civ­i­liza­tion were looked upon with dis­fa­vor be­cause of their sup­pos­edly evil mag­i­cal na­ture. Writ­ing, print­ing, and pic­tures were long so re­garded.

88:5.5Prim­i­tive man be­lieved that names must be treated with re­spect, es­pe­cially names of the gods. The name was re­garded as an en­tity, an in­flu­ence dis­tinct from the phys­i­cal per­son­al­ity; it was es­teemed equally with the soul and the shadow. Names were pawned for loans; a man could not use his name un­til it had been re­deemed by pay­ment of the loan. Nowa­days one signs his name to a note. An in­di­vid­ual’s name soon be­came im­por­tant in magic. The sav­age had two names; the im­por­tant one was re­garded as too sa­cred to use on or­di­nary oc­ca­sions, hence the sec­ond or ev­ery­day name—a nick­name. He never told his real name to strangers. Any ex­pe­ri­ence of an un­usual na­ture caused him to change his name; some­times it was in an ef­fort to cure dis­ease or to stop bad luck. The sav­age could get a new name by buy­ing it from the tribal chief; men still in­vest in ti­tles and de­grees. But among the most prim­i­tive tribes, such as the African Bush­men, in­di­vid­ual names do not ex­ist.

• belief in c. destroyed personal initiative

88:6.6But a world so filled with charms did much to de­stroy all per­sonal am­bi­tion and ini­tia­tive. The fruits of ex­tra la­bor or of dili­gence were looked upon as mag­i­cal. If a man had more grain in his field than his neigh­bor, he might be haled be­fore the chief and charged with en­tic­ing this ex­tra grain from the in­do­lent neigh­bor’s field. In­deed, in the days of bar­barism it was dan­ger­ous to know very much; there was al­ways the chance of be­ing ex­e­cuted as a black artist.

• primitives rubbed on infections, then discarded

90:4.5It was a com­mon method of treat­ment to rub some­thing mag­i­cal on an in­fected or blem­ished spot on the body, throw the charm away, and sup­pos­edly ex­pe­ri­ence a cure. If any­one should chance to pick up the dis­carded charm, it was be­lieved he would im­me­di­ately ac­quire the in­fec­tion or blem­ish. It was a long time be­fore herbs and other real medicines were in­tro­duced. Mas­sage was de­vel­oped in con­nec­tion with in­can­ta­tion, rub­bing the spirit out of the body, and was pre­ceded by ef­forts to rub med­i­cine in, even as mod­erns at­tempt to rub lin­i­ments in. Cup­ping and suck­ing the af­fected parts, to­gether with blood­let­ting, were thought to be of value in get­ting rid of a dis­ease-pro­duc­ing spirit.

• impotent; gross superstition

150:3.64. Charms and relics are im­po­tent to heal dis­ease, ward off dis­as­ter, or in­flu­ence evil spir­its; the be­lief in all such ma­te­rial means of in­flu­enc­ing the spir­i­tual world is noth­ing but gross su­per­sti­tion.