It is when people feel disempowered and clueless that they turn most poignantly and superstitiously to magical sources of possible aid -- the interpretation of dreams, psychic readings of all kinds, Ouija boards, palmistry, astrology, voodoo, religious ritual, and the like. Even prayer can be used as a superstitious supplication. Requests like "Lord, help me get the rent together," or, "Lord, help me get over this headache," are based on the hope that God can be made responsible for the favorable adjustment of circumstances. It's great to depend on God, but THAT may not be the right KIND of dependence.

Here's the thing: the less personally responsible people are, the less empowered they feel (and in fact ARE). The less empowered they feel or ARE, the more likely they are to turn superstitiously to God or to magical agencies, looking for higher help, greater empowerment, greater knowledge, or some other form of benefit. By the same token, the more responsible people are, the less susceptible they are to superstition. The highest form of responsibility is the maintenance of a life of surrender to cosmic law and Divine prompting.

Why the ego loves superstition

People who are well-connected to God place very little value on magic in all its forms. Such people will certainly not consider that there's any real competition between the guidance provided directly by God, and the random kind of superstitious guidance provided by throwing the I Ching, reading horoscopes, interpreting dreams, etc.

Superstitious devices lack the authenticity of true Divine guidance, and they lend themselves to an extreme amount of subjective manipulation. Those two characteristics are real downsides to a Divinely connected person, but real upsides to the ego! The ego delights in the fact that, when people read the entrails, or the tea leaves, or your palm, there is so much room for "interpretation." Palmists, for example, will spout all the dogma that they believe in while reading your palm. The advice they give is based on their impressions about what life is, their ideas about who you are, and their beliefs about what they think is right, wise, and sound. Palmists have axes to grind, you see? All those subjective factors give palmists almost 100% scope in being themselves while reading palms.

Not only is the guidance of superstitious sources influenced by who they are; it is also influenced by who you are and what you are doing. In telling your future or dictating your decisions, the dispensers of superstitious advice may just be picking up signals from your ego or lower mind, and giving them an "independent" stamp of approval. Here's an example:

Superstition is responsibility displacement

People bring their fears and reactions to life, then they use their mediums to interpret their junk. They suspend ordinary logic in order to get an "expert" to make cosmic "sense" out of egoic nonsense. Unfortunately, that allows superstitious people to displace the responsibility for their own choices onto somebody else, or God, or the universe. Often, they get to be reinforced in their contention that there is something OUTSIDE themselves that is bad, something OUTSIDE themselves that needs to be avoided, when in fact the problem was within them.

This principle is perfectly illustrated by the way ego-dominated people use the concept of Satan. They talk about Satan as a mighty force in an UNCERTAIN battle between good and evil. In reality, there is no real contest between truth and ignorance. The confrontation between truth and ignorance is just as uneven as a boxing match between a heavyweight champion and your grandmother in a wheel chair! Truth dispels ignorance just as fast as you speak it.

And yet, when people THEMSELVES are inclined to evil, which is to say when people themselves are egotistical, they're full of superstition and have a lot riding on their ability to displace the responsibility for their bad choices. They love to say, "It's Satan's fault. Satan is making me do these things. Satan's making me drink, fornicate, go the wrong way, make the wrong decisions. Satan's forcing me. What choice do I have? The power of evil is great." This is the speech of an irresponsible immature person, who invests great belief in evil because they simply do not want to take much if any responsibility for their life.

Superstitious people only think that the power of darkness is fantastic, because they have pushed the light out of their lives, and by so doing have made a great space for darkness in there. Then, their belief that Satan is responsible for their bad choices helps them overcome their sense of immediate and present guilt for the fact that they're doing things that are contrary to God's will, that they are themselves choosing in opposition to what is good and right.

Superstitious people are closed-minded people

Superstitious people may SEEM open-minded. How else could they be willing to literally base a life-changing decision on a single flip of a coin! But in truth, most superstitious people are actually quite closed-minded. Many believers in superstition are in fact just doing whatever they wanted to do in the first place, using superstition to support that IF it does, or throwing out superstition if it doesn't.

If you are truly open-minded, then you are truly open to God. If you are truly open to God, the still small voice will guide you much more effectively than any Ouija board will do. But without that much open-mindedness, decision-making comes down to either tea leaves or self will, or a combination of the two. God gets crowded out because God is not welcome, Divine Light is not welcome in an egoically driven life.

The arguments in favor of doing things God's way are infinite -- except for the implicit "threat" of loss of sovereign control. Ego-identified people are afraid of what the truth might have them do, or not do. What God would have you do are good things, but what if you prefer to do bad things? God is not going to rubber stamp that. So if a person is attached to darkness and dark choices, they will actually WANT the tea leaves, the syndicated advice of Ann Landers, their own thought processes, their own interpretations and their psychologist's interpretations, and the random input of friends, parents, you name it, INSTEAD OF Divine guidance. They will consider all these magical and worldly sources, and then feel perfectly free to throw out most of the advice, and just do what they want anyway.

The reason people who are closed-minded really prefer reading tea leaves to asking God's help, is because with tea leaves and such they can INTERPRET THE ANSWER. This is also why people will avoid consulting spiritual agents, who themselves are very connected to God, and who can give very reliable "readings" or information. Of course, some people who think they are God-connected are really just interpreting what they THINK they hear as what they WANT to hear. [See related material in "In Distrust We Trust?"]

Empower yourself with God power

As long as you are disconnected from God, the uncertainties of daily life will constantly tempt you to resort to superstitious beliefs and techniques -- and to use otherwise valid methods, such as prayer, in superstitious ways. It would be far better to invest that same effort into learning how to make true and reliable contact with Divine guidance. So, when faced with the choice, "My way or the High Way?" make this resolve: "I'll take the High Way -- Thy way." It's a choice you'll never regret.

For further reading on how to develop your ability to reliably
hear and follow the still small voice, see the following:

Taking Divine Direction

How To Use Your Spiritual Power and Influence

Consider the Source

by David Truman

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