Annoying Occult Tropes

[Fuzzy Necromancer]

So like, as somebody who is a pagan, and who follows a lot of witchy blogs, and just looks into these things, there are some recurring things in horror movies and modern fantasy that really tick me off.

"THE DEATH CARD, OH NO!" First off, the preference for only showing major arcana in Taroh, and often just one card for a reading, is annoying enough, but Death actually doesn't tend to be that ominous? More likely it's a harbinger of change or transformation. A few minutes on google will tell you that The Tower is the card you want to show if the person getting a reading is really fucked.

"Don't mess around with Oujia boards!" Yes, any oujia board reading always has to go horribly wrong, and it's so bad they made a movie on it, but like...in terms of its intended use, a Oujia board is an entirely passive instrument. It's for listening, not opening gateways or summoning spirits. It shouldn't pick up anything that's not already there. People thinking a Oujia board will summon a demon is like worrying that if you turn on your Radio Katy Perry will come to your house and be obnoxious and mediocre in your living room.

"VOODOO!" it's a real-world religion that's unfairly demonized, mostly because of racism. The staple "voodoo doll" is actually more based on European poppets than Haitian healing dolls.

[Fianna]

With Oujia boards, you can view it as a poking the bear thing. Any spirits hanging around might normally just ignore the living folk around them, but when they see some people trying to contact them, that might catch their interest, and once you have their attention, they just won't leave you alone.

[SuccubusYuri]

Yeah I don't know if ouija boards are...distinctly Wiccan in any sense. The attitudes towards them are rather Shinto-esque; "Don't fuck with the spirit world. Just don't. If you live, you say 'thank you for only blinding me' and go back to your fucking mundane life" -message of every classic Shinto myth ever xD I mean which is the "correct" attitude in their case?

[Independent George]

With Oujia boards, you can view it as a poking the bear thing. Any spirits hanging around might normally just ignore the living folk around them, but when they see some people trying to contact them, that might catch their interest, and once you have their attention, they just won't leave you alone.

Sigh... so the spirit world is basically the internet, then.

[GloatingSwine]

in terms of its intended use, a Oujia board is an entirely passive instrument. It's for listening, not opening gateways or summoning spirits.

Ouija boards are a parlour game for bored Victorians.

They're less supernatural than Monopoly boards because the latter hold a powerful curse that instills hate unending among those unfortunate to fall into their trap.

[Deledrius]

They're less supernatural than Monopoly boards because the latter hold a powerful curse that instills hate unending among those unfortunate to fall into their trap.

That's actually the intent of the game, but sadly most people take away the wrong lesson and hate the game instead of the abuses of insufficiently-regulated capitalism.

[lsgreg]

I am never a fan of "based on a true story" occult films. Take the Amityville horror movies. The Lutzes wanted to get out of a bad mortgage they couldn't afford so they said the house was "haunted" and said some strange things happened like things moving around. Then an author gets ahold of it and it becomes this amazing story of life and death and horrors you couldn't imagine. Same with Annabelle. It was a Raggedy Ann doll that would mysteriously appear in different places in two nursing student's apartment. Nothing more. Unless you believe the Warrens, but that is a whole other story.

[Fuzzy Necromancer]

Another thing: Spooky sounds and drafts and stuff in ghost movies that assume nobody has ever lived in a fucking new york apartment ever.

[MagisterCrow]

Basically anytime someone says “X from this mythology is a demon.” Would bother me slightly less if they at least picked malevolent entities, but usually they just find the name of something that sounds vaguely scary and call it a demon

[Admiral X]

Doesn't Christianity just label everything that isn't part of its canon as demons and witchcraft?