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Romania has some of the last old-growth forests left in Europe. It also has an entrenched illegal logging industry that threatens those forests. In order to stop the illegal logging, Greenpeace Romania has organized protests and mobilized environmental activists. The organization has also taken the unusual step of working with a prominent local witch, Irina Primavera, to curse loggers who cut down trees illegally.
What that means is that there might be an avenue here for paranormal research. If we could identify a population that seems to have an unusual level of misfortune, and then map that group to the population of illegal loggers, we might be able to see the spell in action. On the other hand, if no such analysis can be done, it's hard to say whether it's working. Of course, the end goal is to reduce illegal logging, which should be easier to determine.
In Romania, the homeland of superstition and the Dracula, witches thrived at a time when medieval witch-hunts plagued most of Europe leading to the mass murder of at least 100,000 women. In fact, witchcraft is alive in the country to this date. Even the country’s politicians fear it. Hundreds of witches practice their craft across Romania claiming to cure diseases, rid people of evil spells, predict the future, make and break marriages, and more. And they have a sizeable following from all walks of Romanian life.
So, given the indifference of authorities regarding illegal logging, Greenpeace Romania adopted the unconventional approach to use witchcraft as a tool to grasp the attention of the country towards the issue. Instead of celebrities, influencers and activists, Greenpeace took the assistance of Irina Primavera, a real Romanian witch, to cast a spell on illegal loggers.
In the campaign film “Curse for Good,” Irina, who claimed to have inherited her special powers from her grandmother Dochi, recognizes the trees as beings with souls. She said: “I saw the disaster they left here and what is happening in our country. They left the place bare, they cut down souls, trees that were hundreds of years old. They left a lot of pain behind them.”
To stop them (the illegal loggers), Irina cast a spell that whoever cut down a tree, a curse would befall on them and their family, and their relatives for 99 generations.
What that means is that there might be an avenue here for paranormal research. If we could identify a population that seems to have an unusual level of misfortune, and then map that group to the population of illegal loggers, we might be able to see the spell in action. On the other hand, if no such analysis can be done, it's hard to say whether it's working. Of course, the end goal is to reduce illegal logging, which should be easier to determine.
7 comments:
This spell and others like it aimed at this activity have very little chances of success. I am confident that even group rituals performed by capable magicians would have little effect. I'm saying this because the problem doesn't lie with the loggers themselves, but with the authorities who turn a blind eye to those loggers.
Sure, the spells could very well work against simple peasants who chop down some trees to have enough fire wood to get them through the winter. But I am positive it will do nothing against foreign corporations who chop down entire forests to feed their lumber mills. Now I don't know how the alleged witch will perform the curse, but I'm quite sure it will be a general charge that will dissipate the force of the spell, rather than specific attacks directed towards specific targets.
And most of these witches over here are just that, alleged witches.
Oh, I guess I skipped past the part of the actual spell... Yeah, I stand by what I've said previously.
That sounds more like an application for a Thirty Aires operation, then, to influence the decisions of authorities. Maybe with some Seniors thrown in who rule "knowledge and judgment in human affairs."
Also - they clearly are trying to use this as a deterrent, which is why it is being widely publicized. If the goal was to actually curse these folks, you would never tell them about it up front unless you were very stupid.
That would call for several operations using the Aires since the whole corrupt system needs to be replaced with another, less corrupt one :) This could be indeed some campaign put out to scare people, but I don't think the local hillbillies would be that frightened of it, let alone the corporations.
If I were to start casting against these things I would target the local councils who govern the areas that are subjected to deforestation. Then the corporations themselves. Then the central government. Then the media. But it's still a long shot and it could easily become a bridge too far.
Maybe so, but as I see it progress is always progress. As I see it, even if you are not able to tear down the whole system, shifting it in a positive direction to the extent of your abilities is still a worthwhile goal.
I think Greenpeace almost certainly is thinking of this as a scare campaign. I doubt the folks who decided to do this believe in spells at all, so they would never have done it in secret - the whole point is publicity. The corporations aren't likely to be scared, but I think the idea is that some of their employees on the ground will be.
But we'll have to see how it all works out.
Baby steps, yes.
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