Black magic
Meanwhile, fans in Mexico have been praying for the success of their team as Mexico plays Iran in their first match of the World Cup.
As crowds follow the matches on giant screens in Mexico City's central square, Zocalo – the witchcraft master - has set up a shrine of Santa Muerte, or Saint Death.
The witchcraft master believes Santa Muerte will help Mexico to a win as a 12th player.
The sprit, representing death, is widely worshipped in Mexico, and has in the past received many unusual gifts, including shots of tequila and burning cigarettes.
Of course the Iranians should have been prepared for this since many African teams also use shamans and witch doctors in the course of their play.
“If you are a goalkeeper, maybe you put an elephant tooth in your boot to make you big and strong.”
Unfortunately Saudi Arabia is probably not anymore prepared for dealing with any pagan charms the Ukrainian Soccer team and their fans may use against them in the Group H playoffs at the World Cup.. In Saudi Arabia they kill witches.Status of religious freedom in Saudi Arabia
Magic is widely believed in and sometimes practiced, often in the form of fortune-telling and swindles; however, under Shari’a, the practice of magic is regarded as the worst form of polytheism, an offense for which no repentance is accepted and which is punishable by death. There are an unknown number of detainees held in prison on the charge of "sorcery," including the practice of "black magic" or "witchcraft." In a few cases, self-proclaimed "miracle workers" have been executed for sorcery involving physical harm or apostasy.
If the Saudi soccer team hopes to win they might want to free their sorcerors to help out. Since the Iranian Mullahs could only make it a draw against the Mexican Sorcerors.
Of course no one believes in magic, ahem, until their favorite sports team makes the playoffs.
Guardian Unlimited | Weekend | Hostages to fortune Science has taught us that superstition is just a load of mumbo jumbo. Even so, we carry on with an irrational array of rituals and practices to keep a step ahead of fate. Touch wood? Why bother when we know it makes no difference? By David Newnham. |
And all sports are rituals and metaphors. The fans will their teams to win, using rabbits feet, face painting, favorite clothing, etc. This is the meaning of magick; the Science and Art of causing Change to occur in conformity with Will
Chapter 3: The Rendering of Meaning: Ritual, Magic, Myth and Humor
The compelling nature of football ritual is a result of a successful demonstration of the success model. But football not only provides a working demonstration of the traditional success model, it also provides the viewer with ways of monitoring the model. In the real world of the corporation, the actor, who cannot comprehend the structure of the business world, or even the company where he competes for success, cannot directly verify how the system works. In fact he is probably not as successful as he thinks he ought to be, and is confronted with experiences to suggest the system doesn't work. Football, on the other hand, resolves those doubts, and perhaps suggests to those not as successful as they think they should be, that they are not as dedicated, and hardworking as they ought to be. However in football, the accomplishments of individuals are carefully monitored and expressed in the statistics popular with newspaper writers and television commentators:
Football, like chess, laboratory experiments, and the Balinese cockfight, is a dramatic rendition of a metaphor or set of metaphors that represent one way Americans (or at least some Americans) give meaning to portions of their lives. And the ritual validates the truth of that meaning.
There is another aspect of ritual that is not as clear to us in our rituals as it may be when we look at rituals that appear strange to us. Rituals have results that confirm to the participants that the world of ritual and the "real" world are one. That is the rituals "work"; the rituals have real effects.As I have said before sports is metaphor for war. Especially team sports like soccer, rugy, football (especially in the US where it influences the White House and Pentagon, how many Presidents played football...and generals) and hockey.
And magickal thinking is all about the 'will to win' and that is no more apparent than in sports.
If we Americans have “optimized” rugby according to our notions of progress, there are still things many team owners might like to import from Trobriand cricket. While in football, the home team wins most of the time, in the Trobriand Island sport the home team always wins. There is still consolation for the visitors though, since the home team throws a feast in their honor. Huge differences remain, however. While football, with its fighter plane flyovers and other militaristic trappings often seems to celebrate war, cricket was introduced to the Trobriands in 1903 to replace war. How primitive!The Anthropology of the Super Bowl
Also See:
Magick
Sports
Ukraine
Football
Find blog posts, photos, events and more off-site about:
Germany, FIFA, Soccer, football, Ukraine, Schevchenko, World-Cup, 2006, GroupH
sports, Mexico, Iran, witchcraft, magic, magick, Saudi-Arabia, sorceror, rituals, rites, superstions,
No comments:
Post a Comment