Wednesday, March 23, 2011

The intersection of religion, magic, and well-being

Conversation else-thread made me think that a new thread focusing on the intersection of religion, magic, and well-being might be useful.

We probably all know of religious and magical traditons that do things we do not want to have anything to do with. And yet, some people find those exact same things meaningful, important, and often healing or sustaining for them.

Given that the law doesn't directly have a lot to say about much of this, and given that there are cultural biases and rampant misinformation about some practices, how do people go about sorting out what might work for them, or supporting people they know whose choices are different in a way that's thoughtful about risk, but not patronising or controlling?

And what do you think is the obligation of the practitioner in these cases? Do you look for formal, licensed, legal-standards training? Do you look for experience? Do you look for signs that they've thought though possible problems and figured out how to handle them? Do you need trust? What other things do you think about?

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