From the COUNCIL-of-CONCERNED-CONSERVATIONISTS Handbook

Principle #9:

“Superstition, like paranoia, is a sign of a heightened state of awareness. Listen to what the voices are telling you.”

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As in the case of Luciano Faggiano—whose story is linked below—we see how the modern predilection is to let the profit motive overcome the forebodings and advice of the ancestors buried in the internal and hidden recesses of racial memory.

The Southern Italian has long been considered superstitious.

Magical thinking coexists in their mind right alongside extreme practicality and a sometimes brutal recognition of reality.

This is not a contradiction.

In fact, an unflinching humility in the face of what is leaves plenty of room for the consideration of what might be.

This openness may manifest in beliefs that seem bizarre to the modern. But don’t be too quick to sneer.

If Luciano had been born a generation earlier—before the 1950s, when peasant culture still held sway—he would have been warned off his venture by the womenfolk.

At the very least, he would have attempted to propitiate the gods before beginning.

He would then have been prepared—mentally, spiritually—for what was to happen.

Set aside your prejudice.

Superstition is no more irrational than the complete rationalist’s requirement to prove a theory through repeated tests.

After all:

Exactly how many times must one reproduce an experiment to declare a thing true?

And at what arbitrary number does it become “proof”?

Curiously, the madman—who does the same thing over and over expecting a different result—intersects here with the rationalist, who does the same thing over and over expecting the same result.

In both cases, a kind of madness is at play.

The only difference is whether or not the world complies.

Or as I like to say:

Madman. Rationalist. Same thing.

But I keep repeating myself.

— J.St.E., M.O.

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Reference: The Faggiano Excavation

“Faggiano’s initial toilet-pipe dig became a giant archaeological project. Experts were called in to monitor the situation, but all excavations were paid for and completed by Faggiano himself. After years of labor and drained finances, his ambitions flagged. ‘At one point, I couldn’t take it anymore,’ he told the New York Times. ‘I bought cinder blocks and was going to cover it up and pretend it had never happened. I don’t wish it on anyone.’”

https://www.ancient-origins.net/news-history-archaeology/man-intent-fixing-toilet-uncovers-centuries-old-subterranean-world-020299